The holiday season is around the corner but you’re short of ideas on how to bring your remote team together for some fun and festive activities that everyone can enjoy. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of 10 easy activities you can organize that will bring all your team members, regardless of their location, full of cheer. From holiday scavenger hunts to cocktail and cookie parties, we’ve got your covered.

1. Holiday Scavenger Hunt

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Organizing a virtual scavenger hunt is one of the easiest ways to bring your team together for a fun, exciting activity that makes everyone feel included. 

How to play: Put together a list of holiday-related items that your teammates have to find within a certain time such as something red and green,  their favourite Christmas item, or a cup of cheer; it’s best to keep your requirements a bit broad so that teammates can use their ingenuity to find items within their house or in the office that fit the bill. 

You can create different lists for different teams, with the fastest team to collect all items winning a prize. Take a look at how the Digital Schoolhouse team enjoyed a fun scavenger hunt session!

2. Watercooler trivia

Virtual watercoolers have become the new go-to’s for remote teams to have casual conversations about everything from holiday plans to TV shows that they’re watching; you can turn these fun conversations into a fun trivia night activity.

How to play: A watercooler trivia night is similar to your usual trivia games where teams answer  a set of general knowledge questions. But the rather enjoyable twist here is that the questions will be about your teammates. Prepare a list of fun questions about some common subjects of conversations at the water cooler, such as “Who’s known for the best Dwight Schrute impression?”

Even better if you use a virtual event platform like Zuddl that has an inbuilt gamification feature which means that you can use a leaderboard to track and tally points for you, and let everyone know who’s they have to beat to win! 

3. Holiday-themed karaoke night

What’s a holiday party without some festive music? Bring your virtual team together for a karaoke night where they can let loose and spend the evening belting out the classics. 

How to host: Invite your team to a virtual meeting space or use a virtual breakout room like we have on Zuddl, play karaoke tracks and ask colleagues to duo or solo one after the other. There’s nothing like singing an off-key rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’ to bring a team together.

Here’s the KGW8 team hosting a great virtual karaoke session. 

4. Gingerbread-making contest‍

Nothing says Christmas like gingerbread - but most people have more experience in eating it than making it. So why not host a fun gingerbread-making contest?

How to host: Send everyone a DIY gingerbread kit ahead of time, or if that’s not possible, ask everyone to stock up on the ingredients needed for baking gingerbread men. Invite a chef to your virtual baking session or play a video whilst everyone follows the instructions. Encourage everyone to get creative with their baking and celebrate successes and failures too! End the evening by eating your gingerbread ‘together.’

5. Wreath-making workshop

With work and home time bleeding into each other, many people don’t have the time to decorate their homes for the holidays. For such workaholics, a wreath-making session is the perfect way for some ‘me time’ that gets their creative juices flowing - that gets them an incredible wreath to hang on the door in the process!

How to host: Similar to the gingerbread contest, you can either send your entire team the items for making a wreath or ask them to collect these items beforehand. Organize a virtual hangout session for everyone to learn how to make their wreaths (even better if you hire an instructor), and laugh through the wreath-making fails and wins together.

6. A holiday talent show

Find your in-house Beyonce or laugh out loud with your comedians—an end of the year talent show is the best way for your team to get to know and bond over each other’s hidden talents.

How to host: Use a virtual platform, ideally with a Stage feature, that your team can use to run the show. Performers can take to the stage one after another to share their talents and wow your team. Even better if the platform you use has engagement features that those watching can use to encourage their teammates (Zuddl has Emoji reactions for instance). You can use Polls to ask attendees to vote for their favourite performance. 

7. Virtual holiday photobooth‍

If there’s one advantage of remote work besides working in your pyjamas, it’s the ability to take fantastic team photos easily. No matter how big your team is, you can take the best group pictures at a virtual party that you can display at your virtual office (and poke fun at) all throughout the year. 

How to host: Set up a virtual photo booth with holiday-themed backgrounds - one with Santa and reindeers or even a Home Alone style one - and ask teammates to dress up according to the theme! Think ugly Christmas sweaters or funny reindeer headbands. 

8. Improv comedy night

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Get everyone in a great(er) mood with a fun improv comedy night. Bring out the comedian in every team member and have a huge laugh together.

How to host: All you need is a fun and friendly host for the improv session. Just like in Who’s Line Is it Anyway, the host will give your team different scenarios to act out that are sure to cause some laughs.

Take a look at ArtsQuest’s improv comedy sessions for corporate teams to inspire your own.

9. Holiday Escape Room

A holiday-themed escape room is actually a fun team building activity that will also test your team’s collective intelligence. The premise of this game is that a team is locked inside a room. They must solve clues or puzzles in order to complete a mission and then ‘escape’ out of the room before time runs out. 

How to play:  Book a virtual holiday escape room online and spend an hour or so putting your brains together to help rescue Santa or find the Naughty or Nice list. 

10. Cocktail and Cookie Party

Getting everyone together to celebrate the holidays by sharing food and drink is the perfect way to relax, chat, laugh and spend time with each other as a team. 

How to host: As with the gingerbread baking or wreath-making sessions, send cookies and cocktail ingredients to your colleagues’ houses or ask them to pick up ingredients before your party. For the first half of the party, everyone can mix their cocktails or pop cookies in the oven to bake, after which you can enjoy an evening of drinks and food and conversation. 

To sum up…

This holiday season, take the opportunity to celebrate the people around you with a fun-filled virtual party. Whether it’s a trivia session or gingerbread wars, create an unforgettable experience for all your teammates with these game ideas that will strengthen team spirit and spread holiday cheer.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.