Work Christmas Party Ideas

[becka]

We are trying to decide what to do for our Christmas party at work. We have come up with a few ideas like a progressive dinner, just having lunch, white elephant gift exhange, Secret Santas and an ornoment exchange. This can be for just the 20 or so people in my section or we can also include spouses and kids.

Any other ideas that I can bring back as suggestions?

 

[Jenn]

We do a catered lunch (usually Italian food) and then we do a Yankee Swap Gift Exchange which works like this:

Everyone brings a gift and draws a number from a hat. #1 chooses a gift and opens it. #2 chooses a gift and opens it and can trade with #1 if they choose. It goes all the way till the end with each person having the ability to trade with anyone that came before them. Finally, at the end, #1 gets to trade with everyone if they choose.

It is usually pretty fun - feelings could possibly get hurt if your gift is the one no one seems to want. We usually have a minimal amt of trading since we do pretty generic gifts (bottles of wine, mall gift certificates, etc) and most people are fine with what they get.

 

[RUDisney]

We were just talking about this today. Last year, we had a covered dish luncheon, but for those who didn't want to bring anything, they gave $10 so more expensive food items (meats) could be purchased and prepared by someone. My boss' secretary bought 10 pounds of chicken with the money she was given. She cut the chicken into small pieces and decided that 5 lbs was enough with the pasta she was mixing with it. She announced at lunch that since she was having her husband's family over for Christmas dinner, she was going to use the extra 5 lbs then. No thought of reimbursing anyone for the chicken... just a windfall for herself. We thought it was funny and there have been no hard feelings about the couple of dollars... just a good example of open mouth, insert foot.

The resident floor "mother" isn't at work today, so we're not sure yet what she wants to plan for us this year. Some years we have lunch catered, and other's we have a covered dish. I have no preference as I'll cook if they want me to and contribute if they want me to.

 

[Minnie824]

What about a bowling party? Even if everyone isn't very good at it, you could bring some food and play some games. We've done this before and it works out pretty well.