It’s the most wonderful time of the year here at BFB. We can’t help but become jollier as the giant Christmas tree goes up in the center of the office, the décor for the desk decorating kicks into high gear, and of course, an overwhelming amount of delicious baked goods appear in the kitchen day after day.  Meetings have even been held around the burning yule log and Balsam fir tree featured in the image to the right. It’s the perfect, cozy ambiance for a successful brainstorm.

One of our company’s core values (that we take very seriously) is to have fun. This month, we are truly living out that value, full of fun and festive events and activities to celebrate the season. Here are some of our favorite events that have become cherished traditions over the past few years!

Desk Decorating Competition

While the desk decorating contest is truly more about encouraging people to get in the holiday spirit, it always ends up turning into quite the competition! Some of our most creative desks included entire cubes wrapped in wrapping paper, letters written to Santa taped on the walls along with milk and cookies left out, and of course in the scene from the picture above, a creatively made Christmas tree next to a roaring fire.

Holiday Party

Each year, our CEO Kevin Wilson and his family graciously host the company holiday party, typically at their beautiful home. The holiday party is a great time for everyone across brands and departments to come together with their families and celebrate the season. Complete with delicious, gourmet cuisine by chef Kyle Butters with High Tide Catering, entertainment by talented local musician Mike Proffitt, and of course, plenty of fabulous wine, this year’s party was a huge success. The evening was topped off with numerous raffle prizes, including a grand prize of $500 cash!  

Tacky Sweater Contest and Happy Hour

To kick off the holiday break, we had our annual tacky sweater competition and happy hour (we tend to get a little competitive, and didn’t feel like the desk decorating was quite enough, so we turned it up a notch). The turnout was great, or should we say… ugly? Good times were had, wine was consumed, and sweaters were judged. There were four different categories that could be awarded: most creative, ugliest, most flammable, and itchiest sweater. Pictured to the right are this year’s winners of the contest, in order of the category list above.

The Reason for the Season

We are so thankful to have a tight-knit work family with whom we can enjoy this wonderful time of year. These fun activities are about more than just having a good time - we truly believe that spending time together over a glass of wine around the Christmas tree will have a direct impact on the work we do day in and day out. The positive energy from the events carries over into positive thinking and refreshed minds to bring forward new ideas.  It’s important to have a healthy balance to encourage a cohesive team environment, which leads to success. As we count our blessings this season, we are lucky to have our BFB family to come to work with every day!