I’ve been at DC Thomson quite a number of years. In fact, this is my 34th Christmas with them!
It will come as no surprise that office celebrations have somewhat changed over the years.
Perhaps I’m feeling a little whimsical, because this is now the second year that the PF team haven’t been able to enjoy festivities in the office and have a brilliant lunch all together.
We genuinely thought this year would be different.
Ready to party!
No matter how many Christmas lunches you attend though, some things never change.
It’s always a brilliant thing to celebrate another year of hard work, deadlines and much more with your friends. By the time Christmas rolls around we’ve already worked on the festive issues months before and our work minds are firmly in spring!
When myself, and a few current “Friend” colleagues worked on the teen magazines together, things were a touch more lively.
We were young and had more energy then.
Our fabulous building is unrecognisable nowadays. It used to be a bit like Hogwarts! It was all individual offices and each one had a fireplace!
Teen mags were all on one floor and the doors were opened and you would visit each other with our sparkly outfits, party hats and mugs which didn’t contain coffee at this point . . . this was all before going out for lunch.
We would party into the night and return to rather messy desks after the festive break.
The photo below is of Fiction Ed Lucy and I during our “Shout” magazine days!
Lucy was expecting her first baby, so she was on cups of tea! It seems like yesterday.
Lucy and Tracey quite a few years ago! Photograph courtesy of Tracey Steel.
As the years moved on and we matured, we are now happy with a wee glass of prosecco and some lovely nibbles on the day of our Christmas lunch.
Festive music, Secret Santa (with a very affable Santa) and a chance to mingle with our friends from other departments. The building is open plan now it’s great for wandering!
It seems even more difficult to be missing out this year as we were pretty sure things would be back to normal by this time in 2021.
We’re now looking forward to Christmas 2022 and happier times when we can all be together again.
Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
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Tracey Steel Having worked on a number of magazines over the years, I have found my perfect place on the “Friend” as I’m obsessed with reading and never go anywhere without a book! I read all of our stories with a mug of tea close by and usually a bit of strong cheese too!
