17 Rules for the Office Christmas Party

The office Christmas party is the one night a year when work pretends not to be work. It isn't. Everyone you report to is in the room, the bar is open, and people are watching who handles it well and who doesn't.

John LeFevre spent years on Wall Street, where holiday parties are taken seriously and remembered for a long time. In December 2024 he posted his rules for the office Christmas party, and the post was viewed more than two million times. Here are all 17, exactly as he wrote them, keeping his numbers. The commentary is ours.

Before you walk in

1. Don’t skip it.

2. Eat before you show up to avoid getting intoxicated.

3. Wear what you wore to the office. The guy who changed into skinny jeans and his "going out" shirt clearly has too much free time.

4. Show up on time. Most seniors do. Hang out with them for the first half hour, and then keep your distance.

The first rule is the one most people get wrong. Skipping the party feels like a small thing. It isn't. It tells everyone you don't care about the people you work with, and it costs you the easiest networking night of the year.

Eating first is the simplest piece of advice on the list and possibly the most important. Most bad party stories start on an empty stomach.

Rule 4 is a strategy, not just a courtesy. The senior people arrive early and leave early. If you show up at 8:30, you've missed them entirely. Get there on time, spend the first half hour where it counts, then go enjoy yourself.

At the party

5. Don’t act excited about the open bar.

6. Don’t talk shop.

9. Hold your wine glass by the stem. And in your left hand.

10. Hang out with the assistants. They know all the good gossip.

11. No social media. If you’re posting to Instagram or Snapchat, people won’t trust you.

12. Don't do or anything inappropriate; it's still work and HR never stops working.

13. Thank the person who organized the party logistics.

Most of these come down to one idea: act like you've been there before. Don't get visibly excited about free drinks. Don't turn the conversation back to the deal you're working on. Hold the glass properly; holding it by the stem keeps your hand from warming the wine, and the left hand keeps your right free to shake hands.

The assistants rule is good advice for every day of the year, not just this one. Assistants know who's up, who's down, and what's actually going on. They also remember who was nice to them.

Rule 12 has a typo in the original, and we've left it as John wrote it. The point is clear enough: it's still work, and "HR never stops working."

Rule 13 is the most overlooked on the list. Someone spent weeks booking the venue, managing the guest list and arguing with caterers. Find that person and say "Thank you."

The politics

7. Don’t flirt or dance with junior staff at the main event. Wait until the after party.

8. Get your adversaries as drunk as possible.

15. Put your card behind the bar at the after party. It makes you the designated leader.

This is the Wall Street section. These three are about the party as a status game, which it is.

Putting your card behind the bar at the after party is the clearest power move available to anyone at a company function. Whoever picks up the tab is, for the rest of the night, the person in charge. Getting your adversaries drunk is the same instinct, played for laughs, mostly.

Rule 7 is about timing, not permission. The main event is a work function with senior people watching. Behave accordingly.

The exit and the morning after

14. Leave early, but not first.

16. Make sure your iPhone alarm clock is already set for the morning.

17. Always be first into the office the next day.

"Leave early, but not first" is the whole art of the company party in five words. Leaving first looks like you didn't want to be there. Leaving last means you were there for the part people talk about the next day.

And the last two rules are what separate the people who get promoted from the people who get talked about. Set the alarm before you go out. Then be the first one in the next morning, no matter how late the night ran. Nobody remembers who had the most fun. They remember who showed up.

The earlier version

The 2024 list is a tightened version of one John published on Medium in December 2019, "The 21 Rules For Surviving Your Office Christmas Party." It opened with the best description of the event we've read:

"Where else can you drink free booze and watch people ruin their careers or reputations in a single night?"

Most of the 2024 rules came straight from that list. A few that didn't make the cut are still worth knowing:

• Don’t check your work emails. No one is impressed
• If your boss’s boss doesn’t already know your name, don’t waste your time talking to them. Now’s not the time
• If it comes up in conversation, of course Die Hard isn’t the greatest Christmas movie ever. Bad Santa is

The email rule is a good one. Checking your phone at the party doesn't make you look busy. It makes you look like you'd rather be somewhere else, which is the same message as skipping it. And the boss's boss rule is the other side of rule 4: spend time with senior people who already know you, and don't use the party for a cold introduction you'll regret.

The short version

Show up, on time, fed. Spend time with the senior people early and the assistants often. Drink like an adult, stay off your phone, thank the organizer and leave before the night turns. Then beat everyone to the office.

Sources: John LeFevre, Rules for the office Christmas party, X, December 2024; "The 21 Rules For Surviving Your Office Christmas Party," Medium, December 2019.