It’s 2025—a new year for making resolutions and embracing growth. But before you tackle these goals, I want you to dream with me. Let’s go to 10ish months from now when bosses of large and small companies alike begin preparation for corporate holiday parties. Yes, we just passed this season, but I want to share what a company I work for has been doing annually for their Christmas party. And I want to share it now out of generosity, for you’ll likely want to borrow the idea for your next holiday shindig.
I work part-time as a report writer for a small environmental firm in the oil and gas sector. Every Christmas, to kick off the holiday break, all staff members, including employers, make their way across the city to a humble curling rink called the Shamrock—a clever name with a nod to the sport’s namesake stones. Here, they gather in teams and hit the ice to begin a multi-game curling tournament.
Seems simple enough, but what makes this event special is the personable and hilarious happenings that take place in the lead-up and throughout.
First, there’s the battle for Golden Tickets. These tickets, while not inviting you to an all-you-can-eat chocolate factory, serve as a form of immunity (hello Survivor watchers). Earned through winning trivia, participating in Hot Ones challenges, or other such activities, Golden Tickets allow the holder to place a star player on their team or, for sabotage, move a star player off another team. As many only ever curl at the Christmas party, or for staff members like me who had never played before, a Golden Ticket could make or break your team’s success.
The coworkers in charge of these lead-up events, especially our power-woman of a safety officer who orchestrated all of these seamlessly with the main event, put personalized efforts into making them fun and inclusive. For example, if someone wasn’t able to be in the office for a trivia event, they had an online option. One coworker even set up watch parties for the classic Christmas movies that were to be one of the trivia themes. In doing this, some of them even disqualified themselves from a Golden Ticket win.
This brings me to the draw. The draw, conducted over a lunch hour in the office, involves all staff and is what determines the teams for the curling tournament. Assembled by assigning skips (those actually versed in curling) as captains and fishing the rest of the names out of a hat, the teams remain randomized each year to keep them competitively equal. There are, of course, those who ride their competitive nature strong and have been known to bribe their way into a stacked team— I may or may not have been traded off a team for a 6-pack of craft beer—but it’s all part of the fun.
Once teams are established, a hush spreads over the office as teammates collude in whispers about what their costumes could be. That’s right. Costumes. Tournaments can be uninviting if you’re not the competitive or athletic type. Knowing that there can only be one tournament winner, this office has devised two alternate manners of winning. One is through the toilet bowl—a final game between the teams with the least wins in the tournament. The other is through the costume contest. So, if you’re a team with questionable curling skills, you can choose to pour your efforts into the costume contest.
This year’s costumes did not disappoint. One team handcrafted themselves into Sim characters, another turned themselves into Christmas presents, and another kept to the sports theme and dressed themselves to look like some of the most popular athletes from the 2024 Summer Olympics: the Turkish pistol shooter, the Australian breakdancer, and the French pole vaulter—PVC pole positioned at the junk included.
Though the competition was fierce, I am proud to say that the team I belonged to won the contest with Grinch-inspired outfits. The tallest of us was Max, our skip was decked in a very convincing Grinch outfit, and the two of us girls were Whos. I believe it was our obvious effort on our hair that snagged us the win.
Taking my first crouch at the hack (what you push off from to curl), decked in Whoville attire.
A woman with decorative hair and wearing a long, red sweater crouches low at the hack on a curling sheet. She holds a yellow curling rock in her right hand and a balance tool in her left.
After the sporting and costuming, the staff enjoys a catered buffet supper in the rink’s upstairs lounge; and with perogies included, you can bet supper was enjoyed by all.
What follows is an enjoyable half hour of raffle draws. For simply attending and remaining at the Christmas party, each staff member is given a raffle ticket. These tickets offer everyone a chance to win one of a dozen prizes.
This part of the evening is special as it showcases the good relationships maintained between the company and their vendors and clients. Due to the company’s size, many clients and vendors know multiple staff members and are recognized when they step into the office. Phone calls are personable, and presents are often hand-delivered. A lounge table stacked with gift baskets, appliances, and other desired goods is a direct result of these friendly partnerships.
Sadly, neither my husband nor I won any raffles, but watching others win was still enjoyable.
Cheering each other on for raffles is one way to feel staff cohesion, but the best team-building activity of the night was probably speed darts, courtesy of the curling rink’s two dart boards. With all participants divided into two teams, the goal was to hit every number around the board in successive order. Once someone got their dart in space 1, we moved on to space 2, then 3, then 4, and so forth until the first team hit all the numbers and successfully hit the bullseye to win. It was a blast, though minorly dangerous. I highly suggest finding dart boards on opposite walls.
The Christmas party capped off with casual visiting and a little dancing when a song hit just right. A full-day event spent with coworkers was as enjoyable as if spent with friends. I look forward to doing this again.
So, with the holiday season approaching us in 11 months, you now have a head start on what to do: book a local curling rink, have some fun with your coworkers, and challenge yourself to make the most of learning new activities.
Stephanie Morris is a transcriptionist and writer based in Alberta, Canada. She is a wife, mom of two, and owner of writing services company, Words & S’mores. As a fancier of history and literature, she aspires to blend the two in fiction and nonfiction pieces. To follow Stephanie’s writing adventures, find her at @words.and.smores on Instagram or visit her website wordsandsmores.square.site.
