The past few years have been tough for everyone. People have lost their jobs, teams have had to split up and move to remote work, and companies have had to shift their businesses models to adapt to the times.
Throwing an office party may seem like a foreign concept after the past two years. Still, with the holidays approaching, it’s an excellent opportunity to celebrate everything your team has been through and help boost morale for the year to come.
Zoom fatigue is real, but here are some fun ideas to make your virtual event super fun and feel like you’re together in person as much as possible.
1. Cook a Meal Together
Since your team can’t get together for a nice dinner, instead you can cook together over Zoom.
Choose something fancy and different that you wouldn’t usually have, like a lobster dinner and send everyone on your team the recipe and ingredients needed. Ordering online is the best option for fresh lobster so everyone can access it even if your team isn’t located on the East coast. Make sure someone on your team knows the recipe well and can answer any questions that may come up throughout the night.
Before selecting the food for the party, make sure you ask everyone attending if they have any allergies or dietary restrictions. This way, everyone will be able to enjoy it.
2. Team Trivia
If team bonding is important for your company, consider dividing your staff into teams and playing a game of trivia. Smaller groups will make it easier to connect with others which is especially important for any newly hired staff and maybe haven’t had the chance to meet anyone at the company.
Make sure whatever platform you’re using can hold breakout rooms so that teams are able to work separately.
3. Secret Santa
Secret Santa is a holiday staple that can easily be done virtually. There are online tools that will randomly send each member of your team the person’s name for whom they need to buy a gift.
Set a budget and a deadline to have the gifts dropped off so that everyone gets a nice gift on the day of the party. On the night of your event, take turns opening your gifts on-screen and guessing who the gift was from.
To make the gift buying process easier, have each team member submit a few gift ideas that they would like to receive that are within the designated budget. Alternatively, select a theme for the gifts, such as only food gifts, items purchased from a local maker, or homemade gifts.
4. Gingerbread House Competition
There’s nothing like a bit of friendly competition to help bring a group of people together.
For this activity, send everyone on your team a gingerbread house kit. Once on the call, set a timer for 30 minutes to an hour and send everyone off to create their masterpiece.
Once the timer goes off, everyone will present their creation to the rest of the team. Select someone as the designated judge and have a prize ready for the winner.
