Friday, December 19, 2008

Whatever you do, don't say Christmas

Party number three was "organized" by me. I put it that way, because there really wasn't a ton for me to organize. It was the Christmas party for our single participants, or more its the opposite of the family party. Its for participants who don't have small children.
My task was creating fliers, signing up participants, decorating the office and organizing how the party would actually flow.

I set up a fake Christmas tree. My supervisor picked up food from Boston Market. We had presents and gift cards and Christmas Music. I had the participants play a game. When they arrived they got a ribbon to pin to their shirt and a number for the gift give away.

The pins were for a game we played. The game was that I set a secret word: "Christmas." If you catch someone saying Christmas you get to take their pin. If you said Christmas you lost your pin. The person with the most pins at the end got an extra gift card. And luckily for me, they really got into the game. They spent the party tricking each other into saying it.

The participants wanted me to be able to play, so they decided I could say the word once, every time I had to explain it to latecomers. One man even tried to trick me into saying it as I right after I finished explaining the rules of the game.

The gift giving part of the party went pretty smoothly. We had some nice things to give out, and I think people were happy. The food was good, and there was a good amount of it. One of the associate caseworkers even brought his guitar in and sang Christmas carols. This created the funniest part of the party. Imagine singing the "Twelve Days of Christmas" with a room full of people refusing to say the word Christmas! It was great. The winner had about 12 pins displayed proudly in a column on his jacket by the end of the party.

But the best and most unexpected part for me, was that a couple of participants asked to say a few words. And they made us all cry, telling us how much Samaritan Ministry means to them and how thankful they are. It was a very sweet ending to a funny party.

2 comments:

Karolinka27 said...

I loved Christmas at Samaritan Ministry. What was so wonderful to me was how sincerely thankful people were to be alive and to be able to celebrate. Sure they were happy to have good food and some small gifts but it was more than these things--it was about celebrating what you have. And I think what made it a hoot for me and clearly for you too Char is the fact that there are a lot of characters who are quick to laugh and tease and it doesn't get much better than that. Thanks for capturing this so well. Love you!

CE

The MoM said...

Don't say "Christmas"...what fun for a group. See I knew that all your past training/experiences would come in handy. It's been wonderful to read about all the different parties so far. Should we put you in charge of one when you get home?
Love,
MoM