From tree-mendously fun Christmas scavenger hunts to cooking contests that will have you reaching for the stars (and stripes), holiday games for adults are great for instilling a sense of camaraderie in your team. There are lots of office holiday party games that you can easily organize yourself to reward your remote staff and acknowledge the hard grind they put in from their home offices.
In this post, we’ll take you through some of those that are sure to be party favorites. Let’s dive in.
How to Plan and Host Office Holiday Games
Preparation is key to all successful holiday office games. Give yourself plenty of time before a holiday party to choose the activities, email the invites, and send out any additional resources people may need for games or workshops.
Make sure you have the budget clearly in mind so that you can maximize the enjoyment of the occasion without going into the red.
10 Office Holiday Party Games to Boost the Fun Your Team
From classic favorites to exciting new formats, our lineup of office holiday party games is guaranteed to add energy and excitement to your festivities at the remote workplace.
1. White Elephant Game
White Elephant is a beast of a game that involves gift giving – and gift stealing. In preparation, each member of staff purchases a present according to a set budget. On the day, a picking order is randomly assigned, with the first person choosing a present from the assembled options. The next player may then choose to either open a fresh gift or steal the already opened gift. Any person who has their gift stolen is then entitled to open another gift or steal from a different person. Turns continue in this way until all the presents have been opened.
Traditionally, participants bring their wrapped gifts into the office on a set day and all of them are placed in a central position on a table. Since your game will be conducted virtually, you will instead need to ask people to display the wrapped presents that they have purchased on their camera, then ask them to unwrap them when their item is selected.
2. Christmas Scavenger Hunt with Clues
A scavenger hunt is one of those endlessly adaptable holiday party games for office gatherings. Give it a Christmas makeover with a list of festive items for your team to find within their own homes. These could be anything from a piece of tinsel or a striped candy cane, to a snow globe or a wreath of holly.
Hooray Teams offers a virtual scavenger hunt that can be customized especially for Christmas. Using teamwork and creativity, coworkers must successfully solve clues and identify the correct objects to score points for their group.
A professional host will be present throughout the game to compere the party and keep track of the scores. In the end, the team with the most points wins. If you want to incentivize competitiveness, prepare some gift vouchers for the top-scoring team.
3. Virtual Snowball Fight
Although most of us might think that the main point of an office snowball fight is to nail the boss in the back of the head, it’s also a great test of accuracy. Take the wintery battle royale online with office holiday party games that are designed to replicate that precision. All your staff needs are some pieces of scrap paper rolled into balls, a coffee mug, a tape measure or ruler, and about 10 feet of space.
The object of the game is simple: get as many paper “snowballs” as possible into the cup. Each player should choose a starting line in their home or garden, then measure a distance 3 feet away from this line where the cup needs to be placed. Staff then take turns to try and land their “snowballs” in the mug. Like the Olympics, each person gets three fails before they are knocked out. Once all participants have either landed a snowball in the cup or been knocked out, the cup is moved back a foot, and the process is repeated. The winner is the player who lands a shot the furthest distance from their starting line.
4. Virtual Turkey Trivia
Let’s talk turkey. Do you think your team knows how many women were at the first Thanksgiving dinner? Or which film directed by Ang Lee takes place over Thanksgiving weekend? Find out with a quiz that’s all about Gobble Gobble Day.
Hooray Teams has a Thanksgiving trivia contest that is one of the best office holiday games for large groups. Able to cater for up to 100 people, it covers 4 to 5 rounds of topics in the space of 60 minutes. A convivial host will lead the event, taking the reins and ensuring everything goes smoothly so that your team can simply relax and enjoy. Trivia categories can follow the standard format, or you can request rounds on the subjects that you prefer at no additional cost for your office holiday party games.
5. Online Pie Baking Competition
Your team will have to keep their eyes on the pies if they want to win this Thanksgiving-themed bake-off. Since the competition will be taking place virtually, this is one of those office holiday party games that’s all about style over substance, with the most decorative dessert-trumping taste.
