18 Cheerful Christmas Celebration Ideas at the Office
18 Cheerful Ideas to Celebrate Christmas at the Office
Holidays can be an incredible opportunity to bring your team together. A fun work event can really make a meaningful impact on your company — fostering a sense of connection and boosting morale within your team. And, the holidays are the perfect time to take a dedicated break from the day-to-day to get together as a team and celebrate.
But, with busy company timelines and business goals, finding the time to actually plan and organize a Christmas party for your office is another story altogether. To help inspire you and as a way to get started, we’ve created a short guide to share our top tips to consider during the planning stage, as well as a few of our favourite office Christmas party ideas.
A Few Tips for Your Next Office Christmas Party
When planning a holiday event, it’s best to start with the basics — the who, the where, the when, and more. Once you have the nuts and bolts of your Christmas party all sorted out, it becomes so much simpler to figure out all of the details.
It’s usually a good idea to plan for your event between 3-6 months in advance, depending on the size and just how much needs to be organized. For large corporate teams who’ll need to rent out an event space, planning 6 months or as far in advance as possible can help make sure that you’re able to rent out the venue of your choice and book out any activities or catering.
For smaller teams hosting an in-office celebration, you likely won’t need to plan quite that far in advance (but it never hurts!). With a small group, it’s important to give yourself enough time to book any food or activities. Also, that way you can let your team know well in advance so they can plan it on their personal calendars.
Find a budget
The first step of any event is to have an understanding of your budget. Beyond just a singular number, it’s best practice to split your budget into different, smaller budgets. Instead of only knowing an overall amount your company wants to spend, it’ll be more helpful in the planning stages to know your budget for each component — activity, food, and more, depending on what type of event you’re looking to host.
Choosing a date
Next up is to choose the best date and time to throw your Christmas party. Consider planning around different projects happening at work. Ideally, you’ll be able to find a time when your team won’t be in the midst of a particularly busy time or just finishing up a big project, so they’ll be able to properly relax at the event.
Another thing to keep in mind is that many of your employees could be traveling to visit family around Christmas. You might want to consider throwing your party earlier in the month, to help maximize the amount of people who’ll be able to attend.
Choose a location
The other major component you’ll want to consider is location. Depending on what you envision for your work Christmas party and how big your team is, you might decide to host your party at the office, or you might decide to rent out a larger, more event-specific space.
15 Ideas To Inspire Your Next Office Christmas Party
Make your Christmas party extra fun and festive with an activity (or two, or three!). Read on to discover a list of Christmas event ideas for work, with options to work for teams of all different sizes.
Plus, we’ve also included a few Christmas party ideas for remote teams. Creating dedicated opportunities for connection can be especially important for remote and distributed workers, to help foster a sense of community and unity as a team.
1. Ornament Decorating
It is a classic holiday activity for a reason. There’s nothing like getting creative and spending time on crafts to take your mind off of work, and ornament decorating is a festive option that’s also a great team-building activity.
2. Holiday Costume Party
Whether you’re dressing up as your favourite Christmas character or simply throwing an ugly Christmas sweater party, costumes can be a great way to help your team get into the festive spirit and relax.
Maybe your team will come dressed up as a group of Santas and elves, or you might get some even more creative festive costumes — like a holiday turkey, an ornament, or a character from a Christmas movie.
3. Christmas Photo Booth
Why not set up a photo booth at your Christmas party? Decorate it with some lights to get everyone into the Christmas spirit, and you could even leave a box of Santa hats and reindeer antlers nearby for some festive photos!
This is a great way to not only provide a fun activity but also capture the event itself, creating memories for your team. Your employees might also like to have photos to share on Instagram or other social media—a great way to highlight the event!
4. Gift Wrapping Contest
For a dose of competitive fun at your Christmas event, why not host a gift-wrapping contest? Employees can enter and compete together in quirky categories like speed, neatness, creativity, and more.
All you’ll need are some gifts that need to be wrapped, wrapping supplies, a panel of judges, and a Christmas-themed prize — the perfect fun game for work!
5. Seasonal Scavenger Hunt
Games are a great way to encourage your team to develop impactful connections and bond, and a seasonal scavenger hunt is a fun and easy way to do it!
Just divide your team into different groups ready to compete and give them a list of seasonal things that they can find around the office (or branch out and have everyone explore the neighbourhood together!). You could even include a prize for the winning team!
6. Christmas Team Trivia
Whether it’s questions about Santa’s reindeer or guessing the ingredients in eggnog, consider putting together a festive trivia game for your team. Split up everyone into groups, pick someone to be the host (or be the host yourself!)
7. Christmas Cookie Decorating
Bond with your team over something sweet! Try hosting a cookie-decorating session. Gather gingerbread or sugar cookies, icing, sprinkles, and more, and get decorating.
