Holiday Spirit...?
Today, my department participated in a White Elephant Gift Exchange. I was hardcore supporting this when we were asked to vote between White Elephant and Secret Santa.
Secret Santa is boring, and you're more than likely going to get just candy or something lame. You might not know the person, and your santa might not know you.
But a White Elephant... You get participation from all sides, you get to open presents in front of people. You get to snigger and laugh together at the lame gifts, applaud the awesome ones and cheer for people or go "OOOOOOoooooooohhhhhh!!!!!" when someone gets their gift stolen from them. I love it. I was all for participating with clapping, cheering and side commentary. I even stole gifts. I tried to keep my hold on a bottle of Jose Cuervo Especial, doing my best to keep it out of view for the old addage "Out of Sight, Out of Mind."
It worked until someone noticed what I was doing when people were wondering which bottles of alcohol were still open for stealing. Christina snagged my bottle and Kendy snagged from her. She wound up with my bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin that I brought to the game, and I ended up with "The Hangover."
Ha. Ha. Ha.
It's okay, I traded "The Hangover" for the bottle of Cuervo after the game ;)
Most of the gifts fell into one of the following four categories: Board Games, Alcohol, DVDs, and As-Seen-On-TV Products.
Clare said, after the game was over, that we could put some drinks on the drink carousel, crack open a few bottles, watch some DVDs and play games and have a light rave with The Clapper. I cracked up.
Our department is, undeniably, one of the most mellow and quiet departments. We are also the poster child for being way awesome with our scores. We never decorate for any of the holidays, but it kind of changed when two managers put up a tiny little tree. It's now decorated with tinsel and pictures of all the people in our department. And we had that gift exchange with a pizza party afterwards.
No one would know it, visiting our department, but we seem to be quite social and fun-having underneath.
Secret Santa is boring, and you're more than likely going to get just candy or something lame. You might not know the person, and your santa might not know you.
But a White Elephant... You get participation from all sides, you get to open presents in front of people. You get to snigger and laugh together at the lame gifts, applaud the awesome ones and cheer for people or go "OOOOOOoooooooohhhhhh!!!!!" when someone gets their gift stolen from them. I love it. I was all for participating with clapping, cheering and side commentary. I even stole gifts. I tried to keep my hold on a bottle of Jose Cuervo Especial, doing my best to keep it out of view for the old addage "Out of Sight, Out of Mind."
It worked until someone noticed what I was doing when people were wondering which bottles of alcohol were still open for stealing. Christina snagged my bottle and Kendy snagged from her. She wound up with my bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin that I brought to the game, and I ended up with "The Hangover."
Ha. Ha. Ha.
It's okay, I traded "The Hangover" for the bottle of Cuervo after the game ;)
Most of the gifts fell into one of the following four categories: Board Games, Alcohol, DVDs, and As-Seen-On-TV Products.
Clare said, after the game was over, that we could put some drinks on the drink carousel, crack open a few bottles, watch some DVDs and play games and have a light rave with The Clapper. I cracked up.
Our department is, undeniably, one of the most mellow and quiet departments. We are also the poster child for being way awesome with our scores. We never decorate for any of the holidays, but it kind of changed when two managers put up a tiny little tree. It's now decorated with tinsel and pictures of all the people in our department. And we had that gift exchange with a pizza party afterwards.
No one would know it, visiting our department, but we seem to be quite social and fun-having underneath.