Last week has been the most enriching Christmas week, I've ever had.

Last sunday, the church youth ( which includes yours truly) organized the games stalls for the Annual Church Fete. I had never organized a fete before, so this was one of those learning opportunities I was looking forward to. When it came to the fete, the priority was very clear - we were all gonna have a FUN time.

However, if success could be quantified, nothing like it. And what better way to quantify it than to see how much money we could make out of this.

Some of the considerations that came in while making our estimates of what we could earn were:

- No. of game stalls reqd
- Total no. of games played
- Price/game
- Costs - esp for the prizes
- Probability of winning for each game


The above 5 were key in deciding the profits we were going to make. Another important consideration was that no prizes should be leftover with us after the fete. The "inventory" of prizes should move, else the amount spent in buying these prizes and cost of transportation would be a waste. Moreover, this leftover inventory would not be serving its purpose - making the prizewinners happy.

Clearly, a situation emerged where we had balance multiple objectives of more participation ( and therefore suitable pricing), profits, no leftover inventory, and so on.


I made my own model prior to the fete, and from a profits point of view was anticipating only break even ( I overestimated the chances of winning,and underestimated number of games played).


I was wrong.


The Fete was a whopping success, not just in terms of numbers but in several softer aspects such as participant satisfaction, winner satisfaction, stall management, crowd control and so on. In money terms our profits were 40% of revenues.Not bad! ( beat my estimate atleast).



So that was Sunday. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were adventures in themselves. The youth planned for door to door carol singing on these days, when we would visit most of the youth member's families. Fortunately for me, being the year-end, closing was around the corner and so workload was somewhat thanda. Didnt waste this window of opportunity and so joined the choir every evening.


I have been part of 3 official church choirs ( including the current one). The current by far was the most fun choir ever! ( although our singing skills could use a little help!!. Special thanks for Mr. Sebastian for taking time out of his work and transporting us guys from house to house.

Of course, after 3 days of roaming around in the chilly weather, I caught hold of something that was inevitable - the common cold.


Thursday and Friday was a break ( kind felt low after the 4 days of excitement - something like withdrawal symptoms). Saturday, headed of to church to help fix the giant Christmas star on the roof. The actual star was done, but help was needed in hoisting the star to the roof top and in giving the electrical connections. The latter I enjoyed doing the most, cos I could finally use some electronics engineering I had picked up at our Lab Classes at NIT, Calicut.


Went for Christmas mass at midnight and the choir was lovely.


And that's the story of this Christmas week.