18 Virtual Holiday Team Building Activities for Work in 2023

Here is our list of the best virtual holiday team building activities.

Virtual holiday team building activities are fun games, challenges, and exercises you can do during the holiday to spread the festive spirit. Examples include holiday icebreakers, holidays around the world, and holiday origami. The purpose of these activities is to create a bonding experience for teammates and celebrate the festive period.

These activities are online versions of holiday team building activities and are great for boosting employees’ morale.

This list includes:

• free virtual holiday team building activities
• virtual holiday team building games
• virtual holiday team building events
• online holiday hangouts for teams
• fun holiday ideas for remote teams

So, let’s get started!

List of virtual holiday team building activities

Holiday team-building activities are good exercises to boost your team’s morale. From virtual cracker-making session to Christmas market tour, here are the most fun virtual activities to do during the holiday.

1. Online Charity Drive

Hosting an online charity drive is one of the most fun holiday ideas for remote teams. Christmas is about love and kindness. Therefore, you and your teammates can take advantage of this season to donate to a charity and spread the holiday spirit. This activity allows you to have a lot of fun while giving back to the community.

An excellent idea is to host a competitive game and donate to the winner’s favorite charity organization. You can also raise funds by organizing an online event, such as a holiday-themed concert or a virtual talent show. Folks who would love to participate in the event will register for a fee or collect sponsors. You can advertise the event on a social media platform to reach more audience and increase your funds. You can also invite a famous influencer or artist. In the end, donate the funds raised to a charity representing a cause you would love to support.

2. Christmas Market Tour

A virtual Christmas market tour is one of the most fun holiday ideas. Christmas markets are a great place to explore festive items offered by various vendors, from food to Christmas decorations. If you have team members across different geographical locations, then you can let teammates volunteer to tour a Christmas market in their city. On the other hand, you can hire a local tour guide to take your team through the experience virtually.

A Christmas market tour is also an excellent opportunity to learn about the Christmas traditions in other parts of the world. During the tour, you can grab a glass of eggnog or mulled wine and pretend to be in the location in real time. For a more realistic experience, you can opt for 360 degrees tours using virtual reality technology.

You can also set up your own online Christmas market by selling holiday swag and Christmas products in a section of your promo store.

3. Santa Hat Craft

Creating custom Santa hats is one of the simple yet fun crafts for online holiday hangouts for teams. If you and your colleagues know basic sewing techniques, then this activity should not pose a problem. First, you will need to prepare the required material, which includes red napped, fleece, or felt fabric. For a more fun and unconventional Christmas hat idea, you can let attendees pick any fabric color. You will also need sewing kits and faux fur to create the pom poms.

Before the session, you can send each participant a custom hat pattern. Participants will place the custom pattern on the fabric and cut out the design. Also, you can easily adjust the hat’s size to your preference. In the end, you and your teammates can show off your Santa hats and laugh at the ones that did not fit.

For less sewing-savvy teams, you can purchase pre-made Santa or elf hats to decorate with embellishments.

4. Virtual Cracker-Making Session

Christmas crackers are an indispensable part of the festive season. Therefore, you and your colleagues can get into the festive spirit by making fun Christmas crackers. You can send each participant a kit containing items like ribbon, wrapping paper, tubes, and confetti. Your Christmas crackers may contain gifts or written jokes, depending on your preference.

You can follow these easy steps to make Christmas crackers:

1. Set aside the tubes to use
2. Cut out the wrapping paper to be a few inches wider than the tube
3. Roll the wrapping paper around the tube
4. Then twist one end of the wrapping paper to keep the tube closed
5. Fill up the other open end with whatever item you like, whether sweets or a small note
6. Twist and tie both ends with a ribbon

If you do not know how to do this activity, you can sign up for a cracker-making workshop online.

5. Christmas Desert Island

A challenge with a “Christmas desert island” theme is among the most exciting virtual holiday team building games. The idea is to develop a storyline involving your team being on a desert island. Here is an example of a fun storyline and how you can play along virtually.

Your group gets stuck on an island and becomes prisoners to an abominable snowman. The snowman uses technology guided by several puzzles to protect the cells. Your only hope of escape is to combine brainpower with your team and solve these puzzles before time runs out. Depending on the puzzles’ complexity, you can set whatever time limit you want for the game. Also, split participants into teams. Then each group will move to a breakout room representing a cell. You will also have a host for each breakout room, who will play the role of a prison guard. The guards will be in charge of assigning puzzles, giving clues, and counting scores. Once a team completes all tasks, then the prisoners successfully escape prison and can move to the main room. In this case, the main room represents the Christmas Desert Island, where you can play music, chat, and get into a festive spirit.

Before the game, be sure to prepare a lot of puzzles and clues. Furthermore, consider setting the puzzles’ difficulty to match the level of challenge your colleagues are willing to take. In the end, you will find which teammates spent Christmas in prison or on a desert island having fun.

