For the first two employers in my career, the company canceled the Christmas turkey tradition just as the Christmas season came around. Needless to say, I thought I was jinxed until as an MBA CoOp student I received a Christmas turkey – my first.
Many managers are tempted to eliminate the funding for the annual Christmas party, but the wise ones know that the tradition buys a lot of goodwill with employees and leads to higher morale and stronger cameraderie. Of course, having a Christmas party or not has to fit with the company's culture and condition. A firm that lays of 25% of the staff will not have a pleasant Christmas party, but it is better to still have one than to cancel that too.
