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Below: 25 virtual holiday party ideas for work teams, sorted by how much effort and budget each one takes. Thirteen need no budget and can be run by whoever drew the short straw. Four need a parcel in the mail. Eight are hosted, which means somebody else runs them; those are the ones we sell, and we say so where it applies.
After the list come the decisions that matter more than the activity: when to hold it, how long to make it, how to keep it inclusive, and what goes wrong with shipping in December. There is also a 60-minute run of show you can copy as it stands.
Every idea carries the same four facts so that you can scan: how long it takes, how many people it suits, what you have to prepare, and what it costs.
How to choose in one minute
| You have | Start with |
|---|---|
| No budget and a week’s notice | Ideas 1–13 |
| A small budget and everyone’s home address | Ideas 14–17 |
| A budget and no time to organize it | Ideas 18–25 |
| A team of 60 or more | A hosted event split into sessions, or ideas 1, 5 and 8, which work at any size |
| Teammates in several countries | The free ideas, or a hosted event: ours deliver internationally |
One rule applies to every row. A virtual holiday party works when people are doing something with their hands or competing for something silly. It fails when it is a meeting with a Santa hat on. Pick one main activity from the list, put a five-minute game on either side of it, and stop while people are still enjoying themselves.
Free and run-it-yourself: ideas 1–13
1. Ugly sweater vote
10 minutes · any group size · announce it a week ahead · free
Run it as a poll rather than a parade, and give it more than one winner so that the prize does not go to whoever spent the most. Five categories that work: ugliest overall, best homemade, most lights per square inch, best sweater on a pet, and “did not get the memo”. Ask for photos in the team channel the day before, which brings in the people who will be on a bad connection on the day.
2. Holiday trivia
15 minutes · any size, in teams of four to six · questions prepared in advance · free
Ten questions is enough for a party; trivia is a side dish here, not the meal. Our 100 trivia questions for corporate events include a round on holidays and celebrations around the world, with the answers. Add two questions about your own company’s year — the month a product shipped, the city of the offsite — and those are the two people will argue about.
3. Holiday scavenger hunt
10 to 15 minutes · up to about 30 on one call, more in breakout rooms · no preparation · free
The host names an item, and the first person back on camera holding it scores a point. Ten prompts to start you off:
- something red and green
- something that jingles
- the oldest decoration in the house
- a mug with a story behind it
- something that smells like the holidays
- a candle
- wrapping paper, ribbon or a gift bag
- a gift you were given and still use
- a winter hat, worn
- the ugliest thing within reach
If you want more, we have written up 40 scavenger hunt clues that work on a video call.
4. Tradition or not?
15 to 20 minutes · 6 to 30 people · each person prepares three statements · free
Two truths and a lie, with holiday traditions. Each person brings one tradition from their own family, one real tradition from somewhere else in the world, and one they have invented. The team votes on which is the fake. Real ones to seed the game, all of which sound made up:
- In Japan, a bucket of KFC is a Christmas Eve dinner tradition.
- In Wales, the Mari Lwyd, a horse’s skull on a pole, is carried from door to door.
- In Catalonia, children beat a smiling log called the Caga Tió with sticks until it “delivers” presents.
- In Iceland, the Yule Cat is said to eat anyone who was not given new clothes before Christmas.
- In Norway, brooms are hidden on Christmas Eve so that witches cannot steal them.
- In Caracas, people traditionally roller-skate to early-morning Mass in the days before Christmas.
It is also the gentlest way on this list to find out how differently the people on your team mark the season.
5. Holiday bingo
Runs in the background of the whole party · any group size · make one card · free
Put sixteen squares in a four-by-four grid, send everyone the same card, and let it run underneath everything else. The first person to complete a row types BINGO in the chat. Sixteen squares that fill themselves:
- “You’re on mute”
- a pet appears
- a Santa hat
- twinkle lights in a background
- someone is eating
- a child appears
- “Can you see my screen?”