6. Virtual Holiday Book Club

A holiday-themed book club is one of the best virtual holiday team building activities. First, decide on the communication website or platform where you and your team will meet. You can use a video conferencing platform and create a message board where members communicate regularly.

Also, create and send out invites to interested folks. It would be best to keep your book club small enough to make communication and rescheduling easier. Next, decide on a holiday book to read. The idea behind a book club is to regularly meet, discuss, and ask questions about a book. On your designated meeting day, grab a cup of hot cocoa or eggnog and sit in a comfy spot in your home. You can start the meeting with icebreaker activities. After a successful session, pick another holiday book and schedule the next meeting if you would love to continue with the book club.

If your team does not have time to read a holiday novel, then you can do a holiday storytime where teammates gather on a video call in pajamas with hot drinks to listen to classic Christmas stories.

7. Virtual Gingerbread Wars

Gingerbread Wars is a fully-hosted contest you can book to spread festive cheers during the holiday. This fun virtual team building activity will run for 90 minutes. Also, your booking covers all you need for a lasting experience, including a gingerbread cookie decorating kit. To enhance your team’s experience, you can also have cocktail kits shipped to participants alongside the gingerbread decorating tools.

The best part of Gingerbread Wars is that the activity is ideal for different holiday celebrations. You and your colleagues will also play holiday trivia during the event. You can expect an amazing team building experience for your team while decorating gingerbread cookies in a video meeting room.

Learn more about Gingerbread Wars.

8. Holiday Gift Box

You cannot go wrong with a holiday gift box if you want to boost your team’s morale this holiday season. Packing these boxes is one of the most fun holiday ideas for remote teams, especially if you already plan a virtual hangout full of fun activities and games. You can curate the box to match whatever activity you plan. For instance, hot chocolate mixes and pairings will be great for a chocolate-tasting experience. Also, if you are planning a craft-making session, then you can pack a box filled with tools attendees can use.

If you prefer to have your gift box branded, then you can look for a company that offers this option. You will also find a company that can help you add a personalized Christmas message to impress the recipients.

For inspiration, here is a list of corporate gift boxes.

9. Virtual Santa Pub Crawl

Santa pub crawls are a fun hangout idea to enjoy the holiday. During these events, participants dress up like Santa and visit several bars. You can still have fun from the comfort of your home even if your team cannot go to in-person bars. You can organize this activity yourself or book a hosted online pub crawl experience. Usually, this activity involves solving a series of puzzles to move from different fictional bars.

Before going pub crawling, you can send a package containing beverages you need for the experience. Also, plan for entertainment or fun activities to fuel the fun. While moving to the next bar, you can change the background on your video meeting platform. This step will set the mood for the evening and give the impression that you are changing bars for real. Also, you and your colleagues can show up in your favorite holiday costumes to complement the experience.

10. Christmas Game Night

A Christmas game night is one of the most exciting virtual holiday team building events. You and your teammates will have a lot of fun playing all kinds of Christmas games, from jingle mingle Bingo to gingerbread house building.

First, curate a list of games you would like to play. Then, you can ask for suggestions from the participants. You can also play just one game in a tournament style. However, keep the duration of each game short to prevent players from getting bored quickly. After, split participants into teams, especially if you have a large group. Then encourage each team to create a fun Christmas team name like Nutcracker Bash, Tree-mendous Friends, and The Noel-It-Alls.

You can set aside a reward for the winning team. Depending on your group’s preference, you can give the prize to a charity chosen by the winning team instead.

For more game ideas, you can check out this list of virtual Christmas games to play on Zoom.

11. Holiday Origami

Origami is a fun Japanese art that involves folding papers to create two and three-dimensional objects. You and your team can spend time together creating holiday-centric objects like stars, trees, snowmen, and Santa hats.

You can easily find origami tutorials on YouTube. After finding a helpful tutorial, share your screen with other participants and follow the instructions to create your desired winter art. For this activity, you will need tons of origami paper. The best part of doing holiday origami is that you and your colleagues get to show off your creations in the end. You can equally laugh at the funniest artwork created by your colleagues.

12. Holiday Wine Tasting

Wine tasting is one of the best virtual holiday team building activities. You can host the experience in the form of an advent wine tasting. This idea implies that you and your colleagues will count down to Christmas from the first day of December by tasting different wines each day. First, curate a gift box containing 24 wine samples. Be sure to label each sample with the date you would love to taste them. You can work with a gift box company or a local winery to help curate the box.

Also, add tasty treats that pair well with the wines. On each advent day, you and your colleagues can meet via video conferencing. Then you can taste the wine of the day and share your opinions. You might find describing the wine with the correct language challenging if you are not a wine enthusiast. In that case, you can hire an experienced bartender to guide you through this activity virtually.

This list of virtual wine tasting classes features wineries that provide online wine-tasting experiences.

