Get Ready for Christmas Success with Zonal’s Expert Guide

Christmas Food, Drinks & Cocktails

Mulled wine, Eggnog, and the classic Snowball are festive favourites we all know and love. We recommend setting up any special seasonal food and drinks in advance and preparing the necessary recipe information to ensure stock is correctly depleted.

• Add new recipes or standard line items in Product Modelling

  If you need to create any new portions such as a jug or pitcher these can be managed in Base Data → Product Configuration → Portion Types

• Add the prices for your new products in the Price Matrix

• Add the products to the required Shared Panels in Theme Modelling

Other Information

If you want to sell your new food and drinks through any guest ordering channels remember setup products and add to menus iOrder Platform:

• Configure Display Records

• Add the new items to the required menus

Promotions

With the special festive drinks you’ve created, why not go a step further and set up a promotional offer to tempt your guests into enjoying a Christmas tipple?

Promotions are a great way to encourage sales and add a bit of festive cheer. You could combine a seasonal drink with a meal or snack, or offer discounted prices during quieter periods to boost footfall.

Take a look at our guide on creating promotions you can easily add Timed offers, BOGOF promotions, or Multi Buy options to make your festive menu even more appealing.

For negotiated party pricing across the entire venue or within selected sales areas, Event Pricing provides a quick and easy way to adjust prices on the point of sale terminal exactly when you need to.

Alternatively, if you’d like to offer a simple discount to surprise and delight your guests, find out more here.

Deposits

During holiday periods and other seasonal occasions, deposits are often taken to secure tables or large party bookings. If you’re taking deposits directly through the terminal, it’s a great time to refresh your knowledge with our deposit management videos.

You can also visit our Bookings (deposits) page, where you’ll find all the information you need on managing deposits effectively in the point of sale.

Adding New Booking Deposits

Adding Deposits to Existing Bookings

Redemptions

Bill & Receipt Footers

Highlight seasonal messages on bills and receipts, showcase special events, and inspire guests to make a booking.

Learn how to manager footers for single site locations here or make bulk changes across multiple sites here.

Delivery Schedules & Exceptions

During holiday periods, suppliers often adjust their delivery dates and usual delivery times. If your supplier hasn’t already shared any changes, it’s a good idea to contact them to confirm their updated schedule. Once you have the new dates, update the delivery schedules in Acquire and record any exceptions to ensure everything aligns with the revised delivery arrangements.

Exceptions can either be manually added on uploaded from a spread sheet csv file, find out more here on managing exceptions.

Allocations & Forced Drops

From turkey to tinsel, everything is needed to make the festive season run smoothly and Acquires ordering features can help you stay on top of it all. Allocations allow you to create a list of mandatory products that must be added to orders placed by specific outlets, within a defined time frame, or from a particular supplier. Alternatively, forced drops enable a selection of items within a template to be automatically ordered without the site having to manually place an order. This is especially useful for festive essentials such as decorations, accessories, and seasonal items, ensuring nothing is missed during the busy holiday period.

Capacity

Whether you’re closing early on Christmas Eve, hosting a big New Year’s Eve celebration, or adjusting your service times for group bookings, keeping your information up to date is essential.

Clear, accurate details help guests plan ahead, manage expectations, and avoid confusion during your busiest weeks. Make sure your capacity settings, opening times, and menus reflect your festive plans. For a quick guide on how to stay on top of these updates, check out the manage capacity topic including a key element of creating special days.

Christmas Plans & Layouts

Careful planning of your venue layout - right down to table sizes, joins, and daily variations - can make all the difference during the festive season. With so many large groups and special bookings, having clear, adaptable plans in place helps your team stay efficient, maximise covers, and provide a smoother guest experience.

To find out how to optimise your layouts and plans for the busiest time of year, we have guidance on how to navigate the manage sites tabs, including how to combine varying turn time templates, layouts into bespoke plans.

Pre-Order

Pre-ordering plays a vital role during the busy Christmas season, helping hospitality venues stay organised, manage demand, and deliver a great guest experience. By encouraging customers to pre-order, operators can plan stock, staffing, and service more effectively - reducing waste and avoiding last-minute stress.

We cover everything from the high level of what our menus and pre-order functionality offers, down to how to test pre-order menus once built and even troubleshoot.

Count View

A helpful feature available in Kitchen iQ Channels is the Count View, which displays the total number of items that need to be prepared. This can be configured to show one of the following: All Items, Order Lines at Actionable Stations (the stations defined for the channel), or Order Lines at or En Route to Actionable Stations.

The Count View includes a column for Delayed Orders, which could be from large party orders that have been manually entered on the point of sale, or pre-orders received from Bookings. This allows kitchen teams to see upcoming item totals in advance and plan preparation more efficiently.

For more information on how to add views to a channel, take a look at our Channels guide here.

Christmas Media

Add a festive touch to your products and menus with seasonal images. Refresh your Web Ordering or White Label App with a cheerful new look for the holidays!

• Upload Media

• Assign to Product Display Records

• Add new media to Menus

Availability

During the Christmas period, opening and serving times may vary across your locations. Update your availability profiles to reflect these changes by adjusting existing rules or adding new exceptions. This ensures your guest ordering channels show the correct times, helping customers place orders confidently throughout December.