21 Best Virtual Holiday Party Ideas, Games & Activities

You found our guide to virtual holiday party ideas, games and activities for work.

Virtual holiday parties are online celebrations held over video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Webex and Google Meet. These events include holiday themed games, activities, icebreakers and gifts. The purpose of these events is to celebrate at the end of year, show appreciation for employees, and recognize Christmas. These celebrations are also known as a “virtual Christmas party”, “Zoom holiday party” or “remote holiday party.”

These parties online equivalents of office Christmas parties and hybrid Christmas, and include virtual Christmas games, holiday team building ideas for remote teams, and holiday team building activities. These events are alternatives to company holiday parties.

In this list you will find:

• virtual Christmas party ideas
• virtual holiday games
• virtual holiday team building activities
• virtual holiday events
• virtual work holiday party ideas
• free virtual holiday party ideas for work
• virtual holiday party ideas for large groups

Let’s get to it!

List of virtual holiday party ideas

From fully hosted virtual events to DIY games and activities to play on Zoom, here are some of the best ideas for your next virtual holiday party.

1. Virtual Holiday Party (Fully Hosted)

Virtual Holiday Party is a 90 minute experience that includes fun holiday themed games and activities. We develop unique games each year that are tested and proven to maximize engagement and participation.

A few things to know:

• Virtual Holiday Party is designed for groups of 10 to 100 people.
• The experience is led by an expert teambuilding.com host.
• The event is 90 minutes, including time for opening remarks and a little buffer room.
• You can choose addons like cocktail kits and gift boxes to send your guests.

Start planning your Virtual Holiday Party.

2. Virtual Holiday Party Bingo

Bingo is a great icebreaker for virtual holiday parties because it’s fun, a great way to connect with people, and a familiar format.

Here is a card generator you can use for your game:

You can share this link with your guests.

To play Virtual Holiday Party Bingo, you simply distribute the cards and then players interact to find clues to mark off. If you have a group of 15 or more people, then we recommend dividing participants into smaller breakout rooms.

Get our free team building toolbox

• icebreaker games
• bingo cards
• DIY guides

by teams at FedEx, Amazon, Deloitte and 73,930+ others

3. The Naughty List

The Naughty List is a holiday themed version of the popular party game Never Have I Ever.

For this game, participants hold up five or ten fingers. The host reads prompts, and if the prompt is true for you then you put a finger down. The game ends when all of the prompts are read. Any players with all fingers down are on the Naughty List, and players with any fingers remaining are on the Nice List.

Here are the prompts:

1. You have ever re-gifted a present.
2. You don’t believe in Santa.
3. You tidied your background before the party.
4. You bought a gift last minute.
5. You haven’t wished anyone “happy holidays” this year.
6. You know a naughty Christmas joke.
7. You peeked at presents in advance.
8. You knocked over a Christmas tree.
9. You were late for the holiday party!
10. You can sing a naughty holiday jingle.
11. You have bought more coal than cupcakes.
12. You pretended to like a gift.

You can make your own prompts too to encourage inside jokes.

4. Holiday Icebreaker Questions

You can start your party by asking a question like:

1. What is your first memory of the holiday season?
2. Are you for or against re-gifting and why?
3. What is your favorite Christmas food?

For small groups, share the prompt and then have guests answer one by one.

For larger groups, divide guests into breakout rooms of five to eight people and have them share answers in those small groups.

Here is an icebreaker generator you can use for more questions:

We also have a list with hundreds of holiday icebreaker questions.

5. Gingerbread Games (Popular)

Gingerbread Games is one of our most popular virtual holiday party events. The experience includes 90 minutes of fun, themed games with a professional host, and gingerbread decorating kits that we ship to participants in advance.

Here are the highlights:

• Gingerbread Games works for any sized group.
• We ship gingerbread decorating kits to participants in advanced, with domestic US shipping included in the price.
• The experience is led by a professional teambuilding.com host.

Learn more about Virtual Gingerbread Games.

6. Most Likely To: Holiday Edition

Most Likely To is a game of seasonal superlatives that asks remote coworkers to decide which teammate is most likely to perform in specific ways during the holidays.

You can ask your team to vote on who is most likely to:

• Spend a fortune on decorations?
• Procrastinate Christmas shopping until December 24th?
• Cry while watching a Christmas movie?
• Forget the words to a carol?
• Pick out the perfect present?
• Make an epic cup of hot chocolate?
• Fall while ice-skating?

