Inside the excessive Silicon Valley Christmas parties

FROM gold-nugget coated cupcakes to a mashed potato bar, Silicon Valley's tech giants know how to throw a party. Have a peek inside this year's bashes.

The LinkedIn Cluedo party.

BACK in the day, Wall Street banks threw the biggest parties you'd ever seen.

There were superstar singers, exclusive clubs and out-there performances. Not to mention the litres of free booze and outrageous bills.

That was until 2008. Wiped out by the financial crisis, all these celebrities suddenly needed a new crowd to entertain.

Enter Silicon Valley.

The technology hub in the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California is where the cash still rolls. It is home to Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn.

These companies don't know how to do parties by halves. These lavish holiday parties will make your company's bash look like a primary school dance.

Suddenly that glass of non-alcoholic wine by the photocopier seems terribly unfair.

Here are how the three tech giants celebrated.

There were gold nuggets on cakes at the Yahoo party.

News_Image_File: The Yahoo party had golden cupcakes.

And life-size ginger bread men.

News_Image_File: Normal size would have been too small.

Then the Counting Crows performed.

@CountingCrows rocked the @Yahoo holiday party tonight. #rockcandysf pic.twitter.com/HGVLdf4IdO

The theme was Candy Rock - also known as excess.

News_Image_File: Yahoo took over the huge Pier 48 venue.

Facebook threw a party with a mashed potato bar. Because everyone loves mash.

News_Image_File: Facebook entertained 6000 people at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.

And the band Barcelona played to the potato-eating crowd.

The band @barcelona performing at the Facebook holiday party. #Seattle #Barcelona pic.twitter.com/TAdyboNER4

The LinkedIn party had a Cluedo theme.

News_Image_File: Ahhh ... just what I was looking for.

With liquid nitrogen ice cream for snacks.

Had great fun at #cluedin2013 pic.twitter.com/trasKyPB0x

Bored of that? There's always the unlimited sushi bar.

News_Module: Sushi overload

Or take a drink at a toilet bowl. Why not, we say.

News_Module: A cold drink