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[Gluten]

If it's a potluck and you have strict dietary needs, you can handle them by bringing food that you can eat. In a restaurant, you can be victimized by the servers' lack of knowledge about what's in the food.

[%sig%]

[anon]

I haven't experienced this from the tt faculty perspective, but from the grad student, post doc, and adjunct perspective.  I've always thought that a holiday party like this is more about socializing and spending some relaxed time with your colleagues, than it is about the food.  Sometimes the food is great and sometimes it sucks, but who cares?  Nobody is forcing you to eat something that you don't like.  If you have strict dietary needs, then bring something you know you can eat, and then go home and have dinner later.  And if you can't cook, like the original poster, there are still plenty of other things that you could bring, as suggested by the various responses to this message.  Personally, I never would have attended a sit down meal or paid for a catered event.

And PS- remember that not everyone celebrates Christmas!!!!  Unless you can be assured that all faculty, staff, postdocs and students who might attend the party are indeed Christian, please refrain from singing Christmas carrols.

[Here we go again]

" remember that not everyone celebrates Christmas!!!! Unless you can be assured that all faculty, staff, postdocs and students who might attend the party are indeed Christian, please refrain from singing Christmas carrols."

Why?  Will non-Christians be offended by Christmas carols?

This is ridiculous.  The concept of a celebratory party at this time of year at your place of work is assumed to be for Christmas.  Not Hanukkah, not Kwanza (sp).  If someone gets offended by our singing Christmas songs, wow!  If they want to sing Dreidle, Dreidle, they are welcome to, however.  I won't be offended.  I will even join in.  But to expect no one to sing, because maybe not everyone is Christian, ugh!    Less p.c. for me, please!

[slac vap]

Do faculty, staff, and students actually sing Christmas carols at a potluck luncheon in a workplace?  In what kind of Currier and Ives world does this happen?  Forget whether it's P.C. or not- just who would be goofy enough to get this ball rolling?  I am assuming no alcohol at these luncheons, so I can't for the life of me figure out how such a thing would get initiated.  If I would have started singing anything at such a function, my peers would have looked away and pretended not to hear me.  But, perhaps as they say, different strokes...

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[Fiona]

The thought of having my colleagues sing Xmas carols at a midday lunch is either hilarious or horrifying.

Anyhow, they don't do it.

But I agree that Christmas is a Christian holiday and that all should be sensitive to the fact that Jews, Muslims, and others don't celebrate it. That's why our December department party is a "holiday party," not a Christmas party.

I like Saturnalia myself.

[%sig%]

[slac vap]

Ah, Fiona- you take me back!!  My high school classics teacher hosted a Saturnalia party at her home every holiday season.  She was truly a joy and I appreciate the prompt to think of her!  Maybe I'll send her a note...

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[Fiona]

Do send her mistletoe, in honor of the Druids.

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[melba]

"Sometimes the food is great and sometimes it sucks, but who cares?"

Anon is right.

Potluck means just that--sometimes you're in luck, sometimes it sucks. I'll never forget the summer potluck I went to that ended up being all meat and dessert (and me being vegetarian). But as I type, I'm digesting lunch from an exceptionally good departmental potluck.

To the original poster:

Cups, spoons, plates, etc. are necessary at a potluck. Someone has to bring them. Don't feel bad about this being your contribution. (And I speak from experience. I remember a potluck recently where no one brought any spoons or forks. Kind of awkward!)

A great no cook option is to buy a platter-sized plastic serving container with divided sections (and a lid). Then for a potluck you just buy a few jars of olives, pickles, baby carrots, little tomatoes (or whatever goodies), fill up the sections, and it's ready to go.

Another solution is to learn to cook one really good thing and make it your regular for all potlucks. Gets rid of the angst of having to decide.

[not a Christian]

Here we go again wrote:

> Why?  Will non-Christians be offended by Christmas carols?
>
> This is ridiculous.  The concept of a celebratory party at this
> time of year at your place of work is assumed to be for
> Christmas.  Not Hanukkah, not Kwanza (sp).  If someone gets
> offended by our singing Christmas songs, wow!  If they want to
> sing Dreidle, Dreidle, they are welcome to, however.  I won't
> be offended.  I will even join in.  But to expect no one to
> sing, because maybe not everyone is Christian, ugh!    Less
> p.c. for me, please!

It's 2005. America is a diverse place. I realize you're part of the majority religion, but if you have a "Christmas" party, at least some of your co-workers will feel uncomfortable and excluded. Having a "holiday" party is a simple, easy way to make everyone feel included. Why wouldn't you do it?

