A Christmas tradition
Our surviving digital records of the NSK Bearings Christmas parties go back to 2010, although Hazel and I remember the relationship beginning several years earlier. It continued through to the end of the 2010s and became one of our biggest and most enjoyable regular events.
The party was for NSK employees and their families at the company's Peterlee site. In the bigger years several hundred people attended. NSK looked after its employees extremely well: families received free food and drinks, the children received a good present from Santa, and there was entertainment and activity wherever they looked.
The atmosphere was always brilliant. People genuinely looked forward to coming, and we always received fantastic feedback afterwards.
Planning a different party every year
Hazel and I would normally meet NSK's HR staff at their offices in early November. There wasn't a fixed budget handed to us; after so many years we knew roughly what they wanted and we would agree the package for that year's party together.
Some favourites were there every year: a large and a small bouncy castle, soft play for the little ones, electronic racing cars, face painting, glitter tattoos, a Christmas craft workshop and our Rudolph character. I always performed too, and in some years we brought in another magician, clown or juggler.
Other attractions changed to keep the event fresh for returning families. Over the years these included our Quick Draw machine, a photo booth, Beat the Goalie and different games in the fairground stalls.
Hazel's creative corner
Hazel looked after the face-painting side and also ran the Christmas craft workshop, another regular part of the party. Children could make Christmas decorations and cards, paint pictures and take something home that they had made themselves.
For a large event we needed a team rather than a single face painter. The 2013 programme, for example, included three face painters and a glitter tattooist alongside the craft workshop.
Four days building Santa's grotto — from balloons
In the early years NSK erected a large marquee adjoining the canteen, with the inflatables inside. They also had their own substantial wooden Santa's grotto, which the social committee had to bring out of storage and assemble every Christmas.
Eventually we took over the grotto. The most ambitious version was built almost entirely from balloons. NSK cordoned off the bottom end of the canteen and, over about four days, an assistant and I constructed a series of balloon walls while employees continued to use the rest of the canteen and watched the structure taking shape.
A large balloon arch formed the entrance, with balloon characters standing outside. Inside, the structure divided into two separate grottos, one for each of NSK's Santas — necessary in the earlier years because of the number of children attending. We used traditional Christmas colours: red, green and white with gold, silver and matching ribbon.
It was a one-off creation built specifically for NSK. In later years we made things rather more practical, first building a reusable portable wooden grotto which we brought and erected each year, and eventually scaling the arrangement down to a gazebo which NSK decorated.
A sizeable operation
By the morning of the party there was quite a lot to bring together. AR Entertainments supplied the larger attractions and arrived in two vans. I brought our own equipment in my minibus, while the entertainment staff travelled in their own cars.
Everyone arrived early, brought the equipment into the canteen and got their areas ready before the guests arrived. NSK always looked after the team too: bacon sandwiches and hot drinks while we were setting up, followed by lunch later in the day. Those little things helped make it a particularly pleasant event to work.
I acted as event manager and compère as well as performing. We had a sound system playing Christmas music throughout and I made the announcements, introduced the entertainment and kept the programme moving.
A snapshot from 2013
The photographs on this page are from the party on Saturday 7 December 2013 and give a good idea of the scale. That year's attraction package included two children's bouncy castles, soft play, two HD Vision Racers, Last Man Standing, a dance machine and two fairground stalls. Alongside them were three face painters, a glitter tattooist, the Christmas craft workshop, a puppet show, Rudolph, the PA system and extensive balloon decoration.
The programme was carefully timed too. Activities ran during the morning, everything stopped at noon for the main puppet show, and the attractions reopened afterwards. Ron and Hazel had already been at NSK on the Friday preparing the balloon decorations before the rest of the team arrived on Saturday.
The end of an era
The annual NSK Christmas party continued through to the end of the 2010s. There was no party in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic, and the Peterlee operation closed not long afterwards. A Christmas tradition that had been part of our calendar for well over a decade therefore came to an end.
We remember it very fondly. It was a large event, but it never felt impersonal. NSK wanted its employees and their families to have a genuinely special Christmas party, and we had the freedom to keep changing and developing the entertainment while retaining the things everyone loved.
For us it was also a good example of what Jolly Good Productions could do beyond providing a single entertainer: plan the package, assemble the team, coordinate outside suppliers, decorate the venue, perform, compère and manage the entertainment on the day.