by The holiday season is a time for joy, celebration, and bonding with coworkers—or at least that’s the idea. But when it comes to work Christmas parties, things don’t always go as planned. Between too much eggnog, awkward encounters, and moments of sheer chaos, these gatherings can turn into a spectacle no one will ever forget.
From surprising reveals to downright shocking antics, these people took to Reddit to share the craziest things they’ve ever witnessed at a work holiday party. You won’t believe these wild stories!
Office Scandal
U/MasterPip: “Plant Manager got caught banging his personal assistant. They tried to bribe the girl who caught them to be quiet. She wouldn’t take it but said she wouldn’t say anything. They didn’t believe her and instead tried to blackmail her. So she got pissed and went to corporate and told them everything that was happening. Apparently there was a camera in the room they were banging in.
They fired the assistant and moved him to a different plant and demoted him. Guess he was more valuable. Funny thing is, if they had just let it be they would have been fine. Company doesn’t care if you date, they’ll even move you elsewhere comparable if there’s a conflict of interest. Just keep it outside of work.”
Foyer Incident
U/Tapeworm1979: “Had a big party in a posh hotel but it then came out that work had a 250 cleanup bill because someone took a s— in the foyer.
There were a few rumors as to who was the suspected culprit but no proof until one day a video appeared of the cctv footage of a colleague stumbling out of the party room, stopping, unzipping and just letting loose infront of horrified staff to shocked to stop him in time. It was also exactly who everyone expected it to be as well.”
Grand Reveal
U/merrillswingaway: “Had a party at the Peabody hotel in Orlando for all employees from all departments which was a lot. The only ‘crazy’ thing that happened was when two guys showed up dressed as women.
This was shocking to their coworkers and everyone who knew them. Tbh, they looked beautiful. I had no idea who they were but they sure made a grand entrance.”
Kindness Stolen
U/hawkssb04: “We played Yankee Swap. Fairly early in the game, one of our older, obnoxious, and rude employees unwrapped a homemade painting and made a joke along the lines of ‘I didn’t realize we were doing gag gifts. I’ll definitely try and get someone to take this thing that was probably grabbed out of a dumpster.’
I could see our very young office intern — who also happened to be one of the kindest and sweetest humans I’ve ever met — go red in the face, and she was clearly trying hard to hold back tears. Of course, the rude employee was clueless. Needless to say, I stole that painting later in the game and hung it up in my cubicle with pride, where it remained for several years before I changed jobs.”
Final Toast
U/mortyella: “My uncle was at a work Christmas party and had a stroke and eventually passed away. His last words were ‘I think I’m having a stroke’.
I never thought of it until now that there were people there (long dead now as this happened around 1980) that had a story of how someone died at the office Christmas party. (RIP Unkie, I love you! Too bad Aunt Ethel (his wife) turned out to be a b—-.)”
Dance Floor Drama
U/NeonRunaway: “One of the company executives ending up kissing a member of his sales team. While he was kissing her, another woman who was also in his team, grabbed the girl off of him (because she clearly liked him even though she had a boyfriend) and they had a fight in the middle of the dance floor.
The next day none of them were in the office. The girl who started the fight was told she either had to resign or be fired. She opted to resign out of embarrassment.”
Drunken Regrets
U/mtcwby: “Guy who was normally really nice always turned into a mean drunk and had too many. Insulted one of the older sales reps to his face in front of his wife. We were a very button down group and this went over very badly. Monday morning he’s sitting in my office despite not reporting to me ashamed as h— and I’m giving him the Dutch uncle advice because his whole management chain is pissed at him.
Basically told him he was a mean little drunk and that I advised he give up drinking because I had never seen such a Jekyll and Hyde transformation. Told him he needed to go apologize to everyone and mean it and especially the rep. He didn’t get fired but it was a close thing.”
CEO’s Hypocrisy
U/woodenman22: “In the first hour of the party, the CEO grabbed a microphone and lectured us all to not ‘get wasted and embarrass the company tonight’.
Four hours later, we watched him argue with his pregnant wife about which of them was going to drive since she was stone-cold sober and he was s—-faced. He got pulled over not 50 feet out of the restaurant parking lot and we all watched him get arrested for DUI while still wearing his blinking Santa hat.”
Holiday Chaos
U/Brizzle406: “I worked for Enterprise Car Rental in Southern California after college in the early 2000’s. They would rent out the Biltmore Los Angeles hotel and all the employees from San Diego and LA would go, thousands of people were at this party. We were in the main lobby of the hotel around 11pm and heard screaming.
Here comes some dude b— ass n—- sprinting through the lobby at full speed swerves and dives into the largest Christmas Tree they had in the lobby completely taking everything out! Gets up and runs towards the elevators. It was quite the scene, I’ll never forget it.”
Backseat Memories
U/CBizizzle: “Not my Christmas party, my future wifes work party that was held at a bar. We were dating at the time. We both were drinking rather heavily. At the end of the evening, we decided to duck out early and have a go in the backseat of my car. When we entered said car, the parking lot was packed, like cars parked all around.