- a frozen face
- a doorbell or a delivery
- an ugly sweater
- someone raises a mug
- a virtual background fails
- someone joins from a car
- a fireplace, real or on a screen
- reindeer antlers
- someone says “next year”
6. Year-end team awards
15 minutes · up to about 40 people · a nominations form a week ahead · free
The work version of “most likely to”. Collect nominations with a short form, read out the winners, and mail a certificate if you feel generous. Categories that stay kind:
- fastest reply of the year
- best video background
- best pet cameo
- the “actually read the document” award
- most improved coffee setup
- best use of a GIF under pressure
- most likely to have already solved it before the meeting
The one rule is the same as for any icebreaker: nothing whose joke is at one person’s expense.
7. Two-minute toasts
10 to 20 minutes · up to about 20, or breakout rooms of six · share the prompt beforehand · free
Each person raises a glass of anything and answers one prompt: name one thing a teammate did this year that made your job easier. Send the prompt two days ahead so that nobody has to improvise. It costs nothing, it suits every culture and every diet, and it is often the part people mention afterwards.
8. The shared holiday playlist
A week of adding songs, then 10 minutes on the call · any group size · one collaborative playlist · free
Open a collaborative playlist on Spotify or whichever service your team uses, and ask everyone to add two songs: one they love and one they are ashamed of. Play it as people arrive. For the game, play 20 seconds of a song and have the team guess who added it.
9. The team holiday card
10 minutes · any group size · props are optional · free
Switch to gallery view, count down from three, and take three screenshots: one formal, one festive, one chaos. Shutterfly has printable photo booth props for anyone who wants them. For the chaos shot, have everyone throw a handful of confetti at the camera on the count of three; making your own confetti takes a few minutes and whatever colored paper is in the house, and it means nobody has to buy anything. The best of the three becomes the card you send to clients and the picture that outlives the party.
10. Holiday movie dubbing
20 minutes · 6 to 20 people · three short clips chosen in advance · free
Share a well-known scene with the sound off — Home Alone, Elf and It’s a Wonderful Life all work — and have two volunteers improvise the dialogue as though the scene were about your company’s year. Keep the clips under a minute, and take volunteers rather than picking people.
11. The five-minute talent show
30 to 45 minutes · 10 to 50 people · a sign-up sheet two weeks ahead · free
Three minutes an act, signed up in advance, with pre-recorded videos welcome for anyone who would rather not perform live. You will find out that somebody in finance plays the accordion. Give it a host, keep a timer running, and end on the strongest act rather than the last to sign up.
12. Holiday Pictionary
15 to 20 minutes · 6 to 24 people in two teams · a list of prompts · free
Use the whiteboard that is built into Zoom or Teams, and send each prompt to the person drawing in a private message. Prompts that are harder than they sound: untangling the lights, re-gifting, the office Secret Santa, burnt cookies, an airport on December 23rd, assembling a toy at midnight, a snow day, the last parking space at the mall, a fruitcake nobody wants, returning a gift.
13. A cook-along from a shopping list
45 to 60 minutes · 5 to 25 people · a recipe and a shopping list a week ahead · everyone buys their own groceries
One confident cook leads a recipe with fewer than ten ingredients: hot chocolate from scratch, sugar cookies or latkes. Send the shopping list a week ahead and the equipment list with it.
Two things go wrong, and it helps to know them in advance. Somebody is always missing an ingredient, and the fastest cook finishes twenty minutes before the slowest. A second person reading the chat and pacing the group fixes the second problem. The first is the reason hosted classes ship a kit.
Something in the mail: ideas 14–17
These four need everyone’s home address and about three weeks. Collect the addresses with a form rather than a spreadsheet that everyone can read, and start earlier than feels necessary; chasing the last five addresses takes longer than everything else put together.
14. Secret Santa by mail
A 15-minute reveal · 5 to 40 people · draw names three weeks ahead · a spending cap per person
Set a spending cap, draw names with any free online generator, and have each person order a gift that ships straight to the recipient. If one organizer holds the address list, nobody has to give a home address to a colleague, and that detail matters more than the gift. Everyone opens their parcel on the call and guesses who sent it. For teams across borders, a gift card avoids customs forms altogether.
15. Gingerbread house contest
45 to 60 minutes · 5 to 30 people · identical kits ordered and shipped about 10 days ahead · the cost of a kit each
Everyone gets the same kit and decorates live, with cameras pointed at the table. Vote on three categories: most structurally sound, best use of candy, and most likely to be condemned. Identical kits are the point, because the contest is about what people do with the same four walls.
