NEW YORK — Say goodbye to virtual wine tastings, and bust out the karaoke. Love them or hate them, company holiday parties are back — in a toned-down kind of way.

After more than two years of working in pajama bottoms and clinking glasses over Zoom, many office workers seem to be yearning for a bit of glamour. The same is true for some workers who saw festivities canceled even as they showed up to work every day during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It just always makes me feel special,” said Shobha Surya, who missed treating herself to a new dress every year for the dinner and karaoke party thrown by Ajinomoto Health and Nutrition North America, a Japanese-owned company based in the Chicago area. She was so excited the party was back for the first time in two years that she picked out her black-and-white cocktail dress two months in advance.

“Everybody let loose,” she said, smiling the Monday after the party, where she accepted a recognition award for 15 years at the company. “It gets you into the holiday season.”

More than 57% of companies are planning in-person holiday celebrations this year, according to a survey of 252 U.S.-based companies conducted by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a hiring firm. While that’s still notably fewer than the 75% that threw parties in 2019, it’s a big leap from 26% in 2021 and 5% in 2020.

Still, not everyone is ready to party like it’s 2019. Many parties will be more intimate, as companies try to accommodate workers that are increasingly remote and far-flung. Some businesses are opting for spas, juggling shows and even private movie theater showings to lure out employees who have relished working from home. And a few are sticking to bonuses or extra time off they have offered instead of parties during the pandemic.

Cari Snavely’s team of 20 opted for an afternoon of pickleball when her Boston-based software company gave them a budget to decide on their own how to celebrate.

It’s a far cry from the bashes she remembers from just a few years ago working at the Coca-Cola Co. in Atlanta, but Snavely said it’s a better way to break the ice for people who haven’t worked together in person much. Besides, she said, many of her teammates wanted the chance to leave work and get home early.

“We really wanted to make sure that as many people as possible could go,” said Snavely, who works in finance. “People have home commitments, kids.”

Quickbase has 700 employees but many of them are remote — and as far away as Bulgaria — so it didn’t make sense to have a big party at headquarters, said Chief People Officer Sherri Kottmann. Instead, the company left it to individual teams to organize their own fun. Even in Boston, she said only 30% to 40% of employees come to the office in the middle of the week, when it’s busiest.

But one thing seems sure: People are fed up with getting on screens for cocktail mixing or secret Santa exchanges. Fewer than 2% of companies are hosting virtual celebrations this year, compared with 7% last year and 17% in 2020, Challenger’s survey found.

Jeff Consoletti, founder of Los Angeles event production company JJLA, said he has received zero requests this year for the gift boxes and cheese-and-wine pairing kits that helped keep his business afloat for the past two years. Instead, he has seen a 100% increase in bookings for in-person events, though they are much smaller than the 5,000-person revelries he often staged before the pandemic.

Ksenia Kulynych, director of operations at Monarch Rooftop & Indoor Lounge in New York, said she’s seen a 30% increase in small group reservations this year — and often, a drastic undercount or overcount of guests as planners struggle to gauge how deep the enthusiasm for parties goes. Lunches are surprisingly popular, and Fridays are out.

“We will pitch away on Fridays and the response is always, ‘no one’s in the office.’ ” Kulynych said.