You found our list of virtual Christmas party ideas, games, and activities.
Virtual Christmas parties are Christmas-themed events or celebrations that you can host via video conferencing apps like Google Meet, Zoom, Skype, or Microsoft Teams. Examples of virtual Christmas party ideas include virtual baking competitions, virtual costume contests, or virtual Secret Santa. Virtual Christmas party ideas aim to have remote teams celebrate the holiday and simultaneously show their appreciation to each other.
These ideas are similar to virtual Christmas games, hybrid Christmas ideas, and virtual holiday party ideas. Hosting a virtual Christmas party is great for holiday team building and employee engagement.
This article includes:
- virtual Christmas party ideas for work
- virtual Christmas party games
- virtual Christmas party activities
- free virtual Christmas party ideas
- virtual office Christmas party ideas
- remote work team party Christmas party ideas
List of virtual Christmas party ideas
If you are looking for the best virtual Christmas party ideas, games, or any fun virtual activity to engage in during the holiday, then here are some of the best ideas to consider.
1. Virtual Baking Competition
If you are unsure what to do for Christmas, then you can engage in a virtual baking competition. This idea is perfect for those who like to try out new recipes. You can send out a baking recipe to every team member some days before hosting the competition. Participants will be able to get their baking supplies ready for the face-off. On the event day, you and your team can bake together virtually and share pictures or videos on your communication channels. You can make the competition more fun by selecting the team member with the most appealing pastries and giving them a virtual present like a gift card to a local store.
Check out this guide to workplace cook-off ideas.
2. Christmas Icebreakers
Christmas icebreakers is a virtual Christmas party game you can play with your team. This idea is great for getting team members into a festive mood and ready to enjoy the virtual experience. Christmas icebreakers combine hilarious and embarrassing questions that show team members’ different sides outside the office.
Examples of Christmas icebreakers include:
- What is your fondest memory of Christmas?
- What is the worst present you have ever gotten on Christmas Day?
- If you had the power to turn any of your team members into Santa, who would it be?
- If you had a chance to choose a Christmas present, what would you want to receive?
- Which of your colleagues would make for the best elf, and why?
- What is your favorite food to have on Christmas Day?
- What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you on Christmas?
- If you could be one of Santa’s reindeer, what name would you choose for yourself?
These icebreakers are simple questions to make employees comfortable before delving into the festivities. You can create your list of icebreaker questions, use an icebreaker generator, or check out this list of Christmas icebreakers.
3. Virtual Jingle Mingle Bingo Games
A Jingle Mingle Bingo game is great to get your employees in the Christmas spirit. This idea also doubles as a nice icebreaker at virtual work parties, as it shows how much your team members know about each other. Before playing, you should send the team a Bingo card or link to the game. The Bingo card can consist of fun facts and questions for each team member.
Here is a list of Bingo items to get you started:
Participants can only mark off a square if the description matches a player on the team. You can create your own Jingle Mingle Bingo Card or use a Bingo generator to save time.
4. Christmas Trivia Showdown
One way to enjoy virtual Christmas parties is through trivia games. This idea is one of the top immersive virtual Christmas party ideas for work teams. You can center the trivia game on a favorite Christmas movie, Christmas songs, or even popular TV shows. For instance, you can ask trivia questions based on popular Christmas carols.
Examples of interesting Christmas carol trivia questions include:
- What line was repeated three times in “O Come All Ye Faithful”?
- Which Christmas Carol has the following line: “Joyful all ye nations rise/ Join the triumph of the skies/With the angelic Host Proclaim/ Christ is born in Bethlehem”?
- Which singer is famous for her song “All I Want for Christmas Is You”?
- How many gifts were given in “The Twelve Days of Christmas”?
Other Christmas-themed trivia questions include:
- Who is famous for trying to steal Christmas?
- What is usually found at the top of Christmas trees?
- Where is eggnog originally from?
- What is the highest-grossing Christmas movie of all time?
- Which real-life person is Santa Claus based on?
These trivia questions aim to get team members in a delightful mood. You can create your own list of Christmas-themed trivia questions or check out our list of Christmas trivia starter questions.