16. A hot chocolate kit you pack yourself
30 minutes · any group size · you assemble and mail the kits · ingredients and postage
A good cocoa mix, marshmallows, a peppermint stick, and a handwritten note if the team is small enough. Everyone makes it together on the call, and then you move into the toasts from idea 7.
Be honest with yourself about the labor. Thirty boxes is an evening of packing and a long line at the post office, and an international parcel needs a customs form. This is the most common way for an organizer to spend a December weekend that nobody thanks them for.
17. A wreath or ornament craft kit
60 minutes · 5 to 25 people · kits ordered from a craft supplier three weeks ahead · the cost of a kit each
Crafting is the quiet option, and the people who dread party games will thank you for it. Order identical kits from a craft supplier, follow a video tutorial together, and ask each person to add one thing that says something about them. The finished wreaths and ornaments show up in video backgrounds for the rest of the month.
Hosted, somebody else runs it: ideas 18–25
A hosted event solves the three problems that sink a do-it-yourself party: nobody on the team has to lead, nobody has to shop, and nobody has to pack boxes. These eight are ours. Every Rockoly holiday event comes with a live chef, mixologist or artist, a Zoom host who runs the room, a dedicated event planner, and the ingredients or supplies delivered to each person’s door, with free shipping inside the US.
Four of the free ideas above come built in. The host can run holiday trivia, a scavenger hunt, a Secret Santa reveal or an ugly sweater vote between courses, at no extra cost, so you do not have to choose between a main event and the games.
18. A holiday cooking class
60 to 90 minutes · from a handful of people to several hundred · one address form to share · hosted
A chef cooks live with the team, and everyone sits down to the same dish at the end. The holiday menu runs from Turkey Roulade and Beef Wellington Bites to a Pizza Wreath: a pepperoni pizza shaped into a wreath with a dough bow on top, which photographs better than anything else on this list. Every workshop can be made vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free if you say so in advance.
19. A holiday baking class
60 to 90 minutes · the same range of group sizes · one address form to share · hosted
The hosted version of idea 15, without the structural failures. Gingerbread Cookies, Mini Gingerbread Cakes, Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls, or the Chocolate Holiday Tree, a puff pastry and chocolate tree that pulls apart at the table. Baking suits a mixed group: the results are forgiving, and children who wander into the frame can be put to work.
20. A menu from somebody else’s tradition
60 to 90 minutes · the same range · one address form to share · hosted
A party that is not built around one holiday. The global traditions menus include Cheese and Potato Pierogi from the Polish holiday table, Nordic Lefse, Yorkshire Pudding Bites and Cardamom Cookies, each taught along with the story behind the dish. For a team spread across cultures, this is the choice that does not assume everybody’s December looks the same.
21. A winter charcuterie board
60 minutes · the same range · one address form to share · hosted
Assembling rather than cooking, so it suits the people who insist they cannot cook and the ones joining from a small kitchen. Everyone builds the same Winter Charcuterie Board, learns why the pairings work, and ends the call with dinner made.
22. A holiday happy hour, with or without alcohol
60 minutes · 5 people and up · one address form to share · hosted
A mixologist leads two drinks. There are three themes: Merry Mixology, with a Sugar Plum Martini; a Prohibition-era Speakeasy; and a Magic Show, where one of the drinks changes color. Each comes in an alcohol-free version, and there is a full mocktail happy hour if you would rather the whole event were dry. At an hour it is easy to fit in before people leave for the holidays.
23. A wine tasting with a sommelier
About an hour · the same range · one address form to share · hosted
A sommelier guides the group through a flight of single-serving bottles delivered to each door, so nobody has to open four full bottles on a weeknight. A mulled wine pairing can be added to a holiday class, and it adds about half an hour.
24. Paint and sip
60 minutes · 5 people and up · one address form to share · hosted
An artist leads the whole team through one of two holiday canvases, a moonlit trio of snowy pines or a pair of glowing red candles, brushstroke by brushstroke. The art supplies arrive with wine, cocktails or mocktails, and there is a paint-only version with no drinks at all. It is the hosted option for a quiet team.
