4 Virtual Holiday Celebration Ideas for Remote Teams
The end of the year is upon us, and that means reflecting on your team’s accomplishments and celebrating! But how do you do that in a fully remote team?
It’s important to remember that despite the limitations of remote work, there is a huge benefit to having that level of flexibility. For example, it means no one has to commute, whether they are close by across the world. But it can be difficult to turn what will most likely be another Zoom call into something fun, cheerful, and team-oriented. And we’re here to help.
In this article we’re exploring:
Why Celebrate With a Remote Team?
Just because teams are more remote than ever, doesn’t mean you shouldn't find ways to celebrate! Whether it's throwing a virtual holiday party or honoring a team win, showing your team that you appreciate their hard work is important. It can:
Make team members feel that their work is appreciated
Raise confidence in your team’s work overall
Let team members know that you see them as individuals who are all relevant to the success of an organization
Despite the importance of acknowledging your team’s success, many organizations fail to resonate with their employees for a plethora of reasons: lack of inclusivity, lack of interest, poor communication, or a failure to align recognition efforts with employees’ diverse values and needs. By not addressing these gaps, organizations risk alienating their team and causing a disconnect between executives and frontline employees.
The Power of Celebrating (Inclusively!) Together
Holiday celebrations are more than an opportunity to have fun—they’re a powerful tool to connect with one another. Especially when, according to the Pew Research Center, of the 22 million people who work from home in the U.S., around 53% feel lonely and less connected to coworkers, even when their work-life balance has greatly improved. With remote work here to stay, organizations have to find creative ways to collaborate with their team.
Whenever possible, it’s best to engage inclusively and adopt ideas that showcase the diverse traditions, foods, and cultures of your team. When inclusivity plays an inherent part of celebrating with your team, you are holding space for team members who have vastly different holidays and traditions to explore and showcase their culture.
Not only that, but it gives teams an opportunity to recognize that every contribution, no matter how small, matters. Without a healthy team working together to contribute to an organization's success, it would be nearly impossible to perform our roles effectively.
With that in mind, it’s important to acknowledge these contributions, which sends a message that everyone plays an essential part towards success.
4 Virtual Celebration Ideas For Your Team
While it can be more difficult to host celebrations and get-togethers with a remote team, it isn’t impossible. In fact, in the past few years there has been a major shift in how we are able to celebrate together—with streaming services, meeting apps, and activities all available online, it’s easier than ever to find a space for your whole team to thrive.
Below are just some of the many activities you and your team can participate in.
1. Host a Virtual Potluck
Who doesn’t love a potluck? These get-togethers give us space to share our food and culture while connecting with team members. The holidays are a perfect time for teams to do just that; regardless of your cultural or religious background, many people use this time of year to meet with their families, eat tons of food, and celebrate. On top of that, even shared holidays have a variety of traditions depending on your background, so it’s a great way to introduce team members to a whole new world of food.
Food is a universal language. We share meals while we share our lives, pouring love into the food we make in the hopes that it will be enjoyed together—and that makes it an ideal go-to for a holiday party.
What Does a Virtual Potluck Entail?
Celebrating your team this way means getting creative. Of course, you can’t actually share food with one another, but here are a few tips to throw a fun, wholesome party:
🥧 Pick a theme to guide the potluck, such as: Family Holiday Recipes, Your Favorite Dish, or Comfort Foods for the Holidays.
🍪 Share instructions with team members on how to participate. Encourage them to prepare or showcase a dish they love and explain what it means to them, memories they have of it, its cultural significance, and everything in between.
🍾 Let team members know they don’t have to cook. Instead, they can share recipes or takeout. All food is welcome!
🫐 To kick it up a notch, add a game to the mix. This could be a live tasting, trivia, or a photo contest.
🍲 Put together a digital recipe booklet with everyone's contributions to make a lasting impression on the team.
If you need recipe ideas for your potluck, virtual or not, we’ve got you covered.
2. Explore a Creative Workshop
A pottery workshop is a great choice for a creative team, or at least for a team that likes to have a little silly fun while getting to make something that lasts.
How does it work?
Everyone is sent a kit with clay, instructions, and tools. Using an online video platform, your group is guided on how to make a specific item. This could be a mug, plate, candle holder, animal of some kind—anything, really! And the goal is most definitely not to create something amazing. Rather, it’s to create something together and have fun along the way.
Other options for creative workshops include:
Lego building kits
Guided terrarium building
Cookie or baked goods decorating contest
3. Organize a Virtual Escape Room
People have been going to escape rooms for years now, so it was only a matter of time until they became available virtually, too. If you haven’t tried one of these popular events, you’re in for a treat.
Using an online platform such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet, you and your teammates are given a theme or scenario with a mission. Of course, the goal is always escaping, but the scenario can be anything from getting off a space ship to solving a mystery. In an online format, virtual escape rooms often incorporate breakout rooms of smaller teams to solve mini-mysteries, with puzzles and clues hiding in plain sight.
Participants communicate and brainstorm with each other to solve challenges, decode messages, identify odd patterns, and piece together clues that will ultimately help them “escape” these virtual spaces.
An escape room is great for a team that likes a challenge and loves to collaborate. It offers a chance to work together across teams, which brings together everyone's unique skills.
4. Games, Games, Games!
Classics are classics for a reason, and games are no exception. They work with any size team, and bring people closer together in an easy, low-stress, fun way.
One idea is contacting team members with a series of questions. Nothing too difficult, and make sure to give questions that allow for broad, culturally-inclusive answers. For example:
❄️ Do you have any favorite holiday movies?
❄️ Favorite holiday songs?
❄️ What is your go-to meal for the holiday season?
There are a number of online platforms you can use to facilitate trivia, from Kahoot!, Quizizz, and a number of plugins for Zoom. To add an even more inclusive twist to the fun, you can incorporate questions about global holiday customs to educate and engage team members alongside more standard questions around holiday music, movies, and facts.
Of course, there are other options for games to play online, including:
Skribbl.io is a guess-the-drawing game that’s easy to use and doesn’t require artistic skills to play.
Jackbox Games: While not free, Jackbox Games come in 5-8 game packs that include a variety of challenging and fun games you play with your phone. Some of the most popular ones include Quiplash, Drawful, and Dictionarium.
Geoguesser: Do you like geography? This is the one for you. And even if you don’t, Geoguesser gives us a chance to see parts of the world we would never know of otherwise, opening the floor to learn while you play.
Regardless of how your team decides to celebrate this season, the most important thing is to create a positive, welcoming space for everyone. We’ve got a few more tips to keep in mind as you decide what to plan for the holidays:
👉 Organize activities that match the number of people in your team. Larger groups may need to be broken up into smaller groups to ensure everyone has a voice.
👉 Incorporate culturally significant aspects into your activity, if possible. Additionally, if you have a team member who feels comfortable sharing their traditions, they are a great resource to lean on for some great trivia questions or new celebration ideas.
👉 Emphasize that every activity is optional. Regardless of how and what you decide to celebrate, there will always be team members who can’t make it or don’t feel comfortable—and that’s okay! Part of creating a welcoming, positive space means making sure everyone can decline without repercussions.
👉 Look to your coworkers for ideas if you’re stuck. In all likelihood they’ve attended a holiday party or two and can offer some suggestions, many of which can be transformed for remote settings.
