Every December we load into company holiday parties on both sides of the Hudson, and more of them each year are on ours. Firms with offices in Midtown or downtown Manhattan are booking the party in Jersey City or Hoboken, and firms already on the waterfront are keeping it at home rather than sending everyone into the city. We are based in Jersey City, so this is our own neighborhood. Our general post on corporate events in Jersey City and Hoboken covers the rooms and how to get around. This one is about the holiday party specifically: why companies choose this side of the river in December, what the season does to load-in and logistics, and how the PATH schedule should shape the end of the night.
Why Manhattan companies hold the holiday party in Jersey City or Hoboken
The reasons we hear from planners are practical, and they come up every year.
The room is free on the date they want. Prime December dates in Manhattan fill early. OpenTable data reported by Restaurant Business puts December 10, 16 and 17 among the five biggest group-dining days of the year, with prime December dates filling from Labor Day onward. A planner who starts looking in October and finds nothing on a Thursday in mid-December in Midtown often finds a waterfront room in Jersey City, or a private room in Hoboken, that will take the date.
Half the staff already lives here, or passes through. A Manhattan office draws people from Hudson County, from Bergen and Essex, and from further out along the NJ Transit lines. For them, a party at Exchange Place or Hoboken Terminal is on the way home rather than in the opposite direction. For the people who live in Manhattan or Brooklyn, it is one PATH ride from World Trade Center or a short trip from 33rd Street.
Driving is an option. Garages at Newport, Harborside and Exchange Place mean the staff who drive in from the suburbs, and the executives who prefer to, can park within a few minutes' walk. Hoboken is harder, but still easier than Midtown in December.
The view. A Jersey City waterfront room in December looks straight at the Manhattan skyline lit for the holidays. That is half the reason the room was chosen, and it affects where we set up, which we cover below.
Load-in on the New Jersey side in December
The waterfront towers at Exchange Place, Harborside and Newport run like Manhattan buildings: freight elevators booked in windows, a security desk with a vendor list, and a certificate of insurance naming the owner and managing agent before anyone reaches the dock. In December those freight windows are as contested as they are across the river, because every tenant in the tower is having a party the same week. Reserve the freight slot when you book the room.
Hoboken and downtown Jersey City are different. Many of the restaurants with private rooms, and many of the loft spaces, are in older buildings: a second-floor room up a flight of stairs, or a passenger elevator that fits one speaker case and one person at a time. There is no freight car. We pack for those rooms differently, with cases sized to fit a narrow stair turn and a small elevator, and we budget more time to get everything upstairs. If your room is up a flight, tell us when you book; a staircase is easy to plan for and slow to discover at four in the afternoon.
December adds two things. The first is weather. Unloading on a Hoboken side street in sleet means equipment has to come in covered, and a vehicle double-parked with flashers on in December is in the way of a lot of holiday traffic. We load in earlier in the afternoon during the season for that reason. The second is the window. In a waterfront room, everyone wants the skyline behind the party, which puts the window wall where the DJ would normally go. Glass reflects sound back into the room, and a speaker aimed across a glass wall makes the far end of a long room harsh while the near end is quiet. We set up along a side wall when the room allows, aim across the room rather than along the glass, and keep the view clear for photos.
Space heaters on terraces, coat racks that block a fire exit, and caterers' warming equipment on the same circuit as the DJ are the other December problems. The last is the one that matters most to us. In older Hoboken and Jersey City buildings, a private room may have one or two circuits, and a caterer plugging in three warming cabinets at 6:30 can trip the breaker the music is on. We ask for the panel location and what else is running before the day.
Plan the end of the night around the PATH
A holiday party in Jersey City or Hoboken ends on the transit schedule, and the PATH is the schedule that matters most. Late-night PATH service runs less frequently than rush hour, weekend service is subject to planned changes, and the trains running toward 33rd Street and toward World Trade Center leave from different stations depending on where you are. Check the PATH schedule for your exact date, including any planned weekend work, and put the train times your guests will want in the invitation.
For the DJ, those times tell us when the room will thin. A party where most guests ride the PATH back to Manhattan will lose a wave of people at a predictable time, and a party with a lot of NJ Transit riders out of Hoboken Terminal will lose a different wave earlier. We program the strongest part of the set before the first wave leaves and keep the floor going for the people who live five minutes away. It is useful to tell us the split: roughly how many guests are going back to Manhattan, how many are heading west on NJ Transit, and how many are local.
The light rail and the ferry are worth checking too. NY Waterway ferries run between the Jersey City and Hoboken waterfront and Manhattan, with schedules that change by season and day of week, and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail serves staff living elsewhere in Hudson County. A guest who misses the last convenient ferry is on the PATH instead, which is fine, as long as someone told them where the station is.
Booking a holiday party DJ in Jersey City or Hoboken
Being based in Jersey City has one practical advantage in December. There is no tunnel or bridge between us and the room, which makes early load-ins easier to schedule and shorter-notice dates easier to take on this side of the river. The packages are the same on both sides of the Hudson, $2,500, $3,500 and $4,500 for up to four hours, and which one fits depends on the program rather than the city. The pricing page has the details, our holiday party page covers what is included, and the New Jersey corporate events page covers the wider area.
Questions worth asking any DJ for a waterfront or Hoboken holiday party: Have you worked this building, or one like it? How will you get equipment to a second-floor room without a freight elevator? Where would you set up in a room with a window wall? And how will you handle the end of the night when the PATH riders leave?
Send us the date, the venue and roughly how many people, and whether the room is up a flight of stairs. If we have worked the room, we will tell you what to expect. Use the contact page or call (201) 705-3139. We reply within 24 hours.