With the holidays coming up, it’s the perfect time to start planning for a party that your team will truly look forward to. Use these themes, activities and planning tips to turn your office holiday party into a night that your team will enjoy and remember.
With the holidays coming up, it’s the perfect time to start planning for a party that your team will truly look forward to. If your goal is to boost morale and provide a memorable night of team building, a well-planned holiday party does the trick. Whether food and drink, themed décor, or lighthearted activities, games, and contests, the right choices can make the night for your team. With the perfect mix of planning and creativity, you can create a holiday party that works for any team, venue, and budget! This article will take you through ideas for themes and activities to try at your next office holiday party.
Fun office holiday party ideas look different for every workplace and team. A great rule of thumb when coming up with ideas is to consider your team’s preferences, the budget for your holiday party, and how intricate you would like the event to be. Ideas can range from themed celebrations like “Winter Wonderland” or “A Night at the Movies”, to fun interactive team building activities like a group paint-along or an air band competition. There’s no overstating the value of small touches either! Little additions like a makeshift photobooth or some festive treats can make the evening one to remember!
Planning an office holiday party starts with figuring out the basics. Know your holiday party budget, determine a date that works for everyone, and get input from your team on what kind of events or activities they’re interested in. Clear communication, thoughtful planning and intentional team building activities will go a long way toward making your event a success. For more advice, checkout our breakdown of office holiday party planning tips.
Picking a theme can make planning your event easier. It will also help set the tone for the night. While there are lots of options to choose from, the best theme for you will depend on your team, budget, and venue for your office holiday party. Make sure that the theme you choose is inclusive, easy to execute, and flexible. Some options might include: “Winter Wonderland”, “Happy New Year”, or “Giving Back”. For more inspiration, check out our list of work holiday party theme ideas.
To make a holiday office party fun, plan out some activities designed to bring your team together. Games like trivia or a festive scavenger hunt, creative activities like painting or cookie decorating, or even a relaxing activity like watching a movie together can break the ice and add energy to the event. For even more fun and interactive activities and games for your office holiday party, keep reading!
Throwing an office holiday party starts with planning the essentials, like your venue, date, catering and activities. Once you have those covered, add small touches like themed decor or ice breakers that make the event feel festive and welcoming. Our office holiday party planning checklist will help you make sure that you don’t miss anything.
Know your team. What do they want from an office holiday party? If you have a small team, consider chatting with different team members to get ideas. Once you’ve come up with your ideas, give the team options to vote from so there aren’t too many cooks in the kitchen. For larger teams, consider sending out a survey form. This should also help to generate early excitement
Touch base with accounting (or the financial decision maker at your organization) and be clear on the budget for your holiday party before you begin. Can you afford to have food catered? Can you buy gifts? Choose options that fit within your budget. If your budget restricts you to using only one or a few options, prioritize the one that your team prefers.
Find clever ways to save, like sourcing music from YouTube or other streaming services, or DIYing the décor (or even do it together—grab some snacks and make a team building activity out of it!). You may not have the budget for live entertainment at your holiday party, but can you still provide a fun and exciting experience? Almost always!
Where you host your holiday party sets the tone for the evening. It may feel tempting to shake things up and get your team out of the office, but don’t overlook it entirely. Don’t forget that with a bit of decoration and some good vibes, you can transform your workplace into a festive space for celebration.
If you can’t, or prefer not to use your office space, be sure to prioritize accessibility, room for activities, and a layout that lets your team mingle, play games, and fully enjoy the event.
While sit-down dinners may work for celebrations at home, it’s best to avoid these arrangements for larger teams unless you have access to a private space where the team can mingle around and speak to different people afterwards.
Be aware of when your team is available. If you are bringing together a remote or hybrid team for an in-person office holiday party, consider planning around days that they are already at or near the office. Be aware of commute times and other responsibilities, such as childcare, etc. Don’t schedule the event too late.
