Celebrating the Holidays Fully Remote: Shogies Share Their Favorite Traditions

The end-of-year holidays are here and it’s time to celebrate!

Here at Shogun, we’re proud to be a fully remote and globally distributed company, which means our team celebrates many different holidays all over the world—and each Shogie (what we nickname our team members!) has different traditions they’re looking forward to.

This year, we asked a few of our globally distributed team members to share their favorite holiday traditions, and a common theme emerged: being fully remote makes it easier for our Shogies to spend the holidays with their loved ones.

Just another reason to love that remote work life!

Because Shogun really cares that everyone gets a proper break to rest up and recharge, this year we’re trying out a company-wide “shutdown” from December 27-31st. It’s intended as time to relax and celebrate the past year. We’ll do this all while supporting our 19,000+ customers without gaps in service. That’s what balancing a successful remote business is all about, after all. We want to put our people and customers first.

Here’s what our awesome Shogies will be up to as they enjoy their holiday time:

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“Every Thanksgiving, after dinner, my family and I play board games. Over the years we’ve accrued a stockpile of strategy and other card games. We play board games and tell stories all night. It’s relaxing, and over the years I have come to love this holiday tradition.”

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‍My grandfather was from Sweden, so growing up we celebrated a lot of Swedish holidays–especially Sankta Lucia Day on December 13th. My sisters and I would dress up as St Lucia with wreaths and candles on our heads (our crowns were battery operated thanks to the American Girl Doll Kirsten), and we’d bring coffee, Lussekatts (saffron Lucia buns) and Pepparkakor (ginger cookies) to my parents. As an adult, I no longer dress up and give my parents breakfast in bed, but I do still enjoy the buns and pepparkakor every year.”

Remote work gives me more time to help my mom bake and decorate her house with Jul Tomtens, Dala horses, and of course the Jul Goat–which miraculously has survived a dozen dogs and cats through the years! God Jul allihopa!

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“Every Christmas Eve, my parents, brother, and I all go for a long walk in the snowy mountains. We walk, drink hot chocolate, watch the dogs play, and talk about the upcoming events of the nights ahead. I know it might sound simple, but I look forward to it every year!

Once we get in the car and start to head to our location, Christmas begins for me. We started this tradition because a lot of places are closed on Christmas Eve, so we thought “what could we do that doesn’t involve needing a business to be open”… we have been doing it every year since!”

“Since I can remember, my mom and I would always bake homemade sugar cookies right before Christmas. We’d go all out—make the dough from scratch, use holiday cookie cutters, and decorate with allllll the sprinkles. I’ll always cherish this time with my mom ❤️ “

 “Working remotely gives me the flexibility to fly to my parents’ place sooner so I can spend more time with them during the holiday season. Love this!“

Pssttt: Try out Kaitlyn’s Sugar Cookie Recipe

“For as long as I can remember—my Dad would make the traditional Polish dish, Pierogi, for Christmas Eve dinner. These are tasty little dumplings, often stuffed with Sauerkraut, Potato and many other creative stuffings your heart can imagine. This dish can be prepared in a variety of ways—but we always sautéed them with onions. “

Fun fact: A common Polish phrase, “Swiety Jacek z pierogami!” (Translated St. Hyacinth and his pierogi!). It’s essentially the same as the English expression of “holy cow!” and comes from the legend about St. Hyacinth brought the pierogi to Poland during one of his mission trips.

“Working remotely impacts my holiday celebrations by allowing us to spend more time together during the holidays—traveling to see family.”

Try out Ryan’s Ultimate Pierogi Recipe

 

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