Holiday Parties For Virtual Teams

Recognizing your remote team’s triumphs is important to boost morale and create strong connections, and there’s no better way to do that than by having a party. This is a great way to send your team into the new year feeling energized, motivated, and ready to do great things.

Virtual team celebrations, however, can be a major source of stress because they require a little more planning.  When people work from various locations and meet online you can’t just show up to the office with cards or ‘goodies’. But this shouldn’t deter you from celebrating with your remote colleagues.

Below are some tips on how you can throw an awesome holiday party for your virtual team.

Simple, fun ways to have holiday parties for virtual teams

• CREATE A HOLIDAY CALENDAR. Different cultures celebrate in different ways, and parties are an important part of the ritual. Get to know your workmates by knowing how they celebrate.
• PARTY ONLINE.  Video conferencing tools are awesome these days. Getting out of work mode and connecting on a person level is important to build trust.
  • Decorate your background
  • Play games
  • Wear clothes that are in the holiday spirit
• HAVE A VIRTUAL DANCE PARTY. Cue the music, wear a funny hat, and prepare a few party questions to get people talking. The Happy Melly team selects a DJ who plays a song and everyone gets up and boogies. The Zapier team picks “a popular song off Spotify, asked everyone in the company who was online to pull up Apple’s Photo Booth app and take a five-second video of themselves dancing, then upload it to Giphy and create a GIF of it. Then, they created a montage and posted it in the company-wide Slack channel.”

• PLAY GAMES. People love to play games online these days, which is an easy way to build team spirit. Solving word puzzles is just one example of the many games you can play with your team. A fun tool that allows users to solve or create puzzles of their own is Unscramble Words. 
• DECORATE YOUR DESK/SPACE. Try adding decorations to your desk or space to bring out the holiday spirit.
• WATCH A MOVIE TOGETHER. Who says you have to sit next to each other?
• ORGANIZE A WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT EXCHANGE. Join in on the fun and surprise your workmate with a present.
• HOST A RECIPE EXCHANGE.  A fun way to share cultural holiday cuisine.
• COSTUME CONTEST. Just because we can’t be together in person, doesn’t mean we can’t dress up! Costumes can be a fun way to bring smiles to an online gathering. Costume contests are as easy to do online as they are in person.
• DONATE TO A CAUSE TOGETHER. A great team-building event.
• GIVE AN EXPERIENCE INSTEAD OF A GIFT. Check out Tinggly.
• SEND E-CARDS. Just letting team members know that you’re thinking about them can help build the holiday spirit.

 

 

More resources

• What’s Worse Than an Office Holiday Party? A Virtual Office Holiday Party – by Wall Street Journal
• Play at Work, Work at Play – by Management 3.0
• How do holidays work at an international startup? Here’s how we do it at Buffer – by Buffer
• This Company Hosts Virtual Dance Parties to Help Its 170 Remote Employees Feel Connected – by Zapier
• The virtual office holiday party – how does that work, exactly? – by CNBC
• How a company with 175 remote employees throws its holiday parties – by Inc
• Not feeling remotely festive? Seasonal celebrations in virtual teams – by Maya Middlemiss
• Holiday parties for virtual teams – by Life Meets Work
• 8 ways to include remote employees in office holiday festivities – by Highfive
• Five tips for hosting a virtual holiday party – by The Work At Home Woman
• How to celebrate with your virtual team – 12 fun ideas! – by Blanchard Leaderchat
• These 6 killer ideas will inspire your next virtual party – by Yonder
• A Remote Christmas Dinner – by Mobile Jazz