What do you do in the office for Christmas/Holidays?

[susans]

What do you do in the office for Christmas/Holidays?  Do you decorate?  Have group holiday lunches or the company party?  Do people bring in cookies?   Do people of different cultures share their version of the holidays or is it still "christmas" for the most part.

[gee4]

Since this is my first Christmas here I shall have to wait n see.  I know we have a tree either in reception on on each floor, our company party is a week on Friday and I also have 2 other nights out with my directors teams the week after.  The CEO's PA organises a party for the staff's children and books tickets to take them to the pantomime.  All sounds good so am waiting to see how it goes.

[raindance]

We have a corporate Christmas party, a Secret Santa and small office party.  We also have departmental lunches.   People give gifts to colleagues who are friends if they wish, but there is no pressure; everyone exchanges cards.  

In my last job, we had a much greater mix of religions and cultures, and we celebrated that diversity.

R.

[diamondlady]

We do a gift exchange of sorts by department.  My boss and I exchange gifts every year, and I also exchange with Accounts Payable, and there are 3 girls there that I work with.  Closer to one than the other two, but I do exchange with all three.  I'm godmother to the one's son that I'm closest to.  So I do for her kids as well.    Aside from that we have a Holiday party as well, and that's this Friday.  This will be the first year in a long time that I will not be going.  It's a long assorted story but not going for my own piece of mind and sanity.

It will be interesting to see if Management will hold another one next year, the numbers are way down.  We used to do a company luncheon and I think folks are finding they like that better.  We shall see what next year brings.

Diamondlady
Peer Moderator

[misslynn]

Our office is "adopting" a child from the Boys & Girls Club.  We're assigned a child, given his/her information and then we get to shop for Christmas presents for him.

We're also having a Holiday Dinner for the leadership staff, my boss's wife does most of the planning but I'm helping her.  I'm thinking about volunteering to play my flute, just some Christmas tunes during cocktails, but don't know if I have the courage to do that.  I used to play semi-professionally but it's been a while and I'm pretty shy.

[catsmeat]

Obviously Christmas is a big thing at my place of employ!  There is one major Christmas lunch for all staff (we have a boarding school on the premises, so we use their facilities after the children have gone home for the Christmas break); departments can organise their own lunches/dinners as well.  Offices are decorated, but it all has to be relatively tasteful.  Gift-giving - I've got something from my two main bosses each year; as I'm really just a department of me, there's no-one else to give to/organise a Secret Santa with.

Apart from the usual regular round of services, there are all the Christmas ones to be slotted in.  Two major public carol services this year; one each on the 23rd and Christmas Eve.  

[geminigirl]

This will be my first Christmas here so I'm a bit in the dark as to what happens.  We do have a staff party on the 15th - no disco, thank heavens! - which might be fun (or not, I'm very ambivalent about works parties!).  I thought that as it's my first and as Senior PA here, I should at least put in an appearance.  

As for gift exchanges, who knows!  I shall give my boss a small gift though...

We do have a tree, and it will be in the Dining Hall.  I've heard rumours that it's not very well decorated!

[marieh2000]

We have a dinner for management and their spouses, where we play "Dirty Santa" or "Take Away" (I've heard it called several things) with the company providing all the gifts.  We then have a separate luncheon for all the construction workers.  Company provides gifts for that also, but we just draw names to see who gets what.  Gifts range anywhere from a tacky pair of boxer shorts to a $100 bill, so it's lots of fun to see who's going to get what.  

The girls in the office used to exchange gifts, but the last few years we've changed it, so that we just meet for lunch on the weekend, away from the office instead of trying to get gifts for everyone.  There's only 4 of us in the office, but we're still close to 2 former workers, so we include them also.

As for decorations, we usually have a wreath on the door and a small Nativity set in the reception area.

Our management dinner is next week, maybe it will get me out of this "Grinchy" mood I've been in!!!
Marie  

[charity]

We have either office dinners or lunches and the organisation contributes £15 to everyone attending.  

As for the office itself - we do put up decorations (though some of them are very tired for over use!)