With December quite literally round the corner, there is now no excuse to say "it's too early!" and instead it's time to start decorating...or at least blowing the dust off the decorations at least.
In my office, the Christmas spirit has been ramping up in recent weeks with work meal planning well under way, and most recently, picking out names for the department Secret Santa. This all seems perfectly feasible considering how big the IT department is and how many sub-teams there are. However, today was the day when the Christmas feeling began in a big way in the form of tinsel, baubles, trees and even a mini nativity scene! Yes, that's right, everyone was buzzing with festive cheer as some of the sub teams in the office (including mine) got out the decs and put our interior design heads on and started tarting up our work areas with some quite humorous and very imaginative results.
The decorating trend started with the corporate apps team. From across the office, their team could be seen getting out their trees and tinsel and beginning to jazz their desks up by putting lights and tinsel around their computers and on the window sill. Lured in by the lights and festive commotion made by their decorating, everyone started congregating and in fact taking inspiration for their own festive antics and with that a trend started in the office.
Our team was next and me, Jasmine and Adam immediately took to the nearest shop on our lunch break to start our Christmassy makeover! First we started with Poundland checking out the decorations they had on offer. Nothing in there tickled our fancy so with that we ventured to QD where we soon found what we were looking for; tinsel and lights to put around our computers. We had all decorated our work area last year so already had Christmas decor "goals". When we got back to the office our attentions turned to decorating rather than working and soon we were arguing over who wanted the team's solitary tape roll!
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| My computer now looks all festive! |
Adam of course took a more.... resourceful approach to his decorating and decided to embrace the recycling trend and use crisp packets as garlands. With a little encouragement from me, his masterpiece was finished and it was a true visionary delight to behold- a vision in cheese and onion. A sort of "scratch and sniff" take on a Christmas decoration; you can see it, smell it and if you really felt inclined, taste it too! Some were more sceptical about the overall visual presentation but I thought it was inventive and it encourages innovation and of course, it's helpful to the environment too. Perfect for getting on the nice list. For all the haters: it's not easy being cheesy!
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| A vision in cheese and onion: A Tate Modern worthy masterpiece |
Later in the afternoon, there was some more commotion from the other half of our team on the other side of the office. It turned out that while we had all been fiddling with tape, tinsel and lights, they had been extremely busy putting up a tree, a Christmassy tapestry, a mini nativity scene and even inflatable Santa's, snowmen and reindeer. This had to be seen and once we'd gone over to take a closer look, we just couldn't help but get involved. We joined the action as a couple of "Merry Christmas" letter banners were going up and a very serious conundrum was being discussed- where on earth should it go? This question may be a familiar one with most of you. The placement of Christmas decorations for maximum effect is a subject that can cause rifts amongst even your most loved ones, so trying not to go completely nuts in the office over the placement of a bauble can be very hard to do indeed. However, the banners were soon up and it was time to have a closer look at the rest of the decorations- including that miniature nativity scene!
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| A mini Christmas classic: Chester's nativity scene |
No so long ago there was controversy over Gregg's replacing Jesus in their Christmas advert with a sausage roll. However, they've not yet seen a 3D printed Henry hoover as Jesus. Go on, Tweet about that, haters! But before you do, just take a sec to think about not only the thought that has gone into this scene, but also the humour too. Do you really want to quash some festive fun over a clever festive pun? I didn't think so. I thought this creation from my colleague, Chester, was ingenious and is by far my favourite Christmas creation in the office so far so hats off to you, Chester!
Another colleague, Anna kindly gave us on the other end of the office an inflatable Santa and snowman to accompany our "Merry Christmas" banner and other decorations which made our window sill look much more festive! By the time everyone was finished decorating, the mood seemed much more uplifted and relaxed. That's the one thing I love about the festive period; everyone is so much more relaxed and cheery.
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| Just need some reindeers and the collection will be complete |
As for being relaxed and cheery, lots of plans have been made in our team and in the whole department for Christmas celebrations including a whole department Secret Santa and buffet, and a sub team lunch with just our project team. All this socialising with my colleagues will make leaving at the end of the month a whole lot harder as I really like my team and the banter we all have and it's something I'll miss dearly. But I have 3 weeks left yet so my aim is to make the most of my last few weeks and have some fun making memories with my colleagues.
And on that very cheesy note, it's time for me to go! This weekend is a Mulie one in Aylesbury and we'll be going and discovering this year's Waddesdon Christmas lights extravaganza and no doubt some shopping too at some Christmas markets. I'll be back next week to tell you all about it, but for now that's all from me, have a lovely weekend!
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