Most people understand the importance of a strong foundation for team building, and there’s no better way to do that than celebrating virtual holidays together! One of the biggest challenges when planning online holidays or an office party for your company is finding people willing to take on different roles. If everyone participates, you get a range of ideas from your co-workers. Post your ideas for the event, and let the fun begin. It’s a great time to see who the creative ones are in the bunch!
Meetings are a part of business and company life. Many of us attend virtual meetings all year long. Meetings for this, meetings for that! While working from home we are not as connected as we would like to be and it is always nice to hear a friendly voice coming through the computer speakers. Hosting virtual holidays and virtual events is a great way to unite your team and put work aside to just let your hair down with your colleagues!
Here are some great ideas for hosting unforgettable virtual holidays, events, and parties without having to do very much work.
Hanukkah (Nov-Dec)
For a Hanukkah-themed party, set up a menorah and ask everyone to share their favorite Hanukkah story. You can also play dreidel games or watch a festive movie like “The Hebrew Hammer.” Plus, ‘Ugly Sweater’ themes aren’t just for Christmas! You can get your teams to compete for the ugliest Hannukkah sweater. The winner gets the softest freshly baked sufganiyot (pronounced soof-gah-nee-oht, who wouldn’t want to win these deep-fried jelly doughnuts topped with powdered sugar!)
Christmas (Dec)
Christmas time is probably the most popular for office holiday parties, and there are loads of ideas! There’s the traditional Secret Santa party, where everyone has to buy a gift for one other person. Or you could try the other more twisted version, a white elephant party. Where the gifts are mostly impractical and hilarious and the rules are more creative!
You can also get everyone excited about decorating their virtual space or help your teams with some virtual tools to do this. Get creative with your decorations! Hang mistletoe, put up stockings, and create a festive atmosphere. A Christmas event is usually one of the easiest virtual holiday events to plan.
Kwanzaa (Dec-Jan)
There are many different ways to celebrate Kwanzaa virtually! One fun idea is to have a craft party. Have everyone make their own kente cloth ornaments or create masks of construction paper and feathers and wear the masks to the virtual get-together. You could also set up a virtual scavenger hunt where participants have to find objects related to Kwanza and present them back to the team with a story around the cultural symbol.
New Year’s Eve (Jan)
New Year’s Eve – the end of another year. You’re probably not celebrating the 31st night with your colleagues (unless you’re the most tight-knit set of office friends of course!) But there’s no reason you can’t celebrate with the team before or after the holidays.
Out with the old, and in with the new. You can set up a party where everyone has to list out all the things your team wants to “ring out” and all the new positive changes they want to “ring in”. Plus it’s another reason for a champagne toast!
Another idea is for when your team is back in the office. Have a “New Year” get together to put up resolutions for the coming year and create a resolution board for the company. Everyone can come up with something that they want to see happen in the new year, anything from weekly fun sessions (time to play a game), to monthly moments of reflection. See what creative ideas your team can muster up after the holiday season.
Martin Luther King Jr Day (Jan- 3rd Monday)
You can create a virtual event to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day and it doesn’t have to be on the actual date. Take this time as an opportunity to learn new things about your colleagues so you can better understand their views and avoid having any tough conversations later on.
African American History Month (Feb)
Create a virtual black history trivia quiz with prizes for the winners. You can also have everyone share their favorite African American historical figure and why they are significant.
Chinese New Year (Feb)
You don’t have to miss out if you can’t be overseas to celebrate the Chinese New Year in person. You can still have a little global elegant vacation online and share the experience with your team! Here are some ideas to make your team experience the fun of cultural exchange:
Watch a Chinese New Year parade online.
Make a Chinese New Year craft.
Check out a Chinese New Year concert online.
Watch an animated movie about China or Chinese culture with virtual world tours.
Make a Chinese New Year dinner and share the results online (even rice cakes gone wrong stories!) with your team.
Valentine’s Day (Feb)
Valentine’s Day is a great time to set up a virtual party with your team’s favorite love songs. You can even throw in some romantic movies and ask everyone who their celebrity crush is. It will be like you’re not working at all, just hanging out together watching something fun on TV.
If you want to extend the theme to something more professional, you can always extend the theme of love to an appreciation for employees or gratitude to your clients. There are many ways to share love in a non-romantic sense.
Women’s History Month (March)
There are several ways to celebrate women’s history month in your business virtually. One of the top ways is to acknowledge and appreciate the contribution of your female staff to the company’s success. You could also create learning experiences for the team by watching or sharing documentaries about inspiring women throughout history. You can have the team run through articles/books/podcasts created by women & share their thoughts in a virtual session. Or have an expert in women’s history conduct a virtual talk for the team with some enlightening Q&A at the end of it. Another industry-relevant idea is to have your company participate in electronic virtual conferences, workshops, hackathons, hack days and other events with a focus on women’s evolving roles in business and tech.
Presidents’ Day (Feb- 3rd Monday)
Virtual party ideas are relevant for all kinds of holidays or occasions in the online world. Presidents’ Day is an interesting one to plan with all the options for Presidents’ Day party games, activities, or trivia. You can get creative with word games or arts and crafts with teams and their families recreating scenes from the history of US Presidents. Virtual parties organize these virtual events on their platform, and people from different parts of the world can attend them virtually. This takes away all hassles involved in attending such events physically and makes your day memorable.
