Holiday Parties: From Boring to Exciting

Have you ever wondered how to make holiday parties more enjoyable?

Sarah stands alone in the dimly lit corner of a room filled with holiday attendees. Sarah scans the room to see if she knows anyone. She was invited by the host who was busy greeting all the guests as they arrived. Sarah felt all alone despite being in a room filled with over 50 people. Sarah thought, what do I say? I don’t even know these people. Why did I even come? I came because I wanted to meet some new people.

Sarah takes a deep breath and strolls over to the food table and grabs a little of each colorful and flavorful dish. She thought – maybe I can quickly eat and then roll out of here fast. Of course, that was not her intent in coming. Sarah looked across the room and caught a smile from a tall, dark handsome man on the other side of the room. He gently nodded and motioned for her to come join his conversation.

Sarah took another deep breath, trying not to drop her plate, composed herself and walked to the group of 5 which seemed intimidating to her. It’s now or never she thought to herself. Deep breath again. Here I go.

She asked each person in the group, “What’s been the best part of 2017?” Each person thought long and hard. They began to respond, “A new job”, “Getting engaged”, “Taking a 3 day yoga trip”. The group said, what about you, Sarah? Sarah gently looked up and in the eyes of each person and said, “Learning how to have meaningful conversations with complete strangers.”

Each person in the group chuckled and said, you make us feel at ease around you. Sarah smiled and said, “It’s easy. Ask a more in-depth question and don’t ask – How are you?”

This time of year, we can get careless in our conversations. We ask, “how are you?” as an informal greeting instead of a real question. If you really want to know someone better, ask a more in-depth question and share what your response is too.

Here are 3 questions to get you going: