This post was last updated on August 15th, 2022
Oh Oh Oh, is it the Christmas season yet? You know… that magical time of year when you gather and celebrate with all your family, friends, and colleagues.
One point, though: this year, your work team will be working remotely (again). And you might wonder how you’ll organize your annual Gift exchange?
Well, no worries! You just switch out your good old Christmas celebration for a virtual Christmas party instead!
So if you can’t see your teammates in person, here are 9 great virtual Christmas party ideas to get into the Christmas spirit to keep that Secret Santa tradition rolling!
Table of contents
Travel Inspired Virtual Holiday Parties
1. Paris for Christmas
2. The Roman Temples of Baalbek
3. Unify Cosmos
Virtual Holiday Party Games
1. Holiday trivia game
2. Who Am I
3. Christmas Virtual Bingo
Share a Christmas Meal With Your Team
1. Send Christmas food
2. Virtual dinner party
3. Mulled wine-making experience
4. Virtual secret Santa
Organize a Virtual Secret Santa
Host a Virtual Holiday Party Contest
1. Virtual caroling competition
2. Gingerbread house decorating contest
3. Best Christmas Tree
4. Ugliest Christmas sweater
Decorate!
1. Home office Christmas party decorations
2. Christmas-themed Zoom backgrounds
3. Play appropriate holiday music
Organize Christmas Craft Activities
1. Paper Christmas Tree origami
2. Santa hat glam
3. Snowman-shaped cookie decorating
4. Virtual holiday photo booth
Travel Inspired Virtual Holiday Parties
Take Your Teammates to the Magical City of Paris for Christmas (virtually of course)
If you want some creative and original Christmas party ideas, Woyago can definitely help you!
Bring on the Holiday magic and take your teammates on a virtual tour of Paris. Connected via a secure video conferencing line, follow our local guide biking through the illuminated streets of the magical City of Lights.
Flyover Zone – The Virtual Tour Company
Flyover Zone offers virtual tours of some of the world’s most important cultural heritage sites. These teletours, led by experts in the field, allow you to see details up close and show you how the heritage sites originally looked through 3D modeling. Try Baalbek Reborn, a free virtual experience of the Roman temples in Baalbek, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Lebanon.
Unify Cosmos
Unify Cosmos is the perfect escape for anyone feeling stressed out and looking to travel but can’t. This interactive soundboard features calming audio clips from all around the world. From the gentle sounds of the sea in Bora Bora to the lively beats of Barbados, there’s something for everyone. So take a break, sit back, and let Unify Cosmos transport you to some of the most beautiful places on Earth through sound.
Organize Virtual Holiday Party Games
A great way to break the ice and make your event successful is to organize virtual holiday party games. Here are a few examples of online holiday games that will bring the holiday spirit while having lots of fun!
Play a virtual holiday trivia game
Set up a quiz on Christmas facts or ask your team members to come up with their own questions.
Make it more interesting by making the teams compete against one another to win!
Virtual “Who Am I?” game
Get creative and come up with a Christmas edition of the “Who Am I” game.
One option could be to gather clues to find out who is the secret Santa for you! Make the clues related to the team member’s background, personality, or expertise.
Play virtual Bingo, Christmas edition
A classic game that never fails to entertain.
Create a Bingo board for your remote team that relates to Christmas traditions and dishes. The first one to cross out all squares of a row or column wins!
Share a Christmas Meal With Your Team
Because the list of virtual holiday party ideas would not be complete without any food-related events.
Send Christmas food
Plan ahead and send to all members of the team some Christmas treats!
A few ideas can include a huge box of chocolates or gingerbread cookies. You can either prepare those from scratch or buy some ready-made ones.
Everyone also loves a great hot chocolate when the Christmas season comes… Think about teaching your team how to make the original Maya drink and turn this into a hot chocolate tasting party!
Host a virtual dinner party
Make your Christmas celebration more interesting by hosting a virtual dinner party theme. You can make it like an all-inclusive dinner, with appetizers, a main course, and dessert!
Have a chef prepare a full meal and send them to your colleagues.
If your team is split up around the world or country, Woyago can send all your employees a great Christmas French food package by organizing a virtual Wine and Cheese tasting party or a Parisian picnic.
So chic for a proper Christmas dinner!
Learn how to prepare a hot wine (mulled wine)
For this holiday gathering, invite your teammates to prepare these special and fun holiday drinks. Let the hot wine, ginger, honey, cinnamon, and oranges show you what Christmas tastes like!
