Don’t party like it’s 1999

We’re about to immerse ourselves in the time of year known as THE DEAD OF WINTER. It’s an abrupt descent into the world of white and gray after the colorful hustle and bustle of the holiday party season. It’s a shock, after going from house party to museum party to corporate holiday party and straight into New Year’s Eve, never stopping for air.

I know we’re all supposed to enter into the New Year with commitments of abstinence from all that good cheer, but I can’t help but spend the first few weeks of January wondering why it all has to end so abruptly. It feels so desolate until Valentine’s Day rolls around.

To avoid the chilling of festivities in the new year, some companies are opting to throw their office holiday parties in January instead.

Kimberly Jones, president of Butler/Till communications agency, says the company always throws an in-office holiday party in December with potluck food and holiday movies on a big screen, but the company waits until January to throw a holiday celebration that includes spouses.

“The holidays are so stressful, the office party is often just one more event that puts people over the edge,” she says. Often, conflicts can occur with spouses having parties on the same nights.

When Butler/Till moved the party to January, attendance went up dramatically. They’ve even had venues willing to keep up their holiday decorations for their after-holiday holiday party.

Agathi Georgiou, owner of The Arbor Loft event space above Hart’s Grocers, says that many companies wait until January because they have more to spend at the beginning of the year. In fact, she says she’s hosting more parties this January than she hosted in December. She sums it up this way: “New year, new budget.”

Of course, there was a time long ago when corporate holiday parties knew no budgets. These over-the-top parties made the fictional ones in Bonfire of the Vanities look tame by comparison.

I will never forget my first holiday party as a young lawyer at my first law firm, an old, large, conservative firm based in Philadelphia. While I worked in the Washington, D.C., outpost, I was regaled with the stories about the legendary parties they would throw for a very famous client who became a princess in a small country in Europe (you figure it out). Everyone in the firm was required to come in white tie and tails and long evening gowns to pay tribute to—and to pay money to—the princess’ trust that benefited the needy. If you couldn’t afford the cost of the tux or gown, the firm paid for it.

By the time I got to the firm, we were suffering the after-effects of Black Monday (a recession a long time ago and far away). Despite many clients hovering on the brink of financial disaster, I was told to go shopping for a new cocktail dress, the gentleman were told to get a tuxedo, and off we all went, with spouses no less, to the botanical gardens in Philadelphia for a grand party in the arboretum. It was gorgeous, very ’80s glam, and very, very boring.

The next holiday party I attended was at a smaller, more entrepreneurial firm. The partners didn’t really like each other, but the associates were all great friends. So the party was a little like the Jets and the Sharks in West Side Story. It took place in the office, which is really a bad idea at a law firm for a whole host of reasons. Showing how hard you work was part of getting ahead, so when do you stop working and join the party? Also, there are way too many nooks and crannies like library carrels for bad things to happen between drunk adults.

One partner was so legendary in his lechery that he would constantly comment on the outfits of the women, with a lascivious stare, and drool, on his face. The holiday party gave him new things to stare at, with all those sequins and cleavage. One of my closest friends there wore a white angora sweater that would drive him mad. In hindsight, this wasn’t Mad Men quaint: It was downright predatory. If it had been a TV show, we would have called it Illegal Men.

One friend who did work in the actual crazy world of advertising in New York in the late ’80s told me of an epic corporate holiday party in Brooklyn for her very large agency in New York. Advertising is a very competitive world, and back then, the agencies would compete for business at all times, even at holiday parties. They would try to out-do each other with extravagant food and venues. One year, the party was on a boat commissioned to circle around Manhattan.

At her agency party, she was a new advertising account executive at the tender age of 23. But when the head honcho of the place got too drunk to walk, she was the one they picked to pour the guy into a cab and bring him home. Problem was, she had no idea where he lived, and he wasn’t talking—at least not coherently. She ended up rummaging through his wallet to find his address. The next day, he was at his desk first thing in the morning, looking absolutely fine.

Yet no matter how bad corporate parties used to be (and in some cases still are), trust me: If you cancel the holiday party altogether, employees notice. In her TED Talk on eliminating the pecking order at work, Margaret Heffernan cited a survey that said companies where people get to know each other personally have a greater return on investment. In another study specifically about holiday parties, over 75 percent of respondents reported better office friendships after parties.

So parties are good. The issue is making sure they’re done right. These days, with social media giving immediate exposure to events that would have once just gone down as company lore, companies have to balance having a corporate party that reflects and promotes their culture with ensuring that they don’t violate the law. To do this, many have parties-with-a-purpose versus parties-with-a-punch bowl.

Today’s corporate party culture is a far cry from when my husband threw a 21st birthday party for his assistant when his boss was out of town and got her a stripper who came dressed as an office supply guy. Just so you don’t judge only him, I’ll confess that I once contributed to hiring a stripper at a bridal shower for an associate in my first law firm.

So now it’s clear. Your corporate holiday party can be in December, January or on the Ides of March, as long as the idea is to celebrate your co-workers and to do it with good cheer and generosity of spirit. And, of course, no strippers. Cheers!