If possible, give your team the option to choose between a few set dates. You may not be able to find a date that works perfectly for everyone, but you can most likely find a date that gives the highest number of people the option to attend. For those twho can’t be there in person, consider providing an option to join as virtual participants.
When you’ve spent a long time planning an event, it’s easy to assume that other people know what to expect as well as you do. However, small details like timing, dress code, or who’s bringing what are easy to overlook if they haven’t been clearly shared. Make sure to communicate that essential information; the earlier the better. Ask yourself the same questions that you would ask if you were attending a party:
Have you assigned different people to different roles, like hanging decorations or finding a playlist? Delegating tasks can be a great idea, but make sure to communicate so that everyone knows what to do and when to begin doing it.
When deciding on the themes, activities, foods, and scheduling, consider dietary restrictions, cultural holidays, and accessibility needs. Don’t schedule your office holiday party to overlap with a cultural or religious holiday. Make sure to include non-alcoholic drinks and meatless food options.
If you have team members who can’t make it to the event (maybe they’re located in another city), try to offer a virtual participation option! This might include inviting them to a call to connect with the team and sending them a gift card or ordering a meal for them so they don’t feel left out!
Your party doesn’t need to have a theme, but if you really want to elevate your office holiday party, consider coming up with a fun and inclusive theme to base it around. You can also incorporate simple office holiday decoration ideas to help tie your theme together. These themes can all be combined, either with other themes on the list or with the games and activities below. Just pick what’s best for your team!
Movie Night is an exciting and often budget-friendly work holiday party idea. An ideal setting for this will be an event space with a projector. If your budget allows you to go big, you can also look at a private theatre rental. Independent cinemas often have surprisingly accessible rental rates.
A fun thing about this is that it doesn’t even have to be a holiday movie! There are lots of options for picking a film that your whole team can enjoy. You can look for a list of recommendations or engage your team by having them suggest favourites. If you’ve never seen the film before, try checking the parental advisory guide on IMDB to make sure it’s office-friendly.
Once you have your list of suggestions, put the final film to a vote among your team. Then invite everyone to kick back, relax, and watch a fun flick together. You can prepare popcorn, provide drinks, and offer other snacks.
Ugly Sweater Day or Night is a perfect low-cost or budget-friendly holiday party idea. It’s fun, interactive, and allows each person on your team to express themselves. Plus, ugly sweaters are a great conversation starter.
Encourage your team to wear their ugliest or most creative sweaters, or turn it into a lighthearted competition where everyone can vote on the best (or worst) one.
If you’re going to write this into the dress code for your event, consider saying “ugly sweaters encouraged” rather than required. While many people will have some sort of cocktail attire or formalwear in their closet, not everyone owns an ugly sweater, so keeping it flexible will help ensure that everyone feels included.
Your office holiday party doesn’t have to have a holiday theme to feel fun and festive. Winter Wonderland themes remain one of the most popular office holiday party ideas because they’re inclusive and easy to adapt. Simply celebrating the change of the seasons and the start of winter can make for a great time. This is also an excellent budget holiday party option since many Winter Wonderland decorations can be DIYed or sourced inexpensively.
While we may not all enjoy the cold, there are still lots of fun activities that you can do surrounding a winter theme. Some examples include setting up a hot chocolate or apple cider bar and hosting a paint-along of a winter scene. You can find free winter-themed paint-alongs on YouTube.
Combining this with an ugly sweater theme is also a great option to build up the winter weather vibes. To get the conversation flowing, invite your team to share some of their favorite winter memories or what they are looking forward to in the coming season!
Why not celebrate the new year early? Invite your team to toast and celebrate their accomplishments over the past year!
You can guide this by offering a simple prompt, such as asking each person to share one win from the past year. Similarly, you can also invite your team to share ideas or aspirations for the coming year.
