virtual christmas presentation ideas

• Interactive Presentation

11 Totally Free Virtual Christmas Party Ideas (Tools + Templates)

Quizzes and Games

Lawrence Haywood • 05 November, 2024 • 12 min read

The fact that searches for 'virtual Christmas party' were almost 3 times higher in August 2020 than in December 2019 speaks volumes about how quickly the world has changed recently since COVID-19.

Thankfully, we're in a much better situation than we were at this time 4 years ago. Still, for many in 2024, virtual Christmas parties will still be playing a huge role in family and workplace festivities.

If you're looking to bring the festive cheer online again this year, kudos to you. We hope this list of 11 fantastic and free virtual Christmas party ideas will help!

Your Guide to the Perfect Virtual Christmas Party

4 reasons a virtual christmas party this year won't suck, 11 free virtual christmas party ideas.

• Free Christmas Quizzes (for Download!)

The All-in-One + Free Tool for a Virtual Christmas Party

Bring the christmas joy.

Connect with loved ones near and far with AhaSlides' live quizzing , polling and gaming software! See how it works here 👇

Sure, a global pandemic may be at fault for changing tradition, but we've already shown we can deal with it. Let's go again.

If you've got a positive attitude and the right enthusiasm for throwing a virtual Christmas party this year, here are 4 reasons why you should:

• Great for remote connection - Chances are that at least one of your party guests wouldn't have been able to make it to a live party anyway. Virtual Christmas parties keep family and work ties solid, no matter how far away the guests are.
• So many ideas - The possibilities for a virtual Christmas party are virtually endless. You can adapt any of the ideas below to suit your guests and keep the festive cheer flowing throughout.
• Super flexible - Not needing to travel anywhere means that you can knock out parties with your family, friends and colleagues all in the same day! If that's too much, and if you're not relying on transport, you're able to change the dates at the drop of a hat.
• Great practice for the future - You may have already experienced a virtual Christmas party last year; who's to say how many more we'll have? As more workplace staff go remote, and with us all now acutely more aware of the threat of pandemics, the reality is that these types of online festivities may carry on. Better prepare for it!

Here we go then; 11 free virtual Christmas party ideas suitable for a family, friend or remote office Christmas!

Idea #1 - Christmas Ice Breakers

What better time of the year can there be to break the ice? This is especially true when it comes to a virtual Christmas party, where newcomers might be a bit overwhelmed with what's going on.

Fluid conversation might be hard to come by before the booze starts flowing. So, break opening a few festive ice breakers might get your party off to a flyer.

Here's a few ice breaking ideas for a virtual Christmas party:

• Share a hilarious Christmas memory - Give everyone 5 minutes to think of and write down something hilarious that's happened to them during past holidays. If it's embarrassing, you can easily make it anonymous!
• Alternative Christmas lyrics - Offer the first part of a Christmas carol lyric and get everyone to come up with a better ending. Again, the anxiety shackles are off if you make answers anonymous!
• Which image or GIF best describes your Christmas so far? - Provide a few images and GIFs and ask your audience to vote on which one best describes their hectic holiday period.

If you're looking for more, we've got 10 great icebreaker games here ! Best for hybrid workplace parties and any of these ideas can be adapted to any virtual Christmas party with family and friends.

Idea #2 - Virtual Christmas Quiz

You probably noticed this already, but Zoom quizzes really took off in 2020. They've become a staple of virtual offices, virtual pubs , and now, virtual Christmas parties.

Technology has more than met the social demands that this and last year have brought. You can now make super fun, interactive quizzes online and host them live for free. Super fun, interactive and free is totally our bag.

Click on the images below to get live quiz templates on AhaSlides!

Family Christmas Quiz

Christmas Movie Quiz

Christmas Music Quiz

❄️ Bonus: Play a fun and not family-friendly Goopy Christmas to spice up the night and get guaranteed waves of laughter.

Idea #3 - Christmas Karaoke

We don't have to miss out on any drunk, spirited singing this year. It's perfectly possible to do karaoke online nowadays and anyone on their 12th eggnog might be practically demanding it.

It's also super easy to do...

Just create a room on Sync Video , a free, no-sign-up service that lets you precisely sync videos so that every attendant of your virtual Christmas party can watch them at the same time .

Once your room is open and you have your attendants, you can queue up a bunch of karaoke hits on YouTube and each person can belt their holiday heart out.

Idea #4 - Virtual Secret Santa

Okay, so not technically free, this one, but it can certainly be cheap !

Virtual secret Santa works the same way as it always does - just online. Pull names out of a hat and assign each name to a person attending your virtual Christmas party ( you can also do all of this online ).

Delivery services naturally step up their game during Christmas. You should be able to get pretty much anything delivered to the house of whoever you were assigned.

A couple of tips....

• Give it a theme , like 'something purple' or 'something personalised with the face of the person you got'.
• Put a strict budget on gifts. There's usually a lot of hilarity that results from a $5 present.

Idea #5 - Spin the Wheel

Got an idea for a Christmas-themed gameshow? If it's a game worth its salt, it'll be played on an interactive spinner wheel !

Don't fret if you don't have a gameshow to pitch - the AhaSlides spinner wheel can be spun for pretty much anything you can think of!

• Trivia with Prizes - Assign each segment of the wheel an amount of money, or something else. Go round the room and challenge each player to answer a question, with the difficulty of that question depending on the amount of money the wheel lands on.
• Christmas Truth or Dare - This one's a lot more fun when you have no control over whether you get a truth or a dare.
• Random Letters - Choose letters at random. Could be the basis of a fun game. I dunno - use your imagination!

Idea #6 - Origami Christmas Tree + Other Crafts

There's nothing to dislike about making an adorable paper Christmas tree: no fuss, no mess and no money to spend.

Simply tell everyone to grab a sheet of A4 paper (coloured or origami paper if they have it) and follow the instructions in the video below:

Once you've got a virtual forest of multi-coloured fir trees, you can make other cute Christmas crafts and show them all off together. Here are a few ideas:

• Hex Star (Easy)
• Present (Medium)
• Santa (Medium)
• Reindeer (Challenging)

Again, you can use Sync Video to make sure everyone at your virtual Christmas party is following the steps of these videos at the same pace.

Idea #7 - Make a Christmas Present(ation)

Been quizzing since the start of lockdown began? Try mixing it up by getting your guests to make their own presentation on something unique and festive.

Before the day of your virtual Christmas party, either assign at random (maybe using this spinner wheel ) or let everyone choose a Christmas topic. Give them a set number of slides to work with and the promise of bonus points for creativity and hilarity.

When it's party time, each person presents an interesting / hilarious / wacky presentation. Optionally, get everyone to vote on their favourite and give prizes to the best!

A few Christmas present(ation) ideas...

• The worst Christmas movie of all time.
• Some pretty nuts Christmas traditions around the world.
• Why Santa needs to start obeying animal protection law.
• Have candy canes become too curvy?
• Why Christmas should be renamed to The Festivities of Iced Sky Tears

In our opinion, the more insane the topic, the better.

Any of your guests can make a really gripping presentation for free using AhaSlides . Alternatively, they can easily make it on PowerPoint or Google Slides and embed it in AhaSlides in order to utilise live polls, quizzes and Q&A features in their creative presentations!

Idea #8 - Christmas Card Competition

Speaking of creative virtual Christmas party ideas, this one can get some serious laughs.

Before the party, invite your guests to try and make the best/funniest Christmas card they can. It can be as elaborate or simple as they like and can include pretty much anything.

Pretty much no graphic design skills are necessary for this one as there are some great, free tools out there:

• Canva - A tool that gives you heaps of templates, backgrounds, Christmas icons and Christmassy fonts to make a Christmas card within minutes.
• PhotoScissors - A tool that helps you cut faces out of photos super easily and download them for use in Canva.

As you can maybe tell, we made the above image in about 3 minutes using both tools. We're sure that you and your party guests can do a better job in just as quick an amount of time!

Get your guests to present their crafted creations during your virtual Christmas party. If you want to turn up the heat, you can promise prizes for the top-voted answers.

Idea #9 - Wrapping Paper Recreations

Ever watched a kid have more fun with wrapping paper or a cardbox box than with the gift contained within? Well, that kid could be you in Wrapping Paper Recreations !

In this one, each player gets given or chooses a well-known movie. They then have to recreate a famous scene from that movie using mounds of used wrapping paper from opened presents.

Recreations can be 2D artworks or 3D sculptures, but must use nothing other than wrapping paper and traditional wrapping tools (scissors, glue and tape).

Make it competitive and offer a prize to the most highly voted recreation!

Idea #10 - Christmas Cookie-off

Laptops in kitchens guys; time to make some really simple Christmas cookies together!

Christmas Cookie-off is a great compromise for the fact that we're all eating socially distanced meals this year. It's a virtual Christmas party activity that challenges cooking and artistry skills in equal measure.

Most simple cookie recipes only require ingredients and equipment already in the average house. They take about 10 minutes to cook and are a wonderfully social way to stay connected during the party.

This particular recipe amplifies the fun with a simple icing design in the shape of emojis . You can get everyone to recreate their favourite emojis and have a poll for whose is the best at the end!

Idea #11 - Online Christmas Parlour Games

As Victorian Britain gave the world so many aspects of the Christmas we know today, it's only right to honour the era through Victorian-style parlour games (with a modern twist).

Parlour games have enjoyed a huge resurgence in recent years. Why? Well, many of them are easily adaptable to the confines of pretty much any online setting, including a virtual Christmas party.

Here are a few that are great for family, friends or colleagues...

• Fictionary - Read out a strange word and get each guest to take a stab at what it means. Display all the answers in an open-ended slide and then ask everyone to vote for which answer was most likely to be correct and which answer is the funniest. Give 1 point to the highest voted in each category and another point to anyone who actually got the right answer. (See the GIF above for how to do this for free on AhaSlides).
• Charades - Perhaps the parlour game is Charades. You know how this one works, so it should come as no surprise that it works just as well during a virtual Christmas party!
• Pictionary - This old classic now has a modern twist. Drawful 2 lets you take pictionary online and even removes the pain of trying to think up images to draw. Simply download the game, invite everyone to your room and draw the hilariously obscure picture concepts as best you can.

Note that Drawful 2 is a paid game. Of course, you can just do regular pictionary on paper if you don't want to fork out the $5.99.

👊 Protip : Want more ideas like these? Branch out from Christmas and check out our mega list of 30 totally free virtual party ideas . These ideas work fantastically online at any time of year, demand little preparation and don't require you to spend a penny!

No matter if it's an ice breaker , a Christmas quiz , a presentation or a live round of voting you're looking to include in your virtual Christmas party, AhaSlides has you covered.

AhaSlides is a completely free and super simple tool to take your virtual Christmas party to the next level. You can use it to make or enhance most of the ideas we mentioned above by adding a lightly competitive factor to your party!

Want an Unforgettable Christmas Party?

Lawrence Haywood

Former ESL teacher and quiz master converted to the wild slide. Now a content creator, traveller, musician and big time slider preaching the good word of interactivity.

Tips to Engage with Polls & Trivia

More from AhaSlides

Blog > 15 Creative Ideas to make your virtual Christmas Party successful

15 Creative Ideas to make your virtual Christmas Party successful

11.23.20   •  #christmas #ideas #party #presentation #powerpoint.

With Covid-19 still being around this December, we once again are facing new issues. Usually, it is the time of the year to get together with colleagues, friends and the entire family, and enjoy a good time together. But in an age where we are obliged to stay at home and practise social distancing, what can we do about our beloved Christmas parties? Luckily, we are here to the rescue, as we got 15 great ways to make this year's Christmas party virtual, and thereby safe for everybody. The following article includes games and other activities that are very entertaining and can be done online without a problem. These activities are perfect for both your business Christmas party and private Christmas parties.

