Shape’s Christmas Party: A Night in Dublin

When most companies say they’re doing “something different” for the Christmas party, you might expect going for a meal or putting a few cocktails on the tab.

Well, the MadeByShape team actually jumped on a plane ✈️.

We’re a web design agency and branding agency based in Manchester, and after a full-on year building brands and websites (exclusively in Craft CMS, as always), Andy and Jason decided we deserved something a bit special.

This year, we packed our bags, grabbed our passports, and flew to Dublin for our Christmas do. And nothing says team bonding quite like trying to get nine people through airport security before 7am.

Andy and Jason always show up for us every year when it comes to work Xmas parties. They never half-ar*e it or do something just for show. It's always genuine, and it always feels like a proper thank you to the team. Last year, we rented a mansion with a hot tub and pool table – it was class. And this year, they somehow topped it again.

Honestly, it was a trip to remember. Here’s how it all went down 👇

The group chat was going off from 5am as we all left our houses to head to Manchester Airport. Surprisingly, NO ONE was late, which is a first for us at Shape. A Christmas miracle.

We all breezed through security and made it to departures – half the group headed straight for coffee and breakfast like responsible adults. The other half (myself, Andy and Joe) went straight for a pint because if you’re not holding a beer at 7am, are you even on holiday?!

Once we landed in Dublin, a pre-booked coach was waiting to take us to the Leonardo Hotel, just a short walk from the famous Temple Bar area. 10/10 location.

We squeezed in a quick pint at Temple Bar before setting off for some Italian food. We booked into Forno 500° – proper Neapolitan sourdough pizza, fresh homemade pasta and unreal desserts – very much our kind of place 😍.

We all opted for the Christmas lunch menu, which was a 3-course meal, and honestly the portion sizes were no joke.

No one left hungry. Everyone left in a food coma. Possibly not the wisest move when you’ve got a full afternoon and evening of drinking ahead 😅.

After lunch, we dropped our bags at the hotel. Only one room was ready, so naturally the girls claimed it while the lads headed for the nearest pub.

The rest of us girls were deep in that post-carb struggle where you pretend you’re just “resting your eyes”, fully knowing you’re about to conk out. One hour later, we woke up refreshed and well more prepared for the night ahead (nap evidence below 👇😂).

We headed out for the night with zero plans and just went with the flow – doing whatever we fancied. We stayed around the Temple Bar area and ended up doing a bit of a pub crawl.

It was especially good to be out together because we don’t actually see each other in person that often. Most days it’s Huddles, Google Meets and Slack messages, so when we do get together properly, we’ve got a lot to catch up on. Sounds cliché to say, but we actually all get on really well and are proper mates.

Highlights included:

• Live Irish music in every pub

• Watching a woman absolutely smash Irish dancing

• Baby Guinness and Tequila Rose shots (Dublin pricing was NOT a highlight … 4x shots for $38.40?!!! 🫢)

• Tom getting a piggyback ride from Mike

Split the G made an appearance too … obviously. But Andy gave us a bit of motivation to get us going. If you split the G five times throughout the night, you’d bag an extra day of annual leave. As someone a lil obsessed with holidays, I took it very seriously… but still only managed 3 out of 5. No one actually pulled it off, but a few got close. Whether Andy’s goal was motivation or just to get us all pis*ed is still unclear, but either way, it worked.

At around 11 pm, some of the group vanished, all because they’d been craving something called a “spice bag” since we landed. Ella had been banging on about getting a proper Dublin spice bag all week, so when the moment came, she wasn’t missing out. Here’s how she describes it 👇

The next day was, as expected, a bit of a mixed bag. Some of us were up early and ready for a new day. Others were still … a little bit drunk (we’ll leave you to guess who 👀).

We regrouped for breakfast and went for a walk around the city to shake off the booze. The plan was to visit Twinkle Town Christmas markets – sounded magical. It was quite the opposite, as it was still setting up to open 👎.

Andy and I took this as a sign to go to the pub. Whilst the rest chose coffee, doughnuts, matcha and some browsing instead. During their wanderings, they:

• Spotted people dressed as Charity Shop Sue

• Had a browse in some shops

• Witnessed a man trying to rescue an injured seagull by throwing it into the air… it did not fly 🥺

I later joined them after a couple of beers, and we all headed for some (more) food before heading to the airport. Naturally, we couldn't leave without a final stop for some Nutella churros. They were SO good 😍.

It was time to head home. Trust our luck – our 21:20 Friday flight was delayed for just over an hour, but we all made it back to Manchester.

Well, almost all of us. Andy had other plans. He wasn’t ready to leave Dublin just yet, so he stayed on til Monday with his mate. Things didn't exactly go smoothly for him …

Andy, somehow, managed to book his return flight for the 28th of December instead of the 1st of December. A minor detail that only became apparent once he was already at the airport. To be fair, he did only book it at 5:22am, so I guess it makes sense 🍻😂.

To make things worse:

• He’d lost his coat somewhere in Dublin

• He tried to calm his stress with a spag bol – which arrived smothered in cheese (He’s lactose intolerant)

It was a tough 24 hours for Andy. But a funny story for the rest of us.