Now I've had a few jobs in the past before finally landing at the school district I'm at, and I may have the occasional misgivings but for the most part I enjoy and thoroughly like my job and what I do. I enjoy the work culture at my job and I find that holidays working for a school are the MOST fun for a variety of reasons.
But I think one of my favorites is "Secret Santa." You get to draw a name and buy gifts for a person, and I find that a lot of fun. I've found different workplaces have done this tradition in different ways, but when I worked at the High School we often dropped little gifts in their mail box leading up to one BIG surprise during the workplace Christmas party. But some people just pick a name and buy a gift for a certain time and give it to the person too, I feel like that's the traditional way of doing secret santa.
But one thing I miss from a previous job is the "sock game." I've only ever got to do it once, but the sock game is basically where you have this stocking that's passed around, and when it's your turn to get "socked" you receive a surprise full of goodies in the stocking. Once you get socked, it's your turn to sock someone else. You also aren't allowed to sock a person twice in a row, so you have to pick someone who hasn't been socked yet until everyone gets socked. It's a very charming game and I think it's very thoughtful to have a surprise waiting for you and in turn to get to surprise someone else. I've tried, without much luck, to bring this tradition to other workplaces.
Then there's my least favorite. The dirtiest of dirty Christmas games. The "Dirty Santa" game. And there's a reason it's called "Dirty Santa," because you play dirty. In this game you wrap up something you just want to give rid of. It can be anything laying around the house that you don't want anymore or have no use for, wrap it up and bring it in. Then you take a number and when it's your number that comes up, you can go up and unwrap a package, and either choose to keep it, or steal the gift from the person who came before you. But if you steal that gift, someone else can steal that from you. It's the kind of horrible deceitful game that can make you lose friends.
I also enjoy the atmosphere and ambience of the holidays, the work parties, and all the things that come with it. Each work place has done something different, whether it's a surprise from the boss like a gift card, or a Christmas dinner. Sometimes it involves a pot luck. Then there's theme days where you get to dress up...but my personal favorites are pajama day and ugly holiday sweater days.
I feel like it invites a good mood all around, everyone's stressed and trying to get through until Christmas day or Christmas break depending on where you work but these things lift our spirits and make things cheerful while dealing with the every day tasks that come with a place of work.Now, I know some of you work in retail and probably think "ugh!" when things like this are brought up, and I certainly wouldn't blame you for it. Trust me, I completely understand as someone who's worked in a grocery store and in several service type positions in the past. Typically, this is a busy season for you all, so I don't blame you if you want to pass up this discussion.
To be fair though, one of my best jobs that I still look back fondly on was at a gas station, and I remember getting a gift card and a whole holiday ham from my boss that year. It was a great Christmas.
I try not to get offended too much anymore over trivial things. There's just no sense in it. There's a lot of hunters in our area too. If I'm lucky, they might even give me some venison. I do like venison, but since I don't hunt I don't get it too often.