Christmas Parties Used To Be Different

Changing with the times.

Our company doesn't do a Christmas Party anymore. Around here, I guess that it was about time. I quit attending years ago for various reasons. Our party had become a steak dinner and nothing else. The various factions of coworkers all sat together. Salespeople with sales. On air with on air and the engineer sitting by himself.

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Forty years ago, I'd go because this party was usually the best meal that I got all year. And many years everybody on staff received gifts. Those included some nice clothing or sometimes the boss would even spring for a radio station jacket.

Inhibitions were lowered.

There was also booze, lots of it. There was no limit on the number of drinks and that made for a couple of interesting parties. This was a time before every business had HR departments and the lawyers weren't involved if things got too far out of hand.

I saw single coworkers get over their shyness... a couple of married ones too. Nothing like a bunch of free whiskey to help a couple of your coworkers who don't like each other to start to help work out their differences while everybody had ringside seats.

Much has changed.

Now, most businesses that still hold some sort of party have nice refined ones. People dress up nicely. The boss gets up and gives a speech about how he's blessed to have the best employees.

But back in the day, we looked forward to Christmas party night. Because we knew something worthwhile was going to happen.