1. Virtual Christmas Dinner

Going to a restaurant and dining together is one of the most common activities for Christmas parties, especially for company Christmas parties. Having some drinks, enjoying good food and having fun chatting with your colleagues or friends can definitely be considered a highlight in every year! However, going out to eat, especially with a large group of people, should definitely be avoided in current times and is even prohibited in some countries. If you still don't want to dispense with a dinner together, there are great virtual alternatives! Everyone could, for example, cook their favourite meal at home - then you meet & eat virtually while chatting with your fellow chefs about their meals. You could even decide on one recipe you all enjoy and everyone cooks the same meal at home: this will give you even more the impression of dining together! If some or all of you do not like to cook, you could always get take-out instead.

• dine together
• also possible for larger groups
• very natural & casual

2. Holiday Charades

You can never go wrong with a nice little round of charades! For those of you who don't know what charades is (is there anyone, really?): it's a game where you draw from a pot of words, act out said word (you're not allowed to talk), and your fellow players must guess what it is. Since you obviously cannot draw from the same pot of words when you're in a video conference, you will have to use another method. You can either a) let every person think of a word that they want to act out for themselves or b) use an online word generator like ( The Game Gal ), where you can choose the game "Holidays" and category "Christmas" to get words that are suited for your Christmas charades.

• get moving & be active
• fun activity
• great for smaller groups

3. Christmas Card Competition

This activity is the most fun if some or all of you know how to use Photoshop or similar software (but it also works if you don't, since you could easily use PowerPoint, Paint, or literally any other program that lets you manipulate or create images). It only takes a little preparation in advance, but it is definitely worth it: everyone creates a Christmas card - there are literally no boundaries here. You can go as wild on glitter, santa hats, and other cheesy elements as you want. In fact, naming the whole thing "Ugly Christmas Card Competition" makes it even more funny. Once you meet online, everyone shares their design and says a few words about it. If you want, you can choose a winner in the end (Who had the best/worst card?). This activity guarantees some good laughs, which we all need right now! P.S.: If you work in a design company, this activity is an absolute must!

• creative exercise
• especially for people who enjoy design

4. Gratefulness Exercise

Christmas is the time to be grateful for what you have, to review life and to appreciate the moment. Especially when times are hard, it is incredibly important to remind yourself of the things that are working out in your life and to really appreciate what you have. For this little activity, each person writes down what they are grateful for at the moment - it can be major things like a good relationship with your family or your job security, or just minor everyday things like the good breakfast you had today, or that the weather outside is nice. Once everyone has written down what they are thankful for, read your things out aloud. As more and more people share their positive thoughts, all of you will benefit from a real positivity-boost, too!

• strengthens mental health
• connects people
• no preparation needed

5. Sing (or listen to) Christmas Songs together

Christmas carols are an essential part of every Holiday party. For many, there is nothing better than getting together with loved ones and singing all the songs we know so well. Even though it is not as nice as singing together in person, singing together in a video conference can be really entertaining as well. Maybe there is even someone who can play the guitar or the piano while the others sing along? If none of you are keen on singing, you can always just listen to music instead. That way, you all can have a private concert featuring Wham!, Mariah Carey and many more at home!

• music connects people
• works with both small and larger groups

6. Would You Rather - Christmas Edition

"Would you rather" is a game where players are given two (im)possible scenarios, and they have to decide on which one they'd rather face. You can easily play it in video meetings, just be sure every participant has one sheet of paper that says "A" and one that says "B". (make sure the letters are readably on camera) Now, one of you is going to start reading the scenarios out loud. On the count of three, everyone holds either the "A" or the "B" card into the camera. You will definitely get some surprising answers - it is then always fun to discuss them in the group afterwards! There are tons of Would You Rather - scenarios that you can find online, but since it's for a Christmas party, we also wanted to give you some Christmas-related scenarios to work with:

Would you rather...

• A. have a carriage with flying reindeers
• B. have a little elf who follows you around and helps you with anything
• A. celebrate Christmas at home
• B. celebrate Christmas somewhere far away

Would (Do) you rather...

• A. buy presents on time / in advance
• B. buy presents last-minute shortly before Christmas Eve
• A. want "Last Christmas" to be the only song you can listen to for the rest of your life
• B. want "The Grinch" to be the only movie you can watch for the rest of your life
• A. spend Christmas in the snow
• B. spend Christmas on the beach
• A. never get any presents for Christmas
• B. never eat any Holiday dinner

Use SlideLizard and make the game even more fun!

If you want to see the results (as in percentages of people choosing A and B), and make voting as easy as possible, be sure to check out SlideLizard . That way, you can simply enter the questions on your PowerPoint slides, fellow players connect over their browser on their phone or notebook and can simply vote for their preferred option. You'll find out more about SlideLizard at the end of this article.

• also great for large groups

7. Holiday Pictionary

Pictionary is just like charades, but instead of acting out words, you have to draw them! There are even some online tools (like Scribble.io ), that automatically give you terms to draw and reward points to those who get it. But you could also easily adapt the game and just play it during a regular video conference: the person who draws just shares their screen, and then uses a software of their choice (like Paint, Photoshop, or GIMP) to draw the term. Just like with charades, you can either make up your own words, or you use an online word generator ( e. g. The Game Gal ), where you simply choose the game "Holidays" and category "Christmas" to get a variety of terms centred around Christmas.

• also for larger groups

8. Christmas Trivia

Most people LOVE trivia quizzes, and so do we! You really can't do anything wrong when going for a classic trivia game at your Christmas party, it doesn't matter if you play with your business colleagues, friends or family. It becomes especially great when you adapt the questions and centre them around Christmas. Feel free to use the ones we prepared here:

What is the Christmas tree's origin country?

• The Czech Republic

Which one of the following is NOT one of Santa's reindeers?

What is often used to decorate Christmas trees in Poland?

• spider webs
• ripped book pages

Which one of these is the best-selling Christmas song of all time?

• All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
• Last Christmas - Wham!
• Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid
• White Christmas - Bing Crosby

A Japanese tradition is to spend Christmas eve...

• away from your husband or wife.
• in Irish pubs.

Trivia Quizzes with SlideLizard

Conducting Trivia quizzes without the mess of people randomly shouting out answers (or nobody wanting to answer at all) can be tricky, especially online. We recommend using a tool like SlideLizard : the quiz participants can log in with a QR-code or a short URL in their favourite browser (on their mobile phone or laptop), and they will be able to vote directly over their device. That way, you will also be see the amount of people who voted for a certain answer.

• learn something new
• also works with very large groups

9. Storytime

This is a very casual exercise, but it definitely helps if you've somehow ran out of things to talk about during your online Christmas party! The concept is that everyone thinks of an interesting story about themselves (ideally involving Christmas) - and then tells that story to the others. As mentioned, this is very simple, but we love it, because you can learn so many fun new things about the people you're with. Especially when doing this activity with work colleagues at your business Christmas party, there are usually a lot of new interesting things you can learn about them. We often don't take enough time in our daily life to really listen and enjoy, so your online Christmas party might be the perfect place to finally do so!

• learn something new about friends/family/colleagues

10. Christmas DIY-Session

If a bunch of creative people get together for an online Christmas celebration, a little DIY-session is absolutely necessary! There are literally no boundaries as to what to do here, really (it depends on available time and skill, though). There are thousands of inspirations and tutorials online for little Christmas decorations, such as origami reindeer, crafting a candle holder, or making your own Christmas tree decoration. You can choose which one you would like to do (we recommend using a DIY-project with supplies most people have at home), and then get together in your virtual space, crafting together, chatting or listening to Christmas songs while doing so.

• make beautiful Christmas decoration

11. Christmas Karaoke

Unfortunately, we cannot visit our favourite karaoke bars at the moment. The good news is: you can make your own home a karaoke bar. And what's the only thing that is better than regular karaoke? Right, it's Christmas karaoke. So get out your best speakers, open YouTube and look for a karaoke version of your favourite Christmas song! Chances are everyone in the video conference will immediately join you and dance and sing along.

• get into Holiday-mood
• can be super funny

12. Share your favourite recipes

This again is a pretty easy activity you can do without much preparation. Christmas is a time for friends and family, but it is also a time for culinary highlights! So why not use your online Christmas party to share your favourite Holiday recipes with your friends or colleagues? It can be fun to learn what different people or families are cooking during the Christmas holidays, and it is a perfect source for inspiration. To take it to the next level, you could even show pictures or make whole presentations about your holiday food preferences. It is the ultimate activity if lots of foodies attend your Christmas party!

• improve cooking skills
• get new ideas

13. Year Review

Let's be honest: 2020 probably wasn't anyone's favourite year. Still, if we really think about it, most of us have had a lot of of positive experiences and beautiful moments. Stopping for a moment in December and reviewing the past year is something we all should do, and it is even better when we do it together! It helps to conclude the past 12 months, making us ready for the next 12 to come. So why not, for this year's Christmas party, let everyone briefly sum up their year? You can mention highs and lows, your favourite moments, special events, things you are proud of or grateful for, and basically anything else that comes to mind when thinking about this past year.

• draw a conclusion to this year

14. Two Truths and a Lie

"Two Truths and a Lie" is another game that is very popular due to it being both super easy and super fun. If you don't know the game - here's how it works: Every player thinks of 3 facts about themselves. 2 of them should be true, and one should be made up. The other players then have to guess which one of the statements is the lie. If you want to crown a winner, you can reward yourself one point for each lie that you have caught. And of course, if you play this game at your virtual Christmas party, be sure to give the facts a Christmas-y twist, such as: 1. As a kid, I didn't enjoy Christmas very much; 2. I've spent the last 2 Christmas eve's alone because my partner had to work; 3. I once forgot to buy my mother a Christmas present; (these are all made up, by the way!) This, again, is a great way to get to know your colleagues at a business Christmas party.

• little preparation needed

15. Dramatic Christmas Story Reading

There is an endless number of Christmas stories. And if you think that they're all just for kids, think again! Many have a truly deep meaning and truth in them, some are extremely funny, and some are really exciting. Maybe there are a few storytellers in your virtual Christmas meeting? If so, having two or three people read some stories is a great element in any holiday party! And for the very advanced story tellers or writers (or for people who aren't shy and want to try something different): why not do a Christmas-themed poetry slam? That will definitely be something to remember.

• get into Christmas-mood
• works for small and big groups

How to conduct your Christmas party this year

In order to make your Christmas party work this year, you'll have to use a tool for online conferencing. There are many great options available, and you probably already found your favourite software. If you want to incorporate activities like live polls or trivia quizzes, or find an easy way to share content with everyone attending your Christmas party, we want to introduce you to SlideLizard: it is an amazing tool that is directly integrated in PowerPoint - you can share live streams, your slides, conduct polls and quizzes, make live Q&A sessions, get audience feedback and so much more. And the download is free! So if you are looking to spice up not only your Christmas party, but also step up your presentation game, you should definitely get SlideLizard right away!

Related articles

About the author.

Pia Lehner-Mittermaier

Pia works in Marketing as a graphic designer and writer at SlideLizard. She uses her vivid imagination and creativity to produce good content.

Get 1 Month for free!

Do you want to make your presentations more interactive.

With SlideLizard you can engage your audience with live polls, questions and feedback . Directly within your PowerPoint Presentation. Learn more

Top blog articles More posts

Blue Alps - Free PowerPoint Template

Elegant Architecture - Free PowerPoint Template

Get started with Live Polls, Q&A and slides

for your PowerPoint Presentations

The big SlideLizard presentation glossary

Slide master.

To create your own Template in PowerPoint it is best to use the Slide Master. After updating the Slide Master with your design, all slides (fonts, colours, images, …) adapt to those of the Slide Master.

Motivational Presentation

A motivational presentation is meant to inspire people. In a company, for example, you could tell the company's story in a motivational presentation.

Panel Discussion

A panel discussion is a structured conversation in front of an audience on a given topic between several people.

Vocal distractions

In vocal distractions filler words like um, er, and you know are used during a pause.

Be the first to know!

The latest SlideLizard news, articles, and resources, sent straight to your inbox.

