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Our Festive Feast:
Featuring Tantalizing Holiday Treats From
The Accelerated Learning Smorgasbord
Spice of the Month Accelerated Learning Ezine, Christmas Issue
(Java Required for Stunning Special Effects)
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On October 21, 2008, we had snow flurries in the Toronto area.
So, we've hurried and put the finishing touches on Our Festive Feast
and we're pleased to open our doors and serve it to you early. Enjoy!
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Christmas Team Building
It's not too late to Book one of our Team Building Simulations for Your Holiday Party
(Java Required for Stunning Special Effects)
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Special Offer:
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Access all 28 featured spices, archived issues, and FUTURE issues of the Spice of the Month Accelerated Learning Ezine for US$137. Click here for details.
If you want to provide access for your entire training department through your intranet, please contact us for pricing.
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Deck the Halls
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Don't have a lot of time or budget to create a festive feel in your training room or for your festive event? Don't worry, view this as an opportunity to "spice things up" with this interactive starter.
If you like, you can provide a basic kit for each team and, with your invitation, ask each participant to bring a decoration or ornament.
Divide your group into teams, give each team a bag of box of decoratons and 15 minutes to decorate a part of the room. Play some festive music. Give the winning team their prizes in neatly wrapped Christmas paper.
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- Snow Flakes
- Snow Men & Ladies
- Candles
- Bells
- Wreaths
- Holly
- Tinsel
- Mistletoe
- Ribbons
- Christmas Cards for Name Tags
- Festive Table Cloths and Napkins
- Festive Glasses to hold pens, markers, etc.
- Toys
- Winter Clothing (Scarves, gloves)
- Popcorn Chains
- Sleighs
- Ice Skates
- Santa's Sack
- Wrapped Packages
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You can also use this activity for any winter event or to decorate the breakout rooms for any winter team building session or retreat as we have done here.
This free script provided by JavaScript Kit
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Sizzling Christmas
Session Starters
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Add a festive
touch to the process of finding partners for your first exercise
with these 3 session starters. (It is important to be sensitive
to multi-cultural issues and offer participants the option
of using Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwaanza cards or gift for
these icebreakers.)
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Silly Festive Trivia
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Questions
- How many reindeer does Santa have?
- From what fabric was Frosty the Snowman's hat made?
- Which Scottish poet wrote the words to Auld Lang Syne?
- How many ghosts visited Scrooge on Christmas Eve
- What is the difference between Santa Claus and Osama Bin Laden?
- If you re-arrange the letters in Santa's name, what rather ominous figure do you get?
- What is the name of the horse in Jingle Bells?
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Answers
- Eleven. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid , Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph, Olive and Howe......."Olive the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names....and Howe the reindeer loved him and he shouted out with glee."
- Silk.
- Robbie Burns.
- Four - The ghosts of Christmas past, present and yet to come, and Jacob Marley.
- Santa will see Christmas.
- Satan.
- Bobtail - "Bells on Bobtail ring...making spirits bright".
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Card Exchange
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Step 1
- Prepare a card for each participant. Inside each card,
write the name of one of the participants.
or
- Ask each participant to bring a card to the session and
sign it.
- Cards should be placed in envelopes but not sealed.
Step 2
- Just before the exercise, label the envelopes with the
names of the participants who have arrived and seal the
envelopes.
Step 3
- Distribute cards to half of the participants. Give participants
an opportunity to open their cards and find their partners
by locating the name of the person who signed their card.
Step 4
- For round 2 of the exercise, change partners by distributing
the remaining cards and repeating step 3.
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The
Merry Mixer
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- Obtain small gift tags (or blank red, green and white
index cards).
- Select the name of a Christmas or Winter movie for each
team or group you want to form (examples: Heidi, Miracle
on 34th Street, It's A Wonderful Life).
- On separate cards, write the name of the movie, name of
the lead actor and actress, the name of a song from the
movie
- Add other categories if there are more than 4 members for each group you want to form.
