We had our Christmas lunch at work today. It's a variation on the traditional Kris Kringle. Some of you may know it as I have heard of other places that do it. Everybody brings a wrapped gift within the agreed price range. Everyone is given a number between one and the highest number of people that are present (pardon the pun). Number one chooses any wrapped gift from the pile. They unwrap it in front of everyone for all to see. Number two has a choice of choosing another wrapped gift from the pile, or if they really like what number one has unwrapped they can 'steal' that gift from them. Number one then has to choose another wrapped gift from the pile. Number three then has the choice of a wrapped gift or one of the gifts already unwrapped.....and so it goes on. You can see from this that the higher the number you have, the more choice you have. If someone has their gift 'stolen' from them, they can only choose from a wrapped gift, they are not allowed to 'steal' another gift.
Now this can either be great fun, or it can fall flat. It being great fun relies on people putting niceness aside and taking what they really want. It's a time of putting aside hierarchy in the organisation. People have to know they can take from their supervisor, or even the manager, without any ramifications (and hey....we're talking $10 - $15 gifts, so it's not as though an Ipod is at stake!). Some people find this a difficult concept. There are those who always take from the pile. There are those who will do a perusal of the opened gifts to put on a show, but you know they will always return to the pile to take an unwrapped gift. There tends to be a few favourite gifts that constantly change hands. They are usually funny or useful gifts. There are also some staff who seem to have their gifts 'stolen' 3 or 4 times!
It was fun today. We ended up with 44 people there. This included many volunteers who come. I always reckon it's a good sign when relatively new staff feel confident enough to 'steal'. Also when volunteers, who spend most of their time in client's homes and rarely come into the office, so potentially may not feel as connected to the wider team, feel confident enough to 'steal'. Our manager had her gift stolen three times! There was the odd surprise. As one particular staff member got up to choose a present, I thought, 'M will take from the pile, she's far too nice to 'steal''. But no, she went over to someone else and 'stole' a book entitled Wild Sex! It was a book about the sex lives of animals! I love it when people surprise me.
3 comments:
Hi Campbell,
What a delightful pre-Christmas post! It was a thoroughly enjoyable read and instilled a bit of Holiday Spirit into my “bah humbugish” mind set.
I’ve never heard of a “Kris Kringle” party; is it an Australian custom? The Christmas socials that I attended were exchanging gifts with a certain price limit established. I can see where the idea of taking a surprise gift or a known one could be a difficult decision, given the office hierarchy. Given that these are the people you work with on a daily basis, you don’t want to create hard feelings that will outlast any token presents. What was your gift? Did you help yourself to someone else’s present or have one stolen out from under you? With 44 people attending, there must have been a wide range of things to select from. Was their food and drink as well?
Perhaps you can ask “M” if you can borrow her book on “Wild Sex” when she’s finished reading it and give us a review of the highlights…LOL.
Hi Miss L.,
I see you've had Kris Kringle explained to you on your blog (thanks Tom).I ended up with a small chopping board and herb cutter which I did steal. One year I started off with something I was very pleased with and ended the afternoon with a fridge magnet!!
Everyone enters into this in the spirit in which it is meant, so there are no lasting feelings. It can be a lot of fun.
heh, heh we did this at work last year and it was so much fun - the boss - the Chief Executive of the department - kept getting presents stolen from him, so he ended up with a REAL dud present (I think it was an alarm clock in the shape of a racing car). I managed to score a great bottle of chocolate dipping sauce. There was this fantastic tricorn hat that EVERYONE kept stealing. Great fun.
This year though we had - ugggh - karaoke - just not the same as Kris Kringle.
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