Christmas at Work

Originally published December 6, 2019

My favorite holiday is easily Christmas.  The lead-up to it is a month long, and there's no holiday that has more decorations, more songs about it, or more closures of businesses.  Sure, there's a bit of stress that goes along with it, such as the shopping, decorating, wrapping gifts... but in the end, it's all worth it.  At work, decorations can be seen across a wide variety of businesses, and many workplaces have employees exchange gifts.  

At my last job, we didn't really exchange gifts, especially since there were so many of us.  However, a couple times some of us that were closer (and hung out outside of work) exchanged gifts.  I remember getting a long-sleeve Star Wars shirt from one of my friends/coworkers that I still wear to this day.  I also exchanged Christmas cards with some of my co-workers as well.

But my favorite part of the holidays at work was the feast we had.  Every year on Christmas Eve, we would have a large amount of food in the break room, from ham to turkey and vegetables and rolls.  We'd usually have some deli food to go with it like Jo Jo's, chicken tenders, and/or chow mein.  On a couple of these occasions, our supervisors would even let us out (or get backup to let us out) on unscheduled breaks to enjoy the food, which was nice.  These feasts would also happen on the day before Thanksgiving.  I'm not sure if they ever happened Christmas Day because I never worked it.  I don't think so, from what I heard from my co-workers that worked Christmas Day.  

As I said in my "Dressing up for Holidays at Work" post, I did just that.  I liked to wear red and green whenever possible in the days leading up to Christmas.  Our store would usually get decorated to a limited extent.  I remember one year wrapping empty boxes to put up on top of the aisle end caps to make it look like Christmas gifts.  We also would have a Salvation Army bell-ringer outside our store starting shortly after Thanksgiving.  But my favorite part (sarcasm) was trying to sell Hunger Bags.  The bags represented a $10 donation that our company would make to the local food bank.  We were often encouraged to ask customers if they wanted to "buy a bag", which I was never too keen on.  I did, however get a few donations that shocked me.  One guy donated 10 bags ($100 worth) and someone else donated over 30! ($300!)  Seeing the joy of giving at work was something special.

I wonder what we do here, if anything.  I'm curious.  Ever since seeing Secret Santa's done on TV shows (Friends, The Office), I've wanted to do one either with friends or coworkers.  But I feel like if we were going to do that, we would've picked names by now.  I can't say I know everyone here extremely well, but I know most of them well enough to know what sort of gift they'd like and appreciate.  

The thing that is best about Christmas is it's a day to forget your troubles and enjoy time with family as you not only get to see what they got you, but see their reaction to what you got them.  I have never worked Christmas Day and I don't plan on doing it ever.  I certainly empathize with those that have to work Christmas.  It's perhaps the one day out of all the year that work just stops for 24 hours.  I honestly feel like all non-essential businesses should be closed.

I sure miss the says of the two-week long winter break that I had in school.  That went from a week before Christmas to a day or two after New Years Day.  It would be cool if my place of work did that, but I understand the loss of revenue/sales/business would cause it to be too detrimental.  As I write this, Christmas is less than three weeks away.  It always seems to sneak up on us.  Can't wait!