- or follow us on -

We use cookies to personalize content and analyze traffic to our website. You can choose to accept only cookies that are necessary for the website to function or to also allow tracking cookies. For more information, please see our privacy policy .

Cookie Settings

Necessary cookies are required for the proper functioning of the website. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information about the number of visitors, etc.

• Virtual Experiences
• In-Person Experiences
• Hybrid Experiences
• Attend a Demo
• Experience FAQ
• Features & Benefits
• How Pricing Works
• Client Testimonials
• Happiness Guarantee
• Schedule Call
• View Experiences

32 Best Virtual Holiday Party Ideas, Games & Activities

By: Michael Alexis | Updated: December 09, 2024

You found our guide to virtual holiday party ideas, games and activities for work.

Virtual holiday parties are online celebrations held over video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Webex and Google Meet. These events include holiday themed games, activities, icebreakers and gifts. The purpose of these events is to celebrate at the end of year, show appreciation for employees, and recognize Christmas. These celebrations are also known as a “virtual Christmas party”, “Zoom holiday party” or “remote holiday party.”

These parties are online equivalents of office Christmas parties and hybrid Christmas , and include  virtual Christmas games , holiday team building ideas for remote teams , and holiday team building activities . These events are sometimes alternatives to company holiday parties .

In this list you will find:

• virtual Christmas party ideas
• virtual holiday games
• virtual holiday team building activities
• virtual holiday events
• virtual work holiday party ideas
• free virtual holiday party ideas for work
• virtual holiday party ideas for large groups

Let’s get to it!

List of virtual holiday party ideas

From fully hosted virtual events to DIY games and activities to play on Zoom, here are some of the best ideas for your next virtual holiday party.

1. Virtual Holiday Party (Fully Hosted)

Virtual Holiday Party is a 90 minute experience that includes fun holiday themed games and activities. We develop unique games each year that are tested and proven to maximize engagement and participation.

A few things to know:

• Virtual Holiday Party is designed for groups of 10 to 250+ people.
• The experience is led by an expert teambuilding.com host.
• The event is 90 minutes, including time for opening remarks and a little buffer room.
• You can choose addons like cocktail kits and gift boxes to send your guests.

Start planning your Virtual Holiday Party .

2. Virtual Holiday Party Bingo

Bingo is a great icebreaker for virtual holiday parties because it’s fun, a great way to connect with people, and a familiar format.

Here is a card generator you can use for your game:

Get Just the Bingo Card

You can share this link with your guests.

To play Virtual Holiday Party Bingo, you simply distribute the cards and then players interact to find clues to mark off. If you have a group of 15 or more people, then we recommend dividing participants into smaller breakout rooms.

Get our free team building toolbox

• icebreaker games
• bingo cards

3. Virtual Sleigh Ride Breakout Sessions [New]

You can use breakout rooms for a “virtual sleigh ride.” Each room represents a “stop” on the sleigh ride tour, and has a different mini-experience like holiday trivia, storytelling, or karaoke contests. Every ten to fifteen minutes, bring the group back to the main room and re-randomize breakout rooms so that guests get to try different activities and spend time with different coworkers.

4. The Naughty List

The Naughty List is a holiday themed version of the popular party game Never Have I Ever.

For this game, participants hold up five or ten fingers. The host reads prompts, and if the prompt is true for you then you put a finger down. The game ends when all of the prompts are read. Any players with all fingers down are on the Naughty List, and players with any fingers remaining are on the Nice List.

Here are the prompts:

• You have ever re-gifted a present.
• You don’t believe in Santa.
• You tidied your background before the party.
• You bought a gift last minute.
• You haven’t wished anyone “happy holidays” this year.
• You know a naughty Christmas joke.
• You peeked at presents in advance.
• You knocked over a Christmas tree.
• You were late for the holiday party!
• You can sing a naughty holiday jingle.
• You have bought more coal than cupcakes.
• You pretended to like a gift.

You can make your own prompts too to encourage inside jokes.

5. Snow Globe Showdown [New]

Snow Globe Showdown is one of the most creative virtual team holiday party ideas. Using the Zoom digital whiteboard tool or a similar whiteboard app, teams create digital snow globes. Simply send teams to breakout room for ten to fifteen minutes to craft their winter scenes. Be sure players take a screenshot of their whiteboards before returning to the main room, then have each team present and explain their snow globes. A panel of judges or audience votes will decide the most creative, detailed, or funny holiday scene.

6. Gingerbread Games (Popular)

Gingerbread Games is one of our most popular virtual holiday party events. The experience includes 90 minutes of fun, themed games with a professional host, and gingerbread decorating kits that we ship to participants in advance.

Here are the highlights:

• Gingerbread Games works for any sized group.
• We ship gingerbread decorating kits to participants in advanced, with domestic US shipping included in the price.
• The experience is led by a professional teambuilding.com host.

Learn more about Virtual Gingerbread Games .

7. Holiday Icebreaker Questions

You can start your party by asking a question like:

• What is your first memory of the holiday season?
• Are you for or against re-gifting and why?
• What is your favorite Christmas food?

For small groups, share the prompt and then have guests answer one by one.

For larger groups, divide guests into breakout rooms of five to eight people and have them share answers in those small groups.

Here is an icebreaker generator you can use for more questions:

We also have a list with hundreds of holiday icebreaker questions .

8. Holiday Rush Scavenger Hunt

Holiday Rush is a fast-paced and fun virtual holiday party game.

To play, give participants 90 seconds to grab nearby items that match the prompt, “things you need to survive the holidays.”

Then, when players return, read out the following list. Anyone that has a matching item gets a point. Anyone that wants to share a story about an item can win bonus points.

Here is the list:

• Holiday cookies
• Winter clothing
• Ugly sweater
• Wrapping paper
• Kitchen utensil
• Christmas decoration

Finally, ask if any player has another item they want to share. Award bonus points for creativity.

Here are more holiday scavenger hunt templates .

9. Gingerbread Showdown

This game is inspired by Gingerbread Wars, one of our most popular virtual holiday events. Players need gingerbread people decorating kits, which you can either send by mail or provide a budget for participants to purchase a kit locally.

To play this game:

• Ugly Sweater Competition
• Gingerbread Career Fair
• Halloween Scare
• Puttin’ on the Ritz
• After each prompt, participants have 60 seconds to decorate a cookie to match the theme.
• Players hold up their cookies at the same time, and the host selects a few winners. For example, “best dressed”, “most joyful”, “ugly but okay”, and “A for effort.”

While Gingerbread Showdown is a competitive game, it’s not really about tallying points and choosing an overall winner. The winner is everyone, because the game is so darn fun to play and you get to eat cookies too.

10. Name That Tune: Holiday Edition

Name That Tune is a classic party game where you participants guess which song is playing. With a little planning, you can theme this event toward a holiday playlist.

• Prepare a holiday playlist or use this one on YouTube .
• Play between 5 and 15 seconds of a song.
• Have players buzz in to guess the song by typing “ho ho ho” in the chat.
• The first player or team to guess the song correctly wins a point.

At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins prizes or bragging rights.

11. Virtual Secret Santa

Secret Santa is a classic holiday party activity where participants receive gifts from unknown senders, and you can do it virtually too.

Here is how:

• Use a Secret Santa generator to match up names.
• Provide participants with a budget to purchase and send a gift to their matched name. Be sure to include a note, “do not open until our company holiday party.”
• At the virtual holiday party, participants open their gifts and guess who sent it.

A good gift budget for Virtual Secret Santa is $50 plus shipping costs. However, you could go anywhere between $30 and $100 or so and find some great gifts.

12. Tradition or Not?

Tradition or Not is a fun, trivia-style game where participants must guess if a description is of a real holiday tradition or a made-up one.

To play, share each prompt and have participants show a hand or state in the chat whether they believe it is a Tradition or a Not.

Here are the descriptions:

• In Japan, KFC is a popular meal on December 25th. (Tradition)
• In Iceland, mischievous trolls drop off rotting potatoes instead of coal. (Tradition)
• Mexicans often ring in the New Year by writing resolutions in the sand. (Not)
• In Wisconsin, citizens celebrate the first snowfall with a barefoot sprint. (Not)
• During Hanukkah, Indians sometimes dip wicks in coconut oil in place of lighting candles. (Tradition)

You can Google, “weird Christmas traditions” for more fun options.

13. Silent Night Charades

This game is a holiday themed version of Charades, where participants take turn acting out prompts based on Christmas stories, carols and traditions.

• Divide your participants into teams.
• Each team nominates a player to go first.
• Choose one of the nominees and send them a private message with the prompt.
• The player has 60 seconds to act out the prompt using only their body – no speaking or writing allowed.
• That player’s team members must correctly guess the prompt to win a point.
• Repeat for the other players.

Here is a list of prompts to use for your game:

• Jingle Bell Rock
• All I Want for Christmas is You
• Secret Santa
• Three French Hens
• Gingerbread House
• Ghost of Christmas Past
• Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel
• All of the Other Reindeer
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
• Ten Lords A-leaping
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas

You can create your own prompts too.

14. Blizzard: Truth or Dare

For Blizzard: Truth or Dare is a multiplayer and holiday-themed version of the classic Truth or Dare party game.

To play Blizzard:

• All participants on a video call start with cameras on.
• Share your earliest holiday memory.
• Sing a Christmas carol.
• Give a 20 second speech as Santa Claus.
• Name all of Santa’s reindeer.
• Share a Christmas confession.
• Answer “what did my true love send to me on the 7th day of Christmas?”
• Make a case for why fruit cake is the best cake.
• With each prompt, players can either leave their camera on to indicate they are willing to answer, or turn the camera off to opt-out.
• The host chooses camera-on players to complete the challenge. Any player that fails to do the challenge is knocked out of the game and becomes a cheerleader.

You can end the game whenever you like, and we recommend seeing it through for at least five or six rounds.

15. Candy Canes or Candy Corn?

This game asks participants to decide which item to keep and which to destroy forever: Candy Canes or Candy Corn?

Once the decision is made, unanimously, by majority vote or otherwise, then the winner takes on a new competitor. For example, Candy Canes or Gingerbread Houses, and the Gingerbread Houses or Santa.

The game doesn’t have a definitive end, but it tends to get pretty existential. For example, once you have Grandma’s buttery mashed potatoes up against the fate of humanity, one of them tends to win over and over again – the taters, obviously.

16. Undercover Santa

Undercover Santa follows Werewolf rules – it’s a game of deception, social dedication and holiday joy.

• 20% of players as Undercover Santa
• 1 Elf on the Shelf – Can point to one player and the host confirms if that person is an Undercover Santa.
• 1 Scrooge – Can block Santa’s choice one time by saying “bah humbug” out loud during the night.
• For groups of 10+ people, add 2 Turtle Doves – If one of them goes down then both go down.
• All other players are Carolers.
• For groups of 15+ people, we recommend dividing participants into multiple breakout rooms.
• Undercover Santa(s) to identify one Caroler to give a gift so good they are knocked out of the game.
• Elf on the Shelf to guess one player as Undercover Santa and the host confirms Yes or No.
• The host says, “ho, ho, ho” and all players open their eyes. The host then reveals which player, if any, was knocked out during the night.
• Players must come to a consensus or vote on who they believe the Undercover Santa is. The player with the most votes is knocked out of the game. The game ends when all Undercover Santas are knocked out, or when there are no-longer enough Carolers to knock out the remaining Santas.

Undercover Santa is a great holiday game for both small and large groups.

17. Ugly Sweater Competition

An easy way to add a fun, competitive spirit to your virtual holiday party is to include an ugly sweater competition. For this activity, you can invite your guests to wear the ugliest sweater they have available. Then, you can either have a team vote to award the ugliest sweater, or award prizes for a variety of winners.

A few example prizes are:

• most festive design
• “are you really wearing that at work?”
• most likely to inspire a Christmas carol
• more spooky than ugly

You can make up your own prize categories too.