This game is a fun and casual way for participants to connect.

For more ideas, check out this list of most likely to questions.

7. Virtual Holiday Party Trivia

Trivia is a great game for virtual holiday parties because it’s fun, educational and easy to participate in. We recommend doing team trivia, where small teams answer the questions in breakout rooms.

A few examples of great holiday trivia questions:

1. Q: What was the first Christmas movie ever made? A: Santa Claus (1898). Bonus point: Closest guess to the launch year.
2. Q: Which country is Krampus from? a) Germany, b) Austria, c) Norway, D) Scotland. A: Austria. Bonus point: What is Krampus?
3. Q: How many ghosts appear in A Christmas Carol? A: 4 ghosts. Bonus point: Name all 4 (Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future).

Here is a Google Form that participants can use to submit answers, and here is the answer key. The submissions are automatically sent to the event organizer for scoring.

We have more Christmas trivia questions too.

8. Holiday Rush Scavenger Hunt

Holiday Rush is a fast-paced and fun virtual holiday party game.

To play, give participants 90 seconds to grab nearby items that match the prompt, “things you need to survive the holidays.”

Then, when players return, read out the following list. Anyone that has a matching item gets a point. Anyone that wants to share a story about an item can win bonus points.

Here is the list:

• Holiday cookies
• Winter clothing
• Ugly sweater
• Wrapping paper
• Kitchen utensil
• Christmas decoration
• Stocking

Finally, ask if any player has another item they want to share. Award bonus points for creativity.

Here are more holiday scavenger hunt templates.

9. Gingerbread Showdown

This game is inspired by Gingerbread Wars, one of our most popular virtual holiday events. Players need gingerbread people decorating kits, which you can either send by mail or provide a budget for participants to purchase a kit locally.

To play this game:

1. Read off these prompts 1 by 1.
   1. Ugly Sweater Competition
   2. Gingerbread Career Fair
   3. Halloween Scare
   4. Puttin’ on the Ritz
   5. Mini Me
2. After each prompt, participants have 60 seconds to decorate a cookie to match the theme.
3. Players hold up their cookies at the same time, and the host selects a few winners. For example, “best dressed”, “most joyful”, “ugly but okay”, and “A for effort.”

While Gingerbread Showdown is a competitive game, it’s not really about tallying points and choosing an overall winner. The winner is everyone, because the game is so darn fun to play and you get to eat cookies too.

10. Name That Tune: Holiday Edition

Name That Tune is a classic party game where you participants guess which song is playing. With a little planning, you can theme this event toward a holiday playlist.

To play this game:

1. Prepare a holiday playlist or use this one on YouTube.
2. Play between 5 and 15 seconds of a song.
3. Have players buzz in to guess the song by typing “ho ho ho” in the chat.
4. The first player or team to guess the song correctly wins a point.

At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins prizes or bragging rights.

11. Virtual Secret Santa

Secret Santa is a classic holiday party activity where participants receive gifts from unknown senders, and you can do it virtually too.

Here is how:

1. Use a Secret Santa generator to match up names.
2. Provide participants with a budget to purchase and send a gift to their matched name. Be sure to include a note, “do not open until our company holiday party.”
3. At the virtual holiday party, participants open their gifts and guess who sent it.

A good gift budget for Virtual Secret Santa is $50 plus shipping costs. However, you could go anywhere between $30 and $100 or so and find some great gifts.

12. Tradition or Not?

Tradition or Not is a fun, trivia-style game where participants must guess if a description is of a real holiday tradition or a made-up one.

To play, share each prompt and have participants show a hand or state in the chat whether they believe it is a Tradition or a Not.

Here are the descriptions:

1. In Japan, KFC is a popular meal on December 25th. (Tradition)
2. In Iceland, mischievous trolls drop off rotting potatoes instead of coal. (Tradition)
3. Mexicans often ring in the New Year by writing resolutions in the sand. (Not)
4. In Wisconsin, citizens celebrate the first snowfall with a barefoot sprint. (Not)
5. During Hanukkah, Indians sometimes dip wicks in coconut oil in place of lighting candles. (Tradition)

You can Google, “weird Christmas traditions” for more fun options.

13. Silent Night Charades

This game is a holiday themed version of Charades, where participants take turn acting out prompts based on Christmas stories, carols and traditions.