A while later we exited the vehicle to a completely empty parking lot. Hopefully the fogged over windows obstructed the views of passers by. To this day she is mortified when I retell the story, and it’s been like 30 years.”
Privacy Breach
U/Hailifiknow: “When most people had left the party, the Executive Director of a non-profit used the conference room big screen to look up staff member profiles on a court case website.
This was done in front of everyone that was still there, and he thought it was just a funny joke. I heard about it after I had left. He was was later fired for a litany of other improprieties.”
Love Triangle
U/FumbleMyEndzone: “Guy #1 is in his late 30s. Guy #2 is in late 40s. The party always started before lunch time. Late afternoon Guy #1’s 22 year old girlfriend shows up, and she is an absolute 10. Guy #1 gets pissed off with everyone ogling his girlfriend and people telling him he’s punching above his weight. He wants to leave, she says no so he leaves and dumps her by text message.
She went home with Guy #2 that night, and they ended up married with 2 kids. Guy #1 didn’t take it well and tried to fight Guy #2 the first day back in the office, and as being held back yelled at the boss it was ‘either him or me’. The boss chose the guy who wasn’t trying to fight and make ultimatums in the office.”
Wild Party
U/OddBonus2403: “Fire department Christmas party. This is all in one night: -Drunk employee eating chocolate pudding with his hands out of the serving bowl. -drunk employee opening the decorative Christmas presents under the Christmas tree. -drunk employee groping the dancers on stage. -fighting and wrestling all around.
That’s all I could think of at the moment, i remember one coworker thinking one of our buddies had drowned in the nearby lake and was going crazy worrying about that. (He hadn’t drowned). *I’m at this years party right now and it’s going bettter.”
Holiday Reward
U/redditboy2016: “Large auto group in the SE US. About 12 of us were meeting the owner for dinner before the party. He told us during that meeting about embezzlement I had identified and informed him of. It was his partner who was embezzling and he was at that dinner. 4 of us had to sit with the partner so he could not contact anyone.
Owner goes to the party and fires about 40% of the company that was linked to the partner then called us and told us we could come over too. That crazy old man handed me $30000 in cash as my Christmas bonus for finding this out and telling him.”
Ticket Rebellion
U/COPCParts: “Mine is pretty tame but got me in good with a svp. We rented out a brewery and they gave everyone 2 drink tickets. A few of us had pregamed and were ready to go a tad bit harder than two free b—- in a building filled with b—. So about 30 min in I rib the SVP ‘what’s up with this 2 ticket c—? Let’s roll a keg out!’
His response was ‘good call, the roll of tickets is by the door tell everyone to grab what they want!’ You’re welcome coworkers 8 years ago!!”
Prank Payback
U/DingleberryJohansen: “huge ballroom. near end of night. I was in my late 20’s and in sales. the general manager was feeling good and dancing with my girlfriend. I told the bartender to buy all of us shots and a b— and put it on that guys bill- I looked over at him and yelled his name. i raised my glass, gave the ok sign and thumbs up to him- he gave the thumbs up and ok sign back the bar went wild…
the bartender poured us all drinks. he thought i was just saying hi and have fun with my girl. lol next work day, it was one of the highlites and he pulled me aside and said he thought it was a hillarious prank and he thinks my girlfriend is a real keeper (she wasn’t)”
Party Heist
U/Island_Maximum: “A couple years ago at our staff xmas party, the owner used to have a draw for cash prizes. Pretty generous too, like $1000. Not even two weeks earlier, our GM hired this couple that needed money and was desperate for work. After they started working, it was obvious why they needed money – they were junkies.
By now, I’m sure you’ve guessed who won the big money at the Christmas party. The couple proceeded to get hammered, drinking in the parking lot and left the party in the back of a police car. We never saw them again, they never came back to work and had disconnected their phone.”
Roast and Remedy
U/HopefulAd4343: “The owner discovered that the VP had been giving the operations department a hard time, so he came up with a clever way to address it. For the company Christmas party, the owner ordered an open bar, knowing the VP would likely overindulge. By the end of the night, the owner started playfully roasting the VP in front of everyone.
While it was lighthearted enough to pass as friendly banter, the underlying message wasn’t lost on the operations team, who were blushing and laughing the entire time. Meanwhile, the VP, visibly intoxicated, had no idea how poorly he was coming across. It was a masterclass in subtle yet effective leadership.”
Unexpected Spill
U/bedwelld: “Used to work in IT for a mid sized UK law firm – company went all out and hired a fancy hotel for our Xmas do. Pre-dinner drinks are happening and some of the trainees had decided pre-pre-dinner drinks were a good idea.
That idea proved to be a bad choice when a trainee threw up in the lap of the MANAGING PARTNERS WIFE before we’d even been shown into the dinning room.”
