Economic woes and recession fears have yet to dampen the holiday spirit according to popular venues for annual Christmas parties.

The Fairmont Southampton hotel said its bookings are on target for this time of year. Food and beverage manager Leetroy Walker said that a few companies have cancelled their events but others have stepped in to keep bookings level.

"We do a lot of local companies' Christmas parties and we have had a few who came last year that are not coming this year but more booking have come in and our numbers are equal to last year," he said.

Mr. Walker said it was too early to tell whether companies would be cutting back on their party budgets, however. "Right now we're only at the booking stage and the next stage will be the finalising menus and that's when we will see any cuts companies are making."

Food and beverage costs form the bulk any Christmas party budget, he added. But if there is to be a more frugal air at the buffets and bars this season, Mr. Walker is not aware of it yet. "We have not seen any difference," he said.

The hotel still has openings for the Christmas season, however. "There's still space but, overall, we're at the same point we were last year," he said. "But you're always seeking new business and we are looking for more bookings. At this stage though, we're not concerned."

Jude Sloan, the maître d' of Café Coco at the Coco Reef hotel also reported that bookings for Christmas parties are on target overall for the holiday season despite the global economic slowdown.

She said Coco Reef had received some cancellations after earlier inquiries, though. "We have had one or two large groups that inquired and made tentative bookings and then came back to us and said they had changed their plans and decided to do something in house rather than in a hotel or restaurant," she said.

Coco Reef had expected bookings would fall, she said, and did more marketing this year in anticipation of that then it had in the past. "It's surprising really," Ms Sloan said. "I had thought that we would be down but our business is going fairly well."

She has also not noticed any attempts at cost cutting from the returning companies, she said: "The ones who come every year are doing pretty much what they always do, open bar and everything."

Harbourfront also reported that its bookings for private and company parties are level with what they saw last year.