Work holiday parties are a delicate concoction of forced holiday cheer and awkward social experiments. Case in point: the infamous White Elephant gift exchange. For those who've never played, it's a game where everyone brings a wrapped present, and the fun begins as gifts are opened, stolen, and swapped in a battle for glory—or, at least, the coolest gift under $20. Sure, seeing who ends up with what is fun (bonus points if you get to steal from the office food thief ), but let's not sugarcoat…

Jingle all the way to the bank

They're doing tiers now?

I remember being so frustrated as a kid and into my teenage years as my extended family tried to optimize Christmas further and further every year to ease the burden on the family member hosting. And, to be fair, with a large extended family hosting a holiday was no small thing, and being young and completely blind to the exhaustive burden that life as an adult brings, I didn't appreciate that an additional monumental task of planning, cooking, cleaning and hosting that having the family around…

Only coal in their stockings

What's the worst present you've ever received (or given)? Some people just are not good at gifting things to others. We all have that one aunt who gives everyone ill-fitting clothes, or hands out toys that the kiddos are way too old to play with. Although, as you can read in the answers of this hilarious r/AskReddit thread below, a lot of people have given bad gifts on purpose! For a few folks, getting subpar presents from the same person year after year started to grate on them. One person sha…

Happy Holidays, everyone! Another year has come and gone. The work is winding down for the year, and families are starting to gather to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah , and other winter festivities. Many families celebrate by decorating for the holidays. Around Thanksgiving, someone in the family will insist that everyone in the house goes to the attic or basement and bring out all of the decorations . Someone is tasked with untangling the lights, while someone else can start hanging up stocking…

People can be very particular about how they like things to look around the holidays. From Christmas trees to stockings to decorations, many suburban families enjoy going overboard because, well, who is going to stop them from being festive? If Halloween is the one time of year people can dress however they want without receiving any judgment, then Christmas is the one time of year that the elders of the family can be as demanding and over-the-top as they want and no one can say anything about…

Figuring out logistics for the holiday season always requires making some tough decisions. However, if making these decisions puts a marriage in hot water, then there is a larger problem going on behind the scenes. Here, we have a 30-year-old husband who was hoping to split Christmas eve and Christmas day with his family as well as his wife's parents so both sets of grandparents could have some time with their three-year-old daughter. Unfortunately, his in-laws were possessive and could not fat…

"Please know that your employer will always value their bottom line over your dignity. I loved this job. I am so so sad."

As children, we're all taught that “we get what we get and we don't get upset.” Perhaps this is true in the vast majority of circumstances, but if you were to receive one of these Christmas gifts, you would have to possess a whole lot of self-control to be able to stop yourself from letting your rage bubble to the surface. Of course, not everyone is easy to shop for during the Holidays. I have been known to spend several weeks in December agonizing over what to gift my parents. For some family…

Holiday beef

The end of the year in the corporate world is full of holiday cheer (whether it's forced or not) and mild panic. Half the team is out using up their PTO before the New Year, while the rest of us are trying to make up for their absence while pretending to care about the work holiday party. Between the buzz of what Secret Santa gift you're getting this year, questionable holiday-themed potluck contributions, and wearing your coat inside the office while you struggle to defrost from the outside...

The worst part about the Holidays is always coordinating logistics with difficult family members. Nearly everyone has that one person in their family who makes Holiday planning extra challenging. There are, of course, a plethora of reasons why someone might be difficult to deal with during this time. Perhaps they are merely disorganized and can't commit to a schedule in advance. Perhaps they are too particular about how things need to be done (looking at all you picky eaters out there who are n…

You can't always get what you want!

Would you attend a family gathering if you had to sign a contract in order to get in? It's an interesting question, as u/ziolczykdaniel posed to the internet in the aftermath of a family Thanksgiving debacle. If you agree to host a Thanksgiving meal , you get to set the rules, right? You tell your guests when dinner will be. You can ask a few people to bring side dishes or extra chairs. You may even pull a relative to the side and request that they not start any drama with Grandpa this year, be…