'Tis the season to gorge yourself on free cookies and "get your drink on" on the company's dime. That's right, it's office holiday party season. But with it comes certain dos and don'ts. Think of the office holiday party as your year-end performance review for your coworkers-- how you act can determine how they treat you for the next several months. Therefore, you should heed this guide to avoid any unpleasantness.

Don't: Get sloppy drunk. Office holiday parties are for catching up on office gossip, watching your boss get increasingly tipsy and perhaps finally getting up the nerve to talk to that cute new guy/gal in accounting. They are not for getting blitzed, dancing wildly to Lady Gaga and then picking a fight with your cubicle mate who's been driving you crazy with his loud coughing and incessant IM dings. (Why can't he mute the sound??) Every workplace has a story about that coworker who had one too many Heinekens and rum balls and told the boss where he could cram his "synergy" and team building exercises. The one thing those stories all have in common? The coworker no longer works there.

Do: Be nice to the IT folks. Now's your chance to make nice with those slightly cliquey, socially awkward types in IT. Offer to get them a drink, maybe strike up a conversation about Avatar. It'll pay off the next time your computer goes on the fritz right before the big deadline. 

Don't: Make out with a coworker within a five mile radius of your office. Keep it out of the conference room, the stairwell, the infamous supply closet. If your coworkers so much as see you leave the room together, they will assume you're totally going to do it on the boss' desk and will gossip about you mercilessly until at least Groundhog Day.

Do: Dance. Now, this is somewhat dependent on what type of office you work in. I have worked at places where the holiday party turned into a raging dance party on par with Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. Other offices, my coworkers would have given me the stink eye if I so much as started doing "The Robot." Still though, if the office suddenly turns into Footloose, don't be afraid to join in. There's something awesome about a year's worth of workplace tension and stress erupting into a giant dance party.

Don't: Crash the party if you've recently been laid off. I was at a holiday party once where this happened. It wasn't a pretty scene. Of course the temptation is there, particularly with the economic climate the way it is. But you're much better off throwing your own party and avoiding an awkward encounter with your former boss and the looks of pity on the faces of the folks you once called coworkers.

Don't: Wear a snazzy Christmas sweater. Look, no one wants to be at the party. Your coworkers would much rather be getting intoxicated in a non-supervised environment. Therefore, they are looking for something, anything to be snarky about. And your homemade light-up Christmas sweater doesn't deserve that.

Do: Take treats home with you. Why not? You've worked hard all year for those cocktail weenies and snowflake cookies. And, unlike the toner cartridges you've been pilfering from the supply closet, your company actually wants you to take the food home. 

Don't: Photocopy your ass. Why does this still happen in every movie and TV show? First of all, have you ever actually tried climbing on top of a photocopier? It's uncomfortable to say the least. (And it's only a matter of time before they figure out those things are giving us all cancer.) Not to mention that someone will most certainly upload a copy of your derriere to Facebook the minute you hand it out. This is one holiday party shenanigan that should never enter the digital age.

Got any office holiday party dos and don'ts? Any horror stories from past or present workplace shindigs?