5. Virtual Cocktail-Making Party
A cocktail-making party is a great idea if you are deliberating on fun virtual Christmas party activities. This idea is great if your work team enjoys spontaneous and creative activities. Even if you have nondrinkers on your team, you can make the party fun by including mocktails. A virtual cocktail-making party helps foster the spirit of collaboration among team members. This party is also a great way to learn cocktail-making from professional mixologists while having a great time.
Check out this list of online happy hour kits.
6. Virtual Book Reading Session
A virtual book reading is also an excellent virtual Christmas party activity if your team members are avid readers. There are several Christmas books you and the team can enjoy reading together. To make the activity more inclusive, you can ask each participant to send in their favorite Christmas book and vote on an overall favorite to read. You can read the book offline and then create a virtual discussion meeting based on the book. Another option would be a read-aloud session, although choosing a short story for this variation is best.
Some popular Christmas books include:
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas! – Dr. Seuss
- A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
- The Father Christmas Letters – J.R.R Tolkien
- “Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem” – Maya Angelou
- Last Christmas in Paris – Hazel Gaynor
You can also check out other popular short stories and holiday book recommendations to read with your team.
7. The Naughty List
The naughty list is a popular holiday-themed version of Never Have I Ever. This list features several prompts that require honest answers. You can create your prompts or download a naughty list online if you cannot create one.
Some of the most common Christmas-themed prompts include:
- Made up an excuse to avoid a work Christmas party
- Cheated in the last Christmas trivia
- Peeked at the Christmas presents
- Ever had a disastrous Christmas
- Regifted a Christmas present
To play this game:
- Have all team members hold up to five to ten fingers, depending on your list’s length.
- Read out a prompt.
- Team members will put a finger down if the prompt is true for them.
- After you finish reading the prompts, the team member with all their fingers down will enter the naughty list.
- Participants with most of their fingers up will be on the nice list.
- Optionally, give coal-shaped candy to players on the naughty list and sparkly gift-shaped treats to those on the nice list.
The naughty list is a great choice for engaging remote work team Christmas party ideas.
8. Christmas Playlist
You can incorporate one of the more unique free virtual Christmas party ideas by creating a Christmas playlist with your team. This idea is a great way to engage team members and get them in the holiday spirit. You can create a playlist of your favorite Christmas songs on Spotify and share the link with the team. Every participant can add their favorite songs for a collaborative listening experience. You can make the activity fun by selecting these songs for a virtual karaoke session.
9. Christmas Costume Competitions
Costume competitions are hilarious and fun virtual office Christmas party ideas you can incorporate. This idea is an excellent way of getting participants laughing and enjoying the moment with different funny costumes. You can make the competition more interesting by choosing a theme from a popular Christmas movie and asking participants to dress as their favorite characters. You could also tag the theme as “Ugliest Christmas Costume” to unlock all of the hilarious costume ideas your team has cooking. You can encourage every team member to participate by promising prizes for whoever wins the best or ugliest Christmas costume.
10. Name that Christmas Tune
Name that Christmas Tune is one of the most engaging free virtual Christmas party games that your teammates would love. This idea is perfect for music-loving team members who want to showcase their musical mastery.
To play this game:
- Create a holiday playlist on Spotify, or choose one from the numerous playlists available on YouTube.
- Play the beginning of the song, about a five- to ten-second snippet.
- Ask team members to guess the song playing before a timer runs out.
- The participant who correctly guesses the most number of songs wins the game.
Name that Christmas Tune is a self-hosted game, so you do not need to worry about spending a dime.
11. Virtual Secret Santa
A virtual Secret Santa is one of the lovely remote work team Christmas party ideas to consider. The idea of a Secret Santa is to let team members exchange Christmas gifts. You can decide to pair a team member with a gift recipient by drafting out random name pairings. Each paired participant has to get their colleague a Christmas present. However, you can also use a Secret Santa generator to help you set up the exchange.
Here are some of the best Secret Santa generators you can check out:
- Elfster: This Secret Santa generator lets you add a recipient, custom time, date, and gift budget. Elfster also allows participants to add their gift preferences and send the gift details via mail.
- Giftser: Giftser lets you add participants along with their wish lists. This app draws names from your contacts, lets you see their wishlists, and even links to the store selling the items.
- Sneaky Santa: This Secret Santa generator selects names and lets participants add their wishlists and contact each other via a chat feature. Sneaky Santa also offers cool gift ideas and recommendations.