Instructions
- Distribute the cards.
- Give participants an opportunity to find the members of
their groups (or teams) by locating other participants who
have elements from the same movie that is represented by
the item on their cards.
- Give prizes such as candy canes or Christmas chocolates
to the first team to locate all of its members.
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Games
The Gift Exchange
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Step 1
Purchase a small gift for each participant (under $2.00).
Wrap each gift and label it. Put a participant's name in the
"From" section of each label.
or
Ask participants to purchase, wrap and label a small gift.
They should write their name in the "From" section
of the gift label.
Step 2
Just before you do the exercise, label the "To"
sections of each gift label.
Step 3
Distribute half of the gifts.
Step 4
Participants find their partners by checking the "From"
section of their gift labels
Step 5
For round 2 of the exercise, change partners by distributing
the remaining gifts and repeating step 4. |
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Christmas Energizers For
Break Time & Background Ambiance
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Musical
Moments
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- Any selection from The Nutcracker Suite
- The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire)
- Walking In the Winter Wonderland
- Felice Navidad
- The Twelve Days of Christmas
- The Holly and the Ivy
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Seasons: Christmas Carols
A sparkling collection of exquisite flute and piano instrumentals by Ron Korb and Donald Quan.
Recorded the day after Christmas, 2004, this limited edition CD features traditional Christmas music and a brand new Christmas composition.
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Limited Edition
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Refreshments
Multicultural Pot Luck
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For lunch, ask participants to bring a festive appetizer, main course, drink or dessert that represents their cultural heritage.
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Other Ideas
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- Yule Log
- Egg Nog
- Fruit Punch
- Hot Cider
- Shortbread
- Candy Canes
- Popcorn
- Fruit Cake
- Decorated Cup Cakes
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- Turkey Hors D'oeuvres
- Decorated Cookies
- Ginger Bread Men & Ladies
- Gingerbread House
- Gumballs or Jelly Beans
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Rave
Reviews
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Preparation:
- Obtain a small gift and assemble boxes of various sizes
and several types of wrapping paper.
- Place a small gift in a small box and wrap it.
- Stick a label on the box and write a question related
to course content on the label.
- Wrap the box a few more times and always put a label with
a course-related question on each layer of wrapping paper.
- Put the small box (wrapped) inside a medium-sized and
wrap it several times. Put a label on each layer of paper
with a course-related question.
- Repeat this process many times until you have one question
per participant and the gift has been placed inside several
boxes.
Action:
Ask participants to sit in a circle. (1)
Play festive music such as one of the selections from The
Nutcracker Suite. (2)
Participants pass the box around until you pause the music.
(3)
When the music pauses, the participant who has the box reads
the question on the box and tries to answer it. If he or she
answers the question correctly, that participant removes the
first layer of wrapping paper. (4)
If the answer is incorrect, the question becomes a toss up
question. Any participant who successfully answers the question
will remove the first layer of wrapping paper. (5)
Start the music again and repeat steps 3-5 until some lucky
participant unwraps the last box and get to take the gift
home. (6)
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Screen Savers
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Need to "spice
up" your computer generated presentations? Why not download
some colourful screen savers? Put them on at break time. For
a special treat, adjust the "Properties" settings
on your desktop so that random, colourful scenes appear on
your screen to stimulate your audience if discussion goes
on longer than 5 minutes. One quick tip. Don't stand near
the screen when you are responding to questions or facilitating
discussion. Take the opportunity to move around and connect
with different members of the audience. This will give the
participants who need the visual stimulation a chance to look
at the screen and the others the opportunity to focus on you:
Download Christmas Scenes Screen Saver
The Webshots Seasonal Collection
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Special
Greetings from The Training Oasis, Inc.
