Christmas Party Ideas

ktwlpn, LPN · Nov 1, 2008

My wife (L&D Nurse) asked me if we could have a Christmas party at our house for staff at her hospital.
I was wondering if anyone has attened such a party where they had a great time because of some unique, fun thing they did, like playing a certain game or whatever....
I don't really want everyone to just sit there and look at each other .....boring. Why would the husbands want to go? Most of them really don't know each other.
Anyone have any total flop experiences or don't dues to share?
Thanks

Your wife "asked you" if she could throw a party? Hmmm-that's a whole 'nother thread...But I'll remain on topic because I'm just too tired for anything else. I am having our unit's party here this Xmas.I have gone to sites like Stupid.com and Baronbob.com for party favors.I got the paper cups that have animal and people noses on them,I got lots of wacky candy,pens and even Xmas toilet paper. Everyone will bring a wrapped gift- we'll number them and everyone will draw and get a gift.Then before they are opened we'll go around the room and each person can trade their gift with anyone they choose.Then after the gifts are open we'll trade again.That is too much fun... I do have some ideas for games and I'll be prepared if we need them but this crowd is pretty loose. There are a lot of good party planning sites on line with lots of fun games. You can get inexpensive decorations from sites like Oriental Trading Company. Husbands are not coming-they are just not interested-mine will probably hang in the basement.

babyktchr, BSN, RN · Nov 2, 2008

We have every holiday party at someone's house. It is more intimate and warm. We bring TONS of food (obscene amounts actually) and we end up just wandering around and chatting, laughing and eating. Husbands rarely attend, although a lot of them do know each other. We have really just made it a "staff" thing. We do try to have something that includes family/kids....such as getting together for a sight seeing for christmas lights, seeing santa etc.

I think it is nice that you are asking for suggestions to make it a good experience.

psalm, RN · Nov 2, 2008

Favors of wrapped candies in nonlatex exam gloves tied with a festive ribbon.

Ornament-making contest using items unique to medical and ob nursing. (ie. IV tubing, gloves, monitor strips, urine cup, etc).

Maybe Martha Stewart has some good ideas?

bagladyrn, RN · Nov 3, 2008

When having holiday parties for a unit at home I kind of like the Open House kind of setting. Have munchies on a buffet and set the hours so that both shifts can attend even if working. From like 5pm-9pm or so is good because even those working can drop in before or after shift.

Usually you don't need a lot of organized activity since people will mingle and chat, coming in and out. (As with any party putting the food on one side of the room and the drinks on the other facilitates this). You could have a "gag gift exchange" specifying $5 or less and lots of imagination. One thing I've found really funny is to see if anyone can remember all the words to "The Night Before Christmas". I started this on the unit one year, we got stuck, one girl called her husband, got his office involved, and we ended up with about 4 workplaces involved in this! (Try it - it's harder than you think!)

hiddencatRN, BSN, RN · Nov 3, 2008

Your wife "asked you" if she could throw a party? Hmmm-that's a whole 'nother thread...

Oh honestly. Having a ton of people over to the house for something that is going to be labor intensive has every reason to be a joint decision.

Anyway- if you're going to have enough people there you should play Mafia. It's a parlor game, and you have most of the people be villagers, a few people be mafia, and a stool pigeon. You need one person to run the game. The point of the game is to determine who is mafia and to vote them out (execute them) before they kill all the villagers. The leader can pass out cards to the players to let them know who is who (face cards for mafia, ace for the stool pigeon).

The game starts with an initial round of trying to decide who might be mafia. Once people seem decided, the leader takes a vote for who to execute as a suspected mafia member. Each cycle of the game ends in a night where everyone closes their eyes, and the game leader asks the mafia to open their eyes. They silently decide which villager to "kill", then close their eyes.

The leader then asks the stool pigeon to open his/her eyes and point to someone whose identify s/he'd like to know, and the leader nods yes or no to whether the person pointed to is mafia. Once this is done, the leader instructs everyone to open their eyes and says who was killed in the night.

People try again to determine who is mafia again, and another suspect is executed. Then it's night again and everyone closes their eyes. This goes on until all the mafia are dead or until there is an equal number of mafia and villagers. If the stool pigeon is killed early on, the leader still asks the stool pigeon to open their eyes when the time comes at night so as not to give away that the stool pigeon has been killed.

You can probably google game instructions that might make more sense that this, but the game is a blast, best played once folks are a little buzzed, and best when you have at least 8 people (although more is definitely better). The leader is the only one who really needs to know how to play the game well, as the leader talks everyone else through.

Mulan · Nov 3, 2008

Oh honestly. Having a ton of people over to the house for something that is going to be labor intensive has every reason to be a joint decision.

Totally agree.