Monday, December 19, 2011

Time to focus on Christmas...

The past month, I've been extremely busy with work holiday functions.  On top of my busy workload, I volunteered (yup... volunteered) to be the organizer for my department's (I.S) holiday luncheon, which saw about 300 attendees and although I had a committee to help me out, it was quite stressful ensuring that I was staying on top of the tasks that needed to get done to ensure the event went smoothly.  Then, because I'm just a glutton for punishment (sorta kidding...) I also volunteered to organize my company's Children's Christmas Party, which was held this past weekend.  My company has over 3000 employees, and when I first opened up registration back in October, I got an overwhelming response.  Most likely due to the fact that we had moved the party from on-site to off-site, to the new Children's Museum.  Originally the party was to be held on one Saturday evening but due to the number of expected attendees, the party had to be split into a Saturday and Sunday party.  Which meant I was there the entire weekend.  So what was I dealing with?  Ordering gifts for approx 650 kids, finding the best option for cookies and juice, ensuring we had volunteers to help us the two days... OH.. and staying on budget.  Which I'd like to add, was extremely tough, as the budget they provided me was the same budget they've used for the past few years, regardless of expected attendees counts.  Seriously?  It was tough to work with, and unfortunately I went over budget, but with the party spread over 2 days, there really wasn't much that I could do about that.  So I cut my costs wherever I could. 

Things I've learned from organizing this event:

You can't please everyone.  There will always be a few parents who have negative feedback.  Although it's quite clear that their kids are having a fun time, running around and laughing, they will still find something wrong.

Although you've notified that it's time for Santa to go on a break (poor guy has been sitting in his Santa suit and bear for over an hour now), parents will still try to squeeze into the line, even immediately after being notified that it was time for Santa's break.  It was like I never even said anything!

So once my department's holiday luncheon was over, all my focus switched to the Children's Christmas Party. Now that the party is over, all my focus is on getting ready for Christmas.  There are still gives to be purchased and wrapped.  My hope is that I will have this done by Wednesday, which will leave me with a couple days to relax before Christmas is actually here.

Today will be a tough day for me at work.  If not for the meetings to attend and work to get done, I would've taken a day off.  I definitely didn't sleep well the past couple nights.  The odd thing is, even after the party was done yesterday and everything turned out great, I was still having nightmares about not having enough gifts for the kids.  It kept me tossing and turning all night.

Ok, time for my morning coffee and muffin and to get this day started!

1 comment:

  1. You do need a break.

    I hope you did receive some good feedback. I think a lot of people are really clueless to what it takes to throw something(or carefully plan) something like this together. I hope you stop having the nightmares soon, that sounds like a really crappy one to have.

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