{"id":2616,"date":"2011-12-20T09:07:59","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T17:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.dlvr.it\/?p=2616"},"modified":"2026-04-06T14:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T21:34:39","slug":"traditions-celebrate-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dlvrit.com\/blog\/traditions-celebrate-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Traditions Celebrate Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Here in the Oakland offices of Dlvr.it<\/a>, we recently sat down to white board holiday traditions.\u00a0 Admittedly, the original intent of the meeting was much more mundane.\u00a0 Something about content marketing strategies.\u00a0 Sorry, Bill.\u00a0 I\u2019m in finance.\u00a0 It\u2019s nice to digress once in a while.\u00a0 The stories and memories made us smile.\u00a0 From garage startups to Fortune 500 environments.\u00a0 From the 1980\u2019s to current day.\u00a0\u00a0 From lack of budget to seemingly limitless budgets.\u00a0 Holiday parties and traditions run the gamut.<\/p>\n

In my past, company holiday parties have ranged from potluck white elephant gift exchanges to holiday winter wonderlands replete with fresh snow drifts and sit down luncheons for 200 catered by Wolfgang Puck.\u00a0 Rags to riches.\u00a0 1980\u2019s to 1990\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Anne, here in our office shared her experiences from a mid-sized dot.com, where the whole month of December was dedicated to holiday celebrations.\u00a0 Employees were divided into teams and had different activities to complete each day or each week.\u00a0 From cookie decorating, to a scavenger hunt, to cubicle decorating, to cocktail creating, each team worked together to earn points towards a prize announced right before the holiday break.\u00a0 To round out the experience, the company would adopt a family through Compass Family Services<\/a> in San Francisco.\u00a0 Each team was assigned to one family member and given their wish list.\u00a0 It was wonderful to watch all of the gifts fill up the conference room \u2013 every team always went overboard and guaranteed that each family member received what they asked and many surprises.<\/p>\n

This brings us full circle to 2011 and Pheedo<\/a> and Dlvr.it.\u00a0 It is difficult to coordinate schedules and celebrate together with our offices in Oakland, Portland, Chicago and New York.\u00a0 The Oakland office, a mixture of sales, marketing and finance, usually takes the holiday lead and jumps on the bus (actually, the biggest Suburban on the planet) for an adventure.\u00a0 We\u2019ve done catered private dinners with and without spouses, lunch in San Francisco for a Cirque de Soleil show followed by drinks and most recently, a quaint afternoon with lots of laughter at Lotsa Pasta<\/a> in Danville (subtle plug for a great family restaurant) followed by a stop for excellent coffee in Rockridge at Bica<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 It is rumored that our tech team frequently celebrates the holidays or any time of year really, at pubs, concert venues and bowling alleys of Portland.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine why the Oakland office has never been invited up for these events.\u00a0 Same goes for Chicago and New York.\u00a0 Expense reports do talk!<\/p>\n

You may ask, what was the outcome of the Dlvr.it team white boarding exercise?\u00a0 It may be obvious, but holiday traditions are just as important in companies as they are in families.\u00a0 Traditions celebrate employees.\u00a0 Whether it is an open bar karaoke night or month long activities, they are an important aspect of motivation, team building and productivity.\u00a0 How do you celebrate your employees?<\/p>\n

Family traditions also run the gamut.\u00a0 We took a quick poll of our employees most memorable ones.\u00a0 Enjoy!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Watch Polar Express with the kids on Christmas Eve.<\/li>\n
  2. Growing up, we had a big Italian feast \u2013 everything was homemade. Pasta, meatballs, cookies, breads, sausage and more.<\/li>\n
  3. On the first weekend in November, the entire family plus dog, hike up to the top of Moon Mountain to \u201creserve\u201d our tree.\u00a0 We march back up first weekend in December to cut down.\u00a0 Same time frame, year after year.<\/li>\n
  4. Pixies show up in early December and hide each night in different locations until Christmas day where they safely land on top of the tree.\u00a0 Kids go crazy every morning trying to locate them.<\/li>\n
  5. We leave shoes outside on December 6th <\/sup>for St. Nick.\u00a0 Miraculously, they are filled in the morning with goodies.<\/li>\n
  6. On New Year\u2019s Eve, my family plays Michigan Rummy<\/a>.\u00a0 Google it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    How do you celebrate your employees or families during the Holidays?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Here in the Oakland offices of Dlvr.it, we recently sat down to white board holiday traditions.\u00a0 Admittedly, the original intent of the meeting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-mentions"],"yoast_head":"\nTraditions Celebrate Employees -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here in the Oakland offices of Dlvr.it, we recently sat down to white board holiday traditions.\u00a0 Admittedly, the original intent of the meeting was much\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dlvrit.com\/blog\/traditions-celebrate-employees\/\" \/>\n<meta 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