You can even host your own countdown activity! It doesn’t have to be for midnight; it could be a countdown to dinner, a gift exchange, or any other activity that’s on the schedule for your team holiday party.
In addition to looking back on the past year, you can also set goals for the new year. This can be combined with the Happy New Year theme, or it can be done on its own, as a fun team building exercise. You can have your team write down goals for the next year (or even longer-term goals) or you could set up a vision board activity for the team to take part in.
This invites everyone to look forward with optimism, and sets a great tone for the night. You can pair this with activities like making goal-setting cards for themselves, which they can have the option to share or keep private. (You might also encourage the team to revisit these goals later in the year or place them in a sealed envelope to reopen at next year’s party.)
A great team building activity for your business holiday party is to get everyone into the spirit of giving by selecting a cause or charity to support as a team.
Remember that support doesn’t have to be financial. You can encourage team members to participate in an optional donation drive, whether it’s food, winter clothing, or toys, or you can pick a charitably themed group activity like assembling care kits as a team.
A holiday party is a great way to get everyone at work together before the end of the year. If you want to add some fun and energy and give your team something to connect over, you can try introducing an activity. Plan out some fun, interactive team building activities (or even a bit of friendly competition) to bring everyone closer together.
These activities should work well for in-person events and many can also be adapted to work for online events or virtual attendees. They can typically be scaled up or down depending on your team’s size and the budget for your holiday party. Plus, they can also be combined with the themes we already discussed.
This is a classic work holiday party tradition and it’s a spin on Secret Santa. Like in Secret Santa, each person attending the party buys a gift, within a set price range, wraps it, and brings it to the party.
Unlike in Secret Santa, where you know who will be opening your gift, White Elephant gifts could be for anyone. As an extra twist, each time a team member opens a gift, they have the opportunity to keep it or “steal” another gift. This makes for a fun and exciting game that will keep your team on the edge of their seats.
For this activity, we recommend having the company source and pay for the gifts (like Workhaus does) in order to eliminate any potential awkwardness tied to employees buying gifts. This way you can avoid anyone disagreeing over what’s bought, over or under spending, or paying out of pocket at all.
This is a great team building option for teams who enjoy problem solving, and it’s a great way to get people up and moving around. Use light-hearted clues and keep tasks simple enough that they can be solved by small groups within your team. It’s flexible enough to be staged in and around your office, in a nearby neighborhood, or even in a virtual setting! You can play the Scavenger Hunt as a first-to-the-finish or most-points-earned style game, with a small prize for the winners or you can just leave the winner(s) with bragging rights.
This option is similar to karaoke, but can be easier to get your team involved in. When it comes to karaoke, some people love it and some really don’t. An air band competition can often be the perfect middle ground. This is a fun team building activity where members can perform solo or in groups and don’t need to sing, so many find it more comfortable and less embarrassing.
We tried this at our 2018 holiday party with members and it was a hit! We handed out numbers at the door to separate people into teams, let everyone choose a song from our list and practice, then had each team perform about a minute of their song.
Trivia is always a crowd-pleaser, and is a fun and accessible team building option for groups of all sizes. Questions can be tailored to anything that interests your team, from pop culture to holidays to your company or team themselves. It’s also very easy to adapt for online participation.
To eliminate the work from your trivia planning, we recommend The Sociable Host, a highly sought after, Toronto-based curator of customized trivia. We were lucky enough to have The Sociable Host at our 2024 St. Patrick’s Day social, and our staff and members alike thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We enjoyed it so much that we now have an exclusive partnership with them!
If you’re thinking about a restaurant for your office holiday party, sit-down dinners can work, but they’re best held in a private space where people can mingle and chat after they eat.
Another great idea is to book a combination space, like an arcade, billiards bar, or a games lounge, where your team can get up, move around, mingle, and play different games while food is served family-style. This gives people the flexibility to grab what they want at their own pace.
