Turtles! Tater tots! Yay!

Tim's new company does their Christmas party during the day, for employees only (no spouses/partners), which I wouldn't really care about, except -- they go to Dave & Buster's! I could play skee-ball on his company's tab! I am being deprived of skee-ball!

Otherwise, man, office holiday parties have always been so damn awkward, in my experience. Though *I* am so damn awkward, so I bring that to the table.

The only thing I'm sad about over no longer working for the awful job is that they did send kick-ass holiday presents. Good wine, super-nice fleecy throw blankets, and to remote employees, a Visa gift card to "make up" for us not having an office party to attend.

Our company Christmas party has become "family friendly" due to a combination of having several hundred employees and finding a venue for a nice dinner and entertainment was problematic and of people continuing to say "can we bring the kids?". So now the holiday party is renting the nearby small college's basketball arena, arranging a family-appropriate singer or group, and giving us free access to the arena's concession stands. Hardly anyone in my department went. So what had been a moderately spiffy night out has turned into "Yay, another opportunity to feed and distract the kids for free!"

Apparently a lot of people think that having kids running around and shrieking is the very soul of Christmas cheer.

Yay Tater Tots and Turtles.

That is a truly shirtty Christmas party, msbelle.

At a place I used to work, the first year I was there the Christmas party lasted about 20-30 minutes and consisted of supermarket cheese and crackers ... I think there may have been some cheap wine, but most likely not.

They got longer and more elaborate later but I still remember that first one.

So, they are promoting all the "junior analysts" to analysts in my department, they'll all be salaried starting 1/1. And that's great, but I kinda feel like those of us who have been analysts for let's say 5 years should also get something, title-wise? Well, maybe we will eventually, but I'm not holding my breath.

At a place I used to work, the first year I was there the Christmas party lasted about 20-30 minutes and consisted of supermarket cheese and crackers ...

That's my kind of party!

Honestly, a work party that only lasts 30 minutes is kind of my ideal.

That said, the first year the BBC started taking budget cuts seriously (because of some bad PR the mothership had been getting in the UK over some of the talk show host salaries), our holiday party went from two floors of a swanky downtown club, full buffet dinner and open bar to everyone getting a single glass of champagne in the reception area (and maybe there was also a plate of cookies?), and it was a total morale-killer.

That's a comedown ... when you start with cheapie cheese almost anything's going to be a step up.