To play this game:

1. Divide your participants into teams.
2. Each team nominates a player to go first.
3. Choose one of the nominees and send them a private message with the prompt.
4. The player has 60 seconds to act out the prompt using only their body – no speaking or writing allowed.
5. That player’s team members must correctly guess the prompt to win a point.
6. Repeat for the other players.

Here is a list of prompts to use for your game:

• Jingle Bell Rock
• All I Want for Christmas is You
• Secret Santa
• Three French Hens
• Gingerbread House
• Ghost of Christmas Past
• Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel
• All of the Other Reindeer
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
• Ten Lords A-leaping
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas
• Bah Humbug

You can create your own prompts too.

14. Blizzard: Truth or Dare

For Blizzard: Truth or Dare is a multiplayer and holiday-themed version of the classic Truth or Dare party game.

To play Blizzard:

1. All participants on a video call start with cameras on.
2. The host reads off the following prompts, one by one:
   1. Share your earliest holiday memory.
   2. Sing a Christmas carol.
   3. Give a 20 second speech as Santa Claus.
   4. Name all of Santa’s reindeer.
   5. Share a Christmas confession.
   6. Answer “what did my true love send to me on the 7th day of Christmas?”
   7. Make a case for why fruit cake is the best cake.
3. With each prompt, players can either leave their camera on to indicate they are willing to answer, or turn the camera off to opt-out.
4. The host chooses camera-on players to complete the challenge. Any player that fails to do the challenge is knocked out of the game and becomes a cheerleader.

You can end the game whenever you like, and we recommend seeing it through for at least five or six rounds.

15. Candy Canes or Candy Corn?

This game asks participants to decide which item to keep and which to destroy forever: Candy Canes or Candy Corn?

Once the decision is made, unanimously, by majority vote or otherwise, then the winner takes on a new competitor. For example, Candy Canes or Gingerbread Houses, and the Gingerbread Houses or Santa.

The game doesn’t have a definitive end, but it tends to get pretty existential. For example, once you have Grandma’s buttery mashed potatoes up against the fate of humanity, one of them tends to win over and over again – the taters, obviously.

16. Undercover Santa

Undercover Santa follows Werewolf rules – it’s a game of deception, social dedication and holiday joy.

To play this game:

1. Assign player roles, as follows:
   • 20% of players as Undercover Santa
   • 1 Elf on the Shelf – Can point to one player and the host confirms if that person is an Undercover Santa.
   • 1 Scrooge – Can block Santa’s choice one time by saying “bah humbug” out loud during the night.
   • For groups of 10+ people, add 2 Turtle Doves – If one of them goes down then both go down.
   • All other players are Carolers.
   • For groups of 15+ people, we recommend dividing participants into multiple breakout rooms.
2. The host says “’twas the night before Christmas” and all players close their eyes and hum Christmas Carols. Then, the host privately messages character roles in this sequence:
   1. Undercover Santa(s) to identify one Caroler to give a gift so good they are knocked out of the game.
   2. Elf on the Shelf to guess one player as Undercover Santa and the host confirms Yes or No.
3. The host says, “ho, ho, ho” and all players open their eyes. The host then reveals which player, if any, was knocked out during the night.
4. Players must come to a consensus or vote on who they believe the Undercover Santa is. The player with the most votes is knocked out of the game. The game ends when all Undercover Santas are knocked out, or when there are no-longer enough Carolers to knock out the remaining Santas.

Undercover Santa is a great holiday game for both small and large groups.

17. Ugly Sweater Competition

An easy way to add a fun, competitive spirit to your virtual holiday party is to include an ugly sweater competition. For this activity, you can invite your guests to wear the ugliest sweater they have available. Then, you can either have a team vote to award the ugliest sweater, or award prizes for a variety of winners.

A few example prizes are:

• most festive design
• “are you really wearing that at work?”
• most likely to inspire a Christmas carol
• more spooky than ugly

You can make up your own prize categories too.

18. Guess that Holiday Movie

This fun virtual holiday party game includes trivia based on holiday movies. For each round, you play a 10 to 20 second audio clip of a holiday film. Then, participants have to guess which movie the clip is from. Correct guesses earn a point, and incorrect guesses lose a point. You can also award bonus points for follow up questions like “name at least two actors in the movie” or “closest without going over, what year did the movie come out?”

Here is a playlist of popular holiday movie clips.

