Cheering Up: Season's festivities go on despite economy.(employers scale back holiday parties)

The recession and Sept. 11 tragedies have put a bit of a damper on holiday office parties and corporate gift giving this year, as employers look, for less extravagant ways to show their employees and customers they are appreciated.

Nate Sachs, founder of The Sachs Group in Scottsdale, said he has scaled hack and is looking for a charity to help instead.

"Our feeling was, there are so many people out there in the world in need of money, to throw ourselves a party didn't make sense," he said.

Mitch Portnoy, co-founder of Symmetry Health Data Systems Inc. in Phoenix, said he is not sending clients gift baskets the way be has in the past.

"We have consciously scaled back," Portnoy said. "Because of what has recently happened, we just don't feel as if we want to be celebrating relationships in this way."

Instead, Portnoy intends to call his clients and wish them a happy holiday.

"A phone call is far sweeter than a sugared cookie sent by a third party," he said. "Human interaction is what's important now."

Ernest Calderon, an attorney with Jennings, Strouss & Salmon in …