Drunk Husbands, Couch Fires, Food Fights: More Office Party Horror Stories

Nov. 30, 2006 — -- ABCNEWS.com asked for your holiday office party horror stories, and you overwhelmed our e-mail inboxes with tales of drunken spouses, couch fires and all out food fights. Here are some of the best of the bunch.

Back in the early '70s I was a teaching assistant during graduate school. One of the department secretaries hosted a faculty and staff Christmas party. It was a time when everyone smoked wherever they wanted, and I was a smoker at the time.

I was talking to someone in the living room with a cigarette in my hand. As I spoke I was gesturing with broad sweeps of my arms. At one point, I accidentally hit the wall with the lit end of my cigarette -- the same wall their couch sat against.

The party went on. It was time to leave. As I was leaving I smelled smoke and looked over to see a steady plume of smoke rising from the back of the couch, caused no doubt by the embers from the hot ash of my cigarette as it hit the wall.

"Oh look!" I cried out. "Your couch is on fire!"

They ran to extinguish it by pouring water over the smoldering fabric, thanking me profusely for my keen sense of smell and quick reaction to the crisis.

I got the wrong date for the office party that was to be held at a very expensive restaurant. I showed up at work and asked a fellow co-worker if she and her husband wanted to ride to the party with us that night and she responded, "Why? The party was last night. Where were you? We waited for you and your wife for 30 minutes before we got started."

In preparation for the party, we both bought new clothes and had to sell NBA tickets because of the supposed scheduling conflict.

This happened five years ago and I am reminded of it EVERY year when the holiday party is being scheduled.

I couldn't face my wife due to all the trouble we went through to get ready for the party. To this day, my wife thinks they cancelled the party - I was too embarrassed to tell her I got the dates wrong. It is my dirty little secret!