Sounds like we get a pretty good deal for office parties - we get a team bash in the summer (180 of us get 3 days away at a large country hotel somewhere, fully paid for food, booze, fancy dress ball, quad bikes, sports, go-karting etc), a local team do for Christmas (20 of us get a dinner and as much booze as we can consume) and a local office Christmas party (around 80 of us usually, with dinner, a dance, drinks and accommodation for the night)

I think we do get the benefits of working for a small local team which is part of a really large firm (I think around 110 000 employees at the moment)