The office holiday party is just another of the events having to go virtual this year due to the pandemic. However, that doesn’t mean it cannot still be a fun and festive team-building event.

Holiday parties are a great way to boost morale and help your employees relax at the end of the year, benefits that are needed more than ever this year.

If you’re unsure of how to celebrate virtually or are even considering canceling your party this year, take a look at our top ideas for how to host a virtual holiday party to keep the festivities going despite these unusual circumstances.

Preparing for a Virtual Holiday Party

Just like with traditional holiday parties, there are preparations to be made in advance of your virtual party. Keep the following in mind to ensure everything goes smoothly on the day.

Decide on a Time

The first step in planning your virtual holiday party is to decide on a time that works for all your employees. Host a Zoom call to discuss this or send out an email with some time and date suggestions asking which work and which do not.

Due to the changes in many people’s schedules because of the pandemic, be open to being flexible with the time of the party. For example, be open to hosting a morning or lunchtime event even if the office holiday party usually takes place in the evening.

Decide on a Dress Code

It can be fun to have a dress code for the party even though it’s being held virtually. Decide on this (again, collaborating with your team if necessary) and then let everyone know of the final decision.

For example, you could keep it casual by asking employees to wear a holiday sweater. You could also have a vote on the best sweaters during the party! Alternatively, simply ask employees to wear a holiday accessory such as a Santa hat, reindeer headband, or festive jewelry.

Encouraging employees to dress-up can help everyone get into the festive spirit, even when celebrating virtually.

Send Invites

Like with your normal party, send invites to ensure everyone knows when the party is and other details such as how they need to prepare.

These can be mailed for a more traditional touch or stick with the virtual theme and send virtual invites.

Prepare and Send Required Materials

Hosting a virtual party will likely mean you need to send each employee some materials. This could include gift cards or credit for food and drinks, materials needed for games or crafts, and party favors and gifts.

Make sure you plan in advance what each employee will need and ensure these items are delivered in time for the party.

11 Virtual Holiday Party Ideas

There are many things you can do to celebrate the holidays virtually with your employees. The following are some festive themed ideas that transfer well to a virtual environment.

If you can’t decide on a theme, suggest a few to employees and have a vote, asking for additional ideas if needed. Also consider combining these ideas for an extended party, for example, completing crafting activities before sharing a virtual dinner.

1. Play Games

Festive games are a part of many office holiday parties and can easily be played virtually. You could opt for a whole games night featuring a selection of holiday-themed games or add games as part of a more varied party.

You can find lots of great holiday game ideas online or you may already have some that you play each year at parties. Ask employees for suggestions too. They may have a fun holiday game they play with friends or family that you wouldn’t have thought of.

Some holiday game ideas that work well virtually include:

Charades
Pictionary
Trivia and quizzes
Name that holiday song - play a small portion of festive songs and get each employee to guess the song.
Holiday themed two truths and a lie
Holiday-themed bingo

Holiday themed ice breakers are another great addition to any party theme and will help get staff into the party mood.

Prizes, Gifts, and Secret Santa

If your games will have prizes, make sure you have a system for this set up in advance. That could include sending virtual gift cards to employees as they win the games or sending physical gifts the day after.

You’ll also want to think about if you’ll be sending gifts or party favors and if your team will be participating in Secret Santa this year. If so, make sure there is also a procedure for this. Ensure gifts/party favors are sent in advance. For Secret Santa, make sure employees are happy for other employees to have their address or have all gifts sent to the office or one higher-up employee who will mail them out.

Again, virtual gifts are highly recommended. Gift cards or donations in an employee's name to a charity of their choice are perfect options that avoid the issue of sending mail to each staff member.

2. Throw a Craft Night

Doing some holiday crafting is a fun and low-stress activity to include in your virtual holiday party. There are many holiday craft projects for all activity levels, with a quick Google (or Pinterest) search offering many ideas.

Some crafts to try include:

Decorating or making ornaments
Making holiday wreaths
Painting holiday mugs
Decorating holiday party hats

Be sure to send all the supplies needed to each employee in advance. You can also find companies that offer crafting kits and can use YouTube tutorials to help employees complete more complex crafts such as holiday wreaths.

Hosting a holiday craft night is the perfect virtual party idea to get everyone interacting and having fun!

3. Host a Staff Dinner

Having a staff dinner is the option of choice for many in-person holiday parties and this can work virtually too.

This could involve having take-out delivered to each employee (many delivery services allow you to choose delivery time making it easy for all meals to arrive at the same time.)

Alternatively, you could give money (via gift card or delivery service credit) to each employee so they can choose their own meals. Again, choose a time to eat and ask that employees order in advance to make sure deliveries are arriving at approximately the same time.

Due to the high demand for virtual parties this year, you can also find companies specifically offering holiday party meal delivery. This can include multiple courses and drinks for a set price.

4. Plan a Cooking or Baking Themed Holiday Party

Instead of having meals delivered, consider cooking dinner together as part of the party. Employees could offer recipes, and you can send ingredients or use a cooking-at-home company that can provide each employee with a box of ingredients and recipes.

You could also do some holiday baking. Provide a sugar cookie, gingerbread, or cupcake recipe and have a virtual baking and decorating session.

