Ooh, there was even a cookie exchange thread at one point:
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=38793.0;all
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=39584.0;all
haha funny story (to me at least) RE cookie exchanging. Who *doesn't* love a good cookie exchange? I mean, I know it's more difficult when you have dietary restrictions so it makes it a bit less fun, but if people can accommodate that, then YAY, right? At my old office, my friend and I were talking about Christmas and all the things we could make the team get involved in to make the lead-up to Christmas even more exciting. We thought "what if we all do cookies and have a cookie exchange?!" We thought it'd be interesting as we had me (from US), a guy from Poland, another lady from Spain, and the manager was from Cornwall (which she just liked to consider a different country anyways LOL) and then English people. We thought it'd be fun to share what our traditional holiday cookies would be.
This one lady was one person that nobody could really trust. She was the type to just try to be buddy-buddy with everybody (if somebody was pregnant it was "when is OUR baby due?!" or if somebody was engaged it was "When are WE getting married!?" - those types of things) and would try to stir the pot with drama only to then try to tattle after she had caused drama...She is also in her late 40's/early 50's so just honestly it was quite sad. She was the type of person that needed to be "in" on everything while trying to exclude others.. I'm sure you know the type.
Well when we suggested a cookie exchange she instantly made the weird face she'd make every time somebody suggested something that didn't fit in with stereotypical British way of life, like we were insane (the person who was creating the idea with me was English so it's not like I was bringing some crazy foreign idea into the office lol) and she exclaimed "I don't even KNOW What i would make! We don't HAVE Christmas Cookies! What IS a Christmas cookie?!" and we were like "......you genuinely don't have christmas cookies at all....? You make no baked goods for Christmas? Like you can literally make ANY cookie." and she was like "no..I've NEVER heard of this!". She was saying it in a way that was both shocked while also conveying the message that we were weirdos or something. She would do this all the time, even when butting into other people's conversations, so I looked at her point blank (I knew I was leaving the company at this point and gave zero f**ks) and said "I don't know why you're saying it that way. YOU'RE the weird one here as nobody else finds it as outrageous as you. That's okay, we'll all make cookies and share them, but don't come looking for anybody as you've totally just taken yourself out of the equation!". I said it in a joking way but you can see, as what typically happened when she did this, when nobody agreed with her or when somebody called her out on her attitudes/behaviours/comments, she tried to backtrack quietly and then just dropped the subject. I know it was wrong to respond, but it made me feel SO good as I was so sick of her constantly trying to make everybody's personal traditions out to be some weird and foreign concept that she couldn't comprehend! (This woman also constantly talked poorly about her step children - like it was disgraceful! - and claimed things like she "physically could not drive an automatic car. She just wouldn't know what to do." and couldn't understand the idea of iced coffee. "Ugh, I just don't get it....but to each their own...::insert cheeky cow eyeroll::". I was like "you literally drive like you do manual...but DO LESS. You JUST use the accelerator. It's not hard...).
Sorry for the rant but me and my friend had a good laugh about that and anytime somebody would mention cookie swaps or holiday treats we'd just roll our eyes and laugh.
