How the Crunch Stole Christmas

Bill O'Reilly has raged against the "War on Christmas" for the last three holiday seasons, but this year, those "progressive, secular liberals" have a strong new ally and conspirator to help foil celebration of everyone's favorite holiday: the credit crunch, which is turning corporate Christmas parties into a thing of the past.

The Croatian government has gone so far as to ban Christmas and New Year's parties at public sector firms and organizations - hopefully, this will not turn out to be the first-ever policy on which the American government decides to follow Croatia's lead.

The annual company holiday party has become a staple of corporate life, and over the past several boom years, an increasingly elaborate and costly one at that. In many cases, it's once a year chance for colleagues to relate to each other on a personal level, and gather to celebrate what they've accomplished over the past year.

Trouble is, this year, there isn't much to celebrate. A survey by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, & Christmas found that 25 percent of companies aren't hosting holiday office parties this year, up from 10 percent in 2007 - when companies had already begun to pair back.

Companies including Viacom, ABC News, Hearst, Marc Jacobs, Condé Nast (publisher of Portfolio.com), News Corp., Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and American Express have all either axed holiday parties altogether or significantly cut back on them.

Some of those names can still afford to celebrate in style (coughJPMORGANcough), but would rather avoid the unsavory optics of managing directors swilling champagne while their colleagues line up for unemployment benefits.

by Liz Gunnison