19. Winter Trivia: Team vs Team

Winter Trivia: Team vs Team is a virtual competition for teams. This classic is a sure crowd pleaser that is likely to help team members work off holiday and end-of-year stress, all while having fun with teammates.

The highlights:

• Hosted on Zoom or a platform of your choice
• 60 minutes
• High energy and competitive
• General knowledge questions about winter and winter happenings, not specific to only one holiday

Learn more about Winter Trivia Team vs Team or Individual vs Individual.

20. Escape Everest: Quest for the Yeti

Escape Everest: Quest for the Yeti is a 90-minute puzzle-based winter event. An expert host guides teams through an epic adventure through the Himalayas. Teams will compete for clues, piece together research, and solve ultra-complex puzzles while racing against the clock and each other. Along the way, teams will glean knowledge about the mountains and abominable snowman lore. This experience is ideal for teams who crave a challenge and excel at collaborating under pressure.

Learn more about Escape Everest: Quest for the Yeti.

21. Epic Holiday Party (Includes Gift Options)

Epic Holiday Party is a 2 hour virtual holiday event that is specifically designed for large groups of 100+ participants. The event is all-inclusive, with fun games and activities, plus cocktail kits, gift boxes and customizations.

A few things to know:

• Epic Holiday Party is designed for groups of 100+ people, with no maximum group size.
• The experience is led by an expert teambuilding.com host and a trained co-host.
• The event is 90-120 minutes, including time for opening remarks and a buffer to make sure everything runs smoothly.
• There are three versions, from standard to premium, to suit your budget
• Premium bookings includes cocktail kits and tasty treat box options that we send direct to your guests.

Learn more about Epic Holiday Party.

The #1 Virtual Holiday Party Company

teambuilding.com is the #1 virtual holiday party company.

A few facts:

• We’ve hosted 6,000+ virtual holiday parties for clients like Apple, Amazon and Google.
• Our virtual experiences have 50,225+ five star reviews and an industry leading 97.64% satisfaction rating.
• The Washington Post reviewed our virtual holiday parties and said it “is as good as it gets.”
• We’ve helped 1,180,124+ people plan virtual holiday parties via our expert guide.
• Our company is 150+ remote employees strong and has incredibly high team satisfaction scores – we know how to do virtual team engagement.

With thousands of reviews, event experiences and host interactions to draw from, we’ve created and iterated on the best virtual holiday party experiences available.

We now have five world class virtual holiday party events:

1. Virtual Holiday Party (our flagship experience for 10 – 100 people)
2. Epic Holiday Party (an all-inclusive event for large groups)
3. Gingerbread Wars (virtual holiday event including shipped gingerbread kits)
4. Winter Trivia (fun holiday themed trivia for 60 minutes)

Each of these events is designed to maximize the holiday spirit, fun and connections between your remote team members.

You can either book one of these experiences as a stand-alone event, or add it to your own virtual holiday party itinerary.

How to Host a Virtual Holiday Party

If you choose to host your own virtual holiday party, then you can follow along this step-by-step guide to make it a huge success.

• Planning your party
  • The optimal duration
  • Three sample itineraries
• Optimizing your party
  • Tips for boosting engagement
  • Upgrading your event with addons
  • Choosing a playlist
• Inviting guests to your party
  • Sample invitation email
  • Canva invitation templates

Planning Your Party

To plan a virtual holiday party, you need:

• A date, time and duration.
• An itinerary.
• Holiday themed games and activities.

Let’s look at each one.

The Optimal Duration for your Virtual Holiday Party

For virtual holiday parties, you have three primary durations to choose from.

1. 60 minutes – for a quick, informal party that celebrates your team.
2. 90 minutes – for a fun, engaging, and memorable experience.
3. 120 minutes – the closest option to an in-person office holiday party.

Any of these options can work well depending on your needs. We don’t recommend going shorter or much longer. Below 60 minutes and your event will feel rushed, and beyond 120 minutes it is very difficult to keep guests engaged.

A few tips for date and time:

• December 1 to 17 are the most popular days for virtual holiday parties, but you can do earlier and later too. We are busy in November and December, so we host our internal holiday party in January.
• We recommend hosting your event during regular work hours so that more people can participate.
• Planning your event toward the end of the workday means that attendees can sign off for the day after the celebration.
• Try to give guests at least two weeks notice, so they can plan to attend.

