As I explained in yesterday's post, I love Halloween and not only have I had fun at home with my kids, but also at work with my partners and staff. Several years ago, I suggested we have a Halloween Happy Hour in the office just for something to do at the end of a work day to boost morale. I thought it would be fun for the doctors to dress up and suggested Snow White and the seven dwarfs...as you can see in the photo above, I am missing a few dwarfs but was joined by our nurse who took her role as the evil queen very seriously!
The next year we turned it into a bigger party with a theme. This time everyone in the office got dressed up as musical artists, and I chose The Village People for myself and my partners. We went one step further this year and had a DJ. "The Village People" then did a performance of "YMCA" which was fun for us and funny for our staff. My partners are great guys and good sports for sure.😉
Leave it to me to take it to the next level the following year! I could see that my partners had potential when it came to singing and dancing (and was really happy they were willing to do it) so I decided to run with it and plan a bigger production. We moved the party off site to a restaurant and the cast was then all of my partners and our physician assistants as well. I chose "Grease" as our next theme and picked out 4 songs, created choreography and planned rehearsals. We put on a show that night which was so much fun and can now be found on YouTube!! I guarantee you there are very few, if any, other orthopedic groups out there that would do this type of thing. I am so lucky to work with such a great group of people.
We stepped it up even more the following year and did 4 songs from "Mamma Mia" with more complex choreography and more rehearsals than before (also on YouTube😂). We had so much fun once again, and this time my daughters got very involved as well. They helped me create choreography at home and came to some of the rehearsals to help me teach it to everyone. They even did an encore performance of one of the songs with us the night of the party!
Aside from the parties, we have also celebrated Halloween for many years in a big way during office hours. I work with a team which includes my physician assistant and my medical assistant. We decided to dress up for a day in the office the week of Halloween, and each year we would try to come up with a theme that would work well for a group of three. Year by year we got a little more elaborate with decorating our section of the office as well. We would go the night before and decorate with music playing, pizza and lots of laughs. We had the best time, and we would keep our theme a secret from everyone else in the office. The big reveal would come the next morning, and everyone would come to our section first thing to see what we had done. It quickly became something everyone wanted to do, so all of the different departments in the office would pick a theme and go all out with costumes and decorations, We then had a contest for the best section, and some of our staff would even bring their young kids in to trick or treat through the office. It became something patients would be aware of and look forward to as well. I had patients tell me they wanted to make sure they scheduled an appointment on Halloween if possible. Some new patients seemed a bit confused to be seeing the Queen of Hearts, Elphaba or Effie Trinket, etc when they expected an orthopedic surgeon, but I did my best to carry on as usual despite my costume! Most people have been very impressed by how devoted our whole office is to this day. We even made it into a local newspaper one year!
So many wonderful memories! I was out of town for Halloween last year visiting my older daughter who was doing a semester abroad. We were actually in Paris on Halloween and got to enjoy the festivities at Disneyland. This year we didn't do the usual thing either since protocols are different in the office due to the pandemic. Here's hoping we can get back to it next year...both the office day and the party/show. I have a whole year to plan so it should be the best yet!! If you don't do anything for this holiday where you work... give it a try! I think it can definitely be a way to boost morale and have a lot of fun...Happy Halloween!!🧡🎃👻
