You found our list of the best virtual end of year celebration ideas for work.
Virtual end of year celebration ideas are fun activities you can hold virtually for your remote team at the end of quarter four. Examples include recipe exchanges, talent shows, and virtual wine tasting. These ideas present an excellent opportunity for businesses to recognize and appreciate their staff’s efforts during the year.
These parties are a type of virtual team celebration, similar to hybrid Christmas and office Christmas parties. The programs include holiday team building activities and virtual Christmas games.
This article contains:
- end of year virtual celebration event ideas
- online end of year party ideas
- online end of year activities for teams
- virtual end of year meeting ideas
Here we go!
List of virtual end of year celebration ideas for work
A virtual end-of-year party is an excellent way for firms to involve their remote workers in the holiday celebrations and company culture. This party allows employees to put their concerns aside and bond with their colleagues. The following are ideas for your online end-of-year activity.
1. Recipe Exchange
You can host a virtual recipe exchange to connect your team members through their shared passion for food and cooking.
Here is how to hold this activity:
- Invite the team to meet and bring classic family holiday recipes.
- Optionally, ask members to make their dishes to show off what they should look like.
- Collect the recipes, spanning appetizers, main courses, desserts, and beverages.
- Compile these recipes into a digital document or presentation you can share with all participants.
Finally, have a lively discussion where participants can share their experiences, display their creations, and discuss any personal twists they added to the original recipes. This engaging activity celebrates the joy of cooking and fosters camaraderie and connection among your team members.
2. Personalized Year-in-Review Videos
You can capture the highlights of the past year by inviting each team member to create a short year-in-review video! This heartwarming activity allows teammates to reflect on their achievements, milestones, and cherished memories. Members could choose to showcase professional accomplishments, discuss personal growth, or even share humorous moments. These videos offer a glimpse into each worker’s journey throughout the year. Then, the team can collectively watch and celebrate these videos during the virtual end-of-year event. Viewers will gain insight into the diversity of experiences within the team and foster a sense of connection and shared appreciation for the whole group’s unique contributions.
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3. Holiday Pajama Party
Teams can enjoy a cozy and relaxed atmosphere by hosting a virtual holiday pajama party. You can encourage members to wear their most festive and comfortable holiday-themed pajamas, onesies, or loungewear. This lighthearted celebration allows the team to unwind and enjoy the festivities in a casual setting. During the party, share holiday stories, play trivia games, enjoy some virtual snacks, or even watch a holiday movie together. By creating a comfortable and festive virtual space, you will foster a sense of togetherness, even from the comfort of your own homes.
4. Virtual Polar Plunge
A virtual polar plunge is a great way to infuse your end-of-year celebration with a daring and charitable spirit! The polar plunge fundraiser benefits the Special Olympics. While a virtual challenge might be a bit warmer than icy waters, team members can pledge to take a cold shower or engage in a safe and fun water-related challenge. After the experience, companies can donate proceeds to the Special Olympics, making a positive impact while celebrating the year’s end in a memorable way.
Learn more about the Special Olympics Polar Plunge.
5. Online Memory Quilt
With an online memory quilt, you can stitch together the past year’s best memories! To start, encourage each team member to contribute a digital square that features their favorite moments, accomplishments, or even challenges they overcame. Members can decorate these squares with images, text, symbols, and interactive elements. When assembled, the quilt forms a beautiful patchwork of the team’s collective experiences that members can admire during the celebration and beyond.
6. Year-End Roast and Toast
A year-end roast and toast is a great blend of lightheartedness and heartfelt appreciation. Speakers will start by playfully poking fun at the quirks and humorous moments of the past year, allowing team members to roast what made the year unique. Then, folks can transition into a heartwarming toast session where team members express gratitude and acknowledge each other’s contributions. This combination of laughter and warmth creates a dynamic celebration that honors the year’s journey in a unique way.
7. Online Auction
A frantic auction is sure to get the blood pumping for teams who enjoy a good time. Even if these activities are not traditionally part of end-of-year parties, your team might have fun. For example, if you have specific company items like gadgets that are due for replacement but still usable, you can auction them to staff members. This activity works because many companies typically upgrade their resources at the end of the year.
You can start by giving each member of staff 100 auction tokens. Then, when every participant has logged on to the video conference, show the item to the team, and any interested party may place the opening bid. All the standard auction guidelines apply to this activity. The highest final bidder takes home the prize.
