What day is it when your boss tells you to dress up, drink champagne and dance around in front of your co-workers? The clue is the Santa hat on top of your head. For those of us working in the UK, you’re not allowed Christmas Day until you’ve had “Office Christmas Party Day”.
什么样的日子里老板会让你在同事面前盛装打扮，畅饮香槟，翩翩起舞呢？而你头顶的圣诞帽便预示着这一天的来临。对于我们这些在英国工作的人来说，不参加“办公室圣诞派对”，就不准过圣诞。
While Chinese companies are planning their Spring Festival gala to congratulate themselves on what has (hopefully) been a good Year of the Dragon, people in the UK are recovering from their office Christmas parties, which took place in early December.
当许多中国的公司正在策划春节联欢会，庆贺龙年佳绩（希望如此）之时，英国人刚刚从十二月初的办公室圣诞派对中回过神来。
There’s usually an “Awards Ceremony”, with typical prizes going to the “Office Clown”, “Most Annoying Laugh”, or (as I was once crowned) “Owner of Messiest Desk”.
通常会有一个“颁奖典礼”，开设“办公室小丑”，“最恼人之笑声”或“最乱办公桌主人”（我曾经获得过一次）等特别奖项。
Most companies also stage a traditional Christmas pantomime – a performance, usually of a well-known fairy tale, in which men play women and women play men. One of my first Christmas memories is of being forced to watch my father’s Christmas panto. The sight of him in a sparkly dress, pink high heels and a blonde wig has stayed with me forever.
同时，大多数公司还会献上一部传统的圣诞童话剧—通常是人们反串演绎童话名著。我对圣诞节的最初记忆是硬着头皮观看父亲出演的圣诞童话剧，看到他穿着亮片礼服，粉色高跟鞋，戴着金色的假发，这些记忆永远抹不去。
But it’s not just the hapless children of employees who often find the whole experience rather embarrassing. Even without plays and cross-dressing, everyone knows they will have to spend an evening with their colleagues and boss. A recent survey found that almost a third of British workers hate office Christmas parties. Even more, 70 percent, said they did not want to socialize with their co-workers.
然而，不仅仅只有那些倒霉的员工子女们会觉得整段经历羞愧难当。即使没有反串表演，所有人都清楚自己讲不得不与同事和老板共度良宵。最新的一项调查显示，几乎三分之一的英国职员痛恨办公室圣诞派对。甚至有百分之七十的人表示不想与同事进行社交活动。
As is normal in awkward circumstances, people turn to the (often free) alcohol on offer – and that’s when things start getting messy. According to a survey released this month, one in three employees at banking firms in London have “behaved inappropriately” with a colleague of the opposite sex at their office Christmas party because they were drunk.
正常情况下，当人们身陷尴尬之中时，会投向酒精的怀抱（通常这些都是免费的）——而这正是把事情搞砸的开始。根据12月份发布的一项调查显示，在伦敦的银行机构中，平均每三名员工，就有一个因为醉酒而对公司的异性同事“行为不当”。
Luckily for party-haters, things are changing. Many people now work over Christmas or New Year, although this didn’t stop employees of the Royal Court Theatre in London from staying up all night for their party.
幸好对于那些讨厌派对的人来说，事情正在发生转变。许多人选择在圣诞或新年加班，尽管这没能阻止伦敦皇家大剧院的员工通宵达旦地筹备他们的派对。
But even rich lawyers say the days of extravagant celebrations are over. According to a lawyer from Clifford Chance, the three-course meal and open bar at a private member’s club with a rooftop swimming pool was “fairly sedate”.
但是，即便是富有的律师们也纷纷表示奢侈的庆祝活动已经一去不返了。高伟绅律师事务所的一名律师称，在配有屋顶游泳池的私人俱乐部里，一顿三道菜的饭再加上免费酒吧，这些已经算是“相当庄重”了。
“Later on a few people tried to go swimming in the pool,” he said. “But I’d left by that point.”
“随后一些人会去泳池游泳，”他说，“而那时我就会选择离开。”
Still, smaller budgets won’t stop the office Christmas party from being a nightmare for many workers. It’s just as easy to embarrass yourself with cheap wine as it is with expensive champagne, and to cause enough shame to last until your first day back at work in 2013.
尽管如此，预算缩水无法阻止公司圣诞派对沦为员工噩梦。无论是廉价的葡萄酒还是昂贵的香槟，这些都能轻而易举地令你身陷难堪，而你的窘境将一直持续到新年开工之日。