25. A holiday kit the family can join
60 minutes · 5 people and up · one address form to share · hosted
Two sessions are built for a household rather than one person at a laptop. The Polar Express Kit is a train built from graham crackers and decorated with candy. Family Holiday Fun is hot chocolate made from scratch and a holiday snack mix, written so that hands of all sizes can help. For a grown-up version there is the Christmas Market Kit: candied nuts to roast, a warm spiced punch (mulled wine if you want it) and fruit to dip in chocolate. Partners and children join on the same screen at no extra cost, which makes this the one for a team whose December evenings are already spoken for.
How to plan a virtual holiday party
When should you hold it?
In the first two weeks of December, on a weekday, inside working hours. The last working week before the break loses people to vacation, and an evening event asks parents to choose. Hanukkah moves from year to year, so check its dates before you fix a day. If the team spans more than about six time zones, run two sessions instead of asking one region to join at 7 a.m.
How long should it be?
Sixty minutes. Ninety works only when people have something in their hands for most of it, which is why our own holiday sessions run from 45 to 90 minutes depending on the dish. Two hours of video is a long meeting, whatever anyone is wearing.
How do you keep it inclusive?
Call it a holiday party or a year-end party, and build it around something that does not belong to one tradition; food, games and toasts all qualify. Give non-drinkers an equal option rather than an afterthought. Ask about dietary needs on the same form that collects addresses. Make attendance, cameras and costumes optional, and mean it.
If the people on your team do call it the Christmas party, our guide to virtual Christmas events for remote teams covers the food and drink traditions behind it.
How far ahead do you need to start?
The free ideas need a week. Anything that ships needs about three, and the constraint is never the supplier. It is the address list. Hosted kits arrive a few days before the event, so every address has to be confirmed well before that, and December calendars fill early. If you are reading this in November, choose the date today and the activity tomorrow.
Parcels also go missing in December more than in any other month, so ask any supplier what happens when one does. Ours are insured: a kit that is lost, delayed or damaged is replaced.
What about teammates outside the US?
The free ideas work anywhere. For hosted events, ingredients are delivered to each participant’s own door, and we deliver to Australia, the UK, Canada, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, South Africa, Mexico, India and Spain, among others, at additional cost. Where an address is genuinely hard to reach, a shopping list does the job. Flag overseas addresses when you book: they are due earlier than domestic ones.
How big can it be?
A do-it-yourself party works up to about 30 people on a single call. Above that, split into breakout rooms of six to eight for the games and bring everyone back for the results. Hosted holiday events run from 3 people to 600 or more, and very large teams are usually split across sessions or days, so that everyone can still see the chef and ask a question.
What if part of the team is in one office?
Put the in-office group in a room with one good camera and one microphone, and mail kits to everyone else, so that both halves are making the same thing. If most of the team is in one city, an in-person cooking event is the better party. We run them in Boston, New York, Chicago, the Bay Area and six other metro areas, and gingerbread contests, ornament making and a white elephant exchange all work better in a room — we have written those up as in-person holiday party activities.
A 60-minute run of show you can copy
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | People arrive to the shared playlist (idea 8). Bingo cards are already out (idea 5). |
| 0:05 | Welcome, in two sentences. Open the ugly sweater poll (idea 1). |
| 0:10 | A warm-up game: the scavenger hunt (idea 3) or Tradition or not? (idea 4). |
| 0:20 | The main activity: one idea from 10 to 25. |
| 0:45 | Team awards (idea 6) or two-minute toasts (idea 7). |
| 0:55 | The sweater winner, the holiday card screenshot (idea 9), and thanks. |
| 1:00 | End on time. People who want to stay will stay. |
Give two jobs to two different people: a host who talks, and a producer who runs the polls, shares the screen and reads the chat. One person doing both is the most common reason a virtual party drags.
Afterwards, send a three-question survey while it is fresh: what to keep, what to drop, and what to try next year. It takes five minutes and saves next year’s organizer a week.
Free planning help
We run a free 45-minute holiday party planning webinar in November for HR, People Ops and team leads organizing remote or hybrid celebrations. It covers themes, budget ranges, engagement ideas and a run of show. Everyone who registers gets the Holiday Planning Kit: a theme guide, a budget calculator, a run of show template, an engagement checklist and sample invitations.
If the season starts earlier for your team, the Thanksgiving lineup works the same way as the hosted events above. If the people you want to thank are clients rather than staff, holiday client gifting is the version built for that.