Poshpaws

I have to ask..(unless you are married to an American) how did you lot get here with temp jobs etc?

Taffyles

Hubby's firm does quite well- Christmas dinner, generous gift certificates and various gifts from business associates- they also have a Christmas brunch on the last day and best of all the place shuts down for a week! I on the other hand get a $50 American Express gift certificate and have to work Christmas night No party nothing....and nothing like the 'works do's' and Christmas bonuses in UK.

RoB1833

I'm married to an american.....

Yosser

I have been here 4 years never heard of a care package, but seriously I'm fine maybe donate one to a local charity of something!

Thats something we all need to do, even our local Starbucks is collecting toys for kids in need, I going to drop a few pressies off at the weekend, my brother-in-law (the loaded one) has through his company adopted a family (can't remember the proper title) for xmas gifts this year he is buying each child $200 of toys, the thing is theres 7 of the buggers!.

RChappo

I got a poinsetta plant as a company gift (this is my first working Xmas in the US) ...great! I went to my wifes workplaces Xmas do last year and it's all so bloody formal...not many people seem to let there hair down much over here. I get no pay for the 2 days I have to take off at Xmas either.
When I told my American co workers about my last Xmas bonus in the UK (about 1500 quid) they were amazed!

dgsyd1

I've been making the people at work jealous by telling them that in the UK most companies shut down on Christmas Eve and don't open again until January 2. Certainly makes Christmas a lot more fun than having to go back to work on Boxing Day.

kazzuk

This is our first Christmas, next year we are booking flights to the UK for when we break up and are not returning until the New Year. As much as we love living here, it just isn't the same at Christmas time, we are already looking forward to seeing family, having real belly laughing festive fun, January sales - that really are sales and as my husband pointed out - loads of matches over the Christmas and New Year and a couple of curries in between.

RoB1833

Okay, okay...... don't rub it in, you lucky so and so!!!

snorkmaiden

I imagine a lot of it is more to do with who you work for rather than what country you are in. At the last company my husband worked for we got a meal and free bar for the Christmas do for the first couple of years, last year, they were so broke we hadn't been paid for two months by Christmas.

This year we had a fantastic Christmas party at the new company, we got a computer from them and a bonus. Really made our Christmas, but it was the first really decent thing we've ever got from any of my hubby's employers. In the game industry these days, particulary in the UK, you are just lucky to be getting paid at all.

mrsm

It's very festive at my job. I'm working in a school, the classrooms are decorated for Hanukah, Kwanzaa & Christmas, you can't move for Poinsettia plants everywhere & the teachers are all wearing the Christmas motif clothes. I only started there last Thursday so I declined the invite to the piss-up they had on the Friday night, they all got paralytic apparently. There is food everywhere, biscuits & chocolates etc in the offices and staff room, the teachers eat all day even while teaching, while the poor kids slave over their desks. Not me though, I don't think it's fair on the kids, but Christmas holidays start on Friday for two weeks - It's a great job!

Jan Alaska

I phoned into work this morning to be told that they held the Christmas party last week as one of my co-workers has to go to jail starting tomorrow (19th) *sigh*
No idea if we're getting xmas bonuses / potted plants or whatever coz our shareholders are a bunch of mean arsed tightwads

Jan

Pimpbot

Well, we had the works dinner last night and it was wonderfull. I had both steak and lobster all washed down with some fine wine a few jack daniels and cokes and a shot that my wifes boss persuaded me to down called gropka(sp?). It was in a very large room at the Mortons steak house and the service and food was excellent. I even came home with a bottle of bubbly

Yosser

Lobster and steak....boxes of goodies sent over from the U.K....tax rebate checks from the U.K.

Your the type that falls into shit and comes up smelling of roses aren't ya Pimp

Pimpbot

Did I also tell ya that I have a Liverpool victoria savings bond type thingy maturing in febuary as well? Oh, and one in june. Who needs work

Jan Alaska

OK I take back what I said about tightwads .... I popped in to see if they would sort out my pay (even more GRRRRRR) and was told we all got a 10lb turkey for xmas. Ahhhh they do care :x

Jan