Here's an e-mail sent to Barclays Capital staff by Rich Ricci, Executive Committee Member and Chief Operating Officer. The message - Christmas is effectively cancelled. Expect many other firms to follow BarCap's lead.

Announcements: Policy 29 Oct 2008

Seasonal Parties

I would like to inform you that we will not be holding our annual Seasonal parties this year. I know this might come as a disappointment to many of you, who look forward to the opportunity to relax among colleagues and celebrate a year of hard work and accomplishment. Perhaps more than any other year, you can be proud of your achievements despite extreme market conditions. Your focus, resilience, and attention to clients have allowed us to outperform the competition and continue to build the business as a result. The acquisition of the North American businesses of Lehman Brothers and the UK authorities' recent endorsement of our current capital strength and future capital raising plans would not have been possible without that performance. However, in the current difficult environment for our industry and for the economy as a whole, which affects not just financial services firms but our clients as well, it is not appropriate for us to do anything that might be seen as inappropriate by any of our stakeholders. We have therefore decided that there will be no firmwide or departmental Seasonal parties funded by the firm this year.

The exception is our children's Seasonal parties, which are held in several locations around the world. The last 12 months have had a big impact on all our families as you have all worked particularly hard to help us navigate through the turbulent environment. These events for our children are a small token of thanks for their support and forbearance. Details will be communicated shortly in each location, where such an event is held.

Thank you again for your hard work and focus on our clients.

Rich Ricci

Morgan Stanley Follows

'As you know, in terms of the global economy, it now appears that the environment will remain challenging for the foreseeable future. In times like these, as difficult as it may seem for people in our industry, it is the charities and nonprofits that depend explicitly on donations, many from the financial services sector, that will come under the most pressure in the coming months.

To help ease that pressure, we have asked all divisions to forego their Firm-sponsored holiday parties this year and instead help us apply those designated funds toward helping those most in need. Employees who are personally funding their own holiday events are still free to do so; this request is strictly with regard to Firm-sponsored employee events for the holidays'.

Source - Dealbreaker

READER COMMENTS:

1. 'Citi has cancelled many of the same parties'.

2. 'Although nothing official has come from our masters at Dresdner Kleinwort, it, too, looks like Xmas is cancelled'.

3. 'There'll be no big festive knees-up at Bank of America either - the same as last year'.

4. 'Xmas at Daiwa Securities is very much on!'

5. 'The Bank of England will be in party mood too!!

6. 'RBS looks like it's cancelling Christmas too'.

7. 'And no doubt the executives of all these firms will be flying economy, eating at Denny's and staying in Motels from now on. Oh, I forgot, all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others'.

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