Cold and cloudy. The perfect signals for welcoming Christmas for my Christian colleagues here. We don’t have snow here in Bali but at least the cold from the rain still works.
It will be my third years celebrating Christmas with the team. Last year, I set the Christmas tree at TC’s room. This year was done by Jenny and she put it in the living area downstairs. Though I don’t celebrate Christmas, I could feel the spirit of it from the Christmas tree and of course from all of my colleagues.
VF Christmas Tree. I am sure this tree will make my colleagues homesick.Some of my friends are expatriates, some of them are from out of the cities in Indonesia and some of them will spend Christmas here, away from their family. And as a tradition, we always hold a special Christmas Lunch or Dinner and have a gift exchange, so that all of my Christian friends will not feel alone and still can celebrate the Christmas.
Two years ago, we played Secret Santa. So there was one person who became the coordinator. She/he would choose randomly who would be the Secret Santa for whose. The coordinator informed us (the Secret Sant) the person that would receive the gift one by one in secret. But we weren’t informed who was our Secret Santa. Then, everyone has to write the clues of the Christmas gift that they want. So all the Secret Santa will know and prepare the gift. When the Secret Santa wrapped the gift, he/she should label it with the recipient’s name but didn’t indicate whom the present was from then put it under the Christmas tree in secret. On the D-day, a week before Christmas, we would have found all the gifts under the Christmas tree and took one with our name. I got two presents from Jolien at that time.
Our blinking Christmas tree. Please excuse the colourful sandals there. They are supposed to be inside the shoe rack.But last year, we didn’t do it as it was too late and we didn’t have enough time to prepare. So we decided to just exchange the gift at Christmas dinner. The rule was the gift must be not more than IDR 80,000. It was so fun as we had to collect all the gifts and everyone had to take one randomly. I got a nice bag from Sarah.
For this year, we have a special committee who will arrange the Christmas Dinner and do the gift exchange. The date hasn’t been decided yet, but the rules of the gift have been announced today.
😃 Each gift is between 50 – 100K
😃 Random (take numbers)
😃 Please wrap it nicely and prettily
Alright! I’m so excited! I have something in my mind about the gift. I’m planning to buy it this weekend. I think the Christmas Dinner will be done around 19th – 21st December.
How’s the Christmas celebration in your office?
Update
The team who arrange the Christmas dinner and the gift exchange, also make “Sweet Santa”. There are some paper bags under the Christmas tree with our nicknames. We are free to choose which bag(s) we want to fill, everyone can give anything (that could fit in the bag) to anyone (not just one person but as many as you can/want).
The paper bags under the Christmas tree. They are not only for everyone in Bali office but also for the team in the Singapore office. Everyone can be the “Sweet Santa” for anyone.
The paper bags with our initials. Mine is MN.The rules are nothing fancy and we can fill with something small (sweets/candies/sweet words, such as a card, notes, etc.). The team has just put the bags this morning and they will be there until 19 December before the Christmas dinner. No one is allowed to open the bag before dinner.
The rules and sticky note if we want to write something.We also still have to bring the gift that we will exchange later. It also has been decided that we are going to have the Christmas dinner at Villa Lisa. The menu also has been decided but it will be a surprise. Last two years, we had Sushi for Christmas Lunch at the office and Italian Pizza from Luigi’s for last year. I hope we will have a new menu this year!!! You know what, after having Christmas lunch with Sushi last two years, I couldn’t eat Sushi for months!
The Christmas arrangement is sooo sweet! It is nice to see everyone is excited about it!
mawmaw mawar 