8. Secret Santa
With Secret Santa, each person buys a gift (secretly!) for someone else. This one’s perfect for small teams, making organizing and coordinating simpler. Simply put everyone's names in a hat, and have each person draw a random name to buy a Secret Santa gift.
One tip: It’s also a good idea to ask your team if they want to participate rather than require it, as they may not want to spend money on a work-related event.
9. Holiday Movie Night
Why not get the whole team together for a movie? Make it festive with Christmas decorations, and set the movie night ambience with food and drinks — think popcorn, snacks, hot cocoa, and more. Choose a Christmas movie you think your team would like for an easy and straightforward party activity.
10. Christmas Cooking Class
Maybe you’re learning how to make the perfect holiday snacks, homemade gingerbread cookies, or something else equally festive—whatever it is, a cooking class can be a fun and engaging activity, especially for smaller teams.
This might involve going to a local cooking school offering group cooking classes or hiring a cooking instructor to visit in person if little cooking equipment is required.
11. Hot Chocolate Station
Who doesn’t love a warm, cozy mug of hot cocoa? Set up a hot chocolate-making station with all of the fixings at your next holiday event! Take it to the next level by offering a couple of different types of hot chocolate—try serving one made with dark chocolate and one made with milk chocolate!
Remember to stock the hot chocolate station with plenty of festive and delectable toppings like whipped cream, peppermint candies, chocolate chips, candy canes, and more. If you know some people on your team have food allergies or dietary preferences, offer a vegan hot chocolate option to help maximize the amount of hot chocolate enjoyed!
12. Christmas Carol Karaoke
If you can access a karaoke machine, a Christmas carol party could be a great option for your next office Christmas get-together! Select festive tunes and let your team members volunteer to sing. Be sure to serve festive snacks to help everyone get into the holiday spirit.
13. Holiday Cookie Swap
Do you have a few bakers on your team? A Christmas cookie swap might be just the thing. Have anyone who’d like to participate bring a batch of freshly baked festive cookies to your office Christmas party and divide them up so everyone can sample a few of someone else’s homemade cookies. It's the perfect sweet addition to your holiday party!
14. Christmas Card Crafting
There’s a good chance your employees will have to send Christmas cards — so why not help them? Set up a crafting table for a festive yet relaxing activity at your next work Christmas event.
15. Ice Skating Trip
Ice skating with co-workers can be a great way to break the ice (we couldn’t resist!). Getting out of the office and treating your team to a fun wintertime activity can help to start a conversation, break up the workweek, and bring a good dose of festive, celebratory energy.
Plus, 3 Virtual Christmas Celebration Ideas
16. Virtual Christmas Bingo
Easy and festive, a Christmas bingo session is an excellent activity for small remote teams! Find a Christmas-themed bingo card online or make your own, and send it out to each team member. Have them print out the bingo card, and then host a Christmas bingo game! Bonus points for offering a prize to the winner — even something as simple as a gift card.
17. Virtual Ugly Sweater Contest
This holiday party idea couldn’t be more straightforward. Organize a video call and ask everyone to wear their ugliest Christmas sweater—the tackier, the better! Perfect for small teams, have each person go around and showcase their sweater. Next, have everyone vote for which Christmas sweater they think is the ugliest (in a good way!).
An excellent way to organize the voting is to have everyone privately message the host, and the event host can compile the answers. You could even pick a festive prize to gift to the winner!
18. Virtual Mixology Workshop
Hosting a workshop or class can be a great solution for larger remote teams looking for a fun and engaging activity. Find a professional mixologist who hosts virtual events and send the necessary ingredients to each member of your team. To help make this inclusive for those who don’t drink, you could also provide a non-alcoholic option!
Office Christmas Gift Ideas
No matter the type of Christmas event you’re planning, there’s a good chance that some sort of holiday gift will be a part of it. Or, you might decide separately to offer your employees a Christmas gift to thank them for all they do. Corporate Christmas gifts can be an impactful and valuable part of your office celebration, regardless of your route.
Searching for ideas for office Christmas gifts? At Saul Good Gift Co., we’ve been delivering out-of-this-world Christmas gifts for the past 16 years and have plenty of ideas when it comes to corporate Christmas gifting. Our collection of Christmas gift baskets feature outstanding hand-picked local and artisan treats and goodies, chosen with sustainability in mind. Think peppermint chocolate, cozy hot chocolate, chocolate chunk cookies, caramel popcorn, and so much more.
Need some help deciding on the perfect Christmas gift or putting together a team-wide gifting strategy? If you’re ordering a big batch of holiday gifts, we also offer customized corporate gifts, letting you pick just the right goodies to include and featuring custom branding to make them extra personalized.
