15 Ideas to Help You Celebrate the Holidays with your Team

With the holidays around the corner, it’s time to think of ways to celebrate with your team! The holidays are a great time to show employee recognition and foster employee engagement through team celebrations. Whether your team is remote or can get together in person, we have curated a list of fun holiday activities that will get everyone ready for the holiday season!

1. Have an Ugly Christmas Sweater Day

This idea can be done in person or virtually, making it a great option for all companies. To make it fun, you can host a friendly and fun competition by asking employees to submit their favourite christmas sweater anonymously at the end of the day. Whoever receives the most votes gets a Christmas prize! 

Make sure to get a group photo of everyone in their ugly sweaters!

2. Be merry with Christmas treats

Christmas potluck but dessert style. Get all employees to bring in their favourite christmas treat, whether that’s homemade cookies or store bought chocolates! 

3. Christmas party craft kits

Channel your creativity and have a fun evening making Christmas crafts. If your team is virtual, you could create mini craft baskets and ship them to your employees for the party. Have fun chatting and building the same craft with your co-workers. At the end, show off your craftsmanship and take a group photo! 

4. Host a holiday mixology party

Who doesn’t love a good cocktail? Get your team together and create holiday craft cocktails together! Choose 3 unique holiday cocktails and supply all the ingredients and instructions needed to make each. Have the whole team vote on their favourite holiday cocktail! Need some cocktail inspiration? Check out this link. 

5. Secret santa

Nothing screams Christmas more than secret santa! Have all your employees pull names from a hat and limit the gift price to a reasonable amount. If you want to add some fun to it, give the opportunity to steal the best gift by playing white elephant. 

6. Holiday trivia 

Who doesn’t love a good old game of trivia, even better, holiday trivia? Get your team together virtually or in person and play a fun game of christmas trivia. Divide your employees into teams and work together to guess the best christmas movies or christmas songs of all time. This can be a fun way to get to know each other more and bond with your team!

7. Online Carolers

Get together as a team and listen to some christmas carolers, whether it’s online or in person. Or incorporate carolers into your holiday party to bring some extra cheer.

8. Build gingerbread houses

Bring your sweet tooth and get ready to bond with your team while building the best gingerbread house of all time. This is easy to execute, as you can buy gingerbread making kits and supply them to your employees. You could add a little challenge by hosting a friendly competition at the end by voting on the best gingerbread house! 

9. Gourmet hot chocolate party

Hosting a hot chocolate party is something easy you could do on lunch break to spice up everyone’s day or also after work as a twist on ‘happy hour’. You can get creative with it and buy the ingredients to make different kinds of hot chocolate - peppermint, skor, Kahlua, etc. This is an easy activity to do to provide your team with time for socialization throughout the day, which can help increase employee engagement and happiness.

For more inspiration on unique hot chocolate recipes to explore, click here. Pick your favourite flavour and sip on your hot cocoa while watching a christmas movie with the team!

10. Decorate christmas cookies

You can make it simple and provide employees with their own decorating kit that comes with sugar cookies, icing and sprinkles. You could have a lead showcase how to successfully decorate the perfect cookie, or have your employees get creative! Bonus is you get to eat the cookies afterwards if you choose.

11. Make your own Holiday ornaments 

Get festive with some custom holiday ornaments. Provide your employees with decorating kits or if in person, have a crafts table with all the supplies you may need. Play some Christmas music and get started on customizing your own personal ornaments with your team!

12. Holiday Bingo

Host a fun game of holiday bingo. This is a great way to get your team together whether it’s for a fun social lunch break or a fun game to play at your holiday party! You can offer prizes for the winner to get people excited and bring some friendly competition to the table!

13. Make your own Christmas cards 

With your team, create your own custom christmas cards to send out to loved ones during the holidays!

14. Holiday stocking stuffers

If your team can’t get together in person, this is a great way to get your employees into the Christmas spirit. Create thoughtful stockings and send them off to your employees just in time for your virtual holiday party. This can get people more excited and increase employee engagement in your event, while also showing employee recognition. A few ideas to include in the stocking is chocolate, soft fuzzy blanket or slippers, a holiday scented candle, Christmas ornament, etc. Get creative with it!

15. Holiday movie night

Nothing says the holidays without a festive movie! Host a virtual or in person Holiday movie night, pop popcorn and have some holiday cocktails with the team!