Christmas office parties with a diverse workforce

[mids2019]

Work forces have a diverse range of religions within the workforce. In my role I now see that there is maybe a little.questioning of how to frame the Christmas do as Christmas is a festival originated by Christians and so may feel a little exclusive given we do not have a departmental organised Eid or Divali celebration. Should the office Christmas do be reframed as the end of year party slightly divorced from Christmas as a celebratory period? (The office do also brings question of whether an alcohol fee venue may be appropriate which can get a bit contentious.)

Much depends on whether it’s a paid for event or something the staff organise and pay for themselves. If the former then yes make it inclusive. Maybe put a few options out and get votes.
My workplace is very very diverse. Our party is voluntary and we have to organise and pay. The venue always has alcohol and plenty of the non drinkers attend. We do a pot luck Christmas lunch too.
Mind you we do celebrate Eid and Diwali and other festivals too. I think everyone just understands Christmas is the big one that everyone wants to go out for.

i think you seem to have forgotten that we live in a Christian country. Our King is head of the Church of England. It’s Christmas time, therefore it’s a blooming Christmas party! End of.

We celebrate lots of festivals at work including Diwali. You’ll just piss everyone off if you continue down this route.

I think you will find 99 per cent of people in the UK celebrate Christmas in some way, regardless of their religion or culture. Provided it isn't compulsory attendance I think you are ok.

@DojaPhat

Maybe. It is just that Christmas is a religious festival enjoyed by a mainly secular society. It might be good to have office parties on other religiously significant dates but the don't seem to be as common. I think it may be a little presumptuous to assume everyone wants the big office do and it should happen at Christmas.

I'd call it Winterval if I were you - so much more inclusive. It certainly got Birmingham City Council a lot of unwanted attention when they did.

You're overthinking it.

Christmas is as much a cultural festival as a religious one. I don't get the issue? It's not mandatory, and people of other faiths aren't going to be forcibly converted.
Just let people enjoy British traditions!

Also I don't get the need for alcohol free venues, why would it be inappropriate for adults to be in a place that serves alcohol? There will still be non alcoholic drinks available for anyone who wants them.

@Popsical20

True. We do have though a lot of non Christians in the country and I think there is a bit of an assumption that everyone wants to celebrate it (though the vast majority do in some way)

Oh ffs, just let us have some of our traditions. If people don't want to come to a Christmas party then they don't have to.

@ThisUsernameIsNotAvailablePlsTryAnother

True. I think as generations pass we have now divorced Christmas from religion to enlarge extent. So maybe the Christmas do is part of British work place culture and well.removed from religious significance?

@CampervanKween

I agree that peop me don't need to attend Christmas parties but if it is work place sanctioned doesn't it look like a bit of a snub not turning up?

But you hit the nail on the head when you said it's a Christian festival but it's celebrated by a secular society.
The office Christmas party is an established tradition and you don't need to look for offence where there is none.

I personally have declined to attend my work Christmas party for at least the last 10 years but not because I don't like Christmas, drinking or parties. I just don't like the office party vibe. I've gone to many departmental Christmas lunches but the office party isn't my thing. Anyone else who feels like that for whatever reason can decline to go, choose not to drink or arrange their own smaller celebration.

Your office (presumably) already acknowledges the holiday of Christmas by closing and paying the staff to be off for Christmas and Boxing and New Year's days.

What is the point of reframing the night out to avoid using the words used to name the day's off the staff are given?

It's exactly this. Christmas is a British tradition that almost everyone celebrates when I believe more than 50% of the UK are atheists on the last census (something like that anyway!).

We are truly rubbish at celebrating anything in this country. Don't take away or water down the one celebration that we are actually pretty good at and do properly!

You're showing your cultural ignorance, OP, just like all those whitesplainers in America who keep banging this drum even when non-American POC tell them they're idiots.

If you'd ever been to East Asia you'd see they love nothing better than decorating their malls with Christmas trees, baubles, lights and fake snow to celebrate Christmas in every country over there. Muslim Malaysia, Shinto Japan, Atheist China, Buddhist Thailand. I've been in all of them for Christmas and they love it. For them, it's nothing to do with the Christian religion, and erasing Christmas erases their cultural experience and reality, which is really ethnocentric of you.

It's literally telling people from other cultures they can't celebrate something because you think it's wrong and bad due to your own predominantly white cultural influences and understanding of the world.

And you're showing your ignorance of all the religions that came before Christianity. We've always had at least one celebration at that time of the year in NW Europe.

And lastly, most people are celebrating getting two bank holidays in a row. 🤷‍♀️

What and miss out on pouting for the Daily Mail in a three-page spread about unrecognisable Britain in 2023 where simply planning an Xmas office do could land you in prison for discrimination?!

I organise a large Xmas party. People are asked if they want to attend and register. It's an afternoon lunch. I have 25 halal dietary requirements. Lots of our Muslim staff attend and some bring their kids to a family party too. Its personal choice. We do acknowledge other festivals too but in a smaller scale.

This has happened at our diverse university department. Someone complained that calling it the Christmas party was not inclusive so now it’s called a Winter Social.

I do think it’s ridiculous because Christmas is now a cultural occasion in Britain and none of our party activities are religious. But that’s what’s happened.

I worked as a teacher in a very multicultural town. More than half of the children were Muslim, and a fair proportion of our staff were too.

We celebrated Christmas normally. Our Muslim parents sent us Christmas cards and gifts, came to our Christmas performances and sang along to Christmas songs and made Christmas decorations with the children. And our Muslim staff came to staff Christmas meals/events and joined in our secret Santa.

We always recognised Diwali and Eid in class, and families that celebrated got a card from us.

The only religions that I know of that are unable to celebrate Christmas are Judaism and Jehovah's witnesses. Our two JW staff were, however, happy to help the children with Christmas related activities. I don't recall whether they came to the staff Christmas event, but I'm guessing not. But they didn't resent us having it or expect anything to work around them.

I don't think it should be reframed, but attendance should be optional. I have Muslim friends who say that there has been an atmosphere when they've tried to opt out, particularly in smaller work places where they might be the only one. They should also do any parties outside of working hours.

I don't think Christmas has been very Christian for a long time in the UK.

It has become part of UK culture with the main components being food, family, parties etc. Not religion.

So I would say a works Christmas do is UK culture, rather than Christianity. After all, I don't see very much Christian about going out and getting pissed and snogging a married colleague.

We live in a Christian country...

Ah shit, I forgot to add presents and consumerism and stupid fucking music

There's no religious aspect anymore

Oh and I think if anything needs cancelling, it's religion.

YABR.

Are you also planning to cancel the public holidays associated with Christmas because of those (few) who don't celebrate at all? Let's also cancel all the Christmas markets and lights for fear of offending.