12 Virtual Holiday Party Ideas For This Season

We can’t stop and we won’t stop! 

It has been another year of working from home. The holiday season is coming up. It is time to celebrate with your work family. You need some fun and entertaining virtual holiday party ideas and get the team together!  

People are tired of Zoom and other online platforms on a daily basis.  What can you do to make the experience a little different?

 Time to step out of your comfort zone and host a stupendous virtual holiday party!

What Are Virtual Holiday Parties?

Virtual holiday parties are just like regular parties, but all online. In fact, it could be a great break for your colleagues to step outside the virtual ‘office’. They can now connect at a more human level and wind down.

Your remote team is sprinkled everywhere in the world. Or your students have been taking their classes from the comfort of their homes. You have an annual awards ceremony every New Year for high-achieving students. Maybe your team is celebrating a big win. You want to integrate that as part of your holiday party. There’s so much to celebrate. 

The online world offers you endless possibilities. You can now host a virtual (or even hybrid) Christmas, Thanksgiving, or a New Years party.

 Why host a virtual holiday party, you say?

1. It’s cost effective.
2. People can tune in from anywhere in the world.
3. You reduce the carbon footprint without the extra waste.
4. You boost morale by making everyone feel connected.

To understand what a virtual event is, watch this video. 

How Do You Make a Virtual Holiday Party Fun?

When you are feeling festive that makes it easy to plan an appropriately themed party.

A virtual party will allow your colleagues or students to be part of the holiday cheer. From a safe distance but with all the proximity they need with their peers. (Oh hey that rhymes!)

Tailor-make the entire event. Make your audience feel like they are actually there. You can design a virtual environment that looks like your university campus or office lobby and even add in some custom features like a Christmas tree! Diversify your landing page with banners of green, red and white. 

You can even host a live or recorded webinar to address attendees. Brainstorm some creative virtual holiday party ideas with your team, create an agenda for fun filled activities, get your guests excited and let the fun begin! 

Based on the agenda, guests can move to different venues within the event from the landing page. Here they can find different activities for the day. 

You can even include an announcement or prompt on the landing page for any live streams with the CEO or Dean. This is a great opportunity for them to address everyone at their organisation with a heartfelt speech.

Party planning is stressful and time consuming – why not leave it to a project manager who can have everything ready for you?

Still confused? Here is everything you need to know about event planning software.

 Whether it’s a party for your team, clients or students, read on. vFairs has got you sorted with some virtual holiday party ideas!

Virtual Holiday Party Ideas

1. Group Activities

What’s a party without some fun tasks?

 Here is your opportunity to include slots for team building activities. Depending on the holiday theme, you could schedule live activities through group video meetings. For instance individuals can decorate gingerbread cookies, paint together or weave Christmas wreaths. Include a happy hour or a sing along with a karaoke display! A great exercise for virtual team building.

 Attendees can choose the activities they like during registration. This will then help you to fine tune your agenda and determine what to include in individual goody bags! 

2. Personalized Goody Bags or Gift Cards

A swag bag for your party people? Why not!

 You can create goody bags of company products that can be mailed to your attendees before or after the event.  

Find local vendors and pre-deliver packages that are part of the virtual activities. These could include:

1. A wine tasting kit for happy hour
2. A cheese platter for snacks while chatting
3. A cake/cookie decorating kit for decorating together
4. Art supplies for a virtual painting party
5. New Year headbands for the photobooth

However, if you’re looking to skip the hassle, buy gift cards from different companies that attendees can use. They can make purchases from their favorite vendors before the event.

3. Trivia or Scavenger Hunt

Virtual holiday games can be added. Set out the rules for a themed scavenger hunt or a holiday-themed trivia. Include a fun Q&A session or poll! They can gain points and watch the leaderboard for scores. The winner takes home a company gift hamper!

You can include a 3D avatar of the CEO or Dean in the lobby to give these instructions.

4. Themed Photo Booth

Whether it is Christmas, Thanksgiving or New Year’s, ask attendees to dress up according to the theme. Ugly Christmas sweaters, Rudolph red noses, autumn colors or New Year headbands.

You can include an alert or prompt on the virtual page so that people chime in on time to “Say Cheese” for the group photo.

Alternatively, you could have a picture wall that is integrated with social media. People can upload their pictures with a company exclusive hashtag. This will then appear on the virtual photo wall.

Share this via email to everyone and display it on your company website!

Pro-tip: Include a prize for the best or worst dressed!

5. An Ideas Poster Hall

Get your colleagues input for the new year. Let them brainstorm ideas. You can have a unique poster wall where they can share their vision for the future of the company. Perhaps they can share infographics of the success of their teams. 

This could provide great insight to your organization, help you better understand your employees or students and their needs, and also make everyone feel included as part of the big umbrella. 

6. Secret Santa Gift Exchange

Pump everyone up for a gift exchange! Set a budget and use a secret Santa generator to assign gifts for colleagues.

Make sure everyone delivers their gifts on time for the event. Have them then exchange their gifts virtually and see each other’s reactions.

7. Holiday Mad Libs

Now here is a fun one! This is a great way to get everyone into peels of laughter. You can find holiday themed Mad Libs online and share them as downloadable PDFs in your swag bags. Or you could parcel them as part of goody bags. You could even create a custom Mad Lib for your company and share with everyone. 

Give everyone the opportunity to do this together online and burst into guffaws.

 Pro-tip: Dare everyone to keep a straight face or hold a sip of their drink in their mouth while the other person reads for some extra humor.

8. A Roast 

We love our turkey roasted, but how would you like to roast your Professor or Project Lead? Individuals can make notes of bits and take turns roasting others.

This will help break the ice and will make for a good laugh.

9. Festive Virtual Open Mic Night or Talent Show 

We all have our secrets and some of us have kept them hidden well. You never know who might have a neat party trick or a beautiful singing voice.

For those willing, set a schedule for attendees to showcase their talents. Be it poetry reading, singing, stand-up comedy, or playing an instrument. Have these videos available for on-demand even once the live session is over. Those who missed the event can always visit your event later!

This is also a great way to get to know your peers even better.

10. A Virtual Chat Lounge

Create a virtual lounge where people can connect. Networking is a big part of holiday events, especially when everyone is more relaxed. Cocktails in hand, here people can catch up through video-enabled:

1. Individual chats
2. Chat-rooms with team members, or
3. The vFairs matchmaking tool 

Our matchmaking tool is perfect for helping users randomly connect with someone they haven’t had a chance to meet during work hours. 

This is a great way for people to share their ideas and thoughts, with their professors or managers.

11. Yoga or Meditation Session

It has been a rough couple of years. A mindfulness retreat might be just the thing some people need. A short session on self care through guided yoga or meditation could help your guests relax. By letting go of some stress they can recuperate better over the holidays and come back to work energized! Plus, who knows a group yoga session might even be fun. 

12. Dine Together 

Finally, hold a grand virtual dinner near the end. Guests can sit together online, with the dinner you had parceled to them or the dinner they ordered through the gift cards you gave. Request your guests to include candles or fairy lights around them. So they can feel just as festive in their physical environment as in their virtual one.

To help you with party planning, check out our comprehensive virtual event planner checklist.

Wrapping Up

Just because things are now online doesn’t mean we have to let go of our holiday spirit. Zoom is not the only way you can make your attendees have a good time. This is why creating an entire virtual environment could benefit you and your guests.