Corporate Christmas

It’s December once again and this time it’s the end of the decade too. Reasons to party are plenty and if you are in Sydney, you know that the hot blaring sun can also bring some welcome surprises with it. Shiny crimson baubles, gifts, chocolates, a host of holidays, family reunions and celebrations abound. Christmas is also the time for corporate parties. Now, before you let your hair down, slide those shoes off your feet and go into a wild party trance, let’s take a look at what people like about corporate Christmas parties year after year...

Bikini Santa

Faeq Ali

Corporate parties are more office than parties, but sometimes they can be out and out crazy… One time when our party was held at Bronte Beach, I was made to sit on Santa’s lap but the funny part was that the Santa was wearing a Bikini. It’s always fun when you think crazy in a party scenario, because you’re so bored thinking within confines during your work hours. If you play your cards smartly, you could land yourself a promotion, and hey, if you do manage to make a fool of yourself, you still have fun! I love to take crazy snaps with colleagues at office parties. It’s fun to see those pictures at a later date.

You can dance

Vineet Patel Christmas, to me is a time to rejoice and celebrate. At the office Christmas party though, you get to see the quirkier side of everyone’s personalities. At my very first Christmas party in Australia, it was a fantastic experience to see everyone dancing and having fun. It was even better because I had my own group of friends. I think the party was memorable because I just went berserk and danced all the way to the end of the party. My Bollywood steps soon earned a following and we had a good laugh looking at the Aussie-Bollywood dance we just invented.

Bad girls don’t get gifts from Santa

Rajshri Roy

Our all-girls team decided to party hard at the end of the year one year. We chose to do it someone’s home, for a change, because we’re quite a close knit team, and that meant we could have a risqué theme (winks). I put my hand up to offer my place. The party was heaps of fun as everyone well and truly let their hair down and kicked those heels up … so much so that someone said, ‘don’t be mean, girls, or you won’t get a Christmas present!’ Well, what would you believe – I didn’t get a gift from my ‘Santa’ that year. It turned up many weeks later under the pile of papers and books on ‘Santa’s’ desk, where he had left it and forgotten about it… Christmas party with work friends will be a more sober affair this year!

Cheers to the winner

Ravi

Sagar

What I like best about corporate Christmas parties is the free food and free drinks… But jokes apart, I believe that they give us a great opportunity to meet with our colleagues outside of work hours. You meet people, share ideas; it gives you a chance to break the ice and release the tension within your teams. Last Christmas, we had a massive party and our boss lit up with an idea to break hell loose upon us but with an incentive of course. He placed a glass of wine in the centre of the table and in it; he mixed a chunk of chocolate, some chicken soup, a piece of crumbled strawberry cake, some ice cream, chillies, smoked salmon, some gravy, orange juice with salt and pepper to taste.

He placed a bet of $500 to whoever had this exotic and nauseating recipe. I gathered all the courage and decided to go for the ‘kicks’ of proving the boss wrong (he thought nobody would do it). After a shy start, I felt like withdrawing my gutsy decision, but kept on it, with all the flinching and trembling at the pungent and

Men in heels

Farzana Ali

Christmas parties in big organisations are always interesting because you get to meet people from different departments and you get a chance to actually know people. My memorable moments are when ‘team unwired’ were dancing in a line doing the “choo choo train” – that really silly act that you simply cannot see the point of, unless of course you’re in one of them yourself, and you start believing that this is the most fun you’ve ever had in your life! Anyway, on this occasion, the last person in the line fell and pulled onto the guy in front of him, and before you knew it the entire row of girls and boys were piled on each other on the floor, on-lookers laughing their heads off. By now, the guard was truly down, and the noise level was reaching near-deafening … My girlfriends and I kicked off our (7-inch) heels to feel more comfortable, only to find a few minutes later that some of our male colleagues had decided to put them on and walk around in them… it was hilarious! (Got some great photos from that party…) work. Not that I do!

I remember this ridiculous party moment… well, it seems even embarrassing in hind sight. That was when a group of my friends were relaxing on a couch and I turned to them offering a huge chunk of Christmas cake holding it in one hand, almost squashing it. Everyone had only one look on their faces - No way! Then before I realized what they were thinking, my friend who was apparently plotting a brutal plan pushed my hand and smashed the cake into my face. I could not help smashing the cake onto his face in answer. And hurray! The whole clan was fighting with cakes and wine in no time and everyone had their hair and face choked with cake and dripping with wine. The tiny washroom was suffocated with people, all of whom embarked on washing the corrupt fun together. What an insane Christmas

Hot, hot, hot!

Priti Sharma Office Christmas parties are a fun way to relax and unwind and finish the year. You get introduced to a lot of people you would otherwise not have a chance to meet. At our office Christmas events, the boundaries are relaxed, there are jokes and funny stories. A ‘happening’ kind of restaurant is picked as the venue, and our chirpy office-manager always digs up some fun group games to play. It helps us to know each other better and gives us the scope to realize that people are so different when you meet them outside the work atmosphere. Well, the worst part for me of course is the time I take to decide what to wear but once I am there, I have a fabulous time. At one event, one of the team members warned us beforehand that he does not eat spicy food (we were at a Malaysian restaurant). I challenged him to a red hot full chilli, which I put in his mouth. To my surprise, and to everybody else’s, he ate it with no signs of discomfort. Well, I had to try it a second time. Again, he ate it quite comfortably, and I accepted defeat. (He revealed later that he had simply swallowed them whole). Much later that evening, I found to my distress, that I had chewed into the world’s hottest chilli that left me speechless for a good ten minutes. What goes around …