In Los Angeles, where morale has been worsened by a spate of sexual harassment charges against big-name actors and executives, the holiday vibe is markedly low-key. Paramount Pictures’ former chairman Brad Grey, who died in May, used to hold an A-list holiday shindig to celebrate the studio’s filmmakers. One year he invited Harrison Ford, Lorne Michaels and Jack Nicholson, who gathered for cocktails and canapés in the columned loggia on his Bel Air estate, overlooking an azure pool set in an acre of rolling lawn.

Regulars included Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Few Paramount executives were invited. Neighbors and nonfamous friends didn’t come either.

Jim Gianopulos, the former Twentieth Century Fox veteran hired to replace Mr. Grey, is taking a more inclusive approach this year. He too is holding a holiday party at his home for Paramount’s filmmakers and creative colleagues. But he also invited studio executives, as well as some reporters and personal friends. “It’s a casual, low-key event,” said Chris Petrikin, a Paramount studio executive who worked with Mr. Gianopulos at Fox.

This is not to be confused, of course, with the annual Christmas party on the Paramount lot. There, a tree is lit and fake snow drifts across the lot. Mr. Grey spared no extravagance when he ran the studio. One year, the party featured a carnival theme and an indoor Ferris wheel. This year, Mr. Petrikin said, it did not.

Time Inc., once known for Christmas hoopla where convivial young editors supped on buckets of oysters and glasses brimming with champagne, has moved its party to dreary January for the second year in a row. Mr. Adler, of BizBash, said corporations are hard-pressed to cancel holiday parties outright. “It sends the wrong message about the company,” he said. “It says the company does not care about its people.”

But there are ways to edit that message. For more than a decade, HBO rented a grand ballroom at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square for a lavish holiday luncheon for its 2,500 employees. Waiters passed trays of sushi. Platters of pasta and roast chicken were laid out, alongside bountiful glasses of wine and beer. More recently, though, HBO found the event as poorly received as the first season of “Hello Ladies.” About half of its employees stayed home. Many of those who showed up didn’t stick around.