- Draw Names: Draw Names generates pairings names and includes options for disallowing certain pairings. This app also provides budget settings and a calendar, allowing participants to add gift links to their wishlists.
- My Santa: This Secret Santa generator comes with useful features like budget setting, calendar, and gift recommendations and even allows a wishlist link. You can also get hints on where you can purchase specific items.
A virtual Secret Santa is a fun Christmas activity that fosters a spirit of kinship among team members. Participants can open their gifts together via Zoom or any video conferencing platform.
Check out Elfster, Giftser, Sneaky Santa, Draw Names, and My Santa.
Here is a guide to virtual secret Santa.
12. Christmas Wordplay Competition
A wordplay completion is an interesting free virtual Christmas party idea your team will enjoy.
To play this game:
- Create a list of seven to ten letters.
- Set a timer for 60 seconds.
- Ask each team member to create several three-letter words from the letter string.
- The player with the most unique words wins the game.
The wordplay competition is a great way to ease attendees into the event, and it also works well to test the team’s mental prowess.
Pro tip: If you are unsure of what letters to use, then you can use the company’s name or a popular Christmas phrase.
Here are more group word games.
13. Holiday Cards
Creating holiday cards is great if you are searching for a nice virtual Christmas party idea that is immersive and perfect for the work team. This activity lets the team create the funniest and cheesiest Christmas cards to exchange among themselves. You can use tools like Canva to create these virtual holiday cards. If there is ever going to be a physical meeting, then you can also get workers to create real holiday cards to give each other. You can decide to spice the activity up by asking the team to vote for the best or most hilarious holiday cards.
Here is a list of holiday messages for employees.
14. Virtual Escape Rooms
If holiday-themed games are on the table, then you and the team can decide to solve virtual escape rooms for fun. Virtual escape rooms have become a popular game choice among many who want to experience the thrill of playing such games from the comforts of their homes. These games rely on team members working together to solve puzzles in record time to escape the room. Your team will get hints or clues to solve those puzzles. You can find various online escape room games that allow for multiple players. Escape room games are great for building the spirit of cooperation among team members.
You can play virtual Christmas escape rooms like Santa’s Journey and Escape: Christmas Past.
Check out more virtual escape rooms.
15. Virtual Movie Showing
An interesting virtual Christmas party activity is organizing a virtual movie showing. You can watch some of the latest Christmas movies or choose Christmas classics with your team members. To organize a nice online movie showing, you can get a list of recommended movies from the team. Your employees can vote for the overall best movie to watch. After selecting the movie, you can schedule a watching time. Once it is watch time, teammates can view the movie together via Teleparty or Scener.
16. Virtual Christmas Decoration Competition
If you are in for a wholesome and exciting competition, then consider organizing a virtual decoration competition. Team members can share pictures of how they decorated their Christmas trees, living rooms, and even pets. The team then has to vote for the member with the cutest or funniest Christmas home decor. A Christmas decoration competition is an engaging virtual Christmas party activity. This idea also unlocks the creative sides of your team and fosters a close-knit work relationship.
Here are office Christmas decorating ideas.
17. Holiday-Themed Scavenger Hunt
A holiday-themed scavenger hunt game will guarantee a fun virtual office Christmas party.
To host a scavenger hunt:
- Create a list of items you will require the team to find in their homes. For instance, you can ask a participant to find a Christmas ornament, mug, or candle.
- Set a timer for 60 seconds.
- Players will find the items one at a time and show them to the host.
- Whichever player finds the most items wins.
You can also opt for several other types of scavenger hunts, like photo hunts. This immersive and interactive idea will energize the team since they are up and moving.
Check out these holiday scavenger hunt templates.
Conclusion
Hosting a virtual Christmas party for work is a great way to celebrate the holiday season with your team. These party ideas are also perfect for celebrating their hard work for the year and showing your appreciation. Whether you want to play competitive games or just relax, hosting a virtual Christmas party creates lasting memories with your team. This list of virtual Christmas party ideas is a great place to start when deciding the best ideas for an engaging virtual party.
For more holiday reading, check out our lists of Christmas contest ideas, Christmas spirit week ideas, and hosting a virtual Secret Santa.
Grace He