18. Guess that Holiday Movie

This fun virtual holiday party game includes trivia based on holiday movies. For each round, you play a 10 to 20 second audio clip of a holiday film. Then, participants have to guess which movie the clip is from. Correct guesses earn a point, and incorrect guesses lose a point. You can also award bonus points for follow up questions like “name at least two actors in the movie” or “closest without going over, what year did the movie come out?”

Here is a playlist of popular holiday movie clips .

19. Winter Trivia: Team vs Team

Winter Trivia: Team vs Team is a virtual competition for teams. This classic is a sure crowd pleaser that is likely to help team members work off holiday and end-of-year stress, all while having fun with teammates.

The highlights:

• Hosted on Zoom or a platform of your choice
• High energy and competitive
• General knowledge questions about winter and winter happenings, not specific to only one holiday

Learn more about Winter Trivia Team vs Team or Individual vs Individual.

20. Escape Everest: Quest for the Yeti

Escape Everest: Quest for the Yeti is a 90-minute puzzle-based winter event. An expert host guides teams through an epic adventure through the Himalayas. Teams will compete for clues, piece together research, and solve ultra-complex puzzles while racing against the clock and each other. Along the way, teams will glean knowledge about the mountains and abominable snowman lore. This experience is ideal for teams who crave a challenge and excel at collaborating under pressure.

Learn more about Escape Everest: Quest for the Yeti .

21. Most Likely To: Holiday Edition

Most Likely To is a game of seasonal superlatives that asks remote coworkers to decide which teammate is most likely to perform in specific ways during the holidays.

You can ask your team to vote on who is most likely to:

• Spend a fortune on decorations?
• Procrastinate Christmas shopping until December 24th?
• Cry while watching a Christmas movie?
• Forget the words to a carol?
• Pick out the perfect present?
• Make an epic cup of hot chocolate?
• Fall while ice-skating?

This game is a fun and casual way for participants to connect.

For more ideas, check out this list of most likely to questions .

22. Virtual Holiday Party Trivia

Trivia is a great game for virtual holiday parties because it’s fun, educational and easy to participate in. We recommend doing team trivia, where small teams answer the questions in breakout rooms.

A few examples of great holiday trivia questions:

• Q: What was the first Christmas movie ever made? A: Santa Claus (1898). Bonus point: Closest guess to the launch year.
• Q: Which country is Krampus from? a) Germany, b) Austria, c) Norway, D) Scotland. A: Austria. Bonus point: What is Krampus?
• Q: How many ghosts appear in A Christmas Carol? A: 4 ghosts. Bonus point: Name all 4 (Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future).

Here is a Google Form that participants can use to submit answers, and here is the answer key . The submissions are automatically sent to the event organizer for scoring.

We have more Christmas trivia questions too.

23. Mystery Santa Sketch [New]

Mystery Santa Sketch is one of the easiest virtual holiday party ideas for work. Using the digital whiteboard app or a piece of paper, guests participate in a live drawing game to sketch holiday-themed items, but with a twist. Artists must draw the holiday prompts with their eyes closed, while the rest of the team guides them with directions. When the drawing is complete, the artist will hold it up, often with hilarious results.

24. Recipe Roulette [New]

If you want a way to add laughter and surprise to your virtual holiday party, then try Recipe Roulette! This activity starts with participants sharing their most bizarre or unconventional holiday recipes, like candy-cane spaghetti or fruitcake nachos. A few brave volunteers select a recipe and attempt to recreate it live on camera, using whatever ingredients they can scavenge at home. As colleagues watch the culinary chaos unfold, the event is sure to spark laughter, shared memories, and playful competition.

25. Seasonal Sound Scavenger Hunt [New]

You can play this game throughout your virtual holiday party. First create a list of seasonal sounds and sayings.

For example:

• Ringing bells
• “Ho ho ho”
• “Merry Christmas”
• Choir singing
• Sleigh whistle
• Children singing
• Santa Claus
• “Lights”
• “Tree”
• “Snow”

In the background of your party, play holiday carols or movie clips. Teammates will pay attention to the songs and conversations and mark off every time an item on the list occurs. The first partygoer to complete their list and call it out wins a prize.

26. Holiday Conspiracy Theories [New]

This game is a sure conversation starter for remote holiday parties! First, assign groups to breakout rooms. Then, give each room a wacky holiday conspiracy theory.

• Santa’s North Pole is a government cover-up
• Reindeer are actually a species of bird
• Elves are clones
• Santa is a time traveler
• Holiday lights send signals
• Candy canes are tracking devices
• Gingerbread cookies need a new name

Each team will have two to three minutes to formulate a compelling argument in favor of their theory. Then, partyogers return to the main room and present their theories to the rest of the group. The team that makes the most amusing and persuasive argument wins the game.

27. Unlikely Carols [New]

Folks can grow tired of hearing the same Christmas songs for a month straight every year. Instead of queing up the same old carols, create a playlist of covers and mashups that strike the holiday mood without feeling stale. You can even ask your teammates for suggestions of their favorite unusual holiday songs or versions.

28. Virtual Holiday Photo Booth [New]

No holiday party is complete without a few photo ops, and Zoom holiday parties are no different. You can set up a themed background and use Zoom’s camera filters for a quick, humorous group photo session with funny props and costumes. Or, you can find a free virtual photo booth app and send your guests a link so that they can snap a branded holiday picture around partytime.

29. Festive Reels Contest [New]

This activity turns your holiday party into a mini film festival. First, have teammates make a short, holiday-themed video or reel before the party. Then, watch the clips together, and use the poll feature to vote on categories like “Most Hilarious” or “Best Storyline.”

30. Holiday Card Writing Marathon [New]

To add a charitable component to your party, set aside fifteen or twenty minutes for a card-writing session. You and the team can spend this time writing holiday cards for nursing home residents, kids at children’s hospitals, or overseas troops. In the background play seasonal carols or a holiday movie, and encourage conversation. Also, give teammates a stipend to buy cards and stamps.

31. Guess the Celebrant [New]

This game is a great way for partygoers to get a glimpse into their coworker’s lives.Each person shares one obscure holiday memory or tradition in a private message to the host. The host reads the item out loud. The group then guesses which coworker the memory belongs to.

32. Festive Pets [New]

Festive Pets is a great way to bring your coworkers’ fur babies into the holiday fun. Before the party, encourage your coworkers to take holiday-themed photos of their pets, and share them in a Google Form or email them to the organizer. Then, share the photos in a slideshow or play a guessing game where coworkers name the owner of each pet. You could also use the polling tool to vote on a “best dressed holiday pet” and send a virtual Chewy gift card or a pet care package to the winning owner.

The #1 Virtual Holiday Party Company

teambuilding.com is the #1 virtual holiday party company.

A few facts:

• We’ve hosted 6,000+ virtual holiday parties for clients like Apple, Amazon and Google.
• Our virtual experiences have 50,225+ five star reviews and an industry leading 97.64% satisfaction rating.
• The Washington Post reviewed our virtual holiday parties and said it “is as good as it gets.”
• We’ve helped 1,180,124+ people plan virtual holiday parties via our expert guide.
• Our company is 150+ remote employees strong and has incredibly high team satisfaction scores – we know how to do virtual team engagement.

With thousands of reviews, event experiences and host interactions to draw from, we’ve created and iterated on the best virtual holiday party experiences available.

We now have five world class virtual holiday party events:

• Virtual Holiday Party (our flagship experience for 10 – 100 people)
• Gingerbread Games (virtual holiday event including shipped gingerbread kits)
• Escape Everest (a fun and inclusive virtual holiday experience)

Each of these events is designed to maximize the holiday spirit, fun and connections between your remote team members.

You can either book one of these experiences as a stand-alone event, or add it to your own virtual holiday party itinerary.

How to Host a Virtual Holiday Party

If you choose to host your own virtual holiday party, then you can follow along this step-by-step guide to make it a huge success.

• The optimal duration
• Three sample itineraries
• Tips for boosting engagement
• Upgrading your event with addons
• Choosing a playlist
• Sample invitation email
• Canva invitation templates

Planning Your Party

To plan a virtual holiday party, you need:

• A date, time and duration.
• An itinerary.
• Holiday themed games and activities.

Let’s look at each one.

The Optimal Duration for your Virtual Holiday Party

For virtual holiday parties, you have three primary durations to choose from.

• 60 minutes – for a quick, informal party that celebrates your team.
• 90 minutes – for a fun, engaging, and memorable experience.
• 120 minutes – the closest option to an in-person office holiday party.

Any of these options can work well depending on your needs. We don’t recommend going shorter or much longer. Below 60 minutes and your event will feel rushed, and beyond 120 minutes it is very difficult to keep guests engaged.

A few tips for date and time:

• December 1 to 17 are the most popular days for virtual holiday parties, but you can do earlier and later too. We are busy in November and December, so we host our internal holiday party in January.
• We recommend hosting your event during regular work hours so that more people can participate.
• Planning your event toward the end of the workday means that attendees can sign off for the day after the celebration.
• Try to give guests at least two weeks notice, so they can plan to attend.

Once you set your duration, you can start planning your itinerary.

Virtual Holiday Party Itinerary Examples

Here are three sample virtual holiday party itineraries, based on your selected duration.

1. 60 Minute Virtual Holiday Party

2. 90 minute virtual holiday party, 3. 120 minute virtual holiday party.

The icebreakers and games in these samples are selected to complement each other.

Once you choose your itinerary, you can customize the schedule with virtual holiday party games and activities that match your group’s interests.

Optimizing Your Virtual Holiday Party

Once you have your itinerary set and activities selected, you can start optimizing your virtual holiday party to maximize joyful spirit and engagement.

This section includes tips and best practices, ideas for event addons, and holiday playlists for your event.

Virtual Holiday Party Tips

Here are our top tips for hosting a successful virtual holiday party.

• Have a structured agenda. The #1 reason that virtual events fall flat is a lack of structure. Plan for opening comments, icebreakers, games and activities that give attendees cues on how to participate.
• Keep opening remarks short. You definitely want to welcome everyone, share your appreciation and set a spirited tone for the event. Beyond that, reserve as much time as you can for more interactive participation.
• Celebrate a variety of holidays . It’s okay to say “Merry Christmas!”, and it’s also okay to say “Happy Hanukkah!” and “Happy Kwanzaa!”.
• Encourage holiday dress up. Button up shirts, holiday sweaters and other festive gear can help set the mood.
• Send a surprise package. Everyone loves receiving packages in the mail, especially around the holidays. A nice care package includes candies for the virtual holiday party, accessories to decorate themselves or backgrounds, and a more substantial gift.
• Take photos and/or videos! You can use a screen capture or recording tool to snap memories of the event. These mementos are great for internal culture, as well as for social media channels.

Upgrading Your Event With Addons

One way to boost joy and excitement at your event is to include addons for participants.

Here are the most popular addons to try.

• Cocktail Kits. You can send either a drink making kit with or without alcohol.
• Gift Boxes. You can either make and send your own gift boxes, or work with a gift box company to do it for you.
• Food Delivery. The easiest way to provide food for remote participants is to provide a reimbursement of $30 or $50, or to send a gift card in advance.
• Gift Cards. Providing a gift card or loaded credit card is a great way to provide a budget for whatever your participants may want to buy. For example, a new outfit, hair cut, decorative background or upgraded lighting.

You can include other fun addons too that help celebrate your team members and customize the event to your unique culture.

Virtual Holiday Party Playlist

Any virtual holiday party instantly becomes better when you add music. You can either play the music softly throughout your event, or a little louder as people are joining the party or coming back from breakout rooms.

Here is our recommended playlist for your virtual holiday party:

Inviting Guests to Your Party

It goes without saying that the #1 way to increase guest count at your virtual holiday party is to invite your guests. You can either send a simple message via email or messenger, or create a more formal invitation.

Sample Invitation Email #1

It’s my pleasure to invite you to COMPANY NAME’s virtual holiday party.

Here are the details:

• The event is on DATE at TIME for ## hours.
• We’ve planned some fun holiday themed games and activities.
• This party is the most fun you are ever going to have on Zoom ?

Please RSVP by responding to this message.

Happy holidays!

Sample Invitation Email #2

It’s that time of year again – November – but also time to start planning for our virtual holiday party.

This year, our holiday party will be on DATE from START TIME to END TIME.

These are the important details:

• The dress code is semi-formal.
• You have a $50 reimbursement for food and drinks.
• We are sending you a surprise gift box in the mail. Please keep an eye out, but also act surprised ?

Let me know if you have any questions.

Canva Invitation Template #1

Click here to edit this invitation.

Canva Invitation Template #2

Final Thoughts

Hosting a virtual holiday party is a great way to celebrate the holiday season, recognize your team’s achievements, and bring your people together in a joyful way. And you have plenty of options. You can host a virtual holiday party yourself on any budget, or if you prefer you can hire a company like ours to run the event for you. Either way, your people will enjoy the time together and leave happier and excited to be part of the team.

In summary, here are some of the best virtual holiday party ideas:

• Gingerbread Games
• Virtual Holiday Trivia
• The Naughty List
• Holiday Icebreaker Questions
• Virtual Holiday Party Bingo
• Holiday Rush Scavenger Hunt
• Gingerbread Showdown
• Name That Tune: Holiday Edition
• Virtual Secret Santa
• Tradition or Not?
• Silent Night Charades
• Blizzard: Truth or Dare
• Candy Canes or Candy Corn?
• Undercover Santa
• Guess that Holiday Movie
• Epic Holiday Party

Next, check out our list of virtual team events , ideas for virtual New Years Eve , these virtual party games , and this list of virtual team building activities .

You can also brush up on your holiday party etiquette for work , and review fun office party ideas and games .

If you are in the UK, check out this list of fun virtual Christmas party ideas in the UK .

That’s it – happy holidays!

Book wildly fun team building events with expert hosts

FAQ: Virtual holiday parties

Here are common questions and answers about virtual holiday party ideas, games and activities.

What are virtual holiday parties?

Virtual holiday parties are meetings and events over video conferencing platforms that are meant to celebrate a specific holiday. For example, you might have a virtual Christmas party or online Xmas party that includes games and activities themed for that holiday. These events are also known as “Zoom holiday parties”, “remote Christmas parties” and “virtual team holiday parties.”

Why are virtual holiday parties important?

Virtual holiday parties are important because they are an opportunity to celebrate the end of year, and show appreciation for your team members. These events are especially effective because they also benefit from participants being in a joyful holiday spirit.

How long should a virtual holiday party be?

The best virtual holiday parties tend to be 60, 90 or 120 minutes. Any shorter and you may run out of time for meaningful engagement, and longer you risk guest fatigue with the format.

What are the benefits of hosting a Zoom holiday party?

The benefits of hosting a Zoom holiday party include allowing employees to unwind and bond with coworkers, which in turn creates happier and closer teams. Traditional office workers enjoy every day water cooler chats and seasonal get-togethers with peers, but remote workers get fewer chances to connect casually with coworkers.

What are the best ideas for virtual Christmas parties for remote teams?

The best virtual Christmas parties allow employees to meet casually yet eliminate any possible awkwardness. Some of the best ideas for virtual holiday parties for remote teams are Goodie Boxes, Holiday Playlists, and Celebrating Non-Mainstream Holidays.

How do you make a virtual Christmas party fun?

To make a virtual Christmas party fun, first decide what holiday team building activities you would like to include. If you do not plan your party, then you may have a harder time keeping everyone entertained and interacting come party time. Feel free to use the ideas in this post and brainstorm more of your own. Do your preparation work, send out your e-vites, and then have a great time!

What are the best virtual holiday party games?

The best virtual holiday party games are Tradition or not?, Never Have I Ever holiday edition, and online holiday scavenger hunt. These games embrace the seasonal spirit and help remote group member connect through fun and creative challenges.

What are some good virtual holiday party ideas for large groups?

Some good virtual holiday party ideas for large groups include Holiday Rush Scavenger Hunt, Gingerbread Showdown, and Blizzard: Truth or Dare.

What is a Zoom holiday party?

A Zoom holiday party is an online holiday party that takes place over the video conference platform Zoom. These parties are a subset of virtual holiday parties and are similar to Zoom Christmas parties.

Author: Michael Alexis

CEO at teambuilding.com. I write about my experience working with and leading remote teams since 2010.

17 comments

Hi! Do you have a list of prices for your holiday party?

Hi Jade! It looks like our team sent you the price list earlier today 🙂 For up to date prices, just fill out the form on any of our event pages and we will send it over quick. Happy holidays!

I am planning a christmas party and all of these are super helpful!!

Great list Thank you.

Do you have a list of prices for your holiday party? We are trying to plan a virtual event for December. We are a non-profit US Army Agency.

Hi Kevin! If you fill out the form at the bottom of our home page, or click “get pricing” in the top right, our team will send you the current price list. Best wishes!

would love to get a list of prices for holiday party?

Hi Evamarie! If you fill out any form on this site, our team will send you the current pricing and other info 🙂

This list is fabulous! Thank you all so much for sharing!

Could you sent me prices and such for a virtual christmas party? And of course on info on what it would look like. We are located in Canada

Hi Kim! Please fill our the form on this page and our team will be happy to support: https://teambuilding.com/events/virtual-holiday-party

We have hosted our high school class holiday party for the last 5 years. (Class of 1978) Of course this year it is not possible to have a dinner & dance party at a club. We so want to still connect with our classmates. Can you help me put a virtual party together? We would definitely need music, & I would ask guests to dress up for the party. i like the idea of having a host to coordinate, the holiday drink idea and maybe the best xmas cookies idea. Would like to discuss options and ideas and find out costs.

Hi Velina! Please fill out the form on our home page, and one of our team members will be happy to assist :- )

Inspiration for virtual holiday fun! thank you

The constant PC language: “Snow person”? “Holiday party”? is over the top. (Anyone offended by ‘Snowman’ needs to grow up frankly. All the same some good ideas here.

Haha, agreed. I just saw gingerbread people the other day and had to shake my head….

Seems like you are the one that should grow up, as you are the one outraged by the use of synonyms

Leave a Reply Cancel

Your email address will not be published.

We lead wildly fun experiences for teams with 1,000,000+ players to date.

• 45,000+ clients including Apple, Amazon, Google and NASA
• 50,225+ five star reviews on Google
• #15 on Inc 5000's List of Fastest Growing Private Companies in America for 2022
• 80+ happy remote employees

Get our free team building tool box

$49 value at no cost..

• May as well check it out?
• 100+ tested icebreaker questions
• 24+ themed Bingo generators
• 5+ PDFs (including the 8% Rule)
• 2024 team building calendar and more...

Enter your email for instant access

Virtual Team Building Events

From $20 per person.

• Choose from 30+ event types
• Fun for all team sizes
• Includes DEIB options
• Rated 4.96/5.0 on 50,225+ reviews

• Presentation Collections

Top 10 Tips for Hosting the Perfect Virtual Christmas Gathering

Hooray, the best holiday season of all is finally here, and thanks to Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, among other video conferencing tools, it couldn’t have gotten easier to throw a virtual Christmas party. Be it a Virtual Office Christmas Party, Virtual Family Christmas Party, or Fun Online Get Together-Friends, the following are top 10 tips you may want to look through in order to create memorable events full of holiday cheer.

Plan Ahead for Success

Effective online party planning is key to hosting a smooth virtual Christmas gathering. Plan a date and time in prior that works for most participants and send out invitations well in advance. Use the best online party planning tools to organize RSVPs and ensure everyone knows how to join the event. Clear communication is essential to keep the excitement alive.

Example: If you send out an interactive invite through an online tool with a RSVP link and a countdown timer, it immediately builds excitement and ensures everyone is prepared.

Choose a Fun Virtual Christmas Party Theme

Set the tone with a fun virtual Christmas party theme slides . Whether it’s a creative Christmas crib contest, a Santa makeover, or a holiday movie-inspired dress-up, themes add an extra layer of excitement. Encourage participants to get creative with their outfits and backgrounds to match the theme.

Example : Imagine a “Holiday Around the World” theme where everyone shares a traditional holiday dish from different cultures—this not only entertains but also educates!

Create Festive Virtual Backgrounds

The background helps to enrich your celebration. Set a cool background theme to enhance the holiday spirit with festive decorations. Slide Egg offers customizable backgrounds featuring snowy landscapes, Christmas trees, and holiday lights. Backgrounds make your online Christmas gathering visually appealing and create a cheerful atmosphere.

Example : Set a festive cabin background to immerse everyone in the holiday spirit, no matter their actual surroundings.

Incorporate Virtual Christmas Party Icebreakers

Start your virtual holiday party with creative virtual Christmas party icebreakers. These can include interesting holiday traditions, “two truths and a lie” with a Christmas twist, or a quick round of introductions with a holiday fun fact. Icebreakers are especially useful for team-building activities in a virtual office Christmas party.

Example : Start with a “Guess That Holiday Song” icebreaker where everyone guesses the tune from a few hummed notes. It’s fun and sets the mood.

Plan Interactive Christmas Party Games for Adults

Interactive games keep the energy high and the laughter flowing. A list of the best virtual Christmas party games for adults include:

Holiday Bingo : Take a bingo card and insert different things about holidays into it.

Guess the Christmas Song : Play a few seconds of a holiday tune and have guests guess the title.

Scavenger hunt : Have participants find different holiday-related items around one’s home.

Example : Request items like a red sock or candy cane during a scavenger hunt.

Plan Engaging Activities

Apart from games, incorporate virtual Christmas party activities to keep guests entertained. Host a virtual cookie-decorating session, a craft workshop for making ornaments, or a holiday karaoke contest. Activities like these bring everyone together, even from a distance.

Example : Share a simple cookie recipe in advance and have everyone show off their creations live. It’s interactive and delicious!

Curate a Holiday Playlist

Set the mood with a well-chosen playlist of holiday music. Using online streaming services, mix up classic Christmas carols and modern festive hits. Softly playing music during games and activities adds ambiance to your virtual holiday party.

Example : Include a mix of classics like “Jingle Bells” and modern hits like “All I Want for Christmas Is You” to cater to all ages.

Organize a Virtual Gift Exchange

A virtual gift exchange is a thoughtful way to spread holiday cheer. Use online tools to draw names and coordinate gift-giving. Participants can send gifts ahead of time and open them together on camera. Alternatively, consider a budget-friendly option like a virtual Secret Santa using e-gift cards.

Example : Host a “Guess Who’s Santa?” reveal the game after the gift exchange to add some mystery and fun.

Christmas Party Ideas for Zoom

Zoom is a versatile platform for hosting your virtual Christmas party. Here are some Christmas party ideas for Zoom:

• Breakout Rooms for Small Games : Divide participants into teams for quick trivia challenges.
• Themed Virtual Backgrounds : Encourage everyone to set a holiday-themed background.
• Spotlight Sessions : Highlight individuals during gift exchanges or talent shows.

Example : Use breakout rooms for a short trivia round and bring everyone back for a grand finale with shared stories or a group toast.

End on a High Note

Conclude your virtual Christmas party with a heartfelt thank-you message. Share a slideshow of moments captured during the event or express your appreciation for everyone’s participation. Ending with a group toast or a shared reflection on holiday traditions ensures the event wraps up on a joyous note.

Example : Use a PowerPoint slideshow with participant photos, captions, and a “Cheers to Next Year!” message to wrap things up with warmth.

Elevate Your Virtual Party with Christmas PowerPoint Templates

Transform your virtual Christmas party from ordinary to extraordinary with our professionally designed PowerPoint templates. These ready-to-use designs can streamline your planning process and add a polished touch to your virtual gathering. Here’s how templates can enhance different aspects of your party:

Presentation Magic : Use themed slides for activity instructions, game rules, and schedules.

