15 ways to celebrate Christmas in the office without the party

It’s the most confusing Christmas ever! Do we postpone the celebrations until we can do them properly or shall we organise some virtual merriment? 

We’ve got 15 ideas for super “office” (AKA working from home) Christmas parties, whatever your team size or budget.

1. Christmas Jumper Day

Join AAT and millions of other people participating in Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day 2020 on Friday 11^th December. Wear your silliest Christmas sweater and donate £2 per person to charity. Don’t forget to get some snaps of the team to share across your socials and vote for who has the best (or ugliest) jumper.

2. Have a Charitable Christmas 

In lieu of an office party, make a donation to a charity of your team’s choosing. 

3. Merry Quizmas

If you’re not all quizzed out by now, host a Christmas quiz or bingo for your team while they eat, drink and be merry from their respective homes. You can use break-out rooms on Zoom or apps like Kahoot to make it as exciting and interactive as possible. 

4. The Office Awards Ceremony 

It’s been a tough year for everyone so host an awards ceremony to make sure your team know just how appreciated they are. You can ask everyone to get dressed up for it (their top half anyway).

5. Pets Win Prizes

Pets have been an even bigger deal than usual for us this year and people love to get their pets involved. Have a pet photo competition or host a talent show with videos of all the top tricks that your four-legged friends can perform. 

6. Whodunnit? 

Host a virtual murder mystery party and spend the afternoon trying to work out who committed the crime, with what and why? And how on earth they managed to do it without leaving their home.

7. Host a Summer Party 

If you normally have an impressive Christmas bash, do something smaller and bank the big one for the summer. Announce some of the plans now and that way everyone still has something to look forward to. 

8. Get Active 

If you’ve got a sporty team, set up a group on Strava for running or cycling so you can train as a team. You can set daily or weekly challenges. Prizes can be given for most miles in a week, fastest, most improved and for the best GPS Christmas drawing. And it’s a great way to gain a few more mince pie points. 

9. Cocktail Making Class

Start any virtual Christmas party with a bang with a cocktail/mocktail making class. Better still, have the ingredients and kit delivered to your team members’ doors before the party begins. 

10. Santa’s Coming!

Get your team members some extra big gifts instead of a party. Top presents for 2020 could be house plants, meal kits or an extra duvet day to take in 2021. Personalise the presents to be extra thoughtful.

11. The “Office” Christmas Playlist 

Curate a Spotify playlist especially for your team and send it around so that you can all be listening to the same tunes at the same time and getting in the yuletide mood together.

12. Training Day 

Give each team member a budget for training so they can attend or put it towards whichever event, conference or course they’d like to in 2021.

13. Christmas Movie Club 

Give them the afternoon off to watch Christmas movies. Surprise them with a cinema snacks delivery drop to their door.

14. Get Crafty 

Test your team’s creative skills with a virtual arts or crafts workshop. You could do wreath making, writing or drawing. You might unlock talents they didn’t know existed. 

15. Ask the Audience

Put it to your team. What do they want to do? Ask them for their ideas or give them some options and let them vote.

Whatever you do for your 2020 Christmas celebrations, tailor it to your team and make sure they know how much they’ve been valued in 2020.   

Sophie Cross is the Editor of Freelancer Magazine and a freelance writer and marketer at Thoughtfully.