Now, hit the office christmas party with some party animals. Here's sharyn alfonsi. Reporter: Tis the season for holiday office parties. So much fun -- happy holidays. Reporter: Or, so horribly...
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Now, hit the office christmas party with some party animals. Here's sharyn alfonsi. Reporter: Tis the season for holiday office parties. So much fun -- happy holidays. Reporter: Or, so horribly awkward. And preserved for generations to come on youtube. Playing pop the balloon with your boss. Then, there's the cubicle angithe ft that keeps giving, those scene stealers. ♪ but nothing can trump this. The big exit. Sometimes the result of high expectations we all have during the holidays. Talk show host tyra banks had just finished her big christmas show. This is one of our biggest shows of the year. All this stuff, it's all yours. Reporter: Joan rousely dolling out earrings, designer bags and shoes to her guests. The show was doing well, ratings were rising. So tyra's staff crowd into this bar for the annual holiday party. Everybody was pretty liquored up, enjoying the christmas spirit. Reporter: Scott martin was there, too. An editor, he'd been nominated for an emmy. And like so many others, he was hoping they'd be gifted by tyra, too. Long after the party started, tyra arrived with santa in tow. Santa comes out with a very large bag of what we thought were christmas bonuses, possibly. Reporter: Inside santa's bag? IT WAS FULL of McDonald's hamburgers. Reporter: What was the reaction when people -- what was the reaction? People were throwing off buns, looking through, there were wrappers everywhere. I think that there was the thought process that, okay, maybe there's something in the burger. Maybe there's a gift card between those layers and the cheese. Reporter: But there wasn't. And all hell broke loose. The party, now referred to as "burger gate." Were hamburgers thrown? Hamburgers were thrown. There were fights that broke out. Ambulance had to be called. People ended up being fired. It was chaos. Reporter: We reached out to tyra banks for comment, but didn't hear back. If you're throwing a christmas party, you're the employer, based on what happened at this party, I mean, what should you do? I would think that if your employees are doing a good job, you should show them and reward them. Doesn't necessarily have to be with gifts. It could be with compliments, but -- Reporter: But not with hamburgers. That's not the way to go. Reporter: But the burgers weren't the only casualty. There was a woman who lost her teeth. People lost their job. I think some dignity flowed out of the place, into the sewer. Reporter: One blurry night can lead to painfully clear repercussions. One poll reported 14% of people say they know someone who was fired for bad behavior at a holiday office party. And "men's health" reported that 44% of guys admitted to hooking up with a co-worker at a holiday office soiree. How hard is it to navigate the holiday christmas party? People talk about being afraid of going into a war zone. The holiday party is in some wakes just that treacherous, because you can completely blow up your career if you make the wrong move. Reporter: All of it enough to drive you to drink. And that's exactly what mandy did at her old job. "The new york post" has a reputation for being an outrageous tabloid and, so, our office holiday party was no exception. Reporter: Now, a life styles editor at xo jane, mandy decided to start one holiday party with straight whiskey. You were just -- I thought that was a fantastic idea. Reporter: Six shots later, mandy's at the bar with her boss. And I took his hand and i just, like, bit his finger. I nibbled it. Reporter: This is your boss. And pretty soon after that, i just kind of gracefully just kind of slid off the chair. Good-bye, merry christmas. Reporter: She-bang! Yeah. And then I vomited. One, two, three! Reporter: "The office" immortalized holiday party antics. But sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. Imagine this is one of your bosses at the company christmas party. With this staff, he is. This is a recycling company. They've had a banner year, launching the world's first program, turning cigarette butts into plastics. We tagged along to their holiday party and brought mandy, now sober, to help the newbees navigate it. Mandy told us some dos and continues. I'm just here to have a good time, enjoy the holiday spirit. Reporter: Holiday spirit, a good thing. Mixing holiday spirits, not so much. Want some wine in your beer? Just beer in your beer? Just beer in your beer? Got it. Excellent. Reporter: Snapshots so you remember, great. Tequila shots so you forget -- not to great. On a scale of 1 to 10? I guess a 5 because I don't know anybody. Reporter: Being secret santa, okay. Displaying your secret gift -- not okay. Wait. There's more. That is crazy. That's crazy. Reporter: But the best piece of advice came from the employee of the year. Make smart decisions. If I drink too much, I'm going to make a fool out of myself infront of my ceo. Reporter: How important is that graceful exit? You know, people talk. And there's the water cooler gossip and there's the kind of folk lore. Reporter: How long should you stay at the holiday party? Lg enough to make a positive impression, to have fun. But not so much so that you seem like you have a problem. Reporter: Fortunately, these employees escape unscathed. Some admitting they just needed a little aspirin the next day. If you do mess it up, you wake up and, you know, your blackberry is full of people saying, "you were amazing last night." What do you do monday morning? Well, I think that you want to just kind of own up to it. You know, just be real, like, you acted like a hilarious idiot and just kind of own up to that. Reporter: The evidence might already be on youtube. Everyone wants a holiday party to be memorable. But no one wants to be the reason it was.
