The Christmas party

One eagerly awaited part of the Christmas Season is the Christmas party. This party can come in many forms. For those who are employed, there is the big, company-wide party and there are also separate and smaller departmental or branch/office parties. For students, parties range from class or block parties, year-level parties, college department parties, college organization parties, fraternity parties, and even your more intimate barkada parties.

Most of these parties encourage gift-giving, usually in the form of "exchanging gifts". What happens is a person places his gift together with the others and draws a number. The gifts are also numbered and if the number drawn matches the gift, that's the gift the person gets. Another variation has names of the attendees raffled off days or weeks before the party. Whatever name you pick, you must buy a gift for that person and bring said gift during the day of the party. Usually, this exchange is done in complete anonymity. I think it is done this way to prevent you from strangling the person who gave you that cheap hammer from China, whose head flew off when you banged it on the wall.

Unless you are attending a party thrown by nuns and priests, it's a safe bet that alcohol is readily available on these parties. And I don't think that I do not have to warn to take easy on the "booze-y" because alcohol can be a double-edged sword. Taken in moderation, it can break down your shyness so that you end up volunteering to play all the games. It can also make you lose your inhibitions so that you can finally ask that cute officemate/classmate you have been eyeing all year to dance with you.

Taken in excess, though, alcohol can turn on you. Inebriation dulls your brain, leaving you with faulty judgment. One guy I know thought the utility closet was the urinal, another guy I know got tangled up in wires like a puppet on a string. And do not forget the hazards of driving while under the influence of alcohol. You do not want to turn a Christmas party into a Christmas tragedy by ramming your car onto a post because it would not move when you honked your horn.

With inhibitions being shed, you don't know what will happen. You might come on too strong to a person or you might mistake a person for someone else. So, be careful. You do not want to be coming home empty-handed or with all your teeth in a plastic bag or with a lawsuit. Because, as comedian Tim Allen once said: "If you are working your way through a crowded party and you feel a hand on your behind, you better hope it's a woman."

Always remember the impression you wish to leave with your friends and colleagues and especially with your teachers and superiors. The Christmas party just happens once every year but you will be with these people for quite a long time.