How to create the best virtual office party

The office Christmas party is usually one of the main events of the year for any company, whether you work in an office or a coworking space – but this year, things will look a little different. Instead of sharing anecdotes and gossip with colleagues, having one too many glasses of fizz, and enjoying a bit of dad dancing, instead we’re faced with the slightly gloomy prospect of battling dodgy WiFi and microphone issues to socialise over Zoom or Teams. So, to shake things up and make sure your employees have fun, here’s how to create the best virtual Christmas office party, with these Christmas party ideas for work.

An evening of wine tasting

 Christmas is definitely the season to enjoy a festive tipple or two, so why not arrange a wine tasting as your Christmas party? Participants will be sent a selection of wines via post ahead of the event, along with snacks to pair with the tastings, including cheeses and chocolates. During the event, the host will talk you all through the wines and give you opportunity to voice your thoughts and opinions on each one. So, if you’d like to give your work Christmas party a touch of class this year, this one’s a winner for you.

Christmas cookalongs

Aside from alcohol, one of the other main events at Christmas is food, so organising an office Christmas party with a tasty theme is another great idea. Are any of your employees secret chefs, or budding bakers? Would they be interested in running a festive cookalong via Zoom as part of the company celebrations? All you need to do beforehand is send participants the list of ingredients for the selected recipe and you’re away. To make things more Christmassy, encourage party-goers to pour a glass of mulled wine while cooking, and use a seasonal playlist on Spotify as background music.

Organise a scavenger hunt

If you know your employees enjoy a bit of competition, organising a virtual scavenger hunt is sure to get everyone in the Christmas spirit. If you have a larger company, sort people into teams beforehand. Then all you need to do is create a list of items scavengers must find around the house and the fastest person or team to source all the items wins a prize. You could even use a festive theme to make it trickier.

Set up a Secret Santa

In the weeks ahead of the Christmas party, organise a Secret Santa between employees for some festive gifting. Set a budget, and use an online Secret Santa sorter or app to match up employees. You’ll also need to collect participants’ addresses so their Santa can post out their present. On the day of your party, set up a virtual gift-opening session where everyone can open their gift and try to guess who it’s from. Top tip: setting a small budget usually encourages more people to join in.

Karaoke and Christmas jumpers

 At a real office Christmas party, most people would end the night with a tipsy singalong to some classic Christmas songs – but there’s no reason why we can’t do the same this year! Your virtual office party can still make use of Christmas songs with a spot of festive karaoke or a lipsync battle, and you can boost the Christmas feel by encouraging everyone to wear a Christmas jumper. You could also offer prizes for the best (or ugliest) Christmas jumper, and ask for small donations to charity to participate.

Reward your employees

Another idea that’s sure to put you in everyone’s good books is to send out a Christmas care package to your employees. After all, there’s nothing better to round off a tough year than some delicious goodies – with delicacies such as fancy hot chocolates, mulled wine, chocolates, cookies and artisan cheese. Once everyone has received their gift box, arrange a virtual party where everyone can come together to enjoy their treats together.

We hope you’ll find something you like among these virtual Christmas party ideas for work  – the most important thing is to take the time to talk to your colleagues and employees, share funny stories and inspirational tales over a few drinks, and reflect on the year gone by – and the exciting new year to come.