8. Virtual Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are simple but effective to get your party attendees talking, laughing, and thinking. You can plan a holiday-themed hunt as part of online end of year activities for teams. Every team member can participate from the comfort of their homes.
To get started, list everyday household products and send your partygoers out to get them within a specified timeframe.
Some other holiday ideas include:
- Ugly Christmas Decorations
- Favorite Seasonal Coffee Drink
- Favorite Holiday Outfit
- Wrapped Gift
- Favorite Seasonal Food Items
- Something new you bought this year
- An award you won this year
- A product that came out this year
- A new food you tried this year
You can include some more challenging objects to increase the difficulty level. Keeping the prompts open-ended can make the game more entertaining and interesting. You can also award prizes to the team member who brings back the most items.
Check out holiday scavenger hunt ideas.
9. Awards Party
Typically, awards are presented during the end of the year party. This activity gives you the opportunity to celebrate your workers’ successes throughout the year. You can still have all the fanfare and pageantry of an actual awards ceremony, even if your end-of-year party is online. However, hosting the event in-house and having the boss present the awards is advisable and often more impactful.
You can create award categories like:
- Employee of the year
- Team of the year
- Best customer service
- Most improved
- Workplace mediator
- Friendliest
- Best boss
The first steps are establishing a list of categories and choosing the winners. Then, place an order for engraved trophies or make certificates or announcement slides. Next, you can set up an online poll where the company’s employees or departmental members may cast their ballots. Finally, you can announce the winners at the company’s end of year celebrations.
Check out these virtual award ceremony ideas for work.
10. Talent Show
Hosting a holiday talent show is a great way to get employees in the holiday mood and keep the celebration going strong. This option is ideal if you have a confident team or just a few employees who love to be in the limelight. You can give your guests a few minutes to perform a skit, dance number, or other acts they have prepared before the party. Participants at the event can vote for the best performer.
Some workers may not be into this activity, but most workplaces include at least a few amateur musicians, dancers, skateboarders, or magicians who can make this activity great. You can send out invites and accept applications for various skills before the celebration begins. Employee participation in this endeavor should be entirely optional.
A virtual talent show might make your employees feel more at ease. You can choose a theme and encourage your staff to use their imaginations. Employees love to be creative, from playing dress-up to making silly videos to showcasing their skills. A straightforward picture contest in which participants show off their studios, hobbies, or even pets is also a good idea. You can also have an ugly sweater contest or the wackiest dance-off to keep the spirits up. Or, to keep with the end of year theme, you can invite teammates to show off skills they have started learning within the past twelve months.
Pro tip: Make this event an annual activity and show a recap reel from past shows at the beginning of future performances.
Check out this list of virtual talent show ideas.
11. Charity
Helping a non-profit organization is a great method to promote goodwill among your staff and do good in the world. One option you can consider is Beam, the first global crowdfunding platform dedicated to assisting the homeless in obtaining the education and skills necessary to find gainful employment.
Beam’ members’, with the aid of charities and caseworkers, and, most crucially, the public, run online campaigns to generate money for training courses that would allow them to pursue a profession in accounting, cosmetology, or even crane rigging.
Instead of throwing an expensive workplace party, you could present Beam gift cards to your staff and customers. Donors may make an informed decision about who to sponsor on the Beam platform, get regular email updates on their chosen supporter’s progress, and watch as they return to the workforce.
Check out these lists of online volunteering ideas and virtual fundraising ideas.
12. Wreath-Making Party
A homemade wreath decoration can be a great idea for folks who like creating crafts for the holidays. Wreath-making parties are a great way to kick off the holiday season with team building and relaxation for your employees or colleagues. If you want to keep things easy, you may hire a third party to ship the supplies and organize the wreath creation party. Then, all you and your guests have to do is show up and have fun.
Making a holiday-themed wreath is one of the most obvious choices for this activity. However, you can also make non-holiday-specific wreaths, for example, rings of New Year’s resolutions, photos, or positive affirmations.
13. Holiday Card Contest
For your virtual end of year meeting ideas, you can forgo the boring Christmas cards and try new activities to send holiday happiness this year. A holiday card contest is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the creativity and ability of a virtual team in time for the holiday celebration.
