Holiday party horror stories
The assignment came in: write about holiday party horror stories. “Piece of cake,” I thought and sent out a wide-reaching query to my network, requesting they to pass it on to their network, asking for everybody’s tales of woe.
I sat back and waited to be swamped with replies. I anticipated sipping a cup of tea while being regaled with stories of misbehaviour, poor judgment and overindulgence.
Instead, nothing.
The replies arrived but they were all along the following lines: “Sorry, I haven’t had any horror stories. Enjoy your holidays!”
Which got me to thinking. Maybe there’s a reason the 40-plus crowd (or at least those I know) don’t have terrible holiday party tales to share. Maybe this is a concrete example of experience bringing wisdom; the wisdom not to consume six martinis on an empty stomach at the company holiday party, the wisdom not to engage your brother-in-law in a political discussion over Christmas dinner, the wisdom to know your limits – or at least most of them.
So, OK, maybe you manage to avoid downright disasters, but the holidays take more out of you than you’d like. Or possibly you do have a horror story hidden somewhere in your past. Either way, we’ve got some tips to help ease your way through the celebrations of this festive season.
Ann Max, productivity specialist and author of Deck the Halls with Matzoh Balls, a holiday planning handbook, says there are some common pitfalls to avoid in this hectic season of holiday celebrations.
Great Expectations
The thing most likely to sabotage any celebration says Max, is an unrealistically high level of expectation. “It’s that time of year where everyone wants to excel,” she says. “Tensions are very high and emotions are very high.”
Max says people put pressure on themselves to please everybody, to get along with everybody and to do everything right.
“You save it all up for this time of year,” she says. “That’s not the best thing to do. You really have to lower your expectations.”
