Away in a manger

Here’s a question – is it in poor taste to dress up as the Virgin Mary for our next team dressing up day? I go to church every Sunday, so it’s my religion. Surely that earns me the right to dress as VM herself, and to ask Venki, my colleague from Bangalore, to accompany me as Joseph?

My efforts to bring the team together have moved from drinks at the pub on Fridays, to baking and bringing in cakes on Mondays, to encouraging everyone to dress in a festive theme for a day near Christmas.

My desperate attempts to enthuse a sense of togetherness into the team have even made me betray standards. I’ve broken my one cardinal rule, normally invoked at this time of the year, and am organising Secret Santa. That’s right. This year I will be buying some cheap tat and handing it over to someone with whom I’ve not spent five minutes outside of the work environment.

Time to break out the chocolate willies and fluffy handcuffs.

Never mind, I’m hoping that my costume will bring a sense of class and decorum to the proceedings. I’ve persuaded my colleagues to dress up as Father Christmas, a reindeer and a Christmas elf, so some religious input is needed.

I’ve told Venki that I’ll organise a staff, a tea towel head-dress and a beard for him, and I’m sure Big Al will donate his striped dressing gown. I have a lovely royal blue evening dress I can use for myself, and will be ripping up sheets to use as a shawl. A pillow under the dress will complete the look for the morning, and then in the afternoon I’ll switch to carrying Tiny Tears in a blanket.

Perhaps it would be a step too far to bring in a donkey?