[%sig%]

[Here we go again]

Actually, in my department of 15+ faculty, no one is something other than Christian.  And this happens to be a state university.  So we can & do call it a "Christmas" party.  Yes, I do live in a rural area...

But my original point, at least part of it, was that just because there are (usually) exceptions to the rule of Christianity, why does that mean that no one gets to express their religion's holiday spirit ?  I would guess that a department with one quarter Jews, one quarter Muslim, one quarter Christian & one quarter 'other'  (seems unusually diverse) could muster up enough holiday spirit not to freak out when someone would refer to it as a Christmas party, or when someone starting singing some Christmas song (most of which are COMPLETELY a-Christian, nowadays, like Santa songs).    Like I also said, I would not mind singing others' songs as well.  

But Christianity is the dominant framework, especially for parties this time of year.  When I lived in upstate New York, I never heard of any of my Jewish friends having a Hanukkah party for work, play, or otherwise.  Feel free to correct me.  If I were living in a place where Christianity were not the majority religion, I would expect there to perhaps be parties at the times of year for other religions.  I guess I'm just saying: "when in Rome..."

This does beg the question of whether anyone would sing such songs at a party.  They probably wouldn't; you & others are right.  Non-Christians, does it bother you when there is a "Christmas" party scheduled (assuming you don't have to sing!),?

Maybe I'm just blissfully cocooned in a place where the majority fits me.  Yea!

[anon]

The "Christmas carrols" were probably in reference to "why wait for someone else"'s comments above.

[not a christian]

Some Jews do have Hanukkah parties, but they wouldn't have them at work unless some diversity committee decided to have "ethnic/religious festival" week.

I'm uncomfortable with "Christmas" parties, but you don't have to be a Jew or Muslim to feel that way. Years ago when I worked in a state office, my supervisor asked if I'd mind a Christmas tree in our work area. She asked me because I'm a member of a minority religion, but I opposed it because I'm an atheist and didn't think it belonged in a state government building. The one coworker who agreed with me was a guy in training to become a Lutheran minister; he didn't think religion belonged in our office either. In the end, the tree, Santa decorations, etc., won out because everyone else claimed it "wasn't religious," which begs the question, why Christmas in the first place? On second thought, I guess they won because they were the majority.

"When in Rome" implies that people should follow national custom. But I see celebrating Christmas as a religious custom, not a national custom. If it is, I'm in the wrong country.

[%sig%]

[anon123]

Christmas Party? Holiday Party?

At my school, the faculty view it as the "Yeay - It's the End of Term" Party!  

Why on earth would you need another reason to celebrate?

[It's over!]

anon123 wrote:

> Christmas Party? Holiday Party?
>
> At my school, the faculty view it as the "Yeay - It's the End
> of Term" Party!  
>
> Why on earth would you need another reason to celebrate?


Hear-Hear!  Party on dudes.

[majority rules]

Ah yes, the tyranny of the majority: our Christian friend writes:

"But Christianity is the dominant framework, especially for parties this time of year. When I lived in upstate New York, I never heard of any of my Jewish friends having a Hanukkah party for work, play, or otherwise. Feel free to correct me. If I were living in a place where Christianity were not the majority religion, I would expect there to perhaps be parties at the times of year for other religions. I guess I'm just saying: "when in Rome..."

This does beg the question of whether anyone would sing such songs at a party. They probably wouldn't; you & others are right. Non-Christians, does it bother you when there is a "Christmas" party scheduled (assuming you don't have to sing!),?

Maybe I'm just blissfully cocooned in a place where the majority fits me. Yea!"

I would say you are, if not cocooned, then certainly, at best, insulated; and maybe the reason you never heard of Jewish people giving Hanukkah parties is that Jewish people would never be so rude or arrogant as to try to impose their customs on others, AHEM, or just blithely assume a majority privilege of shoving their junk down others' throats; "when in Rome" makes sense as an excuse, but let me tell you, this atheist finds your Christian "Rome" to be an utterly vile and horrid place, antithetical to whatever is good in this nation, and increasingly so. Yes, it does bother me when arrogant, superstitious people try to impose their beliefs on others in a State university setting. It bothers me a LOT. And just because many of us who feel the same way do not speak out about it, don't mistake how infuriated we are increasingly getting.

Go worship your wierd S&M fantasy scenes (jesus on the cross, fetishing suffering etc etc) and your bizarre miraculous nativity and virgin birth nonsense (oh yeah, virgin births, baby saviors, ummhumm) on your own time. But puhLEEZ don't inflict it in a public setting.