Patrick’s Day (March)St. Paddy’s Day is a perfect time to plan a fun green party and ask everyone to dress as their favorite leprechaun! You can even set up games for people who might be working from home that day. Put on some Irish music in the background, or play drinking games for a bit of extra fun! Alcohol optional of course 🙂
Easter (March/April)
Easter can be fun for virtual online holidays. There is so much super fun stuff you can do online for Easter! Virtual visits from the easter bunny can still be a lot of fun. Who doesn’t like dressing up like a bunny? (uh…everyone) This is a great time to have a virtual egg hunt party. You can hide eggs all around your virtual space and then have everyone try to find them! Once they have found all of the eggs, they can redeem them for prizes. Don’t forget the bunny ears and tails! (Bunny dress-up optional)
Passover (April)
Make your own Seder Plate online. Cover a virtual table with real or paper items symbolic of the seder plate, then use it as an activity where each participant finds their place on screen by clicking on one item at a time until they have found all of their items. Making your own seder plate is a great way to kick off the night’s activities and gets everyone involved from start to finish.
Mother’s Day/Father’s Day:
This is a great occasion to show your team that you care about them in a genuine way. Helping them show some virtual love on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day is a way to build a strong bond with your team.
Virtual visits are the next best thing if you can’t be there in person! Help your team with some ideas and the time to connect with their parents online. You could even have members of your team do a quick catch-up with each others’ parents to make them feel involved in their children’s work lives. Here are a couple of good ones!
Share your favorite memories – If you have some old stuff or great memories from your childhood, why not virtually share them with your virtual mom or dad? Whether it’s a story or a picture, they’ll appreciate the effort you’ve gone to, and it will help them feel even more like part of your family. It is also a great idea to do little virtual tours around the house or office, so there’s the feeling of being there in person.
Send a gift or their favorite meal and share it with them together virtually – This one might be a little tricky if parents live far away, but it’s still worth the effort. Share memories virtually and make the bonding extra special. As a team leader, you could gift your employees digital gift coupons that they can send their parents.
Virtual Pride Month (June)
Virtual Pride month is an online event that celebrates LGBTQ+ people and allies. It takes place throughout the month of June and includes a variety of online activities and discussions.
It’s an event where artists can contribute artwork, music, writings… anything to show support for the LGBTQ+ community any time of the year. Some virtual ideas might include having an LGBTQ+ history trivia night or panel discussion. Examples of topics can be: the disco revolution, against disco, ACT UP, Stonewall riots, literacy, feminism in the 90s…etc.
Make it interactive where people can ask questions so that everyone can feel included and show their feelings in a safe zone.
Fourth of July
We all know that the 4th of July is a celebration of the birth of our country. Sometimes, it is an excuse for a great barbeque at home. I’ll have a hot dog, please!
In addition to the many Fourth of July celebrations being held in communities across the country, lots of fun, festive things are happening online, too! Even though you may not want to go out and join the celebrations, you can still watch fireworks shows online with your team. You can also check out America’s history online and exchange your findings virtually with co-workers. Play some patriotic music in the background for that extra 4th of July feel.
Labor Day (Sept)
Even though Labor Day is another excuse for a great barbeque for many people in the US, there are many different ways that you can celebrate Labor Day virtually. One way is to watch a movie that celebrates labor. A few examples include “Norma Rae,” “Salt of the Earth,” and “Harlan County, USA.” Alternatively, you could read a book about labor history or listen to a podcast about labor. Finally, you could have your team create or participate in online discussions or forums about Labor Day. No matter how you choose to celebrate Labor Day virtually, be sure to learn everything you can about its history and meaning.
Halloween & Dia de los Muertos (Oct-Nov)
Celebrating both these festivals, with some fun dress-up is best enjoyed in person but you can still have a frightfully good time virtually! Whether you’re attending a horror-filled online Halloween party or celebrating the rich traditions of the Day of the Dead festival, this is the perfect excuse to wear a costume & have your team show off their creativity. You can set up a poll for everyone to vote on the best costumes.
Or if you prefer a more corporate feel, have everyone share the year’s Halloween-themed workplace horror stories and vote on the best! Things that they could have done better or things that could have been avoided. Might be a fun way to run a SWOT analysis of business activity. Try adding spooky background sound effects if you want an extra dash of festivity.
Thanksgiving (Nov)
Thanksgiving is a great day to plan the perfect Thanksgiving dinner! You can set up some fun activities where everyone can guess how much their favorite side dish costs and then compare answers. This may also be a good time for people working from home to show off what they’re eating, too! It’s like you’re all sitting around the dinner table together. Don’t forget to share your favorite recipes!
Repeat
And then we can be thankful to celebrate all of them again… with new ideas for a brand new cycle of fun!
We hope you have enjoyed our suggestions and a chance to try out our creative team-building ideas for virtual celebrations and holidays! As you can see, there are so many fun things to do for any holiday. And the best part is that they don’t necessarily require much time away from your job. You’ll have time to celebrate with your team while still being able to get everything done on your list. Having a remote business holiday party becomes an interactive experience and is the next best thing to being there in person!
There is usually something for everyone with so many options and different themes for virtual holidays! Remember that it doesn’t matter your budget or the size of your company. There are many excellent ways to help boost team morale for organizers and team leaders during the winter months when people can feel down from cabin fever. The reality is that virtual holidays are a part of our lives.
Consider Everytale for your next virtual event or party. Our team can help with conceptualizing and promoting virtual holiday events to make them a breeze! Everytale makes hosting online virtual events and holidays simple so you get to enjoy yourself engaging with the team.