Well, it’s that time of the year again! The time to don your Santa hats and plan out the best virtual Christmas party for your office.
Our Top Picks
- Best Overall: Hiring a master of ceremonies for all your virtual holiday party needs
- Best For Spreading Holiday Spirit: Exchanging virtual gifts and gift boxes
- Best Customizable Activity: Virtual holiday trivia
- Best For Team Building: Online holiday scavenger hunt or Virtual escape room
- Best For A Relaxing Holiday Party: Watching holiday movies as a group
- Best For Bonding: Sharing your favorite holiday traditions or favorite holiday memory
- Best Out-of-the-box Idea: Virtual painting lesson
Like last year, most companies will be opting to go virtual for their Christmas party using video conferencing platforms like Zoom or a video call on Google Meet. And that might be leaving you with questions like:
“What are some good virtual holiday party ideas for me to implement?” or “How can I make this virtual Christmas party one that my colleagues will never forget?”
If the title didn’t tip you off, we’ve got you covered when it comes to a virtual Christmas. So get ready to scroll through some virtual party ideas and get to hosting your best virtual Christmas party yet!
See Related: Hire a Virtual Master of Ceremonies: The Secret To Making Everyone Happy At Your Next Virtual Event
#1. Make your gift exchange more challenging… and fun
Sometimes, virtual Christmas gifts can be hard to come up with. Especially for remote employees. So try setting a strict requirement like this:
Every gift must be purchased at the Dollar Store! Not only do you make the process more equitable, you actually force your employees to come up with creative solutions and fun gifts!
#2. Gift 5 of your “star” attendees with inexpensive magic tracks
Then, that small group of attendees can perform for the group as a whole making for free entertainment! There are plenty of different options, not to mention affordable ones like Penguin Magic.
Besides, your guests will come away from the event not only having had a great time. But they’ll have learned some magic too!
#3. Have your party-goers compete in a “Pun-tathalon”
We all know that Dad jokes are (terribly) popular. So why not make an entire game out of Dad jokes themselves at your virtual Christmas party?
See who can get the biggest virtual party groans out of the rest of your group. Think of jokes like, “I used to build ships. I was riveting…”
#4. Play “Name that tune (or Christmas carol)”
This virtual holiday party game is a great way to get a little team-building going at your virtual Christmas parties. And infuse a little holiday music and holiday trivia into your virtual event.
Play a snippet of a Christmas carol or holiday song with your remote team. Have each team take turns guessing. And get to know the music aficionados in your office!
#5. Teach your team how to juggle!
No, seriously! This is one of those Christmas games that can be such a fun and hilarious activity for you to enjoy with your team.
Besides, juggling balls make a great party gift. Even consider booking a professional like Greg Bennick to conduct a You Can Juggle workshop for your team.
#6. Virtual Holiday Party Games: The Giving Game
Christmas is all about giving, right? So give each of your employees $50 to spend on a charity of their choice in honor of your holiday event.
Even encourage team members to create a 1-minute video describing how good it feels to give! Then post on your company’s social media to show how you’re choosing to give back this holiday season and maybe even make it one of your office’s Christmas traditions.
#7. Holiday Magic!
Christmas games are all good and fun. But what about holiday-inspired magic?
Hiring an interactive virtual comedy magician like Aaron O’Brien will delight your guests in a fun way. And you’ll have them talking about that online act for years to come.
#8. Choose a Wacky Theme and Dress Accordingly
A virtual Christmas party wouldn’t be complete without a costume portion attached, now would it? So feel free to get creative with your party ideas!
You could opt for the classic ugly Christmas sweater competition. Or maybe change things up and set a theme of “Elf Help Day,” awarding prizes to the best-dressed Santa helpers in your company.
Make sure you set up a virtual photo booth too. Wouldn’t want those costumes from the party this year to leave people’s memories!
#9. Merry Mocktails!
By now, you should know that you don’t need alcohol to have fun. So opt for a company-branded alcohol-free mocktail kit instead!
Send these kits to your attendees beforehand. And maybe even trade tips and tricks for different spices and ideas that you can include in your next hot chocolate endeavor throughout the holiday season.
#10. The Resolution Solution
Okay, this is a really fun one. Get each attendee to write down a goal for the new year on a blank postcard.
Then, have them mail it to themselves as a reminder. This way, your people will not have their ideas and resolutions go in one year and out the next – and you may even help your team make their dreams come true!
Bonus: Why Do An Employee Engagement Survey?
#11. Best Backdrop Wins
With virtual backgrounds, you can pretty much have your meetings from anywhere around the world! Whether you’re laying out on the (virtual) beach or out in the middle of a (virtual) lot full of Christmas trees.
Get everyone to participate in these fun backdrop challenge games. Then give away three prizes to the best virtual backgrounds showcased at your virtual holiday party.
How do the categories of “Holiday glitz,” “Creativity,” and “Funniest photoshop” sound? (Sounds like a fun online game to us!)
#12. HO HO HA HAs
If the online games just aren’t hitting it with your crowd, then one of the best virtual Christmas party ideas we can offer you is virtual holiday entertainment. Whether that entertainment comes from a cover band of Christmas carols or from a corporate entertainer with a holiday-themed set.
You’ll have your team feeling good. And you’ll have loads to laugh about once you get back in the office.
#13. Play Finish the Christmas Phrase
We all know those seasonal sayings like “Happy holidays!” or “Merry Christmas!” But why not make some fun online games out of it?
Hand out these holiday game sheets and get folks to join in on the virtual Christmas spirit. All while completing the worksheet with their own hot chocolate in hand and a Christmas tree in the background.
