It’s that time of the year again: Christmas is almost here. And once again you are tasked with planning a corporate party. And it has to be better than last year.
We got you covered. Here are a few ideas that will get your creative juices flowing!
1. Tree Decorating Competition
Tree decorating competitions are festive games that encourage creativity and team building.
For this activity:
- Get mini Christmas trees
- Split groups into teams
- Give teams 20 to 30 minutes to trim the trees
- Have each team explain their design
- Pick a winner
It is a good idea to give guests a heads up so that they bring ornaments with them. You can either announce teams ahead of time or wait to divide the group during the party and challenge the teams to make a cohesive theme from random ornaments. With either approach, the point of the exercise is to think up and pull off an amusing theme that catches the judges’ and coworkers’ attention.
Pro tip: Save the trees for future parties.
2. Christmas Candy Bar or Cookie Bar
Christmastime is peak sweets season. Setting up a candy or cookie bar at your annual office party ensures that your staff will have visions of sugarplums dancing through their heads.
Setting up a sweets table is simple and can be done on a budget. You can source fancy glass containers at the dollar store or bring in favourite pieces from home. Next, buy Christmas-colored candy in bulk, and order large quantities of cookies and cakes. Local bakeries may be willing to offer discounts on corporate bulk orders. Otherwise, you can crowdsource coworkers to bake cookies and seasonal desserts potluck-style.
One bonus of this approach is that knowing that planning a sweet swap for the party can keep the break room from getting too cluttered with candy or cookies in the early weeks of December.
Pre-party, portion the sweets into the festive plates and jars and place holiday decorations such as wreaths and garlands in between. Guests can help themselves to sweets throughout the evening, and can even take home leftovers.
Pro tip: Do not forget to include tongs or scoops, and bags or boxes!
3. Christmas Around the World
Christmas Around the World is one of the best themes for office Christmas parties. This party theme highlights the ways different cultures celebrate the holiday and expands employees’ perspectives in the process.
To host an international-themed Christmas party, first research celebrations in different nations. Keep in mind that all homages should be culturally sensitive and authentic and not stereotypical or offensive.
Next, gather appropriate foods and drinks. Examples include German Stollen bread, tamales for Costa Rica, and KFC fried chicken for Japan. Decorations and entertainment should also honour the ways that different countries honour the holidays. Music can fit the theme too. For instance, play foreign language Christmas carols such as O Tannenbaum and Feliz Navidad, or translated versions of other popular carols.
4. Ugly Sweater Station
Setting up an ugly sweater station is one of the most fun office Christmas party ideas. On the holiday party invitations, encourage employees to come dressed in a plain sweater or T-shirt. Then, provide embellishments such as felt shapes, string lights, bows, and ornaments. If you have an extra crafty crew that does not mind permanently altering their duds, then you can even lay out fabric or paint markets.
To incentivize participation, you can host an ugly sweater competition and award a prize to the most creative ensemble. To vote, you can give guests stickers and have attendees place a sticker on their favorite sweater, or go the old-fashioned route and use ballots.
Pro tip: For extra fun, throw a few wildcard objects into the mix such as stuffed squirrels, stick-on mustaches, or rubber chickens.
Here are more tips about ugly sweater parties for work.
5. Gift Wrapping Table
Setting up a gift wrapping table is one of the more unique corporate Christmas party ideas. Your employees are busy, and handling present-wrapping crosses off one item on a seemingly endless holiday to-do list. By providing gift wrapping services, you can save your staff time and stress.
You can book a professional wrapper, or recruit an acquaintance that packages presents nicely. However, do not assign or ask employees to volunteer for the gift wrap table, as staff should be free to enjoy their own party.
To set up the table, lay out fancy paper, bows, bags, and gift tags, and stock plenty of scissors and tape.
Attendees can RSVP for this service and sign up for slots to make the process more organized. After getting the presents wrapped, participants can either check the presents in a coat-check style room or take the boxes out to their cars, if the lot has security.