Alternatively, simply provide baked goods and decorating materials and have a relaxed decorating session via video call. From gingerbread houses to snowflake sugar cookies or holiday cupcakes, there are lots of options for this fun (and tasty) party theme!

Remember that not all employees will have a large kitchen or lots of cooking and baking equipment (or may not have access to these things if their family or roommates are home during the party.) If unsure of each employee’s set-up, opt for decorating as all supplies can be provided and little space is needed to participate.

5. Host a Cocktail Masterclass or Wine Tasting

Another cool virtual holiday party idea is to host a cocktail making class or wine tasting session.

There are lots of companies that offer virtual cocktail making classes. They will often also send all materials needed to each participant or will provide an ingredients and materials list that you can use to create kits to send to each employee.

You could also set this up yourself, finding holiday-themed cocktail recipes and sending materials, with you all testing out the recipes at the virtual event.

Again, there are multiple virtual wine tasting services, such as The Supper Share which offers virtual sommelier hosting and wine tastings. Or, you can send each employee a selection of small bottles of wine and have everyone rank them as they try them.

Be sure to also include options for those that don’t drink such as mocktail recipes.

A festive cocktail class will make your virtual holiday party a highly memorable and enjoyable time.

6. Have a Holiday Karaoke Night

Holiday karaoke is another fun activity that can be done virtually. This can include your employees’ favorite songs or can be more holiday-themed, with just festive songs being allowed.

You can set karaoke up by simply sharing YouTube videos with the song and lyrics as each employee sings along. Or, you can use virtual Karaoke apps such as Lucky Voice Karaoke.

7. “Go to” a Virtual Show

Going to an event or performance is something many companies will do with their employees as part of their holiday celebrations. This year, many of these shows have also had to go virtual.

If your team would enjoy this, buy everyone tickets to a virtual show that you can all watch together. You could then have a video call before or after the show as well to enjoy a meal and/or drinks and play games.

What’s great about this is that you can see performances from around the world, meaning you and your employees can enjoy a performance you may not have seen otherwise!

Some holiday performances going virtual (for multiple nights) this year that you could choose from include The Nutcracker Ballet by the New York City Ballet and Elf: The Musical from the Bastrop Opera House.

8. Enjoy a Festive Movie Night

Watching festive movies during the holidays is a tradition that many families enjoy so why not share this tradition with your work family? Streaming services like Netflix Party allow you to all watch the same movie at the same time.

Choose a selection of holiday movies offered on your chosen streaming platform and then have employees vote on which they’d like to watch.

You can also send some festive movie snacks to employees that they can enjoy with the movie such as caramel popcorn, reindeer chow, and holiday M&Ms.

Having a festive virtual movie night is a relaxed and fun idea for your holiday party.

9. Host a Holiday Happy Hour

If your employees enjoy happy hour, why not simply host a virtual holiday happy hour? Send each employee drinks or a form of payment for them to get their own. You could also send some happy hour snacks or additional money for those to be purchased by staff.

Then create a festive playlist and encourage employees to wear festive attire, and set a holiday-themed background.

Again, you can combine this with other ideas, such as playing games or doing crafts, or just enjoy drinking and chatting with each other.

10. Share a Hot Chocolate Break

Hosting a virtual hot chocolate break in place of a coffee break is a great idea if you cannot plan an extended party with staff. Or, have this as an alternative option for employees that won’t be able to attend the main virtual holiday party.

Send each employee supplies such as hot chocolate or cocoa sachets, mini marshmallows, and even a cute holiday mug. You can then have a team chat as you enjoy your beverage or consider playing some quick holiday games too.

11. Try a “Ready-to-Go” Virtual Holiday Party

Many companies have jumped on the virtual holiday party trend to come up with a range of unique virtual offerings that leave you needing to make few preparations.

While these are a little more expensive than doing everything yourself, they’ll offer a fun and seamless experience for all. These include some of the ideas mentioned above, such as holiday party dinner delivery and cocktail classes.

Some other “ready-to-go” options include virtual escape rooms, virtual party scenes (such as a party in an alpine lodge or a party in a wintery village), and various experiences such as at home spa nights and craft tutorials.

A quick online search should bring up many options that cater to your area, ensuring all supplies can be delivered in time for your big event.

In Conclusion

While your office holiday party will definitely be different this year, it doesn’t mean it can’t be a very enjoyable event that allows employees to let loose and have fun together.

Hopefully our tips on hosting a virtual holiday party have given you some ideas for your own party that will help you plan an event everyone will remember!

If you do decide to host a virtual party, keep it relaxed and don’t make attendance mandatory. This is especially important if you hired new employees this year as they won’t have attended an office party with your organization yet. Let them know they can opt-out but that attending is a great way to bond with colleagues and get to know them better in a laid-back atmosphere.

For those that decide to opt-out of hosting a party completely, consider using the money you would usually spend on a party to donate a set amount to charity under each employee’s name. This can be a charity you choose that relates to your company’s mission or let each employee pick a cause of their own. This is a great option too for those that can’t attend your virtual party if you host one.

How to Host a Virtual Holiday Party