Christmas Under the Sea
To celebrate the opening of our new warehouse our company threw a Christmas party for all our employees. The theme was 'Christmas under the Sea' and it was actually going to be held in the new warehouse. I wondered how the corporate party coordinator would be able to make it look more than just 'a decorated warehouse', but on the night of the party I was suitably impressed by the transformation.
My first indication that this was an 'upclass' party was the valet waiting to take my car when I drove into the car park. The first thing to catch my eye as I came through the door were bunches of cloth seaweed. Ingeniously, strips of green cloth had been twisted together into long pieces and stretched from the ceiling to the floor. Leaves of sheer iridescent green cloth had been tied around the seaweed “stems”.
I couldn't tell you where the giant coral, giant clam and ship wreck props came from, but I imagine the coordinator must have rented the items from a theatre prop warehouse. They were extremely effective in making the undersea theme come alive.
A pianist played Christmas music on a grand piano next to a 10 metre high Christmas tree. The tree was beautifully decorated with faux seaweed and seashell garlands and realistic sea life ornaments.
Each table was covered with pastel linens and the matching chair covers were tied with iridescent pink, green, peach and purple organza ribbon bows. The centrepieces looked like pieces of coral reef. A range of colourful plastic sea creatures and shells were glued onto the fake coral.
A dinner buffet took up a row of tables to one side of the dining area. The buffet had so many choices: roast goose, duck, and pork, potatoes, yams, mixed steamed vegetables and Yorkshire puddings with delicious onion gravy. It was so hard to decide; everything looked so good. An ice sculpture of a pair of leaping dolphins decorated the space on the table between the dinner buffet and the dessert buffet. There were a variety of festive desserts which included mince pies with brandy butter, traditional Christmas puddings and cream filled brandy snaps. An enormous Christmas cake stood in the centre of the buffet table, ornately iced and decorated. I was well and truly stuffed by the end of it all.
The bar was decorated like a giant clam and served beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks to the guests. During dinner, the pianist continued to play Christmas music, but I noticed a band was setting up on the stage in front of the Christmas tree.
After dinner, the Calypso band started playing festive island music and guests began dancing. A photographer strolled among the guests capturing candid shots. I danced for a while then chatted with friends until late. It was a great party and theme idea.
