Christmas at Work

For the past 17 Christmases I have worked in an office downtown. It's a renovated historical building that used to be a bakery, and it's loaded with character. In a couple months, we are moving out of it and into a new modern building in the suburbs, where we will become a more integrated part of the large corporation that bought our little company 10 years ago. It will be a little sad, but I think what I will miss most of all is our annual Christmas decorating party. Since 1992, on the first Friday of December, we have closed our office and gone out to lunch together, then come back and put up Christmas decorations all afternoon. Here is a shot of the front window, where we always put the tree:

The same old wreath has hung in the lobby every Christmas season for decades:


Our tacky little figurines will be boxed up and probably donated to charity come January.


Nearly every year, and for at least the past 12 or so years, I have been in charge of tree decorating. It's nothing fancy, but we always get a live tree and a few of us decorate it together.


I'm going to miss this tradition, but I'm hoping we will start new traditions in our new office, just as I will in my new home.