by C.J. Liu, PayScale.com
This holiday season you may find your company party budget a bit sobering. While it's tempting to bring forth your Ebenezer Scrooge, remember that the holiday spirit is more about investing in and valuing relationships than spending on an expensive party.
According to an October 2008 survey by Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, Inc., an outplacement consulting firm headquartered in Chicago, 13 percent of all businesses surveyed will be spending less than they did last year on holiday parties, with budget cuts expected to average 53 percent. More than half of the employers holding parties are having them on a workday or near the end of the workday.
To help you appreciate each other without breaking the bank, here are seven, low-cost office celebration ideas:
1. Make music. You can learn a lot about a person through their musical tastes. Have each person on the team share their favorite winter tune for a group CD. Then, host a CD release party, complete with holiday cookies and hot apple cider.
2. Give a pat on the back. You dream of the day that your boss and coworkers will lavish praise upon you. Why not experience it now? Do a Secret Santa exchange where each person draws three different names out of a hat then writes holiday cards to those three coworkers describing what they most appreciate about them.
3. Enjoy festive foods. Share what the holiday spirit means to you -- with food. Have each person bring a traditional family dish accompanied by a story about who usually made it for them, why it's a favorite and the recipe.
4. Do a favor. Wouldn't it be a treat to have your own personal assistant? Have everyone in the office create a wish list of ways they'd like to be pampered, from having copies made to lunch delivery. Next, put the lists in a hat, have everyone pick out one and then enjoy both giving and receiving.
5. Give to others. How about some office competition for a cause? Divide coworkers into teams and have each team pick a charity they want to support. Then, go bowling and let each team donate a certain sum of company money based upon their bowling record.
6. Relive your childhood. Isn't the best thing about the holiday season reliving your childhood? Have a game day where you play favorite childhood games like pin the tail on the donkey or musical chairs. You'll feel like a kid again.
7. Play truth-or-dare. Create a bunch of work-friendly, holiday-related truth-0r-dare questions. Find out when your boss first learned about Santa Claus or laugh as the finance group serenades the front office staff with "Jingle Bells."
C.J. Liu is a certified, professional coach who helps professionals define success on their own terms. C.J. offers life, business, and career coaching and can answer your questions at cjliu@mywholelife.net.
Job Info , Jobs Sources , EmploymentThis holiday season you may find your company party budget a bit sobering. While it's tempting to bring forth your Ebenezer Scrooge, remember that the holiday spirit is more about investing in and valuing relationships than spending on an expensive party.
According to an October 2008 survey by Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, Inc., an outplacement consulting firm headquartered in Chicago, 13 percent of all businesses surveyed will be spending less than they did last year on holiday parties, with budget cuts expected to average 53 percent. More than half of the employers holding parties are having them on a workday or near the end of the workday.
To help you appreciate each other without breaking the bank, here are seven, low-cost office celebration ideas:
1. Make music. You can learn a lot about a person through their musical tastes. Have each person on the team share their favorite winter tune for a group CD. Then, host a CD release party, complete with holiday cookies and hot apple cider.
2. Give a pat on the back. You dream of the day that your boss and coworkers will lavish praise upon you. Why not experience it now? Do a Secret Santa exchange where each person draws three different names out of a hat then writes holiday cards to those three coworkers describing what they most appreciate about them.
3. Enjoy festive foods. Share what the holiday spirit means to you -- with food. Have each person bring a traditional family dish accompanied by a story about who usually made it for them, why it's a favorite and the recipe.
4. Do a favor. Wouldn't it be a treat to have your own personal assistant? Have everyone in the office create a wish list of ways they'd like to be pampered, from having copies made to lunch delivery. Next, put the lists in a hat, have everyone pick out one and then enjoy both giving and receiving.
5. Give to others. How about some office competition for a cause? Divide coworkers into teams and have each team pick a charity they want to support. Then, go bowling and let each team donate a certain sum of company money based upon their bowling record.
6. Relive your childhood. Isn't the best thing about the holiday season reliving your childhood? Have a game day where you play favorite childhood games like pin the tail on the donkey or musical chairs. You'll feel like a kid again.
7. Play truth-or-dare. Create a bunch of work-friendly, holiday-related truth-0r-dare questions. Find out when your boss first learned about Santa Claus or laugh as the finance group serenades the front office staff with "Jingle Bells."
C.J. Liu is a certified, professional coach who helps professionals define success on their own terms. C.J. offers life, business, and career coaching and can answer your questions at cjliu@mywholelife.net.
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