13. Blind Hot Chocolate Tasting

Since hot chocolate is a favorite holiday drink for many folks, you and your colleagues can enjoy a blind-tasting experience. The idea is for team members to taste and guess the name of a hot chocolate mix. You should pack and send your team members several hot chocolate mixes in unlabelled packages. Then participants will prepare the hot chocolate mixes in different glasses and taste each sample together. The fun part lies in you and your friends trying to guess the correct name of each hot chocolate mix.

Furthermore, appoint a neutral team member who will be the host and pack the hot chocolate mixes. If you correctly guess the name of the hot chocolate mix, then you automatically earn a point. To motivate participants, consider rewarding whoever has the most points.

Pro tip: To avoid mishaps, ask participants for any allergens at the start of the activity and advise them to avoid any envelopes that might be an issue.

You can check this list for more fun ideas on virtual chocolate tasting experiences.

14. Charades

Charades is among the free virtual holiday team building activities. To play charades, a participant has to volunteer to play the role of the “actor” and use gestures to describe a particular word or phrase. Then other participants will try to guess the exact word or phrase. The twist in this game is that the participant playing as the actor cannot say a word.

You can follow these steps to play online charades with a twist of holiday:

1. Decide on holiday ideas you would like to base the game on, whether Christmas movies or carols
2. Write down prompts, which can be words or phrases, from whatever idea you choose
3. Divide participants into two or more teams, depending on your group size
4. Then for each round, ask each team to present a volunteer who will act as the actor
5. During the first round, the host will assign a random word to the actor from the first team
6. Then the actor will gesture the word while the team members attempt to guess
7. If a team member makes a correct guess before time runs out, then the team wins a point
8. The game continues until you play your desired number of rounds
9. The team with the most point wins the game

Ensure that only members of a team playing have their microphones on. Also, before the game starts, you can send each team into breakout rooms to discuss secret gestures and clues.

15. Holiday Around The World

The idea behind holiday around the world is exploring other cities during the festive period from your home. You will need a stable internet connection, a video conferencing platform, and a tour guide. If you have a remote team with members in different cities, then you can ask teammates to volunteer to lead a virtual tour of their city. Also, you can hire a local tour guide in the city you would love to explore.

The areas to explore are up to your group. Your tour guide can take you on a virtual tour to see their city’s Christmas lights. This exploration presents an opportunity to learn more about unique traditions in other parts of the world. You can also tour frequently visited sites like ice bars, a Christmas village, or even a mall. With this activity, you can explore holidays worldwide without leaving your couch.

16. Whose Line Is It

Whose line is it is one of the most fun virtual holiday team building games. Players will attempt to correctly guess which actor said a particular line from a movie in this game.

To play whose line is it:

1. Pick a communication platform, whether a web conference app or a message group chat
2. Decide if participants will play individually or in teams
3. Prepare a list of favorite holiday movies and write out short lines from various scenes
4. The host will read a random line while players try to guess which character said the words
5. The first player or team to guess correctly wins

You can equally award extra points to players who guess the character’s location in the movie or even what the actor was wearing.

17. Holiday Icebreakers

Doing icebreakers is a fun way to start your holiday event online. There are countless icebreaker games you can play, such as jingle mingle Bingo, would you rather, and never have I ever. These games are a great way to learn more about your colleagues while spreading festive cheers.

Great holiday icebreaker questions to ask your colleagues include:

• What is your favorite thing to do during the holiday?
• What is your favorite holiday movie?
• What holiday events do you celebrate?
• What are your plans for the holiday?

If you have a large group, then split attendees into breakout rooms to boost engagement. Icebreaker sessions are usually short and include prompts that facilitate communication among teammates. Be sure to use prompts and questions your team members can answer comfortably.

You can also check these holiday icebreaker questions and games.

18. Christmas Comedy Show

The holiday is a time filled with joy and laughter. You can spread festive cheers and laughter by hosting holiday laughs, an improv comedy show.

Christmas Comedy Shows are one of the best virtual holiday team building events. Of course, if you prefer an expert host, then you can hire a comedian to guide you through the experience. But generally, you do not need any experience in comedy to participate in a holiday-themed improv comedy show with your friends. All you need is a video conferencing platform, festive beverages, and teammates willing to channel their inner comedians. Furthermore, you can set a time limit to each participant’s performance to increase engagement and save time.

Here is a list of virtual improv activities.

Conclusion

The holiday is a season to spend time with families and friends and spread festive cheer. You can do fun online activities if you cannot meet your teammates in person. The best part is that you can do the exercises on a video conferencing platform or a group chat and still build your team. The most fun holiday team building activities usually spark engagement among participants. When choosing the activity, consider your group size. If you have a large group, then you can split the team into breakout rooms for the best experience. Holiday team-building activities are a great way to boost your team’s morale.

For more ideas on holiday celebrations, you can check these ideas for hybrid Christmas, office Christmas parties, and holiday party favors. You can also check these holiday party themes.