Visual Appeal : Incorporate festive backgrounds, animations, and transitions.

Professional Polish : Create cohesive branding throughout your virtual event.

Time-Saving Solutions : Access pre-designed layouts for different party segments.

Interactive Elements : Utilize built-in features for games and activities.

Our Christmas PowerPoint templates can serve as your virtual party command center, helping you:

• Organize and present party information clearly.
• Create engaging virtual backgrounds.
• Display game scoreboards.
• Share holiday-themed trivia questions.
• Showcase participant photos and memories.
• Guide gift exchange procedures.
• Present virtual awards and recognition.

Wrapping Up

Hosting a virtual Christmas party doesn’t have to be a complex one. With these tips, you’ll be able to create a memorable and entertaining online holiday party that puts you right in the holiday spirit. Be it fun online Christmas party themes, cool games, or touching activities, the underlying spirit will come from bonding and enjoyment. Happy holidays!

Spread Love

Related blogs.

Clara is a professional content writer with 3 years of experience delivering engaging and thought-provoking blogs, and captivating product descriptions. Highly skilled in PowerPoint and Google Slides, she thrives in diverse niches, combining creativity, precision, and a keen eye for detail to craft informative content.

Recent Blogs

How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan Presentation?

A significant first step towards creating a great lesson plan presentation is vital to any teacher who wants his lesson...

How to Easily Add Captions to Images in Google Slides

Adding captions to images in Google Slides can greatly enhance your presentations by providing context and ensuring your audience gets...

Hooray, the best holiday season of all is finally here, and thanks to Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, among other...

SIGNUP FOR NEWSLETTER

25 Virtual Christmas Party Ideas in 2023 (Holidays)

You found our list of festive virtual Christmas party ideas !

Virtual Christmas parties are holiday celebrations conducted over video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and WebEx. Virtual Christmas party ideas are specific ways to observe Christmas online with your remote teams. For example, you can include fun virtual holiday party games, activities, and entertainment. The goal of these events is to create holiday spirit and celebrate at the end of year.

This article includes:

• online Christmas party ideas
• virtual holiday party ideas
• virtual Christmas games
• Zoom Christmas party ideas

And more fun ideas too! ?

Grab your list and check it twice, because it’s time to plan the perfect online holiday party for your staff!

List of virtual Christmas party ideas

From ornament crafting to festive team photos to holiday swag bags, here is a list of special touches to make your virtual holiday party the most wonderful time of the year.

1. Gingerbread Games (Fully Hosted with real gingerbread cookies)

It’s the virtual holiday party to end all virtual holiday parties! Our sister company hosts Gingerbread Games, a virtual holiday event featuring real gingerbread cookie kits! The hosts will send all of your participants a gingerbread cookie kit full of gingerbread people and trees, and all the supplies needed for decorating.

Then, your group will meet your world-class event hosts in a Zoom session to enjoy a fun, festive, and creative virtual event perfect for the holiday season! Gingerbread Games sells out every year so we recommend booking as soon as possible!

Learn more about Gingerbread Games .

2. Online Holiday Bingo

Online Holiday Bingo is a fun and familiar game you can play at your virtual holiday party. You can play a focused version of the game by allowing teammates to interact on chat and in breakout rooms, or you can play as a group throughout the party.

The first player to mark five squares in a row wins. We made a template you can use at your online Christmas party; just be sure to randomize the clues!

For extra fun, you can offer prizes such as Amazon gift cards or extra PTO hours.

3. Cheery Holiday Playlists

December is the only month of the year with a special soundtrack. Virtual or not, no holiday party is complete without carols. To put your group into the Christmas spirit, you can curate an upbeat holiday playlist. The whole team can join in on the fun by adding songs to a playlist on a platform Spotify or Pandora .

Some favorites:

• All I Want for Christmas is You – Mariah Carey
• Last Christmas – Wham!
• Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms

While you can enjoy the carols as background music, you could also engage in holiday karaoke by streaming lyric videos on YouTube with a program like Watch2Gether. You could also turn the songs into games by playing a holiday version of “Name That Tune,” or stopping the carol midway, and asking guests to sing the next line.

4. Virtual Holiday Party (Fully Hosted!) ?

We run fully hosted virtual holiday parties via our sister company, Virtual Holiday Party. It’s a 90 minute event hosted over Zoom or other virtual platforms, and includes fun holiday and Christmas themed games and activities.

The event includes:

• Icebreakers and a gratitude ceremony
• Competitive games like Virtual Holiday Trivia
• Fun games like Stocking Stuffer Scavenger Hunts
• Buffer time during which your crew can mingle

Plus, more magic to make your virtual Christmas party fun!

Learn more about Virtual Holiday Party .

5. Virtual Christmas Party Invitations

Because your virtual holiday party takes place via video call, you will need to send potential attendees a meeting room link. While standard emailed URLs are easy to overlook, a colorful digital invitation grabs your team’s attention and builds anticipation for the affair.

One of the best Zoom Christmas party ideas is to create digital invitations to email to your invitees. You can use Canva or Crello to design bright and festive virtual christmas party invitations to send to the team. We created a few examples below.

You should aim to send your holiday party invitations a few weeks before the event so that your staff can schedule the date.

6. Virtual Holiday Icebreakers

One of the drawbacks of virtual Christmas parties is that while video rooms can unite and entertain your whole team at once, there are fewer opportunities for one-on-one conversations. You can remedy the situation by splitting the group into breakout rooms for activities and small group interactions.

Here are some holiday icebreakers to get started with:

• What is the strangest Christmas present you ever received?
• What one question would you ask Santa?
• Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?
• What is your favorite holiday food?
• What is your favorite Christmas flick?
• Does your family practice any interesting Christmas traditions?
• What act might land you on the naughty list?
• What act might land you on the nice list?

And here are more fun icebreaker questions .

You could even designate separate breakout rooms for various holiday activities such as caroling, cocktail-making, or cookie decorating.

Here is our guide on how to run successful virtual icebreakers .

7. “Christmas in my Town” Icebreaker

The members of remote teams often live spread across different regions, time zones, and possibly countries or continents. Though some Christmas traditions are the same worldwide, every locale has special ways of celebrating the holiday. For instance, in my city, folks gather to watch the tree-lighting on the square next to the ice rink and enjoy festive treats from a local gourmet donut shop.

Virtual holiday party ideas like “Christmas in my town” kickstart conversation and help colleagues get to know each other better. Each attendee will describe special local Christmas events, foods, decorations, or activities, and can share pictures if possible. This exercise is a great way to forge camaraderie between remote teammates and highlight the uniqueness of your geographically dispersed workforce.

8. Craft Festive Ornaments

Though you and your remote colleagues may not share an office Christmas tree, you can craft team ornaments that lend a sense of continuity to your individual trees. Ornament-making is a fun holiday activity that can easily carry over to virtual Christmas parties. While on the call, the gang can design and decorate ornaments together by following a lesson video, such as this YouTube tutorial .

Another fun idea is to send your team ornament kits in the mail before the party. You may choose to print the company logo on a plain plastic sphere or a plain white ceramic tile, and then allow the team to personalize the decorations with markers, glitter, and other holiday ephemera.

After the holiday party, you can display the finished products in an online gallery, or could even share the results on social media.

9. Make a Company Christmas Card (Creative)

Chances are, your remote team is rarely in the same room, and has maybe never taken a picture together. You can use your virtual office Christmas party as an excuse to snap a team photo. Taking a picture is as easy as switching to gallery view in Zoom and capturing a screenshot. You and the team can dress up in costume, use custom holiday backgrounds, or scout out printable Christmas-themed props to make the photo extra festive.

By using a program like Canva, you can add extra flair and turn your snapshot into a digital Christmas card, which you can then send to your team in a party recap email, or can message to other teams. One of the more ingenious virtual Christmas party ideas is to turn the team photo Christmas card into a competition between departments by holding a contest where the best entry wins a prize. Teams can work together to create fun themes like recreating the nativity, flaunting festive pets, or imagining classic Christmas character mugshots.

10. Holiday Newsletter (Collaborative)

Once upon a time, friends and relatives used Christmas cards and annual newsletters to share personal news with loved ones. You can follow this tradition for your virtual holiday celebrations as a way to spread updates among the team and help remote colleagues get to know each other better. Simply email prompts to your teammates, then compile the responses into a team email.

Prompts for the holiday newsletter:

• What was your proudest work accomplishment this year?
• What is one personal achievement you reached this year?
• Did you move this year?
• Did you foster/adopt/birth a new child (or make plans to?)
• Did you welcome a new pet into your home?
• What was the best lesson you learned this year?
• What was the best movie you watched this year? TV show? New song you heard?
• What are you most excited about for next year?

You can generate more prompts along the same lines, or leave the details up to your staff. Once you collect all submissions, you can display results as bullet points or highlights, graphs or pie charts. Laying out the common ground within the answers allows your team to more clearly visualize the group identity.

This activity can also serve as a time capsule to chronicle your team’s progress and special occasions, even beyond the holidays.

11. Virtual Holiday Team Building Games

Party games can make any event more fun, virtual events included. You and your Christmas crew can play a variety of virtual Christmas games over video call, including:

• Holiday-themed trivia : Break into teams, separate into breakout rooms, and complete timed trivia questions centered around the holiday in categories like Christmas around the world, Yuletide traditions, and holiday songs.
• Christmas movie charades : Act out the title of festive flicks like “Miracle on 34th Street” or parts from holiday classics such as the infamous tongue-stuck-on-pole scene from “A Christmas Story”
• Yuletide Pictionary : Screen-share and select the whiteboard feature, then give one team member a seasonal prompt such as reindeer, mistletoe, or eggnog. The teammate will have sixty seconds to draw the word while other guests guess.

And more too. Try searching “online team building games” for more inspiration.

12. Team Holiday Dinner

Food is an important element of any seasonal gathering. Just because your remote employees cannot hit up a holiday buffet, does not mean that you cannot feed your crew during your online Christmas bash. The easiest way to provide food for a virtual Christmas party is to reimburse employees for a treat or meal or send credits for a food delivery service like DoorDash or GrubHub. You could also order from a meal delivery kit from HelloFresh or BlueApron, or send a box of assorted goodies from Cratejoy.

Most importantly, folks bond through conversation during team lunches or dinners. You can either leave the discussion unstructured, or you can prepare holiday talking points like “What is your dream Christmas present?” or “If you could nix one seasonal tradition, which one would you choose?”

13. Virtual Cocoa Break

To honor the season, your virtual coffee break can turn into a virtual cocoa break. Hot chocolate is delicious and easy to send; a packet of cocoa can fit into a standard mailing envelope, though you may want to add an extra stamp. If you really want to treat your staff, then you can send fixings like artisan marshmallows, cookie batons, chocolate shavings, hazelnut spread, or chili powder, or you can invite your colleagues to bring any other mix-ins like whipped cream or coffee liqueur. You could even host a contest to determine which remote employee concocts the most creative or decadent cup of cocoa.

Some conversation ideas:

• Favorite holiday traditions
• Earliest memory of Christmas
• Winter sports

And you can talk about anything else of course too.

14. Virtual Christmas Slide-Show

Christmas is a photo-heavy, home-movie-happy time of year. Chances are, your employees have years worth of Christmas memories on hard drives, social media profiles, and photo albums. Before your online party, ask the staff to send you Christmas photos and video clips. Then, you can compile the submissions into a slideshow or video, and share your screen so that the group can view the finished product together. Old photos and childhood photos work great for this exercise, as do pictures of your team bundled up in winter apparel.

Bonus: You could even turn the activity into a guessing game by challenging guests to name the employee in each photo.

15. Dramatic Holiday Readings

Few online Christmas party ideas are as cozy and comforting as a live reading of a classic Christmas tale. Even adults enjoy occasional story-time, and Christmas stories tend to tap into nostalgia and revive happy memories.

