chocked full of nuts from a team of ad pros

Let’s start with allowing, and/or strongly suggesting, your employees dress up for Halloween. There are several ways to skin this witch’s cat, for example: let employees decide on their own and hope for the best; give each department a theme (dress up like a work flow process; pair people up who don’t usually work together and tell them they must come as an infamous couple from another time; imitate our best client; embody the client and/or business type you’d like to have; or emulate the member of the Peanuts/Scooby Doo/Simpsons gang you most represent). As you can see, the list goes on and on—as should the false teeth, clown shoes and princess tiara.

Team Building
Like most extra-curricular office activities, allowing employees to dress up for Halloween, is reminiscent of childhood creative play, problem solving and team building exercises. Be it leading a blind-folded fellow associate across a room ridden with obstacles, playing charades, Mad Libs or Jenga, any activity that tears down that first layer of inapproachability and fear of speaking one’s mind, is helpful in drawing associates closer for the greater good—the success of the company. Remember, communication is still key to open dialog, which leads to new ideas, solutions and eventually progress, increased market share and productivity. So, if it turns out that you happen to be deemed a dead ringer for Linus, abscond with your child’s, put that thumb in your mouth and suck it up for a day.

Competition Instilling
While you’re in there tearing down walls of silence and smoking people out of their cubicle silos, why not bust open that piggy bank and invest in a few simple prizes for costume contest winners. When Andy in the art department dresses up head to toe and looks exactly like the Jolly Green Giant because he not-so-secretly wants to work on Green Giant Food Company accounts—throw him a few green backs (after all, he’ll need to buy some pants, ASAP). Or when the accounting department actually pulls off an old-school abacus that would make face-and-belly-painting sports fans proud, the least you could do is give them mini golf or bowling vouchers, free movie passes or a gift card to a local coffee shop. Do you smell that? Oh, no that’s not caramel apples burning—that’s the sweet smell of healthy competition. And you know what? Competition, both internal and external, keeps the lights on a little bit longer, if you catch my drift.

Good Feeling
Speaking of drift, have you ever sauntered into a run-of-the-mill establishment or office setting during a themed holiday and been a bit envious to see it decked out floor to ceiling? Who doesn’t like getting that pink-frosting-covered, heart-shaped cookie from the red-sweater-donning, ensconced in red, white and pink balloons teller at the bank on Valentine’s Day? And you’d be lying if you said that Freddie Krueger look alike who took your dry cleaning didn’t scare you; or the elf receptionist who lead you to your examination room didn’t make you smile. Not only did you like how you felt, but you liked how you felt about the company. On a conscious or subconscious level, your impression of a company who cares enough about its employees, and customers for that matter, to let them have a little fun and spread the holiday cheer is a place either you’d like to work, or an establishment you’d be more likely to do business. I’m not kidding, it’s true.

Cause Supporting
All dressed up and no place to go? That’s okay, they can come to you. Local day care centers, children’s non-profits or other civic organizations are always looking to foster new relationships for out reach programs or field trips. Once you start spreading the specific holiday’s joy around, you might just find you want to open up your heart a bit more. All it takes is a few trips to the dollar store for your requisite decorations, lights and candy to set the mood and take center stage in someone else’s eyes for a moment. Encourage all associates to don their best child-appropriate costume, fill a bowl or Jack-O-Lantern with individually wrapped candies and get ready to dole it out to some darling children who may actually need the sustenance—but hey, you need to feed your soul too! As a final plunge in the bobbing-for-apples bucket, you could also hold a costume contest for the little ones who parade around your shop. Just be sure to buy enough prizes for everyone—and come up with equal amounts of winners as there are children in attendance. After all, you know what it’s like to be surrounded by people who act like or need to be rewarded like children—we all do occasionally.

Do all, or any, of the above and your apple will always give you a penny. And if you happen to get a worm too, go fish.