Remote and hybrid work arrangements are here to stay, and it’s time to explore how we can bring some holiday cheer into our virtual workspace. That means diving into the world of fun virtual holiday activities. It’s a great opportunity to recognize and celebrate the hard work your team has put in throughout the year in an online setting.
Want the best virtual office holiday party ideas? We’ve covered how to keep up team morale virtually with happy hours and other virtual holiday games — but now we’re rounding up the best remote holiday party ideas to make this season extra special. Take a look below at some of our favorite options to celebrate the season and thank your employees for their hard work all year.
Virtual Holiday Party Ideas for Work
Ultimate Virtual Holiday Party
Our Ultimate Virtual Holiday Party is all about 30-minute rounds of non-stop fun, creativity, and team building. Picture yourself table-hopping with different teammates for each challenge, starting with a gingerbread house decorating showdown inspired by Gingerbread House Hunters. Next, unleash your inner toy inventor in a shark tank-style competition where you’ll craft the perfect holiday toy or game. But the party doesn’t end there; we’re finishing off with a heartwarming twist. Teams will come together to build a tabletop wagon filled with bears, blankets, and holiday toys, all destined for local children in need. It’s a festive, charitable, and action-packed adventure you won’t want to miss – the perfect way to celebrate the season with your team!
Surprises and Treats
The holidays are a great time to remind your team that you appreciate their hard work. Send a small gift or treat to your colleagues as a way to say thank you. You can’t go wrong with perennial favorites like a coffee shop or bookshop gift cards.
Virtual Secret Santa
This holiday tradition gets everyone in on the gift-giving spirit. First, secretly assign everyone on your team another member of the team that they’ll be getting a gift. Make sure everyone mails their gift to the designated recipient in time for the holidays (You can help them out by paying for shipping costs). Then, designate some time at the holiday party for everyone to discover who their Secret Santa was, open their gifts, and show off what their coworkers got them. This is a classic remote holiday party idea sure to get everyone in the yuletide spirit.
Virtual Holiday-Themed Happy Hour
It’s cold outside, so warm up with some homemade cocktails. Spend some time catching up with coworkers while mixing up the best holiday-themed drinks under the supervision of a talented mixology expert. We’ll send you all the ingredients you’ll need to shake and stir your way to a good time.
Virtual Gingerbread House Hunters
In this virtual holiday game, teams have 45 minutes to carefully construct their gingerbread masterpieces and present them to our judges before they decide on the top three properties and, ultimately, one winner. The person with the most votes will be the winner, but everyone else will still get to enjoy the sweet reward of eating their hard work!
This virtual holiday party idea is also a great way to get your team’s families involved if they want to join in the fun. We already know kids won’t be able to stay away from snagging a quick treat!
Quickfire Festive
‘Unwrap’ round after round of interactive fun with this festive virtual holiday party activity. Using app-based gameplay, your team competes in a selection of festive mental, creative, and active challenges that encourage effective communication between team members. The goal? Have the most challenges completed to gain more points and out-perform the other teams to win.
Amazing Race Around the World – Festive Edition
In this activity, learn how different countries celebrate all around the world. Your team’s mission is to deliver as many presents as possible to the six different continents before time runs out. But beware, in order to keep Santa’s sleigh in flight, the reindeer need to be fed. Complete challenges to earn carrots in order to keep the reindeer going. Will your team be the first to the finish line of North America?
Project Sleigh
In this new virtual office holiday activity, Santa has been building a 21st-century sleigh. But, Christmas Eve is tomorrow and it still isn’t ready. In this Christmas escape game, he needs your help to finish the sleigh or millions of children will go without presents. Can your team save Christmas?
Oh, What Fun Team Trivia
Get your team laughing, competing, and feeling the festive spirit with four rounds of 10 questions each, spanning topics from current events to pop culture, food, movies, TV, and international holiday trivia. Whether you’re a solo trivia master or a team player, it’s a blast for everyone. Customize it to your party theme, audience, and company culture, and enjoy hassle-free access from any device.
Virtual Holiday Party DON’Ts
Before we close out, let’s look at how NOT to celebrate your remote holiday party. As you prep your virtual holiday party ideas, make sure to avoid doing any of these things:
1. Forgetting to dress up in the spirit of holiday cheer
Your company went through all the trouble to find and execute the perfect virtual holiday party idea and you show up in your usual grey button-up shirt? Not very festive! Show your team that you know how to get into the holiday spirit with an outfit that’s on-theme. There are tons of options:
- You can dress up to the nines as if you were attending a formal holiday party in real life. (When else do you have an excuse to get fancy for an online gathering?)
- If your Fa-la-la is more low-key, a sweater in some classic holiday colors like burgundy and forest green will make just the right statement. If you’re leaning toward the ugly sweater tradition, make sure you show off your top’s most unfortunate details so your colleagues get the full effect. A Santa hat or reindeer horns on a headband are optional, but encouraged.
2. Having too much alcoholic eggnog during the meeting
Yes, it’s a virtual office holiday party, just don’t go too hard on the “party” part too early. A mug of eggnog is always an appropriate idea for a virtual holiday party, but once you catch yourself drinking directly from a giant bowl, you might want to switch to a less dangerous cup of apple cider. Virtual holiday parties are of course an occasion to loosen up and have fun, you just don’t want to be that colleague who slurs through a rendition of Silver Bells.
3. Only dressing up your top half and having your pajamas on the bottom half
Since it’s a virtual holiday party you may be tempted to only wear half-an-outfit, particularly the top half. Why not? You’ll just be a talking head on a grid, right? Wrong. It’s still a holiday party, so you never know what kind of games or activities that might require you to get up and move around. What if there’s an impromptu dance party? You wouldn’t want to kill the mood in an old pair of sweatpants. However you’re dressing for the festivities, make sure you do it from head to toe.
4. Forgetting to put yourself on mute while making fun of the ugly sweaters
Even if it’s a virtual holiday party, there’s a risk of holiday party gossip. You don’t want to be the mean girl (or guy) who makes a little too much fun of Cheryl from Accounting, who literally dressed up as a Christmas tree, star on top and all. If you must snicker to a coworker, please remember not to broadcast your quip in the group chat durinhg the virtual holiday games, or forget to mute yourself.
5. Making it feel like a normal meeting – remember, this is a holiday party, not an everyday team meeting!
One of the worst virtual holiday party blunders? Pretending it’s not a party at all. This isn’t a status call or an all-hands meeting, so don’t be afraid to have some fun. You don’t want to be the party pooper who reminds everyone of a looming deadline or checks in with a colleague on a project’s status while everyone else is doing Christmas Karaoke. Put your to-do list away, close all your browser tabs and get into the spirit instead!
6. Coming with no holiday virtual games planned
A man in a Santa hat and plaid shirt looks bored at a table with a glass of beer, set against a blue background.
If you’re responsible for your company’s holiday party, no matter how small or casual, it’s a good idea to have some holiday-theme activities or games to play in your back pocket. As mentioned, this is a whole new season of company holiday parties and we have to do some extra thinking and planning to make sure your people are getting into the swing of things. Simple options like TeamBonding’s Holiday Happy Hour , complete with your own expert mixologist who teaches your group to make specialty cocktails, can turn a ho-hum evening into a holiday hit.
Remote Holiday Party Ideas Galore
As you plan your virtual holiday party ideas for work, don’t forget that TeamBonding is always here to help you plan your festive day. We’ve got a whole sleigh full of holiday virtual party activities. Contact us to customize your holiday event!
