There’s something about the Christmas knees-up that’s becoming a bit predictable for most people. You dress up in something sparkly and uncomfortable, pile into a noisy, dark and overpriced venue, get royally sloshed and tell the bosses where they can stick their growth forecast.
The pervading image of ‘the office Christmas party’ is such that we still talk about people getting their bum out on the photocopier. There was a copier in my last office, and it got about as much love as Advocaat does these days.
Before anyone says ‘bah humbug’, I love Christmas. The bit I tend not to enjoy is the enforced fun, held at the only venue the company could afford that wasn’t already booked by October.
On that note, some places have held their Christmas parties last month – in November! That leaves close to a month of trudging along and waiting for the office to close, without anything much else to look forward to.
I’ve seen both ends of the ‘office Christmas’ spectrum. Alongside the time we went to an amazing place and had a lot of fun, there’s the time that the party was completely cancelled because nobody had finished their work by 6.30pm.
I’m the type of woman who would love to have a quiet get-together with the office mates I’m not obligated to see five times a week. We’d all wear tacky Christmas jumpers – by choice, and not to satisfy the one person who wants mufti day. And it wouldn’t be a competition to see who’s brave enough for the light-up reindeer deelyboppers. It’d make a nice change, which is what I think we all need at this time of year.
