So we planned a Christmas party for our store.  Rather, we didn't plan it and chaos ensued.  The following is a list of what we did so that any Christmas party planners out there can feel much better about their own shindig, knowing it can't possibly be as bad as ours was.

The Attendance List:  Asked co-workers whether they would be coming and how many guests we should expect and then *stupid us* actually planned for that number.  The result being that, a week before the party after food and gifts and everything were in place for X number, it turned into Y number and everything in those categories failed, as you will later see.

The Gifts:  Knowing that we had 49 people planning to attend. we purchased 49 gifts - some of those being generic male or female for the part time or new staff and others being specifically shopped for presents for people.  We assigned a number to each gift and then made a list of who belonged to each number (to prevent package shaking and rooting).

The Food:  Catered for 49 people.  A brilliant decision by upper management to have roast beef and pork schnitzel with mashed potatoes and corn and a nice beef gravy.. for Christmas dinner.

The Location:  Leaving everything until mid-November, we were left with one of the only places in town not booked.  "The Moose Lodge"  Go figure, there was a reason it wasn't booked.

The Alcohol:  Of the 49 guests expected, 29 or so would be under the age of majority but alcohol would be served by a bartender at "The Moose Lodge".

The Result:  The 49 guests turned into 30 guests a week before the party, then on the night of the event, the 30 guests turned into 20 - meanwhile, another store had offered to pay half for their share of the party and would be joining us.  The night of the party, they had 50 guests and we had 20.  You would think this would work out well, with extra gifts for raffle or prizes EXCEPT we forgot to bring all the gifts to "The Moose Lodge"  and the other store got grabby and started just taking presents they wanted instead of following the number system to ensure that specific gifts were given to the appropriate people.  As for the food?  lol.. uhh it's 2007 - you have any idea how many people do not eat meat, specifically red meat?  Gogo no turkey for xmas!  Good thing it was served in "The Moose Lodge" though, or everyone wouldn't have been so cold they could see their breath, and have spent their time huddled under the various mounted moose heads for warmth - classy eh?  And then the minors with their bags full of booze began to arrive, get trashed, the store slut, a 17yr old cashier who looks every bit of 25 starts dirty dancing with one of our managers (He's 62), he unbuttons his shirt and the other store leaves in disgust and sticks us with their portion of the bill!

    Whoooo go Christmas!  Feel better about your party now?  I would if I were you!