Oxmas dinner

Oxmas dinner this year was slightly controversial when the details were released – because of the increase in expected turnout, we broke from tradition by choosing to cater at an external venue instead of cooking. In retrospect it was a good call – Wig and Pen was packed to the brim and then some (there were more people than chairs) and the food turned out pretty good too!

For the uninitiated, Oxmas is Oxford's way of celebrating Christmas: because term ends for the Christmas season, Christmas is celebrated a month before the actual event – 25 November. Oxmas dinner was held in the same week along with many other college and society Oxmas events.

Food was served buffet-style and it was a spread – sandwiches, chicken, profiteroles...longs queues naturally formed and devoured the food in due course. Some even went for second and thirds! After getting their food people sat together in the long tables (a la college halls, haha) and caught up with each other.

The comm directed our energies for cooking up a storm into putting up a good programme for everyone instead. We decked out in Christmas dress, decorated the function room and set up a rockin' sound system for the performances. About halfway into the night Du Xuan and Elaine kickstarted the performances with beautiful renditions of “Baby, It's Cold Outside” and “Last Christmas”. It was followed by Theophi who regaled us with his own poetic compositions, one about Singapore and one about a certain girl with whom he spent a night cooking and chatting (hehe). Next was Linus with the unbelievable rope trick which may have inspired a few would-be magicians. Becks and Sarah followed with “The Only Exception”. Yifan embarrassed himself by belting out Eason Chan's 圣诞节 having just learnt it the night before. Torsten was the showstopper, both literally and figuratively – his was the final act and he sang wonderfully. There was loud applause all round for our brave performers!

Then it was time to unveil the secret santas! Liki and Eewei, dressed as Santa and Rudolph respectively, enlisted the help of their elves (i.e. the rest of the comm) to deliver the gifts to everyone, who were pleasantly surprised. Following that the comm came out for a final performance to cap off the night, dancing to a cute Christmas jingle. It was so well received that we did an encore! (or it was mostly a chance for people to laugh at the comm haha)

The night was still young and the bar was still open, so many stayed back after the performances and dinner for drinks, to chat, take pictures, and dance to the groovy club music that had been turned on.

On the whole it was a good night. A learning point was maybe to do away with tables and just have chairs instead to allow people to mingle more freely. No matter what, it seems like Oxmas dinners in the future will be equally well-attended (: Thanks guys!

p.s.: In the spirit of Oxmas, we'd like to wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (: here's to a great 2014!