Get ready to have a very merry Christmas despite being apart!
It’s that time of year again! Christmas is a special time of year, and it’s important to make sure you’re recognizing the hard work of all your remote employees in the spirit of the holiday. Just because your team is working remotely doesn’t mean you can’t spice things up, such as with virtual secret Santa gifts and festive Zoom backgrounds. With a little creativity, you can find some fun ways to celebrate with your team and spread joy, no matter how far away they’re located or what time zone they work in. In this blog post, we’ll explore four cool ways to get into the holiday spirit and make this special season great for your remote team.
Break the ice with Christmas-themed questions
There are many ways to host a fun virtual party, but what is better than a series of Christmas-themed icebreaker questions? This helps remove any awkwardness that may surface before the Christmas party mood sets in—perfect for remote teams where members might not know each other well. Here are some sample questions, but remember to come up with your own as well!
- What was your favorite Christmas gift when you were ten?
- What is the best/worst Christmas gift you’ve ever received?
- Do you prefer snow or hot cocoa while watching a Christmas movie?
- How was Christmas traditionally celebrated in your family?
- What did you do for Christmas last year?
- What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Arrange a Christmas-themed contest
Once the ice is broken, you can host a contest and get the employees to team up—also an excellent team-building activity. Here are a few suggestions:
- Ask to decorate their workspace—Encourage your team members to get into the festive spirit by decorating their desks or work areas. They can dress up their workspace with festive décors, like Christmas lights and garlands. Ask the team members to take a photo of their setup and share it with the team. The person with the most creative, festive and overall best-looking setups will win a prize.
- Christmas costume contest—Get your team to come up with the most out-of-the-box Christmas costume ideas. Then, during the virtual party, they can model their outfit. You could create a number of award categories, such as the best dressed or unique outfit of the day, and hand out prizes. From Grinch, scary Santa, clowns or ghosts, the more outlandish the costumes the better!
- Online talent show—Giving your employees a virtual stage to show off their versatile non-professional skills, like dancing, singing or on-spot poetry, is a great way to celebrate Christmas with your remote team. Moreover, this is a great opportunity to get to know your colleagues better and bond over some common interests. You can also set up a voting system so that teammates can vote for their favorite act.
These are just a few ways to challenge your coworkers. You should consider putting a prize up for the winner, and then watch as everyone vies for it.
Arrange a virtual Secret Santa
Virtual Secret Santa is a Christmas-themed gift exchange where each participant is assigned a recipient to send a gift. This event aims to build connections and give everyone an opportunity to enjoy the holidays from a distance by using online name pickers, like Elfster, DrawNames, Giftster and Sneaky Santa. These websites help pair up group members and send each Secret Santa the details of their giftee, such as gift preferences and budget.
You can give someone a book, streaming service subscriptions (Netflix, Amazon Prime), online gift cards, a self-care package or an Audible membership and then reveal the gifts to the team during the virtual party.
Watch Christmas movies together
The Christmas season is the perfect time to enjoy some of your old favorite movies, like Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, Single All the Way, Krampus, The Princess Switch and Christmas Carol with your colleagues. To decide which film they should watch, run a poll to find out what your team would most like to see this year. Then, pick a date and play the chosen movie live via Watch2Gether or any other similar platform for synchronized video watching.
We hope you enjoyed our list of ideas for celebrating Christmas with your remote team. No matter how you celebrate, the important thing is that you take the time to connect with your team and show them some holiday cheer. From all of us here at Jumpstart, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!
Also read:
- 10 Ways to Go Green and Celebrate a Sustainable Christmas This Year
- How Entrepreneurs Can Unwind and Get Ready for New Year
- How to Accomplish Team Building Remotely
Header image courtesy of Freepik
