Party Planning

Gary Mattoc asked:


a Christmas party in London this year then read on then, I attended this event last year with my office colleagues and we had a fantastic Christmas party. It is an extremely lavish Christmas party event, a once-in-a-lifetime adventure that will transport everyone who takes part back to Dickensian London.

You can go back in time for your office Christmas party to experience the very essence of Christmas. Everyone is familiar with the look and feel of Dickensian London and that’s exactly what is provided for you. It’s an elaborate recreation of the Christmas party events that Dickens would have seen - but with the luxury and convenience that office Christmas party goers expect today. What you get is an exceptional Christmas party in London comprising dinner, dance and theatre. It will almost certainly be the best Christmas party London has ever seen - in the Past, Present or Future.

A complete office Christmas party experience

So what will you find during one of these Dickens office Christmas party events? When we arrived we were greeted with a glass of champagne before being taken down Dickens Lane, accompanied by traditional Christmas carol singers.

A Dickensian guide then escorted us to our exclusive dining area where waiting staff attended to our every need. Then we had all evening to experience the best that Victorian Christmas London had to offer, but with all the luxury that party goers today expect from their Christmas party events.

Great wining, dining, dancing and more

As well as the fabulous dinner, we had the opportunity to visit The Boars Head Tavern, located in the centre of Dickens Lane, with its three large bars serving fine ales and the always popular roulette table. And to add a modern twist for a bit of extra variety to complete our Christmas party in London, there’s a roulette table and cocktail bar with barmen showing off their flair and skill.

Step back into Dickens’ London

Dickens Christmas party nights in London wouldn’t be complete without a suitable cast of characters. So you get to meet Oliver, Fagin, The Artful Dodger, Miss Haversham, Mr Macawber, Bob Crachit, Jacob Marley, Jenny Wren and many more Dickens favourites.

The actors aren’t just there to look authentic: the actors will recreate all their trials and triumphs to reveal the stories that are so familiar yet always a pleasure to experience. Don’t expect stuffy performances - the characters can get very rowdy during the evening and love entertaining in true music hall style!

There are many other ideas for office Christmas party events, but this is the best I have yet to come across.

Christmas party. London has never seen anything like it . . . well not for 150 years!



Oliveria

David Greenwalt asked:


Thanksgiving History

In 1621, after a hard and devastating first year in the New World the Pilgrim’s fall harvest was very successful and plentiful. There was corn, fruits, vegetables, along with fish which was packed in salt, and meat that was smoke cured over fires. They found they had enough food to put away for the winter.

The Pilgrims had beaten the odds. They built homes in the wilderness, they raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long coming winter, and they were at peace with their Indian neighbors. Their Governor, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving that was to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native American Indians.

The custom of an annually celebrated thanksgiving, held after the harvest, continued through the years. During the American Revolution (late 1770’s) a day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress.

In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving. Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.

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Thanksgiving causes many well-intentioned dieters, not true, seasoned Lifestylers, a great deal of stress. In my opinion they worry needlessly over what is going to be served. Here’s how I view Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a holiday and one that can help us reflect on what we are thankful for. It also provides some of us an opportunity rather than a cross to bear with respect to meeting up with family. I recognize I am blessed in this regard but not everyone is and for many reasons. Whatever Thanksgiving means to you the one thing it does for too many is kick off the treacherous Thanksgiving through January 15th weight-gain phase.

Throughout the year I will eat about 2,184 meals. Over Thanksgiving and the day after I will eat about 10-12 times. That is one-half of one percent of the meals I will eat in a year. What impact might any of us expect one-half of one percent of our meals to contribute to our weight? Well, since the meals we may have on and right after Thanksgiving may be more calorie-dense and fat-laiden I’ll bump up the grand total of Thanksgiving to one percent of the total effect of your weight for the year. Doesn’t sound like very much does it? And it’s not.

A problem many people have is they don’t stop the day after Thanksgiving. They keep it going, as I said before, through mid January or later.

Thanksgiving is a time when the women in our family really get to show off how they cook–and we’ve got some good cooks let me tell you. Cooking has become something I expect to see in a museum some day on exhibit since it really seems to be going out of style and that makes Thanksgiving even more wonderful to me–it’s the day when most families, when schedules will permit, go all out cooking foods you never get at any other time of the year. It’s the day when cooking goes on for hours and hours and hours to get it just right. You have plenty of fingers on one hand to count the other occasions in a year when this might take place. I’m not about to short-change myself by giving up some sensible indulgence of these wonderful-tasting foods just so I can be a picture-perfect dieter and not gain 2 pounds of water weight. No thank you. On every Thanksgiving since I’ve been alive I have some of anything I want. I don’t go home feeling deprived. By not going home feeling deprived I don’t send out pity-party invitations.

I talk about pity-party invitations in LL V.4. This usually occurs when an internal mechanism inside you says you’ve been better than you should have been. You may be wonderful for a few hours but what happens is the pity-party invitations will have been sent shortly after you said “No thank you” for the fifth time and right about the time you chomped on your fourth piece of broccoli sans any dressing or sauce. When you send out the pity-party invites who shows up is quite ugly. Mr. Binge, Ms. Secret Eating, Mrs. Fields and more may arrive and the total caloric effect may end up being much worse than if you had simply eaten a little more at Thanksgiving and NOT gone home feeling too perfect. You see, this is important, you have to be aware of your internal switch that thinks you’ve been too good. When that switch is turned on it gets ugly–it just gets ugly.

