A Christmas Party

Bihani Kularatne, Sri Lanka

It was the Christmas break. As much as I was looking forward to 2 weeks of not having to go into hospital*, I knew that I would soon get bored. I wasn't going home or leaving Sheffield. Most of my friends were leaving Sheffield, some of them were even going back home. Luckily, I had some close friends who were in the same situation as me. We had two options: sit around and sulk, feeling sorry for ourselves or do something about it. We chose the latter.

We decided to have a Christmas party. Although most of us don't celebrate Christmas we wanted to be as traditional as possible. So, in keeping with the festivities, we made sure that there was roast chicken and everything else down to the wine and crackers. Christmas wouldn't be the same without giving to others. Buying each other presents was going to be a costly affair on our already drained overdrafts. So we came-up with this game where we put all our names into a hat and each one had to draw out a name. The names drawn were kept a secret from everyone else and the plan was to buy a gift for the person whose name was picked. The gifts were to be given on the day of the party. Just to be fair by all, we decided to not spend more than 5 pounds on the gift.

After all the preparations, it was time to celebrate. We wore funny hats and toasted each other with a glass of wine. Everyone was eager to tuck into the food that had been so well prepared. After stuffing ourselves to the brim, we next wanted to savour the dessert. It was time to open our presents and to see who each one's Secret Santa was. There were a few laughs, punches and happy hugs as we went around giving and receiving our gifts. Then we sat around singing Christmas carols– not all in tune of course but we tried our best!

All in all we were glad to have done something about it. We all had a smile on our faces when we left our friend's house that night and making the best out of the situation certainly paid off.

Bihani Kularatne, Sri Lanka

* Bihani is a medical student