Holidays are generally festive occasions, and create a sense of cheer and goodwill amongst the general public. Companies with great culture inject that cheer to foster the same sense of goodwill among its employees.  We have several holiday traditions our employees look forward to year after year.

Our Favorite Holiday Traditions

At the Thanksgiving holiday, our employees bring their appetites and cooking skills to the Office Thanksgiving Potluck lunch. The Firm provides the meat, while the employees provide the rest of the fixings. Everyone sits down to eat together and enjoy each other’s company.

Our Christmas traditions include an Ugly Sweater Lunch and our firm Holiday Party. But the best part of the holiday party is the White Elephant Gift Exchange. Every employee is given the same amount of money and tasked with finding either a creative, useful, or hilarious gift.  Everyone draws numbers at the party, and selects their gift in order.  An employee can chose a yet-unwrapped gift, or steal one someone else has already opened.  However, once a gift is stolen twice, it is ‘dead’ and cannot be stolen again. This tradition is usually met with cheering, and some jeering, depending on the gift!

One our most competitive traditions is the Chili Cook Off, where we present awards for "best in show" for the best overall chili, "hotter than Hades" for the hottest chili, and "most likely to come from a can" for chili that well, isn't so great.  The "best in show" award includes a Stanley Cup-like trophy that is passed year to year to the winner.

Summer Bash is our biggest event, where we hand out the employees awards known as the "Klukies."

Foreign Holiday Traditions to Consider

We understand that other countries and religions have different and varied traditions during the holidays.  Here are a few of our favorites foreign holiday traditions:

Estonia- The holiday season in Estonia is often called Yuletide and runs from December 21st – January 6th. During this time, Estonians typically abstain from all but the most necessary work, and instead spend their time decorating villages, visiting friends and preparing lavish meals that symbolize having sufficient food in the coming year.

Czech Republic- During the cold winter, fruit is considered a luxury, and apples and pears are given as special gifts. The Christmas season is traditionally a time of fortune telling: families cut down branches form cherry or morello trees and place them in a warm corner in their homes in the hope that they will bloom by Christmas Eve, bringing good fortune in the coming year, and the shapes seen in apple cores are also thought to foretell major events of the next year. As with most countries, the holidays are a time for family and closeness – but those with out family are invited to join in their neighbor’s celebrations. But there must not be an odd number seated around a table, as odd numbers are thought to bring bad luck.

Denmark- Danish families dance around the Christmas tree singing carols before dinner begins with rice pudding. Hidden in the pudding is one whole almond, and the family member that finds it is awarded a prize – usually a small pig molded from marzipan. Children also set bowls of rice pudding in the attic on Christmas Eve to pacify the Nisse, a mischievous old man who dresses in grey pants, wooden shoes and a red pixie hat.

Holiday Traditions Build Company Culture

While informal and occasionally silly, we have found that our series of holiday traditions has been effective in building our law firm culture and increasing employee engagement.  See our post, What Makes an Ideal Work Environment for additional ideas on culture and core values.

The Culture Counts blog is a discussion of law firm culture and legal innovation, including topics such as effective leadership, employee engagement, workplace culture, ideal work environment, company core values, and workplace productivity.  

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About the Firm:

Klemchuk LLP is a litigation, intellectual property, transactional, and international business law firm dedicated to protecting innovation. The firm provides tailored legal solutions to industries including software, technology, retail, real estate, consumer goods, ecommerce, telecommunications, restaurant, energy, media, and professional services. The firm focuses on serving mid-market companies seeking long-term, value-added relationships with a law firm. Learn more about experiencing law practiced differently and our local counsel practice.

The firm publishes Intellectual Property Trends (latest developments in IP law), Conversations with Innovators (interviews with thought leaders), Leaders in Law (insights from law leaders), Culture Counts (thoughts on law firm culture and business), and Legal Insights (in-depth analysis of IP, litigation, and transactional law).