The year we saved money by having the company party in our showroom with our sister vineyard's wine and local catering has been mentioned as the kind of cost-cutting our current managing director doesn't want to do, but I actually enjoyed that party maybe the most?

I wish I had some cheese right now.

Yeah, a few years back, we went from "Gatsby" themed swanky dress-up (SIDE RANT: HOLY SHIT PEOPLE STOP WITH THE GATSBY PARTIES IT'S A TERRIBLE THING TO ASPIRE TO) to losing a ton of money and having big layoffs and "we weren't going to have a holiday party because of the budget cuts but I guess you can have a potluck this Friday in the break room", which was a little more authentically Gatsby-esque than they maybe realized.

Spouse's holiday party is always exactly the same terrible Chinese takeout and a gift exchange at lunch time on a weekday. And it's actually fun and I quite like his workmates and their spouses, but it lasts for FOUR FUCKING HOURS and y'all, I am not taking a half a vacation day while people I don't work with have office nerf gun battles. So I leave after the food and gifts.

M's party is always just a brunch at a Palo Alto hotel, but the gifts are bananas. It's a Jenga gift tree, so if you topple it, your name goes to the end. And then you can sing holiday songs to get whatever surplus there is. We got a Vitamix, a Coravin, and an iPad this year. (I put my karaoke skills to work, yes I did.)

Wow, that sounds fun!

We used to do secret santa or white elephant exchanges in the department, but not this year, I guess.

My office's Christmas party this year was just going out to a local restaurant, which was pleasant enough. Last year for the Christmas party we did an escape room. Hands down my favourite office Christmas party ever. (Not my favourite office party of any description; back in the 90s, we once did a retreat on the Central Coast, just north of Sydney, and had a dinner at the Australian Reptile Park while they brought out residents to interact with.)

M's party is always just a brunch at a Palo Alto hotel, but the gifts are bananas.

I had to read this a few times before I realized you weren't talking about actual bananas.

I have realized the key to enjoying my school's holiday party (held at the director's house) is to go late, after everyone has a few drinks in them and has loosened up a bit, and also the crowd has thinned out somewhat. This year's party was this past weekend and I was there from about 7:45 to 11:30! It helps that I really like a lot of the people I work with, and I also don't necessarily get to see many of them on a daily basis, so I actually do enjoy catching up with them at the party.

You guys, the current Jeopardy champion is (fka) Jackie Fox, the bassist for the Runaways! And Alex Trebek apparently doesn't know who the Runaways are.

I hold firm to the belief that anything after hours is horrible - paid for lunch, employees only, hand out giftcards. bim bam done.

Anything else is what people should do with friends.