Christmas is a time for celebration and parties. This holds true with the company I worked with. I have been in this company for more than 24 years and not one Christmas did we miss to party.
Each year has different theme. Each year has a different venue. Every year, all employees from different parts of the Philippines gather together to share the food that is being prepared and to have a happy time. Group presentations are never missing during these parties. Each groups tries to outdo each others. It is always a friendly competition though.
But this year, it is rather different. With the pandemic that hit worldwide, social distancing has been imposed. This is a difficult feat to achieve during parties. Hence, a different kind of Christmas party this year.
Our company HR team face this challenge with a flair. They don’t want the pandemic to hamper our Christmas spirit.
With months to plan ahead and with support from the management, our HR team gave us a party we can’t easily forget. The previous one night Christmas party became a week-long celebration. All these nightly activity was held online thru Zoom meeting rooms. All employees were given the link for the said meeting room.
Our party started last Monday, December 7 with a theme Trivia night. Trivia questions were thrown out to be answered by the employees. Each correct answer has a corresponding prize.
It was movie night on the second day. We all watched The Christmas Chronicles together online. At the end of the movie, there were again, trivia questions that are related to the movie. And again, any correct answer has prizes.
On the third night, a karaoke contest was being held. Contestants registered beforehand. There were twelve of them and the night was quite merry. Top 5 were to be chosen thru voting. So we end the night voting for our favourite karaoke singer.
The top 5 karaoke winners are again competing with each other on the fourth night. This time the songs that they were going to sing are chosen randomly, meaning they were not able to practice the songs for that round. Also on this night, we get to see one of the chef of Maayo Hotel do some cooking.
Each employee was provided with a Christmas hamper and the chef shows us how to cook using the items inside the hamper and do plating. The best plating will get to win a prize.
Last night was the culmination of the weeklong Christmas party. Our HR team has hired local entertainers to render us some live music. This is also the judgement night for the song writing contest. The contest was open to all employees beforehand. The judges were known Cebuano song writers too.
Overall, it was a successful Christmas party amidst pandemic.
Merry Christmas one and all….
Now onto the second Christmas party to attend this year…
