Party On Down

Have we ever talked about Christmas parties? I'm sure we must have, but that still isn't going to stop me prattling on about them again. I know I must have mentioned my anathema toward office Christmas parties, ( at risk of repeating myself, I've only ever attended one, when I first started working, and it was horrendous, not helped by the fact that I was on medication for a bout of flu and consequently couldn't drink; I vowed never to attend another), and yesterday felt that I'd dodged a bullet by avoiding my current work place's office party. Which is probably unfair, but that bad experience from all those years ago still colours my judgement of such things. Luckily, this year it coincided with the first day of my Christmas leave, so I didn't have to come up with some elaborate excuse as to why I couldn't attend. This year I was going to say that I had to go to Stonehenge with the other druids on the Winter solstice, to sacrifice a virgin in order to ensure the return of Summer, but thanks to the timing of my leave, I can save that for next year.

I seem to recall from when I was younger that it used to be a big deal as to how many Christmas parties you got invited to - a mark of social status. Obviously, being entirely misanthropic and anti-social, I still avoided attending the bloody things. Not that I didn't get the invites. One of the 'advantages' of working, (as I did then), in the London HQ of a major government ministry was that individual branches and offices would hold their own seasonal celebrations, and you'd frequently get invites from those you worked and liaised with most frequently. You'd also get invites from outside organisations you worked with as well. Indeed, I was once invited to a Christmas party at the US Embassy. And declined it. I'm proud to say that I turned down the Ambassador in favour of a few pints in my local pub that evening. Obviously, it meant missing out on that Ferrera Rocher he was spoiling his guests with, but I felt that was a small price to pay for retaining my integrity. These days, of course, I don't receive such invitations, let alone have the opportunity to turn them down. I can't say that I'm sorry, really. I'm afraid the Christmas party is one part of the season's celebrations that I'll never get on with.