Christmas Do's - or lack of them

[novocastrian]

Talking to a customer earlier and he asked when our 'do' was, he was quite shocked when i explained we dont have one as we cant justify the expense to the powers that be...

for background i work for a huge american company, about 3/4 years ago we got taken over and absorbed into this huge company, before then we usually had a do with partners for example night in hotel in the lakes with meal/drinks/disco type do, all paid for. now we dont get anything not even 20 quid to have a pint with our colleagues...

got me thinking how many companies dont have 'do's' or maybe christmas do's arent a thing in the US ?

[loves2plan]

I'm self employed now and have been for 10 years, but prior to that I worked for for large corporate companies and we always paid for our Christmas do ourselves, so thought that was the norm.

[EssexSue]

We have a bit of a do, we pay our deposit the company pay for the rest of our meal but no drinks.

[Andybear]

I work for a firm of solicitors and we always have a Christmas lunch. The bosses pay for the whole thing - meals and drinks.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

From 15 until I retired aged 55 I never had a doo paid for. Not even one round of drinks bought for us.

When I became the Boss of my Dept I wasn't invited anyhow.

[Jedi Princess]

We have two.

The first one is departmental, and we pay for that ourselves. Usually a venue that has a meal, tribute act and then Disco.

The second (official) one, is fully paid for by the company. Pre drinks, meal, prizes, entertainment, disco and then an after party.

[wanye]

we've always had a christmas party. theres been 300-700 people in our office (we're now part of a US megacorp with 20k+ staff)

its always been free, but we pay a tenner deposit (which then gets refunded or put in the charity pot) to make sure we turn up if we put our name down. one year we booked for 350 people, but only ~200 turned up! but a +1 this year is £30... sod that, unless they were giving us £30 in drinks tokens (they arent) then they can get stuffed.

[novocastrian]

should add for clarity
as we are a regional team NE, Cumbria & Yorks it isnt realy feasible for us all to organise a self funded curry/few beers as someone would always have to travel a long way, hence th 'neutral' venue weekend of old..

[mitch84]

Christmas parties have always been free for me, although this year they did £10 deposits to make people turn up.
Was a 3 course meal, unlimited drinks and bacon butties at midnight. I haven’t been to a Christmas party in a couple of years, but are defo free

[Twinkletoes47]

Work in the public sector (NHS) so understandably taxpayers money doesn't get spent on any refreshments or do's for staff - and it isnt expected. We will however have a fuddle (good old Lincolnshire word) - buffet lunch for those of us not originally from Lincolnshire - and a Yankee swap this Thursday and drinks after work