Corporate Christmas

'Tis the season of discussing holiday traditions and activities.

So, my question to everyone is what do their corporate employers (we aren't all clergy or church staff here) do for holiday celebration:

• Does your company discourage "Chrsitmas" in favor of "Holiday" celebration?
• Does your company try to cover a variety of holidays, all explicitly?
• Does your company do a secular Christmas, emphasizing Santa and Elves?
• How much vacation time do you get around this holiday season?
• Are people allowed or encouraged to decorate their work area?
• Does your company celebrate Christmas with annual lay offs? (Ack!)
• Does your company have a Christmas/Holiday/End-Of-Year party?
• Does your company adopt a family and give gifts, or participate in some other kind of charitable program?
• Do you receive a Christmas Bonus?
  

I work for a Catholic healthcare provider, so we certainly celebrate Christmas here. We have advent services is each of our offices every Monday morning; as a department we adopt a family and buy gifts; we do "Secret Santa"; we have a Christmas reception/party.

We've been struck with the question of "do we have a Christmas party or not?" in this economic downturn? Some of our hospitals have made large cuts in staff this fall, luckily well before the holidays, but it still makes you wonder if we should have a Christmas party or not. Some of our hospitals and choosing to minimize that expense as much as possible with a small reception and donated treats. I'm always torn on this kind of question. We don't want to fire people just so the remaining can have more, do we? But we also want those who remain to feel secure and be productive. Tough management decisions.

But the real question of this post is corporate holiday traditions -- So, what are yours?