Here are a few suggestions of stories you can read together:

• The Night Before Christmas
• The Polar Express
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• A Christmas Carol
• The Nutcracker

You could either elect one masterful storyteller to tell the tale, or every member of the team can take a turn reading a passage. Readings could be serious or amusing, depending on your team’s temperament. You could also choose to perform a partial table reading of a classic Christmas movie script instead of a piece of literature.

For posterity’s sake, you may choose to record the reading and use clips in future team bonding videos.

16. Holiday Swag Bag (Stocking Stuffers)

The true spirit of the season may be friends, family, and faith, but presents still play a big role in Christmas. By mailing your remote teammates a swag bag full of holiday goodies, you can show appreciation for your staff and add more excitement to your event. Not to mention, packages bring a tactile aspect to your online event.

Suggestions of items to include in a holiday swag bag:

• Cozy blankets and fuzzy socks
• Holiday accessories like Santa hats or reindeer headbands
• Stocking stuffers such as candy, Christmas-themed knick knacks, office accessories, and personal care products
• Candles or scent diffusers
• Snacks and culinary goodies

You can personalize the presents based on your employees’ tastes and preferences, and can either select a pre-made basket or gift box, or can build your own from scratch.

If you would rather not bother with the post office at all, then you can send virtual gifts such as a subscription to a streaming service, or reimbursement for a maid service to help with post-holiday clean up.

17. Twenty Questions: Guess the Gift ?

Snooping is a time-honored Christmas tradition. Those of us too impatient to wait until December 25th for gifts like to sneak a peek at presents and predict what is inside. You and your team can harness all the fun of creeping among the Christmas gifts by playing guess the gift.

There are two ways to play. The first way, participants will hold up a wrapped gift, and the other players will try to determine the contents based on the shape and sound. Wrappers can get tricky and wrap the package deceptively.

If you do not want to waste wrapping paper, then ask players to think up a present, and have other players identify the object by asking questions. Basically, a holiday themed game of 20 Questions.

18. Caroling Karaoke

Most folks know the words to Christmas carols, and for good reason; between Christmas and Thanksgiving, radio stations play the songs nonstop! Seizing on the familiarity of the lyrics, you can lead spirited renditions of holiday songs.

Some carols to start with:

• Jingle Bells
• Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
• Frosty the Snowman

To kickoff caroling karaoke during your online holiday party, use a program like Watch2Gether to synchronize your video stream. Then, queue up holiday lyric video playlists on YouTube. You could also pause the video, hide the screen, and challenge participants to sing the next lines without help.

Here is a popular Christmas carol playlist .

19. Holiday Recipe Guide

The holidays involve a whole lot of cooking. Swapping recipes allows your team to add a new surprise among the passed-down family standards. You can edit together a team holiday recipe guide full of drool-worthy dishes like “gingerbread cinnamon roll casserole,” or chuckle-worthy tips like “decoy cookies so that nobody raids your stash.”

To compile your collection:

• Ask for a minimum of one recipe from every teammate.
• Organize the instructions based on category, such as hors d’oeuvres, mains, and desserts.
• Use InDesign or Canva to make the guide visually appealing.
• Send the completed collection to the whole team.

Because some folks are visual learners, you can reserve time during the party for cooking demonstrations or holiday-themed cookoffs.

Here are some Christmas-themed recipes for inspiration.

20. Virtual Holiday Light Tour

This virtual Christmas party activity requires a bit of pre-party preparation. Before your event, instruct attendees to tour their cities and neighborhoods and capture pictures and video clips of the most extravagant light and yard displays. Then, once you gather for the party, give each guest a turn at being a tour guide, sharing the screen, and elaborating on the images.

This exercise connects employees both with teammates and the outside world. Virtual holiday light tours are great ways to explore each other’s backyards during the season. Plus, motivated team members can build and share their own amazing setup!

21. Charity Donations

Holidays are about giving back to our communities. By donating to charity during your holiday party, you and your team practice gratitude and generosity.

There are several ways you can volunteer during your virtual party:

• Write Christmas cards to send to senior citizens or soldiers
• Compete in virtual competitions like trivia and remote team building games, and let the winners pick the philanthropy to donate to
• Choose a child or family to play Santa to and shop together online for gifts
• Pay for teammates to complete holiday-themed dares, for instance, “I will give $5 if you dial the fifth number in your contact list and belt out Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,” or, “I’ll give $10 if you chug a glass of eggnog” and donate all proceeds to charity
• Participate in a charity-themed gift exchange where each participant makes a donation in another participant’s name
• Invite an artist connected with a philanthropy to provide entertainment at the party and set up a digital tip jar for donations. For instance, a visual artist may sketch caricatures of your guests, or an animal shelter may put on a virtual pet fashion show where cats don santa hats and pugs dress as elves.

If one of your employees works with a charity, then consider inviting the staff member to help coordinate the philanthropy effort.

Here is a list of charities that support children at Christmas time .

22. Gratitude Ceremonies

Growing up, one of our family traditions at Christmas-time was to do gratitude ceremonies. For example, we would all be around the dinner table and take turns sharing out one thing we are grateful for. Usually mom would share how grateful she is for the entire family to be together, and others would have more specific examples.

You can follow this same tradition and use it as an icebreaker at your virtual Christmas party. Start by dividing attendees into groups of no-more than 10 people, ideally organized in breakout rooms. Then, instruct the groups to take turns sharing out one point of gratitude. This activity is an easy and fun way to start bringing your people together with holiday spirit.

23. Advent Calendars

For many people, the month of December, and especially the days leading up to Christmas, aren’t complete without an advent calendar. These calendars include a small window that you can open each day to reveal a present. The gift is usually chocolate, but in recent years there are more unique options like hot sauce and wine too.

To help build anticipation for your company holiday party, send each of the attendees an advent calendar along with the invitation. This gift will be a daily reminder of the holiday spirit, and is a fun way to bring your team together around a habit and tradition.

Amazon has dozens of unique options for advent calendars.

24. Holiday “Minute-to-win-it” Challenges

A great way to make your virtual holiday event more fun is to include a round of minute-to-win-it challenges. These challenges are mini-games where each participant or team can quickly accrue points.

Here are some example games to include:

• Cookie Chomp: Each participant balances a cookie on their forehead, and races to be the first to eat it without using their hands.
• Candy Cane Tower: Participants compete to see who can build the tallest tower with candy canes.
• Jingle All the Way: Each player takes turns to sing Jingle Bells in different ways. For example, singing backwards or with a comical voice. The most unique or entertaining singer wins.

We recommend doing at least five mini-games, then tallying up the points and awarding prizes to the teams!

25. Virtual Holiday Scavenger Hunt

Virtual scavenger hunts are fun and active ways to spend time on a Zoom call. The activity takes about 15 minutes, and will increase engagement and excitement. The best items to hunt for also have story or “show and tell” opportunities, like favorite gifts and Christmas candy.

Here is a list you can start with:

• Favorite gift of all time
• The item you have owned the longest
• Something that reminds you of home
• The most holiday item in your house
• Christmas movie
• Your winter coat

To play, just fire off prompts and whoever brings the item back first gets a point. Plus, you can award extra points if that person shares more about the object.

Final Thoughts

While you and your colleagues may not be able to gather in-office for a jingle bell bash, you can throw a lively virtual Christmas party sure to entertain your staff. Your team worked hard all year and deserves a chance to unwind, connect, and celebrate the season. By using the ideas on this list, you can throw a festive yet memorable online party that will unite and delight your remote crew.

Next, check out our article on virtual team building for remote teams .

FAQ: Virtual Christmas party ideas

Here are answers to some of the most common questions about virtual Christmas parties.

What are virtual Christmas parties?

Virtual Christmas parties are holiday celebrations for online offices held on video meeting software like Zoom, Skype, or WebEx. These parties allow remote colleagues to gather, bond, and build camaraderie while enjoying festive holiday games, traditions, and entertainment.

What are some good virtual Christmas party ideas?

Some good virtual Christmas party ideas include booking a fully hosted virtual holiday party, holding a remote secret Santa exchange, and playing festive online team building games.

How do you host a virtual holiday party?

Virtual Christmas parties take place with the aid of web conferencing software like Zoom or WebEx. To host a party, you will need to send your guests an invitation with a meeting link. Designing a festive invitation with a program like Canva sets the tone for the affair and gets the team in the holiday spirit.

During your party, you can enjoy holiday entertainment like Christmas carols and movies, play festive remote games like Christmas movie charades and

How do you make a virtual holiday party fun?

The best advice for making a virtual holiday party fun is to include interactive activities such as holiday icebreakers, festive remote games, and crowdsourced Christmas playlists and photo slideshows. By using breakout rooms, you can divide guests into smaller groups more conducive to intimate discussions, to ensure that all attendees have opportunities to interact and connect with coworkers. You can also incorporate tactile aspects by providing complimentary meals and mailing presents. Though you and your colleagues may not be able to gather in the same space, you can still embrace the holiday spirit and spread Christmas cheer by filling your virtual party with seasonally appropriate decorations and activities.

Fun Online Storytelling Workshops

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5400+ Reviews

Museum Hack leads online storytelling workshops that are fun, fast-paced and surprisingly cool.

Highlights include:

• Smart Humor, Mind Blowing Facts, Juicy Gossip
• Icebreakers & Fun Team Photos
• 100% "You'll Love It" Guarantee

Your team will learn a world class skill they can use at work and in their personal lives.

Get a free team building tool box

$49 value at no cost..

• May as well check it out?
• 100+ tested icebreaker questions
• 24+ themed Bingo generators
• 5+ PDFs (free library)
• 2024 team building calendar and more...

Enter your email for instant access

Filter by Keywords

25 Virtual Christmas Party Ideas Your Team Will Love

Sudarshan Somanathan

Head of Content

December 10, 2024

Start using ClickUp today

• Manage all your work in one place
• Collaborate with your team
• Use ClickUp for FREE—forever

Ready to bring your remote team together for a festive celebration? We’ve covered you with this list of 25 creative virtual Christmas party ideas to spread holiday cheer. 🎄

Let’s transform your traditional team meeting into a fun and memorable experience that everyone will talk about long after the holidays.

Without further ado, let’s put these virtual event plans in motion to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year.

What is a Virtual Christmas Party?

1. virtual white elephant gift exchange.

• 2. Virtual Christmas Pictionary 

3. Mad Libs holiday skit

• 4. What’s in the gift box?

5. Christmas on a deserted island

6. holiday trivia, 7. christmas costume contest, 8. holiday scavenger hunt.

• 9. Guess the Christmas song with emojis

10. Virtual snowman building contest

11. diy christmas crafts , 12. virtual talent show, 13. christmas movie night party, 14. virtual holiday dance class, 15. holiday word search challenge, 16. words in a word challenge, 17. guess the “zoomed in” object , 18. christmas crossword puzzle, 19. santa’s naughty list.

• 20. Extreme “candy canes” game

21. Santa’s word scramble

22. christmas caroling karaoke, 23. christmas “this” or “that”, 24. live virtual performance, 25. online christmas awards ceremony, virtual christmas party planning faqs.

A virtual Christmas party is like a typical holiday office party, except it happens online via meeting management software like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or WebEx.

A virtual holiday event is a great option for remote employees because everyone can join in anywhere. Plus, you can save some cash and skip the hassle of setting up a real-life party.

Just don’t forget to use a holiday planner to stay organized before, during, and after the party activities to ensure things go smoothly. 🥳

25 Memorable Virtual Christmas Party Ideas

No matter the size of your team, these virtual holiday party ideas, along with key virtual meeting etiquette rules , will turn your virtual party into the highlight of the season. Let’s get started and make this year’s party a hit!

For one of the best virtual Christmas party ideas, you can’t go wrong with a silly gift exchange. Before the event, be sure to set and share the budget limit for gift items. 💰

Participants then pick a gift and send the host an image (along with a wrapper design). The host can use ClickUp’s Virtual White Elephant Template to display these gifts, hidden behind the wrapper designs, and number them for easy reference. You can also use a randomizer app to determine the order in which participants “open” gifts.