More than a DIY and fun cooking activity, your teammates will enjoy sharing this moment, even if it’s through a video conferencing platform.
Organize a Virtual Secret Santa
Give a personal touch to your team’s celebration with a virtual Secret Santa!
If you’ve never heard of it, a virtual office secret Santa consists of sending a gift without revealing your identity.
For this virtual Christmas gift exchange, we recommend using an online draw such as My Secret Santa. And don’t forget to set a maximum budget spend. It’s spending season for everyone after all!
Best Virtual Holiday Party Contests
Organize some fun and creative challenges for your virtual Christmas party!
Create a virtual caroling competition
“Jingle bells, Jingle bells…” Can you hear it now?
Organize a virtual Christmas carols contest and let the singing stars of your team shine bright!
Ask each team member to partner up in small groups and rehearse one of the famous Christmas songs.
On the day of the virtual holiday event, ask the teams to sing their respective songs and get others to join in on it too. Then, make them vote to declare the winner!
If you want to take this Christmas carol session to the next level, ask your teams to come up with a new Christmas song with office inspiration while keeping the original rhythm.
Virtual gingerbread house decorating contest
Design and decorate a gingerbread house with frosting, candy, chocolate, etc., and show your masterpiece off to your colleagues during the holiday party.
Who will have the most impressive and realistic one?
Who has the best Christmas tree?
Create a Christmas tree decoration contest for your online holiday party and unleash your team’s creativity.
Christmas light displays, Christmas tinsels, Christmas socks… We want to see it all!
Ask all your teammates to send a picture of their beautiful tree decorated at home and then to vote for their favorite Christmas trees.
Ugliest Christmas sweater contest
Nothing better than a Christmas sweater contest to animate Christmas parties!
Part of the classic Office Holiday traditions, don’t pass on this even if your team is remote!
Use your Zoom holiday party link to set this up. Then ask your party guests to model their ugly sweaters on camera and vote for the winner.
Virtual Christmas Movie Night
Looking for Christmas party ideas that all can enjoy without too much prep-time? Christmas movies are always a hit!
Organize a virtual Christmas movie night and enjoy your favorite holiday film with your team.
Make sure to keep on the call or chat so that you can all discuss it!
Send Christmas e-Cards to Your Remote Teammates
Celebrating holidays remotely doesn’t mean you have to skip the Christmas cards for your remote team members!
Ask team members to send personalized e-Cards on Christmas Eve or before to the team. If a party guest can’t make it the day of the virtual party, this will help them to connect anyway in this busy but magical holiday season.
Christmas Decoratations
Spruce up your remote workplace with some virtual Christmas party decorations
Even if you’re not organizing a physical meetup, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make your workspace look spiffy!
Bring on candles, Christmas socks, tinsels, Christmas lights… You name it! Just make sure to add a festive touch to your workspace to help you get in the mood.
Christmas-themed Zoom backgrounds
Enjoy the video conference platform Zoom feature to share some fun and inspired Christmas background images for your screen.
Santa Claus’ sled, the reindeer team, a sexy snowman… Get creative!
Looking for virtual holiday party ideas?
Play appropriate holiday music, sorry ‘Santa Baby’
Make sure to play Christmas party music throughout the Virtual Christmas Party.
You can take this opportunity to create your Christmas carols playlist and share it with your team.
Wear Christmas hats
When your Virtual Holiday party starts, ask everyone to wear their funny or festive hats! Maybe Santa’s? Elves? Reindeer?
This will instantly bring your holiday theme to life.
Organize Christmas Crafts Activities
Do you want to get into the holiday spirit with crafts?
Organize hands-on and creative activities such as creating an adorable paper Christmas tree, glamming up that Santa Claus hat, cooking snowman-shaped cookies, or any other cute Christmas activities!
Virtual holiday photo booth
Set up a virtual photo booth to commemorate this fabulous time with your colleagues.
Take some pictures of your Christmas carol teams while wearing Santa hats or while preparing their hot wine.
Sharing those activities and games is always important to strengthen teammates’ relationships. So make sure you keep pictures of your virtual Christmas party!
With all these virtual Christmas party ideas listed above, you should be able to celebrate online with your teammates and create that company holiday spirit even while apart.
The connections that happen around this kind of event are precious, so take your time organizing your event.
If you want to get a bigger picture on virtual holiday party ideas, make sure to check our related blog post.
And if you have any other ideas to complete this list, let us know. We are always excited to read your messages and comments!
