The office Christmas party. In the world of the workplace ... obsessing over caffeine and thought Coke or something would be ‘bad.’ They didn’t have Sprite. I bawled. Like a crazy person.

A 1948 Life magazine photo spread from a Christmas party thrown in the office of a Manhattan insurance ... these often cringe-inducing affairs earned a bad rap — one that may come to bite ...

And if done well, company events such as Christmas parties "can boost morale". After all, wrote Jacobs in another opinion piece for the paper, an office party is "a chance to let off steam ...