Or, if this system seems like too much of a hassle, then you could simply pay for gift-wrapping services to be done at their leisure as an employee perk.
6. Holiday Photo Booth
Photo booths are special touches that make parties more fun. Holiday-themed photo booths are especially amusing because of the potential for Christmas props.
For example:
- Santa hats
- Elf ears
- Reindeer antlers
- Scarves, mittens, and hats
- Jingle bells
- Garland
- Christmas lights
These items tend to be inexpensive, and you can buy the bulk of your props from the dollar store. You can also rig up a wintery background by stringing lights or garland or hanging a few snowflakes or ornaments.
Photo Booths are easy to DIY. You can set up a camera, smartphone, or tablet with a timer or trigger, or have an event staff member man the camera. There are apps that can add frames and effects, and you can send the photos in your thank you emails or have a mini photo printer handy to print instant copies.
If you would rather not go through the effort, then you can go the professional route and hire a photo booth company as a party vendor. Chances are, these entertainers have holiday props on hand.
Photo Booths give employees memories of the event.
7 Christmas Cocktail Mixology
Corporate Christmas parties are known for their bars. You can help staff get in the holiday spirit by mixing up holiday spirits. First, decide on a few seasonal cocktails such as peppermint martinis, spiked gingerbread eggnog, and gin poinsettia punch. Then, book a bartender to demonstrate how to make the drinks. Mixology lessons are more hands-on than just having a seasonal-themed bar. As an added plus, employees learn how to recreate the drinks so that they can wow their friends and relatives at other Christmas cocktail parties. Plus, the activity is a shared experience that can help team members bond.
8. Pajama Party
Christmas parties tend to be cocktail attire/black tie dress code. However, many folks’ favourite part of Christmas is snuggling into the couch and opening presents in pyjamas. If your company’s vibe is more comfortable than classy, then consider throwing a pyjama party for your holiday gathering.
Simply encourage attendees to wear seasonal-themed pyjamas or the fuzziest set they own. You can award a prize for the best dressed. Also, serve Christmas-breakfast foods like gingerbread French Toast and omelettes with red and green peppers. Be sure there is plenty of seasonally-flavoured coffee and hot cocoa available as well.
9. Appetizer Making Lessons
Entertaining lessons make great entertainment for holiday parties. Christmastime requires tons of preparation. Cooking lessons and appetizer demonstrations can teach attendees how to quickly and expertly prepare Hors d’oeuvres and can help to cut down on holiday stress.
To arrange this entertainment, book a chef to lead a quick demonstration. These lessons should include hands-on cooking practice as well as tastings.
You can also DIY this event by having each of your employees submit a favourite recipe, then compiling the instructions into a team holiday cookbook to distribute as a party favour.
For more hands-on culinary activities, check out this list of online group cooking courses.
10. Christmas Icebreakers
To kick off the merry mingling at your holiday party, you can provide guests with icebreaker questions. You can also use these prompts to start meetings throughout the holiday season.
Examples:
- What is the best present you ever received?
- What is the worst present you ever received?
- What is your favourite Christmas carol?
- What is your craziest Christmas story?
- What age were you when you stopped believing in Santa?
- What is your favourite Christmas movie?
- What is your favourite holiday tradition?
- If you were on the naughty list, what do you think would be the main reason?
- What is your favourite holiday food?
Check out more icebreaker questions.
Bonus idea
Snowball fights are one of the most fun seasonal activities. Hosting an indoor snowball fight can bring out your employees’ mischievous and competitive sides.
First, buy indoor snowball fight kits that consist of plush cloth balls to pelt at other players. Then, split the group into teams. Next, give each player a set amount of snowballs. Finally, blow the whistle and let the games begin.
The game resembles dodgeball. Players who get hit by a snowball are out. When participants run out of ammo, you can call a timeout and reset. The game continues until only one snow pitcher remains.
Pro tip: Make sure you have a wide, open space to play in and that there are no breakables nearby.
And don’t forget, if you ever need a DJ or a photographer for your party, let us know!
