Here are our top 5 answers to December’s question of the Month.

1. We used to do the whole big Christmas party and played games. One year an employee wrote a poem, “Merry Christmas to all, wherever you roam, you get us all drunk and you send us on home.” After that year we stopped the offsite parties. Now we do a Christmas dinner throughout the day (to accommodate three shifts) and lengthen the lunch hour on each. We also have an ugly sweater contest.
2. We do a Christmas party. We did it the first few years on site and played the dice game. People wanted something different, so we went off site.  The problem with that is we don’t get 100% participation.  Now we have an employment engagement group that figures out what we’ll do for the holidays.
3. We’re doing an open house for my company and my husband’s company (we’re located in the same building). After that we take all our employees to House of Pizza to play Bingo and then do a group tour of the city lights.
4. As part of the holiday celebration, I buy a whole bunch of cool electronics on cyber Monday and hold drawings for them close to Christmas.  I walk around and give out turkeys to everyone. We also go out to dinner and allow employees to bring a guest (In the summer we have a party and encourage employees to bring their children).
5. I do cash bonuses and write a personal note to every employee.