#14. Switch, Steal, or Unwrap Gift Exchange
As far as virtual holiday party games go, this one’s a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. To amp it up, even more, hire a virtual event host and have virtual participants roll online dice.
According to their dice roll, they must switch, steal, or unwrap their gifts. Like the virtual lottery of gift-giving games!
#15. Festive Fictionary
If you know the game “Balderdash,” then you know that it’s a game based on Fictionary. No game board is required, only that you and your guests find obscure words in the dictionary.
Then, have your team come up with fictional definitions of these words. Vote on the right definition and you receive 10 points. Then, you receive 1 point every time a teammate selects your phony definition. And the winner gets a festive hat!
#16. Ben & Merrys: When the season gets icy… it’s time for Ice Cream!
Send each of your guests holiday gift cards for a total amount of $5. Then tell them to pick out their favorite Ben & Jerry’s pint of ice cream to bring to the party.
Once together, your guests can vote on the top 10 favorite flavors of Ben & Jerry’s. And you’ll all have a sweet treat that you chose out specifically.
#17. Holiday Hot Wheels
Do you know how Hot Wheels has different cars with different personalities? They’re “Boss Hoss” and “Beach Bomb,” for example.
So as a fun welcome into the virtual Christmas party, assign your guests a Hot Wheels car and personality! Then, reveal that it’s the one you feel captures their spirit best.
#18. Book a Dueling Pianos Team
Okay, hear us out. Dueling piano sing-a-longs are actually always a great hit – especially during a virtual Christmas party!
Sure, the idea sounds crazy. But you can guarantee that your colleagues will never forget such a top-notch Christmas act.
#19. Coolest Christmas Cookies
Nothing says Christmas like Christmas cookies. So try hosting a virtual cookie decorating party as a fun way to show off your team’s creative abilities.
Send cookie decorating kits to your guests, set a timer, and let the decorating begin! This way, you can award prizes to the funniest, sloppiest, and most holiday-ish cookie designs your coworkers can make.
#20. A Merry Master of Ceremonies
Hosting a fun virtual holiday party can take surprisingly more effort than you might think. And maybe you just don’t have the time to put so much energy into coming up with virtual Christmas party ideas.
Luckily, there is a swath of fully hosted virtual Christmas parties out there for hire. And that just leaves you with the task of showing up and having a great time.
The ideal virtual Christmas party host will be someone engaging and cheerful like, say, a clean comedian! They’ll get folks laughing and be the best kind of virtual MC for a trivia contest, raffle prizes, and more.
After all, this virtual holiday party is meant to be a chance for remote employees to let their hair down (so to say). And a time for folks to share a good laugh.
Other virtual holiday party ideas
Well, we are talking about Christmas here. So what’s more Christmas-y than gifting you some bonus virtual holiday party ideas?
Virtual Secret Santa
Secret Santa is hands-down a favorite Christmas activity of many. Not to mention, it saves your team members the trouble of having to get everyone in the office a gift!
Assign your remote teams their respective recipients beforehand. And have them send their Secret Santa gift in time for everyone to unwrap them on screen. That way, team members can have a little fun guessing who gifted who what.
Online scavenger hunt
Say you want to do a scavenger hunt but are confined to each of your respective houses. Well, don’t let that stop you!
Come up with a list of typical household items for each team member to find. And get as creative as you like. Remember – scavenger hunts are a great way of handing out prizes too! (Gift cards, hint hint).
Christmas movie charades
This is the perfect virtual party game to get folks to engage with their goofy side! Divide your virtual team up and have each act out a classic Christmas movie scene.
This might be a scene from “A Christmas Story” where the kid gets his tongue stuck on a pole. Or maybe even one of those crazy antics involving a Christmas tree from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”
Play chubby elf
Remember playing that game chubby bunny as a kid? You know, the one where you stick as many marshmallows in your mouth and try to say “chubby bunny” clearly without cracking up?
Well, just swap out “bunny” for “elf” and get your online Christmas party in the holiday season spirit. (Pro tip: Make sure your employees have a plastic bag nearby though in case they need to spit out their marshmallows!)
Virtual holiday bingo
Looking for a Christmas party idea that will last the duration of the evening? Try out a game of virtual holiday bingo!
Make sure to send out the bingo sheet to your team beforehand. Then, as the night rolls on, team members can tick off whatever they encounter throughout the evening.
Recreate your favorite holiday movie recipe
As far as Christmas party ideas go, this one’s definitely a winner. Get each team member to prepare a favorite holiday movie recipe on the video call for colleagues, like:
- Buddy’s pasta from Elf
- Meat loaf from A Christmas Story
- “Filthy Animal” Pizza from Home Alone
- or Olaf Nutter Butter Cookies from Frozen
Play a virtual Elf on the Shelf game
A fun holiday game that most of us look forward to throughout the year is the beloved Elf on the Shelf. Well, why not incorporate that into your online party?
Party online and get team members to place their Christmas elf somewhere visible within the webcam. Then, as the night goes on, the team can try to collect all of the elves off of the shelves and call it a holiday season win!
Spreading good cheer!
Nothing says Christmas like being all together. And while some of us can’t be together in person, then a virtual Christmas party is your next best bet!
With games and stories to share, you can make this online Christmas event one that everyone looks forward to each year. And it may even become the next office Christmas tradition as folks travel to be with loved ones.
So use these ideas to enhance your holiday Christmas party. And make it a night full of good cheer, good colleagues, and the spirit of kindness and giving!
Keep Reading: What Is Work Productivity?
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Adam Christing is a professional comedy magician, virtual MC, and the founder of CleanComedians.com. He is a member of the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood and a popular corporate entertainer, magician, and virtual speaker.