One Central Iowa company recently celebrated the holidays by enjoying a jazzy quartet in an elegant winter wonderland, while another company’s grass-skirt-clad employees danced to the music of a Jimmy Buffett impersonator.

A recent national survey showed that more companies – 62 percent compared with 55 percent last year – are holding holiday celebrations this year. In Greater Des Moines, companies that have seasonal celebrations take a variety of approaches to thank employees for a year’s work.

Townsend Engineering Co., which offers such unique benefits to employees as a stipend for sending flowers to significant others, also goes to great lengths to give employees a holiday party that goes beyond the norm. Kim Dokken, the company’s fitness director, helped organize the event this year, which had a “Margaritaville” theme.

“This year, we decided to go with live entertainment, and as we were trying to think of performer that could appeal to different age groups, Jimmy Buffett came up, and we went from there,” Dokken said.

The party for about 200 employees and significant others, including the staff of the Great Ape Trust (which was founded by company CEO Ted Townsend), was held Dec. 11 in Townsend’s gymnasium. The party committee ordered in tropical plants from Hawaii, decorations such as lighted palm trees, souvenir blinking drink glasses saying, “Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville Townsend 2004” and other specialty items to reflect the theme.

“They (Townsend) don’t cut corners,” she said. “When we had our Las Vegas theme a couple of years back, we flew in actual dancers from the city. We always have a really fun party.”

Dokken said past themes for company parties have included Iowa State Fair, Iowa vs. Iowa State, Support the Troops, New York New York and Winter Wonderland. Until about eight years ago, the parties were much more formal and held downtown at the Renaissance Savery Hotel.

Unlike Townsend Engineering, Iowa Realty and First Realty GMAC Real Estate’s holiday party Dec. 9 was formal this year, following a fun, “Lite Brite” theme last year. Their party had touches of the holiday season with its wintry holiday theme, “Twilight Spectacular.” The event had a frosty feel with snowflake and icicle décor and white twinkle lights, said Carolyn Weieneth, Iowa Realty’s projects director. The party had about 1,100 guests Dec. 9 at the Polk County Convention Complex.

“For the past decade or so, we’ve had a large-scale event,” Weieneth said. “It’s a thank-you to them and a sign of appreciation to them and their spouses for all the work they’ve put in the past year and wishing them happy holidays.”

Cash drawings and a live band were also incorporated into the party, which was scheduled for Thursday to keep weekends free for family activities, Weieneth said. She estimates that about 60 to 70 percent of the companies’ employees attended.

“It’s a great opportunity to build camaraderie and just have fun together,” she said. “The bulk of our attendees are real estate agents, who are social people, so it makes sense to get together just to enjoy ourselves this time of the year.”

The Weitz Co.’s Iowa business unit takes a dual approach to holiday parties, offering one for its salaried team and another for hourly workers. Both involve gathering at a local job site to reflect on the company’s progress, said Lu Anne Nielsen, a senior division administrator for Weitz’s Iowa business unit. The company’s 65 salaried employees gathered this year at the Iowa Events Center for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Its 200 employees working in the field will celebrate Thursday with a catered lunch at the site of the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage project in West Des Moines.

“We combine a little bit of both work and fun, allowing our people to all go at once to tour a project,” Nielsen said. “We hadn’t had a holiday party until last year, and it was well-received by our employees. Since they really seemed to appreciate it, we’re making it a tradition.”

Holiday party bookings have tripled at the Blank Park Zoo this month, according to Todd Thompson, the zoo’s guest services director.

“We have been busy, and it looks like January will be busy, too,” Thompson said. Although the zoo has rented out its facilities for holiday parties for the past three years, it took things a step further this year by offering large holiday events – one in early December and one Jan. 14 – for small companies. Each company shares the cost of the event, based on how many of its employees attend.

“We decided to start this for the fact that it can be really time consuming for a small company to put a holiday party together,” Thompson said. “We take all the legwork out of it, and you get the benefits of a somewhat private event, even though you might have a few other businesses there with you that night.”

The zoo provides the catering, decorations, entertainment and bar service, making it a “one-stop shop for a company’s holiday party.”

Different types of events make sense for different industries, and when done right, the company benefits along with the employees, Townsend’s Dokken said. “Here, everyone is really close, and I think it’s because of a lot of the extras that the company allows us to do,” she said.