Once you set your duration, you can start planning your itinerary.

Virtual Holiday Party Itinerary Examples

Here are three sample virtual holiday party itineraries, based on your selected duration.

1. 60 Minute Virtual Holiday Party

2. 90 Minute Virtual Holiday Party

3. 120 Minute Virtual Holiday Party

The icebreakers and games in these samples are selected to complement each other.

Once you choose your itinerary, you can customize the schedule with virtual holiday party games and activities that match your group’s interests.

Optimizing Your Virtual Holiday Party

Once you have your itinerary set and activities selected, you can start optimizing your virtual holiday party to maximize joyful spirit and engagement.

This section includes tips and best practices, ideas for event addons, and holiday playlists for your event.

Virtual Holiday Party Tips

Here are our top tips for hosting a successful virtual holiday party.

1. Have a structured agenda. The #1 reason that virtual events fall flat is a lack of structure. Plan for opening comments, icebreakers, games and activities that give attendees cues on how to participate.
2. Keep opening remarks short. You definitely want to welcome everyone, share your appreciation and set a spirited tone for the event. Beyond that, reserve as much time as you can for more interactive participation.
3. Celebrate a variety of holidays. It’s okay to say “Merry Christmas!”, and it’s also okay to say “Happy Hanukkah!” and “Happy Kwanzaa!”.
4. Encourage holiday dress up. Button up shirts, holiday sweaters and other festive gear can help set the mood.
5. Send a surprise package. Everyone loves receiving packages in the mail, especially around the holidays. A nice care package includes candies for the virtual holiday party, accessories to decorate themselves or backgrounds, and a more substantial gift.
6. Take photos and/or videos! You can use a screen capture or recording tool to snap memories of the event. These mementos are great for internal culture, as well as for social media channels.

Upgrading Your Event With Addons

One way to boost joy and excitement at your event is to include addons for participants.

Here are the most popular addons to try.

1. Cocktail Kits. You can send either a drink making kit with or without alcohol. Here is a list of virtual happy hour kits to choose from.
2. Gift Boxes. You can either make and send your own gift boxes, or work with a gift box company to do it for you.
3. Food Delivery. The easiest way to provide food for remote participants is to provide a reimbursement of $30 or $50, or to send a gift card in advance.
4. Gift Cards. Providing a gift card or loaded credit card is a great way to provide a budget for whatever your participants may want to buy. For example, a new outfit, hair cut, decorative background or upgraded lighting.

You can include other fun addons too that help celebrate your team members and customize the event to your unique culture.

Virtual Holiday Party Playlist

Any virtual holiday party instantly becomes better when you add music. You can either play the music softly throughout your event, or a little louder as people are joining the party or coming back from breakout rooms.

Here is our recommended playlist for your virtual holiday party:

Inviting Guests to Your Party

It goes without saying that the #1 way to increase guest count at your virtual holiday party is to invite your guests. You can either send a simple message via email or messenger, or create a more formal invitation.

Sample Invitation Email #1

Sample Invitation Email #2

Canva Invitation Template #1

Click here to edit this invitation.

Canva Invitation Template #2

Click here to edit this invitation.

Final Thoughts

Hosting a virtual holiday party is a great way to celebrate the holiday season, recognize your team’s achievements, and bring your people together in a joyful way. And you have plenty of options. You can host a virtual holiday party yourself on any budget, or if you prefer you can hire a company like ours to run the event for you. Either way, your people will enjoy the time together and leave happier and excited to be part of the team.

In summary, here are some of the best virtual holiday party ideas:

• Gingerbread Wars
• Virtual Holiday Trivia
• The Naughty List
• Holiday Icebreaker Questions
• Virtual Holiday Party Bingo
• Holiday Rush Scavenger Hunt
• Gingerbread Showdown
• Name That Tune: Holiday Edition
• Virtual Secret Santa
• Tradition or Not?
• Silent Night Charades
• Blizzard: Truth or Dare
• Candy Canes or Candy Corn?
• Undercover Santa
• Ugly Sweater Competition
• Guess that Holiday Movie
• Epic Holiday Party

Next, check out our list of virtual team events, ideas for virtual New Years Eve, these virtual party games, and this list of virtual team building activities.

You can also brush up on your holiday party etiquette for work, and review fun office party ideas and games.

If you are in the UK, check out this list of fun virtual Christmas party ideas in the UK.

That’s it – happy holidays!