If your party already includes an ugly sweater theme, consider adding a fun competitive element by turning it into a contest. Encourage people to show off their sweater or shirt and explain the story behind it. As we previously mentioned, you may want to loosen up the rules around ugly sweaters, allowing people to wear t-shirts and other themed clothing items that are ugly, creative, fun or festive. You could also add a creative twist by having participants draw their own ugly sweater on a whiteboard or flip chart and pitch why it should win.
Setting up a photo booth is a great way to give everyone a fun memory to look back on. All you need is a phone stand and some props. You can source a wide variety of photo props from Amazon or visit local stores to see what they have available. For a budget-friendly holiday party option, you can even make them yourself with the office printer.
If you want to go just a little bit further, throw in a ring light to really elevate your photos. This setup will allow everyone to take fun souvenir photos using their own phones and no two will be quite the same!
Warm drinks add a cozy, festive vibe to any occasion. A hot chocolate or apple cider bar is a simple setup that can really boost the atmosphere of your office holiday party. Let people make their own drinks with custom toppings like whipped cream, marshmallows, cinnamon, crushed candy canes, sprinkles, and anything else you can think of. You could even add a special touch by gifting mugs to the team before they dive into the hot drink bar.
Painting is easy to get people chatting and having fun without any pressure. There are lots of ways to bring in a painting station. You can set up a winter-themed paint-along from YouTube or let team members decorate canvases, ornaments, or any other items you supply.
The nice thing about this activity is that you don’t have to be Picasso to enjoy it. It’s a relaxed, creative team-building option that brings people together, and everyone gets to bring home their artwork at the end of the night. It’s both team building and a fun keepsake.
A cookie decorating station works a lot like a painting station, giving your team something hands-on and creative to enjoy. Like the ugly sweater night, you can easily turn this into a contest where people pitch what their cookie is supposed to be, and let the group vote on a favorite. Or you can simply let people enjoy the creative fun of decorating cookies. Making a souvenir is great, but eating that souvenir at the end of the night is even better.
A movie is a fun activity for an office holiday party, since it doesn’t require much from the attendees and is easy for the organizer to put together. If you have access to a large private space with a projector, you can easily set up your own “theater”. Just make popcorn, offer drinks, and invite everyone to get comfortable and watch a film together.
This works especially well for team members who may be a bit shy, since not too much talking is required during the film. Meanwhile, a post-movie discussion makes for a great team building activity. Because you’ll all have just watched the same thing, it becomes a great conversation piece. You can even facilitate by asking a few fun questions such as, “Who was your favorite character?” or “What was the funniest moment?” These fun and easy questions turn the experience into a great team building activity.
If your team enjoys giving back, you can host a charity raffle where ticket proceeds go to a chosen cause. You can do it 50-50 style, where the winner keeps half, or send all proceeds to charity and give the winner a small gift or perk.
Some founders or managers even get involved by offering the winner a chance to lightly embarrass them, like throwing a pie in their face or giving them a funny haircut.
If you want to avoid any pressure on staff to donate money, the company can donate on their behalf. You can also set up a points system where more money is donated based on the games or activities your team completes at the party. It adds purpose to the fun and gives everyone a shared goal.
Just like the Oscars look back on a year of great movies, your holiday party is a great time to look back on a year of awesome contributions from your team. While each team member has surely made important contributions to the business, try not to focus on sales or numbers, making them personal celebrations instead! This really allows your team to put work on the back burner for the night of your holiday party.
We did this one year, in an awards ceremony we called the “Hausies”, and we’ll never forget it! To make sure no one was left out, all our team members received one. Each Hausie award represented the individual’s personality, and included a speech about how amazing they are!
To make sure nothing slips through the cracks, use this handy checklist to help you plan your office holiday party:
With thoughtful planning and a little creativity, your office holiday party can be a highlight of the year. We hope this article helps you to plan a celebration your team will love. We also want to recognize the HR teams, admins, and office managers who make these events possible!
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