Christmas 1999 “If You Know What’s GOOD For You …”

Christmas and the holidays are tough on the crew. They are on the ship and their families are back home. My first two years on ships I was home for Christmas. My third year was when I met Sarah so I arranged to be on for the holidays.

There are a lot of parties organized for the guests and also many for the crew. Each department has a party of some sort and the Cruise Staff arranged an event in Trolland, the kids play room. There was food and drinks available and our Cruise Director Denny who is Swedish made a concoction called GLUOGG. It is a mixture of wine, raisins, cinnamon, whiskey, Heineken beer, port wine, sugar, almonds and is served hot. He also organized a present exchange game called ‘Secret Santa’. The way it worked was, when you entered Trolland you were given a number. This number dictated when you would pick a present from under the Christmas tree. Everyone was to bring a present worth up to $25.00, wrap it up and put it under the tree. Tags for names or gender were not to be put on the boxes. Everything was to be a surprise. Now, if you picked a present, and were not thrilled with it but liked a present someone else had already picked, you could switch with that person. No questions asked.

After we had all eaten and were well lubricated, the gift exchange began. Sarah had number 15 and I had drawn number 39. This meant that I had a good look at what presents were available for an exchange, and then hope that no one would exchange with me.  What I didn’t realize was that I held the last number, 39. I would be the last person picking a present and able to switch with absolutely anyone.

We had a great time watching what everyone got and the antics in switching presents. Some people even hid their presents so as not to lose them. There were some great presents and some goofy ones with people trying to encourage others to switch with them. There were CDs, perfume, soaps & bath wash, gift certificates from music & video stores and even a Victoria’s Secret gift certificate. Kelvin our diver friend got a plastic mask & snorkel set, what a bad selection. He tried valiantly to exchange with everyone but to no avail. Somewhere down the line a bottle of Chivas Regal Scotch was the present selected, so I kept my eye on where that was.

We finally got to # 38 pick and I looked to see what it was. At that point Sarah leaned close to me and whispered in my ear, “If you know what’s GOOD for you, you’ll go for the Victoria’s Secret envelope.”

I looked at her in astonishment and she kept looking straight ahead with a smile on her face.

“OK, who’s got the last number, 39?” said Denny. I held up my ticket.

“Here we go everyone, the last ticket. What will it be?” said Denny.

I went to the tree and picked up the last box. It had a shoe box shape and sure enough it was a pair of pink fluffy ladies slippers with little feathers. There was a roar of laughter from everyone as I showed them.

“Wow, just what I asked Santa for!” I said.

I gestured giving them to Sarah and she pushed them away.

 “OK, that didn’t work” I said, “Who has the Victoria’s Secret envelope, let me see it!!”

Another roar came from the crowd. One of the Hostesses held up the envelope so I handed her the fluffy slippers and took the envelope. I then handed the Victoria’s Secret envelope to Sarah and she said, “That’s much better. Thank you!” as everyone kept on laughing.

A lesson learned.

We all partied hard that night, but we also all showed up for work the next day. That was the way it was. You work hard; You party hard; but you always showed up for duties the next day.

The following Christmas Sarah had changed ships and was on the Norwegian Sky. CD Denny was also there and we had another Secret Santa Christmas Party as the year before. When it came to Sarah’s turn to pick out a present, she went to the tree and took an envelope. When she opened it, it was a Victoria’s Secret gift certificate. To be safe she placed the envelope on her chair and sat on it. Nobody asked to exchange with her, or had forgotten what she had picked. At the end of the gift selection Denny came over and asked what we had received. Sarah pulled out the Victoria’s Secret envelope. Denny looked at her and said, “I don’t believe it! That’s two years in a row! What is it? Can you smell those things when they are in envelopes?” Sarah smiled and nodded.

We all laughed. It was too good to be true, two years in a row. Now this has become a tradition. I somehow have to hide a Victoria’s Secret gift certificate in a different parcel so that Sarah cannot tell what it is when she opens up her Christmas presents. This also applies to her birthday.

As they say on Fiddler On The Roof, “TRADITION!!!”

*Names may have been changed to protect the innocent!