To celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, we're going to be sharing our Top Tips for A Virtual Christmas! From work parties to a tame video call with your family and everything in between, we've got you covered for a COVID Christmas!
12th December – It’s time to get creative
No one wants to sit through yet ANOTHER video call after a hard day’s work, so make sure when planning your virtual events, they are engaging! You could look at cooking kits, Christmas cupcake decorating, mulled wine and festive hot chocolate kits. You could even host a gingerbread house making competition, there really are no limits! DIY kits like these will allow employees to get away from their desks and get creative!
13th December - Set a theme
Every good party has a theme, and Christmas is NO EXCEPTION! Setting a theme will help structure the flow of your event, as well as helping to give inspiration for activities, food & drink, playlists and even the dress code. Some themes could include:
- Ugly Christmas Jumpers
- Masquerade Ball
- Winter Wonderland
- Candyland
- Christmas around the world.
14th December - Secret Santa
This traditional festive fun is something that can be enjoyed whether you're in the office or not! Get your employees (or friends and family) to send their gifts in the post and save them to open on camera with everyone. Not only is this a great excuse to connect with colleagues you might not work with day to day, let’s be honest... EVERYONE loves a present!
15th December - Make it personal
If you're planning on sending out packages to your employees, add a little personalisation to show how much you appreciate their hard work and dedication - especially when this year has been so challenging! Here’s a few ideas to get you started: personalised Christmas cards, crackers, party hats and even jumpers!
16th December - Christmas Ice Breakers
What better time of the year to break the ice, especially during a virtual Christmas party! Why not share hilarious Christmas memories - give everyone 5 minutes to think and write down something that’s happened to them. These can be kept anonymous or for a little extra spice, throw the names in there too!
If you keep the names secret it could be turned into a game where you have to guess who it happened to... this will really show what your colleagues think of you!
17th December - Don’t worry about the timings
Not needing to travel anywhere means you can knock out the parties with your family, friends and colleagues in the same day! If one day is too much, no stress! With no travel involved, you can change the dates at the drop of a Christmas hat.
18th December - Alternative Christmas Lyrics
Show the first part of a Christmas carol lyric and get everyone to come up with a better ending! This game is guaranteed to have your party in fits of laughter!
19th December - Make a Christmas presentation
Wait, this is not as boring as it sounds, we promise! Quizzes are so 'the start of lockdown', so why not mix it up by getting your guests to make their own presentation on something unique and festive. Set a number of slides to work with and the promise of bonus points for creativity and hilarity. Allow people to vote for their favourite and the winner will get the prize. A few ideas are:
- The worst Christmas movie of all time
- The craziest Christmas traditions from around the world
- Have candy canes become too curvy?
- Why Christmas should be renamed
20th December - Christmas Card Competition
Now this one can get some serious belly chuckles! Before your virtual party, get your guests to make the best/ funniest Christmas card they can think of. It can be as elaborate or simple as they like and include pretty much ANYTHING! No design skills are required, with free tools such as Canva and even Figma, there's no excuse not to get creative. Get your guests to present their masterpieces during your virtual Christmas party and watch the laughs roll in.
21st December - Festive Bake Off
The end of The Great British Bake Off has really left a cake shaped hole in our hearts but fear not! Why not create a virtual Bake Off? Get your participants to create recipes and send out to everyone along with the ingredients and where to buy them. The cameras can be setup in the kitchen, and everyone can bake together
This idea is SURE to create laughter at each other’s baking failures and chatter at the same time. Some ideas for bakes could be Christmas crispy cakes or a festive Malteser tray bake.
22nd December - Who dun it?
Murder Mysteries never get old and setting up a virtual detective’s game is seriously easy. There are plenty of free murder mystery scripts online to download (if you don't fancy the challenge yourself) which you can send round all the participants.
Choose a character for each person out of a hat and encourage them to dress up as extravagantly as possible - and accents are definitely encouraged too! The winner is the person who solves the mystery. This can make for a hilarious, quirky night - but it’s best organised with a smaller group of people.
23rd December - Scavenger hunt
It’s simple, it’s effective and it means people aren’t sitting down all night. Make a list of household objects, such as a spoon, a toothbrush or even a sock, and ask participants to collect them - the first person to return with the object wins the round.
The more obscure the objects are, the funnier, or you could even go one step further and write a riddle for people to guess what they need to find!
24th December - Christmas movie night
Everyone loves a movie night, and it’s a no-fuss way to spend time with the people you love over Zoom or Skype. Simply ask everyone to pick up some classic movie snacks, like popcorn, fizzy juice and chocolate, and collectively vote for a Christmas film to watch on Netflix. If you can’t decide, get all participants to suggest their preferred movie and pick out a hat.
25th December – Sit back and relax
MERRY CHRISTMAS! It’s time for you to sit back and relax knowing you’ve had a fun and safe run up to Christmas day.
You of course don’t have to complete these tasks on the days we’ve suggested. Make sure to tag @workspace_plus us in your funny photos so we can see what you’ve been getting up to, we need all the laughs we can get after the year we’ve had!
We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and successful 2021.
With Love
The Bracken Family x