Lovely weather for a sleighride together.....

Jez

Hi All,
Hoping you can weigh in on this one. We are very cautious in hosting our annual holiday party to stay away from any references to Christmas. (very sensitive topic here). This year our theme is the 2003 "Snow Ball" complete with snowflake decorations, centerpieces, and we are even making it "snow" in the building. (I'd tell you how, but I'd be getting into way too much detail.) Anyway, there are a few winter songs we thought would be festive to play during these festivities. Namely, "Let it Snow", "Winter Wonderland" and "Sleigh Ride". Not one of these songs mentions anything about Christmas. Is it appropriate to play these songs? If not, why?

Thanks in advance and I realize that there are much "weightier" issues to deal with, but this is one that I'd appreciate my HR colleagues' advice on.

Whatever

Hate to sound flippant, but this is getting ridiculous. It is winter in NJ no matter the religion. There is nothing wrong with any of these songs. I would even add Frosty the Snowman.
This past weekend, I went to holiday party for another company. They tried to make it as inclusive as possible. They played White Christmas. They played a Kwanzaa song. The dances included the Irish jig, the hora, the tarentella, the theme from Zorba the Greek. the laughter was contagious. It was one of the most joyous parties I have ever been to.

Don D

Would you even be having this party if it were not for Christmas? Do you feel compelled to simply change the name of the party for political correctness? Do you have a plan for keeping the snow out of the record player?

System

Why not ask for input from a couple of non-Christian employees? But avoid the whiners.

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

ray a

Jez, no offense to you, I'm sure you have genuine concerns. But, when we get to the point of questioning the validity of using innocuous songs such as the ones you list, we are getting ridiculous. I still believe the Christmas season has become extremely secularized and your songs are examples of that. Use them, and throw in the hora in honor of our Jewish friends during Hanakkuh.

Jez

Trust me - I know it sounds ridiculous, but two years ago at the end of year all staff meeting, the President arranged for a visit from "Santa", and from the reaction of some staff, you would have thought that we had agreed to public lynchings in the cafeteria. Ridiculous, I know but for some reason, EVERYTHING gets scrutinized over the holidays.

Thanks for weighing in.

ray a

Every year we have a Santa Day in early December. Just had it this past Sunday, postponed from Saturday because of the snow. One of our ee's dresses up as Santa and another as Mrs. Claus. The ee's bring their kids to sit on Santa's lap, get their picture taken and receive a gift. Great fun. It's also an open house so ee's can show off where they work. Even our 2 Moslim ee's bring their kids and join in. Haven't had a complaint yet.

FHR

Jez, take a look at the "oldie but goodie" thread in the har har section. I think it was posted last week. You will get a glimpse of your future x:D

mrbill

For the Life of me, I cannot understand why the word "Christmas" is coming under such attack.

Play 'Jersey Girl' by Bruce, "since down the shore everything's alright"

Bruce Springsteen makes folks proud to say they are from New Jersey.

DeidreFR5

This is too late for this year, but... Back during the Y2K scare, our bank moved the "holiday" party to January (everyone was working 24/7 awaiting the disaster that never came, no one was festive, etc.) As it turned out, everyone loved it. It was past the rush of "the season" and didn't complete with any other parties, etc. We now plan it for January and call it our "Winter Gala". We have some type of theme centering around winter. This year it is snowflakes - you really don't need too solid of a theme. One year we did sledding and had an old fashioned sleigh for pictures.