With this said there is no reason for you to eat what you DON’T want. I am not a believer that because Aunt Matilda is trying to forcefeed you pumpkin pie that you should cave in and eat if you don’t like it. Take a bite. Be polite. Then say it’s good but it’s just not you. Eat what you want that you know isn’t a trigger. If you are unsure if it’s a trigger then you may just have to try it and find out. With all the normal Thanksgiving foods it could be really hard to figure out what’s a trigger and what isn’t anyway. Skip the foods you KNOW are triggers, that’s the message here. Have what you want. Don’t have what you don’t want. Personally I skip anything really splurgey unless I think I am REALLY going to love it. I’m picky with my splurges and that’s just because I know everything counts. I just hate wasting calories on mediocre food.

In part 2 I’ll discuss portions and every strategy important to enjoy this special holiday.



Kelly

Ingrid Cliff asked:


Hands up who likes office Christmas parties? The one time of the year when ideally everyone gets to relax, celebrate the year and get to know people a bit better beyond their normal work roles.

That is the ideal … what generally happens is a committee is formed or the office admin is drafted into the role of event organiser. They then run the gauntlet of:

First - the fight about the venue ” I don’t want to go there”, “They don’t have what I can eat”, “Can’t we go bowling/sky diving/ deep sea fishing instead”, “That’s too far to drive to”, “We went there 4 years ago - can’t we go somewhere different”.

Next - setting the date. You are more likely to win Division 1 in Lotto than be able to pick a date that everyone can attend and even if you pick a date that starts out where everyone is free, at least 2 key people will pull out at the last minute.

Next - the outfits. Guaranteed someone will suggest fancy dress (or at least funny ties and Christmas hats).

Next - the entertainment. Karaoke, versus lawn bowls, versus just sitting and chatting.

Next - paid or unpaid. There are always “discussions” about whether attendance should be classed as work time or in their own time.

Next - the menu and alcohol. Set menu or self choice. To serve alcohol or no alcohol.

Finally - Secret Santa. Will you run one, how much will be spent and on what.

The big day finally arrives, the time to start arrives and people are still milling around the office fixing last minute emails and phone calls. One or two very lonely people wait at the venue by themselves until about half an hour late the rest of the crew arrive.

No Christmas function can happen without at least

* one inappropriate comment to the boss,

* two drunken office juniors create office gossip for the next six months by their antics,

* three people hate their secret Santa present,

* four people spend the whole time running down the company and

* five employees leave early.

For years I was the HR Manager at many Christmas functions and I can tell you - I hated Christmas parties!

I counted a party a success if there were no sexual harassment allegations popping up over the next week, if no junior embarrassed herself (it was always a girl) by doing a Brittany Spears and her many wardrobe malfunctions, if no girlfriend or boyfriend of an employee threw up or hit another staff member, if no one uploaded a video taken on their phone of the drunken antics and uploaded it to You Tube and if everyone got home safely without any car accidents or brawls on the way home.

Here are my top 10 “in the trenches” tips to hosting a Christmas party at your work.

1. Intent - be clear on why you are having a party. Is it to have staff relax and get to know each other better, to celebrate a great year, to commiserate a bad year, to get families involved in work? Whatever your intent - be clear and tell people what you are doing.

2. Parties are not a motivational tool - a Christmas party (no matter how expensive) generally is not a motivational tool for staff. They will not work hard all year for no praise and average wages on the hope you throw a great party once a year!

3. Parties are work functions - there is a lot of case law about this. If someone attends a work Christmas party they are generally considered to be “at work”. That means managers are liable both directly and vicariously for accidents, injuries, harassment, vilification and all of the other nasties when people are at your party. Put in risk mitigation measures from the beginning.

4. Alcohol - in one word NO!!!!! If you really must supply alcohol you must also supply taxi vouchers to get people home from the party safely. You also need to ensure you have at least 2 managerial level staff (one male and one female) to be the “fun police” and keep an eye on people drinking and not drink themselves.

Most complaints and problems arise when people overindulge in alcohol or illicit drugs. The fun police’s role is to keep an eye on drinking, protect people from themselves, go into the toilets and help people who are ill to get themselves safely sorted out and then go home. They also need to keep an eye out for videos and video phones recording inappropriate behaviour.

5. Have someone sober monitor the bar tab. Unless you have very deep pockets, if you are running a bar tab keep an eye on the spend during the night. I know some functions that started by costing $3000 and when the bar tab was added it ended up costing over $20,000.

6. Wages - if the party is during regular work hours then I would suggest attendance is paid (unless they are under absolutely no obligation or even subtle pressure to attend and they can remain at their desks if they choose instead of attending). If the party is out of hours then the party is unpaid.

7. Mandatory attendance. Don’t do it! All attendance should be totally optional.

8. Secret Santa presents - they are fine to do but set limits on both money and the sort of gifts bought. A $10 limit is fine - make sure the limits include that there are no pornographic, R rated, insulting or abusive gifts bought (remember your vicarious liability ….).

9. Venues - do consider if the venue is appropriate for all members of your staff. This not only includes people with disabilities but also people of different religions and ages. Make sure the menu caters for Vegans as well as kosher if needed.

10. Codes of Conduct - remind all staff about your Codes of Conduct both on the lead up to the party as well as at the beginning of the function. Yes it puts the damper on things, but it will save you a lot if you do get taken to court (you can show all reasonable steps were taken to prevent a problem).

If you follow these tips your after party hangover should only be related to too much red wine and not in cases before various courts and jurisdictions.



Colin