An After-Christmas Christmas Party?

“What the heck is that?” you ask.
Well you see, most professional puppeteers are pretty busy around the holidays what with all the holiday events, engagements and parties to perform at. Thistle Theatre and the Northwest Puppetry Center are both doing Christmas shows. Folks have told me of gigs in past years which included being a walking mountain with pop-up puppet inhabitants, running and voicing mechanical mall puppets and of course the kids room show at business Christmas parties. It all adds up to very little December free time.
So we have our Christmas Party in January. Our host for as long as I have been in the guild is Jean Matson, who opens her home to host about 12 to 20 puppeteers from the guild on average.
It’s always a potluck and there is always a gift exchange with the following rules: you can spend no more than $7 on the materials of the gift. You must decorate it creatively…that’s not a rule, just a suggestion because we do a judge a package by it’s cover exchange. We choose and steal before opening them. I tend to wrap mine in cool monster fur…so even if they don’t like it, there’s still something they can use. Some people wrap it to make you think it’s something other than what it is. That can be rather funny. I got these green mice last year:

(Last year our party was so late, we made it a St. Patty's Day party. Jean Mattson couldn't host one in January. But anyway...that's why I was dressed like that.)

At the party, the new slate of officers for the coming year is announced. Or, more often than not, just plain decided there on the spot…that’s not the best practice in my opinion, because we never are able to fill all the offices with only the 16 or so folks who can make the party. This year we’ve formed the nominating committee like the By-Laws says we are supposed to. All should be well I hope.