You may have fun with your employees by inviting them to make their own Christmas cards using a free design tool like Canva. Then, during the Christmas party, participants may show off their work, and you can all cast your votes for the favorite. You can also make the activity a timed competition to see who can come up with the most impressive design in minutes.
Here is a list of holiday messages for work.
14. Virtual Wine Tasting
If you want to refine your online end of year party ideas and create an air of sophistication, then consider adding a wine or beer tasting to your schedule of events. Depending on your region, you can hire a local company to facilitate the program. Many options are inexpensive and can educate your employees on the nuances of alcoholic drinks. Plenty of online businesses provide Zoom-compatible opportunities for this kind of work. You send the booze to the homes of your teammates, so you can all have a few haughty drinks together. The sommelier will walk you through the drinks and collect your feedback.
You could even hold your own beer tasting by purchasing the beers, sending them out to your staff, and playing the role of sommelier yourself if you are trying to keep your end-of-year festivities on the cheap end. Your drink knowledge may not be up to par with that of a professional sommelier, but you will still have a great time.
Here are lists of online wine tasting and online beer tasting experiences.
15. Cocktail-Making
Cocktail-making is one of the best end of year virtual celebration event ideas. For this activity, you need a pair of standard glasses, measurement tools, a list of standard spirits and mixers, and a mixologist. You probably have an employee who understands cocktail making in your firm, meaning you do not have to hire a professional. If you are doing this activity virtually, you can ship a cocktail kit with all the fixings to every team member.
This activity is a great way to toast the past year!
Here is a list of virtual mixology classes.
16. Online Holiday Picture Booth
Seeing old photographs with the folks you care about and relishing all the good times you had together feels great. With a virtual holiday photo booth, you can give your guests a memorable end of year party.
Virtual photo booth tools create a memorable online picture experience for your employees. Guests can customize their photographs with various overlays, stickers, and backgrounds and then save or publish them. This activity works even better if you are having an “ugly sweater” party or themed costumes for a holiday celebration.
17. Painting Competition
This activity is for creative teams. To do a painting challenge, send the paints and a famous artwork you will all strive to replicate. You can try uncomplicated options like “Starry Night” by Van Gogh or “Impression, Sunrise” by Monet.
If your company wants to do something different this year, hosting a virtual paint night is a fantastic idea. This activity is a great way to unwind as a group and get into the spirit of the holidays.
You can send paints and brushes to your employees in advance or give them a gift card to shop for their own. You can hire a professional teacher or bring it on your own. The latter usually leads to the most humorous outcomes. You can vote at the end to determine who has the greatest and funniest creation.
Here is a list of online art classes.
18. Virtual Secret Santa
Gift exchanges emphasize the joy of celebrating the holidays at work. Secret Santas are a must at every Christmas gathering. You may have a Secret Santa gift exchange at the workplace by drawing names from a hat or utilizing a gift exchange generator, and each employee will send gifts to the allotted names. Team members will unwrap their gifts at the virtual end of year party.
Colleagues can send physical and digital products, such as gift cards and subscriptions to online services. You can also play virtual white elephant, a variant of Secret Santa in which teammates exchange bizarre and useless presents. At these gatherings, participants may “steal” a present from another.
Pro tip: If you want to keep the celebration more neutral and nondenominational, then you can host a similar gift exchange without referring to Santa or Christmas.
Check out this guide to virtual secret Santa.
19. Holiday Cooking Party
Holidays are a great time to get your staff engaged in the kitchen, and the scent of freshly made Christmas cookies is sure to perk up even the grumpiest of employees. You can gather your team to celebrate with a cook-along or baking party.
You should send participants a list of items to bring to your party. It is better to choose a dish that does not require special equipment or expertise in the kitchen so that every team member can participate. You can tell your staff to invite their family members to make the activity a fun and welcoming occasion for the whole family.
Conclusion
Having a traditional in-person workplace party is optional in today’s digital age. Instead, you may even think about combining different holiday celebration ideas. You could, for instance, kick things off with a trivia game, go on to a team dinner or cookoff, and wrap the event up with a movie.
The point of any work-related social gathering, whether a virtual happy hour or a night in front of the TV watching Netflix, is to bond with your colleagues. Virtual gatherings for celebration may be a great way to show employees how much you appreciate their efforts to help you reach your objectives and complete your projects.
Next, check out our list of virtual team events for the holidays, ideas for virtual New Year’s Eve, these virtual party games, and this list of virtual team building activities.
