Office Christmas parties give us sleepless nights

And other stories from the stranger side of life

An office Christmas party scene
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Christmas work parties give millions of people sleepless nights, said the Daily Star. One in four of us "lies awake worrying over what we did or fear we're about to do" at the annual office bash, said the tabloid. A separate study, by Premier Inn, found that nearly three-quarters of workers believed office parties were a "hotspot" for gaffes such as insulting the boss, throwing up and inappropriate smooching.

'Clanking cowbells' clash in Swiss village

Villagers in Switzerland have launched a campaign to maintain the tradition of "clanking cowbells" after two couples complained about the noise at night, said The Times. The newcomers had asked authorities earlier this year to make a farmer remove the bells from his herd of 15 cows while they grazed overnight on a field next to a residential area, but a third of voters in the village of Aarwangen "rose up" to demand a local vote to protect the traditional use of bells.

Ring mystery solved at Ritz

A guest at the Ritz in Paris who thought hotel staff had stolen a £637,000 diamond ring will be reunited with her jewellery after it was found in a vacuum cleaner, said Sky News. A Malaysian guest had filed a police complaint on Friday, but the ring was found on Sunday. "Thanks to meticulous searches by security agents at the Ritz Paris, the ring was found this morning in a vacuum cleaner bag," said the hotel in a statement, adding that "our client is happy at the news".

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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.