Callum: Hello, I'm Callum Robertson, and this is London Life. In the programme today
we’re going to hear about a special kind of Christmas party - not the kind you
have at home for friends - but what we call ‘the office Christmas party’ or, less
formally, ‘the office Christmas do’. Typically, these parties take place outside
the office, so as Christmas approaches, London’s bars, restaurants and
nightclubs are packed with groups of ‘colleagues’, or people who work
together, having fun. Here’s Jo, a frequent party goer, talking about her best
office Christmas party. She says it was a great way ‘to mix’ with colleagues and
‘do something that you wouldn’t normally do’. But what else made the party so
successful?
“The best Christmas party I went to was one where there was a disco. So we had some really
nice food and chatting with lots of people and lots of drinks, which often helps! But there was
a disco as well so everyone, once they’d relaxed, started dancing and it went on quite late and
it was just a really fun way to mix with your colleagues and do something that you wouldn’t
Callum: So for Jo, the magic ingredients for a good office party are dancing to disco
music, eating delicious food, talking informally or ‘chatting’, and drinking,
probably alcoholic drinks. Next, Vicki, who has just organised her office
Christmas party. She talks about one of the challenges of going out after work –
do you ‘dress up’ in your party clothes before you come to work in the
morning, or do you join ‘a crush’, a crowd, of people getting ‘changed’ into
their party clothes in ‘the loo’, the toilet, just before leaving the office?
Vicki Dur: 24”
“Often people like to dress up for their Christmas parties, especially if they’re going out of the
office to a bar or nightclub or something. They like to look nice and put their makeup on and
do their hair. And of course the question is do you do that in the morning and wear your party