New Year activity for the team – Office Adventskalendar
I want to share the movement I organized, managed, and even embroidered for my colleagues when I was an Event & Office Manager.
At the end of 2018, I was a Happiness Manager and decided to make unique Christmas long-term gifts for all my teammates from Ukraine.
As there were 40 people in the Lviv office and ten people in the Kyiv office, I ordered approximately 50 red and green bags from Ukrainian brand Торбинкова Людинка. Those bags were about Christmas and New Year, so I wanted them to contain something in a Christmas style. The shop owner suggested we stick to red and green colors for the bags but only ordinary plain string for them. So, I had to ask my friend Natalia to help. She was an owner of a scrapbooking shop then, and it was apparent to support her and get needed string at her shop.
And then I started to make embroideries for everyone. I needed to produce approximately 50 names, one for the colleague. Why?
What was the idea?
I decided to make as many bags as colleagues we had and place those bags in the office. Each day before Christmas, I planned to put sweets or cookies in those bags. Yes, it means that those bags were in the office; they should still stay at the office could not take them home yet. And every morning my teammates had a chance to get some small presents. That’s why I call this idea an office Adventkalendar. ;)
On the 26th of December, we had a Christmas party with roasted turkey, pumpkin pies, and a lot of tasty food. And all those red bags with the socks specially knitted for us by grannies. Those grannies cooperated with the founder of Майстерня Мрії. You can see the photo below:
So, it was an excellent opportunity to support older people and present our team the authentic yet warm pairs of socks.
Our office Santa
But we didn’t just give those bags with socks to everyone. We asked one teammate Volodymyr Sveredyuk to wear Santa’s costume and put all bags in a big sack. Then he came to the room where we had the party, and one by one took the bags and read the loud name on each and gave some personal congratulation. Then the person, whose name was mentioned, stood up, came to the Santa and took their present.
Below you can see the collage with Santa, Volodya, and my ex-colleague and friend Oksana. We were two elves who set up the Christmas tree and organized the Secret Santa activity.
I still have my bag and used to buy some groceries. Love it!
P.S. By the way, I decided to treat the clients who visited us right before Christmas with the same presents. I gave them some Lviv chocolate, coffee beans, and postcards as they were from Norway. They could find those bags in their workplaces in our office with a short explanatory note. ;)