During the party, participants choose a gift to open. They can keep their pick or steal from someone else. If a gift is stolen, the affected player chooses again. To keep the game interesting, set a maximum limit on the number of steals.

The host uses the template to keep track of gift ownership and steal count. The game ends after the first player has a final turn to keep or swap their gift. After the party, everyone buys and sends the actual gifts to each other. 🎁

2. Virtual Christmas Pictionary  

This Christmas Pictionary game is easy to set up and bound to keep everyone engaged. You need an online whiteboard tool, like ClickUp Whiteboards , to share with your team.

Before the party, prepare a list of Christmas-themed words and phrases like:

• Mistletoe kiss
• Elf on the shelf 🧝
• Gingerbread man

When it’s game time, split the team into small groups. Secretly send one group member a word to draw on the whiteboard (via your video app’s private chat) while others guess.

Set a timer for each round to last about 30 to 60 seconds. If a team guesses right, they score a point. Rotate illustrators in each team to make it more interactive. The team with the most points at the end wins.

For a laughter-filled party, look no further than a Mad Libs holiday skit. For this Christmas game, you’ll first need a script for a holiday-themed skit.

Don’t worry if you’re not a playwright—you can find plenty of examples online or use ClickUp AI , an AI tool for event management , to help you whip up something. The key is to leave blanks in the script for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

During your party, everyone contributes by suggesting words to fill in the blanks without knowing the skit’s context. After you’ve filled in all the blanks, assign roles to team members to perform the skit using the words you just came up with.

4. What’s in the gift box ?

Let your remote team channel their inner detective with a virtual holiday party game combining mystery and fun. 🕵️

As the host, you fill a gift box with a “mystery item.” During the party, participants can only ask yes or no questions to help them guess the item. For example:

• Is it round?
• Can you wear it?
• Would you find it on a Christmas tree?

Whoever guesses correctly earns a point for themselves or their team. Keep the game going with various items in the box, and by the end, the person or team with the most points wins.

This is similar to the virtual escape room game but even better—it’s about creativity, team collaboration , and storytelling.

Split remote workers into teams and ask them to bring a limited number of items (about five to 10) to celebrate Christmas on a deserted island. Let them use a whiteboarding tool to present their choices with images. 🏝️

After brainstorming in breakout rooms, teams come back together to share stories about why they picked each item. Listening to each team’s perspective and reasoning makes this game interesting and fun.

This is a fun way to test your team’s holiday knowledge with trivia questions covering Christmas traditions, history, movies, music, you name it.

As the host, you’ll prepare questions in advance and read them out during the event. If someone thinks they know the answer, they raise their hand in the chat. If they’re wrong, the next team who raises their hand gets a chance. It’s as simple as that. ✅

Spice up your virtual Christmas party with a fun costumey vibe. Let your team show off their holiday spirit in festive outfits—from Santa hats and suits to elf costumes and unique DIY holiday creations.🧣

Add a competitive twist by having everyone vote for categories like “Most Creative,” “Funniest,” or “Best DIY Outfit” using your video call’s polling feature. Don’t forget to include a virtual “photo booth” by capturing a team photo to preserve the holiday memory.

Scavenger hunts are one of the most interactive (and easiest!) virtual Christmas party ideas to make happen. Simply whip up a list of 5 to 10 holiday items for everyone to find at home. Some ideas include:

• A holiday card
• Funny family photo
• A symbol of achievement
• Favorite holiday movie or book
• Best corporate gift ever received

Show everyone the list when the party starts, hit a timer, and watch the scramble begin. When everyone returns, let them share their items and the story behind them. You can declare a winner afterward—the participant who bags the most items before time runs out wins. ⏰

9. Guess the Christmas song with emoji s

Everyone can hum along to classic Christmas jingles, but will they recognize them as emojis? This virtual Christmas party idea is about turning popular holiday tunes into emojis. For example, ⛄🎩❄️ could be Frosty the Snowman .

Show everyone these emoji combos using a slide show, or send them in the chat. Whoever guesses the song correctly scores one point, and the person or team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Even without real snow, you can still have fun building digital snowmen—choose an online whiteboard as your canvas. 🎨

During the party, set aside time for everyone to draw and show off their snowman. When everyone’s done, you can have a poll to see whose snowman design is the crowd favorite.

Designing Christmas crafts is another festive way to get everyone to show off their artistic skills. Pick one or two easy crafts and send your team DIY decorating kits with all the necessary items. ⚒️

Set aside time for making these crafts, either with you (or another team member) leading the team or following steps in a YouTube tutorial. At the end of the session, you can capture a shot of everyone’s designs and share them on social media or even have the team vote for their favorite design.

Discover your team’s hidden skills and talents with a holiday talent show! This is an engaging virtual team-building activity to see a different side of your colleagues and appreciate their diversity.

To get the talent show rolling, ask your team members to prepare a short act or demonstration of their talent beforehand. Talents can be anything like:

• Playing an instrument
• Reciting an original poem
• Performing magic tricks or stand-up comedy

After everyone’s had their moment to shine, you can vote for fun titles like “Most Creative Act” or “Biggest Surprise Talent.” 🏆

Hang out with your team in a relaxed setting for your virtual Christmas bash. Choose a Christmas movie that everyone can enjoy, or send out a poll ahead of time to decide on a flick. 🎥

Before the party, you can send everyone a package with Christmas cookies, hot cocoa kits, popcorn, or other snacks or cover their snack costs. During the movie, use your video app’s chat to share laughs, comments, or those “no way” moments to keep it fun and engaging.

Get your team into a festive mood by blending Christmas tunes with simple dance moves. 🕺

You can get a dance teacher or have a team member who loves to dance lead a simple routine. The dance routine should be fun and easy to follow so all team members can participate and have a good time.

Add a festive twist to the classic word search game at your virtual party. Search online for Christmas-themed word search puzzles featuring words like “mistletoe,” “reindeer,” “Santa Claus,” and “snowflake.”

Copy and paste these puzzles on Google Slides or ClickUp Whiteboards, one slide (or whiteboard space) per participant or team. During the party, give everyone time to find as many words as possible. The person or team who finds the most words wins. 🎉

This virtual Christmas party idea is about finding many small words from a larger, festive-themed word. For example, from “Christmas,” players will find words like “Christ,” “charm,” “star,” and so on.

When you’re ready to play, create a list of holiday-related words. Share one of them with your team and give them three to five minutes to brainstorm as many smaller words as possible.

You can make it challenging by allowing at least three or four words. Everyone can jot down their words, and when time’s up, everyone shares their list. The participant with the most words wins. 📝

Ever looked at something close up and barely recognized what it was? Chances are, you’ve never tried it, and that’s exactly the twist in this game.

To prepare for this activity, find photos of Christmas items and other random objects. Zoom in on a specific part of each image using your computer’s photo app. 🔎

During the event, screen share each zoomed-in photo so participants can guess what it is. If they don’t get it, keep zooming out until they do.

Here’s another classic word game to get your team’s brain buzzing. Find a Christmas-themed crossword puzzle and showcase it on separate slides in Google Slides, giving each participant or team their slide to work on.

Participants can work on this solo or in teams. With teams, separate each into a breakout room. Once time’s up, regroup to check the answers and see who got the most right.

Find out who’s been “naughty” this festive season (or previous ones) with this Christmas version of “Never Have I Ever.” As the host, you’ll say statements starting with “You’re on Santa’s naughty list if …”

• … you’ve never built a gingerbread house
• … you’ve re-gifted a Christmas present
• … you’ve opened a present before Christmas morning

Players put down a finger for each activity they’ve done. To make it more interesting, you can allow them to share stories behind each finger they put down. Continue the game until you’ve exhausted your list or only one person has fingers up—they’re the winner. 👆

20. Extreme “ candy canes ” game

This virtual holiday version of Extreme Spoons is guaranteed to be a hit at your office Christmas party—replace the spoons with candy canes. 🥄

Each player needs a candy cane and a deck of cards. To get started, everyone shuffles their cards and picks four. Now, they’ll pick one more card from the remaining deck and discard it in a “trash” pile or replace it with one of the cards in hand.

The goal is to collect four of a kind as quickly as possible. Once you do, show your candy cane to the camera for others to do the same. Whoever’s last to show their candy cane gets a “C” from “CANDY.” Spell out “CANDY,” and you’re out. Keep playing until one player is standing.

Here’s another fun virtual Christmas party idea: Everyone tries to untangle scrambled letters to form Christmas-related words. You can make it more challenging with themes like Christmas foods, movies, and songs. 🎶

As the host, create a slide deck with Christmas words mixed up. For example, “Santa Claus” becomes “tanas ualsc” and “mistletoe” turns into “emitlost.” Participants can say the answers or type them in the chat area. The participant or team who gets the most words right is the winner.

How about a karaoke session with a fun twist to make your virtual shindig more exciting?

Create a karaoke holiday playlist with popular Christmas carols and any favorites requested by team members. Find these songs on YouTube, complete with lyrics on the screen for everyone to sing along. 🎤

To level up the fun, throw in an Impersonation Round. Get everyone to sing like famous singers or celebs—it’s guaranteed to be a laugh riot.

This is a team-building activity with icebreaker questions to connect, share stories, and learn about each other’s holiday traditions. 🧑‍🎄

Prepare a slide deck with fun holiday-themed choices like:

• Real tree or artificial tree?
• Eggnog or hot chocolate?
• Meet the Grinch or be the Grinch?
• Christmas ugly sweaters or pajamas?
• Keep decorations until Jan 5th, or take them down by New Year’s Day?

After asking each question, allow everyone to pick their preference (via a poll) and explain their choice. This often sparks funny debates and boosts team bonding.

Hosting a live virtual performance is like having a private concert or show for your team in their living rooms. 🛋️

To set this up, hire a professional performer, like a singer, magician, or comedian. Choose someone who can engage an audience and provide a fun performance. It’s the perfect activity that allows your team to sit back, relax, and be entertained.

An online Christmas awards ceremony is an excellent way to close your holiday event on a high note. If you’ve hosted several competitive games, this is the perfect time to announce the winners and their prizes.🏅

Some award ideas include productivity gifts , digital gift cards, movie tickets, happy hour boxes, or even an extra day off. You can also include a special “Thank You” award for everyone for their contribution to making the party a success.

Here are answers to frequently asked questions about virtual office Christmas parties.

How do you host a virtual holiday party?

Set a date for the event, choose a video conferencing platform like Zoom, plan engaging activities, and send digital invites with an agenda. Some of the best activities include a virtual Secret Santa or white elephant gift exchange, Santa’s Naughty List, and This or That.

How do you make a virtual Christmas party fun?

Ask your team to dress in Christmas-themed attire, start the party with fun games and icebreakers, and play background music during activities or breaks. Keep the event inclusive by encouraging participation from everyone.

How long should a virtual Christmas party be?

It should last about 1 to 2 hours. This is long enough to engage in various activities without causing screen fatigue.

Create a Fun and Memorable Christmas Party With ClickUp

Planning the perfect party during the holiday season can be stressful. But with these virtual Christmas party ideas and ClickUp, it doesn’t have to be! 🎄

ClickUp’s all-in-one project management platform is packed with features to keep your plans in check:

• Track task details: Create lists for all your to-dos, assign them to members of the planning team, set deadlines, and keep tabs on progress
• Stay on top of deadlines: Set task reminders so you never miss a beat 🥁
• Communicate with others: Share updates with your planning crew via task comments and chat
• Take requests and feedback: Use ClickUp’s forms to collect team requests (like music, movie, and snack preferences) before the party and gather feedback afterward to improve future events 🤩

Sign up for a free ClickUp account to stay organized and create a lively and memorable celebration!

Receive the latest WriteClick Newsletter updates.

Thanks for subscribing to our blog!

Please enter a valid email

• Free training & 24-hour support
• Serious about security & privacy
• 99.99% uptime the last 12 months