There are a couple of different ways to run this light-hearted contest. The first is to allow everyone to make any flavor of pie they want, displaying the results live during your virtual office party. The other option is to specify a specific kind of pie that everyone must make. Either way, it’s important that as well as showing their pies, everybody talks through their unique recipe ingredients and any special techniques they used to crust-omize their sweet treats.
6. St. Patrick’s Day Pub Crawl
As an alternative to office holiday party games, how about a drink-fueled virtual tour of some of Ireland’s most iconic pubs? Walk the streets of Dublin with the aid of the internet, journeying from Davy Byrne’s, which was featured in James Joyce’s Ulysses, to The Brazen Head, which claims to be Ireland’s oldest pub.
Alternatively, take a more general digital expedition through some of Ireland’s most famous attractions. Among the options available online, you can absorb the natural majesty of the Giant’s Causeway’s basalt columns as well as the legendary stone of Blarney Castle that is said to give anybody who kisses it the gift of the gab. Since it’s St. Patrick’s Day, it’s only appropriate to undertake these tours with a drink in hand. Send a selection of Irish whiskeys and/or beers to your staff ahead of time, so they can sip as they stroll (or should that be scroll?) together through the Emerald Isle.
7. Virtual Leprechaun Treasure Hunt Game
If you like the idea of taking a virtual tour but want to add an element of gamification and teamwork to the activity, consider organizing an online treasure hunt in search of the leprechaun’s pot of gold.
Using an app like Scavify or Actionbound you can design a custom route through Ireland for your office holiday party games. Incorporate photo challenges and trivia questions that require participants to look closely at certain statutes or learn about the history of famous buildings to score points and progress. Built-in scoreboards keep track of how well everybody is doing in real-time, so you can casually chat with teammates while simultaneously monitoring the progress of your competitors.
8. Virtual BBQ Cook-Off Competition
Turn up the heat on the Fourth of July with a good ol’ fashioned barbeque cook-off. One of the most engaging office Christmas party games for small groups and large ones, it’s an opportunity for the grill masters in your group to show off their expertise with discussions on how to make the most a-maize-ing corn and steaks that are truly well done.
Although nobody will be able to taste the goods, consider asking your team to vote on their favorite recipe based on the way it sounds and the story behind it. As well as the culinary-themed showdown, you can grill your staff on Virtual US Independence Day Trivia and encourage them to dress up in their finest all-American outfit to really lean into the theme.
9. Virtual Lantern Making Competition
Turning from the culinary to the crafty, a lantern-making competition is one of the best office holiday party games for Chinese New Year (CNY).
To kick off the event, arrange for an experienced artist to lead a workshop on making paper lanterns, from assembling the core structure to embellishing it with unique decorations. Once everybody has completed their hanging piece of art, have the team vote on whose is the most beautiful. Hooray Teams can deliver kits for paper lantern making straight to the doors of your staff, making it much easier logistically to get your contest set up.
10. Online Calligraphy Challenge
Hooray Teams also runs a calligraphy class that’s ideal for the runup to the new year. Guided by a professional calligrapher, your team will be taught how to hold a brush like an expert, before going on to learn the correct way to write their name, short messages, and most importantly auspicious New Year phases, all in beautiful characters.
If you want to add a competitive element to the event, ask the calligrapher to judge whose characters are the most pristine towards the end of the hour-long session. Keep the prize on theme with a gift of a beautiful new calligraphy set or a set of fancy chopsticks.
FAQs
What do you call a holiday party at work?
The most common term is “office party,” though the phrase “work do” is also used as an informal way to refer to any event organized by a company for its employees. It’s also preferable to use the term “holiday party” to refer to an event celebrating a particular time of year as opposed to “Christmas party,” which some people find exclusionary.
How do you make a staff Christmas party fun?
Office holiday party games are always a reliable way to introduce a bit of levity to the proceedings. You can also consider playing popular seasonal tunes to set the mood, such as “All I Want for Christmas Is You” or “Santa Baby.”
How do you host a fun holiday party?
Start by deciding on whether you want to include a dress code, a competition, workshops, or office party games for adults. A selection of several activities will keep people engaged, but make sure you leave some time for casual conversations as well.
