The office holiday party can be quite an opportunity to endanger your job and your relationship with your coworkers if you aren’t careful. The simple tips in this video can help you stay out of trouble at your company Christmas party, so you don’t have to apologize later.

One fun activity to incorporate into your office Christmas party is games. The possibilities are literally limitless if you’re creative. If you’re not so creative, here’s a web site that lists dozens of different office Christmas party games, ranging from trivia games and “musical chairs” type contests to ice breakers that help employees get to know each other a little better outside of the “work stuff.”

As with any party, there are several basic decisions that need to be made when you start planning your office Christmas party. If you take care of these basics before delving into the more specific details, you can make your party planning process a lot easier.

First, set your budget or find out what the budget for the party is. That way you’ll know exactly how much you can spend on food, decorations, renting a location, etc.

Then, you’ll need to set a date for the party. The last day before your workplace’s Christmas holidays could be a good choice, because many people will already be preoccupied thinking about the upcoming break. Or, if a lot of people from your office take vacation days surrounding the holiday, you might want to have it a week or two earlier so no one misses out.

After you have a date, you’ll need a location. A meeting or conference room at your workplace could be a good location, or you could rent a private room at a local restaurant. If you have a big house and a relatively small office, you might even want to consider hosting the party at your home. Having the party in an environment outside of the workplace tends to make it more relaxing too.

You’ll also need food and drinks. You could have a potluck if everyone is willing to make a dish, or you could have it catered. You can save money on catering if you pick up the food at the restaurant yourself, rather than having it delivered and served by their employees. If you are renting a room at a restaurant or other facility, you may be required to purchase their catering services.

Last but certainly not least are decorations. Christmas decorations are an important part of making the party festive. If you’re having the party at your workplace, you may want to consider putting up the decorations a few weeks early, to help get everyone into the holiday spirit. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on decorations. Thrift stores and discount can be good sources for cheap decorations. Keep it simple, yet festive.

If the idea of going to your Christmas office party stresses you out, you may find this video helpful. It offers tips and suggestions for interacting with others at your office party and making sure it’s a fun, positive experience for everyone.

If your boss came around in July and offered you an early Christmas bonus, you’d probably take it and run, right? But what if your boss expected you to donate all or most of your bonus to a non-profit organization in your area? That’s exactly what the CEO of a rural electric cooperative in Stillwater, Oklahoma did. This post from ChristmasBonuses.info explains why he wanted his employees to give back and whether or not the idea was well received.

Looking for something to spice up your office party? If everyone has a good sense of humor, you could host a gag gift exchange. All you have to do is draw names, and have each person buy a gag gift for the person whose name they drew. Keep it within good taste, of course, and don’t violate any company policies, since we wouldn’t want anyone to lose their job over a joke gift exchange. It’s definitely different from your average gift exchange, and should result in a lot of laughter. For more ideas on how to plan your gag gift exchange (and some good gift ideas), check out the Joke Gifts blog.

When it comes to gifts for coworkers, what could be more handy and useful than a desk organizer? (Although you might want to rethink giving one to your boss if he or she is particularly messy.) That was one of the organizational gift ideas offered last week at Santa’s Mall, a blog dedicated to finding great gift ideas for Santa and all of his helpers.

Although the Christmas gift exchange party game featured this week on the Magicalistic blog was originally intended for kids, I think it could also be fun at an office Christmas party. Have each attendee bring a gift that anyone would like and place them under the tree, then have a massive, crazy gift exchange with everyone “stealing” gifts left and right!

As many business struggle with whether or not to call their December party a “Christmas party” or a “Holiday party,” there has always been a bit of confusion over the use of the word “Xmas” in place of “Christmas.” Many assume that replacing Christ with the letter X is disrespectful, but according to the Christmas Myths blog, it actually is not.

If you’re looking for a unique way to get everyone into the holiday spirit at your office or business, why not try a Christmas tree decorating contest? Each department can decorate their own Christmas tree (mini or full size), then the trees will be judged. For the maximum fun, encourage everyone to be as creative as possible. You could even give each department a different theme and judge them based on how well they are able to pull it off. The stranger, the better.

This video shows a Christmas tree decorating contest at Big Idea Inc., the makers of the TV show VeggieTales.