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2007 was a very good year for us. Our Amazing Race events and Urban Safaris were very popular. We travelled to Dubai twice and Asia 3 times (with 4 stopeovers in Japan). We finally had a chance to be mesmerized by Kabuki and explore the parks, shrines and gardens of Kyoto. We also discovered the magic of Oman....a very special place. For years we have been telling you about the special places we've had a chance to explore in Discover Your Own Oasis. Now, we'll take you there. Our sister company has just launched an incentive travel division for small executive and sales teams. For teams of up to 20, we offer a personalized approach to incentive travel and we'll share with you the special places and exclusive venues we've disceovered in Jamaica, Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Oman, and, of course, Canada.
So, it's been a year of growth an progress, not always as fast as we would have liekd but we've been blessed with many exciting new adventures.
We hope that you have had a great year too. All the best to you and yours during this festive season and may all YOUR dreams come true in 2008.
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Interactive
Team Buildling for Your Christmas Event or New Year Launch
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Want to try
something different for this year's office party? Add variety
and spice to your festive season with one of our
team building simulations or interactive accelerated learning programmes:
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Festive Event Planning
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The festive season is just around the corner.
Why not you get your plans in place early so that you can relax and enjoy your festive event?
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Places Where it's Always Christmas |
Just Christmas Shop,
34 Queen Street,
Niagara-on-the-Lake,
Ontario Canada
905-468-4500
Christmas on the Beach,
Toronto, Ontario (The Beaches), Canada
Christmas by the Sea,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (The Beaches)
Bronner's Christmas Wonderland,
Frankenmuth, Michigan, USA
Year Round Christmas Stores
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A
Word of Encouragement
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This special
time of year, which brings joy to so many, can be painful
for those who are experiencing personal, family, medical,
or financial difficulties. The last 2 years have been particularly challenging for many people with all of the turbulence in the global economy. No corner of the world has been unaffected.
I lost my beloved father at Christmas 3 years ago. So, these words that I have included in our festive special since its inception ring true to me more than ever. If you are going through a time of pain or if you have lost a
loved one during the past year, we invite you to find inspiration
at our oasis. it may be of comfort for you to remember that
Jesus is the originator of our festive feast.
"He comforts us when we are in trouble so that we can
share that same comfort with others....". 2 Corinthians
1:4
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Remember Those
in Need
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The festive
season marks the passing of time. It's an opportunity to pause,
reflect and be grateful for our blessings....family, friends,
finances. The colour and pageantry of the season makes some
people more acutely aware of their suffering. In the midst
of your celebrations, don't forget to reach out to those around
you who need encouragement and support for this is the true
spirit of the festive season.
During your celebrations, don't forget to take time to pause and
remember those in need. The festive season is, after all,
a time of giving.
The Hunger Site
Samaritan's Purse
The festive season can especially tough for adults who are single. We all have our places of vulnerability. For example, one can enjoy
a beautiful Christmas with family and friends but find New Year's Eve tough if there is no special someone
in my life with whom to ring in the New Year. If you are
alone this holiday season, shake the blues by looking for
opportunities to serve:
- volunteer at a shelter
- distribute food and blankets to the homeless
- provide comfort to someone at a home for the elderly
- visit a local hospital and volunteer your services
- prepare a special meal and invite foreign students and
members of your community who are in need to join you
- if this has been a good year for you financially, put
together a basket of toys, food, holiday treats, and a turkey
and all the trimmings and deliver it to a family in need
on Christmas Eve
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Anne Thornley-Brown is the President and founder of The Training Oasis, Inc., a Toronto based consulting firm for rapidly changing organizations in Canada, Jamaica and Asia. Our clients have included CIBC, Telus Mobility, Ingram Micro, Royal Bank of Canada, and IKEA. Anne has toured Asia 16 times and offered seminars to over 2000 executives, managers and HR professionals in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Penang), Singapore, Thailand (Bangkok), and India (Mumbai). Petronas, Malaysian Airlines, Digi, Mobil/Exxon, and Dell Computers are among the organizations that have sent delegates to her sessions in Asia. Anne is available as a keynote speaker for conferences, instructional designer and facilitator for seminars and team building. Anne has also offered team building session in Dubai and Oman.
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