Workplaces all over the UK are gearing up for the festive1 period and all the traditions and customs that come with it. But will this Christmas be a cause for happiness and celebration or disappointment and embarrassment2?
One way that colleagues in Britain show their appreciation3 of each other at this time of year is by doing a 'Secret Santa' present giving. Secret Santa is when people who work together buy each other gifts without saying who they are from.
Co-workers all write their name on a piece of paper and then stage a lottery4 in which each workmate takes another colleagues name at random5. Each person then has to buy a present for the colleague whose name they have picked, usually with an agreed budget set at a small amount of money such as five or ten pounds .
As the gifts are given anonymously6, the quality of presents can vary greatly; in an internet survey of Secret Santa presents, gifts that people received ranged from tickets to the opera to an air-freshener hanger7 for a car.
Another common seasonal8 workplace tradition is the office Christmas party, when workmates put on their most glamorous9 outfits10 and take advantage of a plentiful11 supply of free booze.
While most parties go off without a hitch12, sometimes the effects of alcohol cause party-goers to regret their drunken antics.
The BBC invited people to share their most embarrassing Christmas office party stories, and received hundreds of funny stories, such as the man who split his trousers back to front with his extravagant13 dance moves or the tipsy lady who spent the entire night with back of her dress tucked into her pants and saw the photos that proved it later at work.
But the worst story must surely come from Stuart Vaines, who got so drunk he dunked his bosss head down the toilet. Unsurprisingly, he was fired the very next day.
