Ready to bring your remote team together for a festive celebration? We’ve covered you with this list of 25 creative virtual Christmas party ideas to spread holiday cheer. 🎄
Let’s transform your traditional team meeting into a fun and memorable experience that everyone will talk about long after the holidays.
Without further ado, let’s put these virtual event plans in motion to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year.
- What is a Virtual Christmas Party?
- 25 Memorable Virtual Christmas Party Ideas
- 1. Virtual white elephant gift exchange
- 2. Virtual Christmas Pictionary
- 3. Mad Libs holiday skit
- 4. What’s in the gift box?
- 5. Christmas on a deserted island
- 6. Holiday trivia
- 7. Christmas costume contest
- 8. Holiday scavenger hunt
- 9. Guess the Christmas song with emojis
- 10. Virtual snowman building contest
- 11. DIY Christmas crafts
- 12. Virtual talent show
- 13. Christmas movie night party
- 14. Virtual holiday dance class
- 15. Holiday word search challenge
- 16. Words in a word challenge
- 17. Guess the “zoomed in” object
- 18. Christmas crossword puzzle
- 19. Santa’s naughty list
- 20. Extreme “candy canes” game
- 21. Santa’s word scramble
- 22. Christmas caroling karaoke
- 23. Christmas “this” or “that”
- 24. Live virtual performance
- 25. Online Christmas awards ceremony
- Virtual Christmas Party Planning FAQs
What is a Virtual Christmas Party?
A virtual Christmas party is like a typical holiday office party, except it happens online via meeting management software like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or WebEx.
A virtual holiday event is a great option for remote employees because everyone can join in anywhere. Plus, you can save some cash and skip the hassle of setting up a real-life party.
Just don’t forget to use a holiday planner to stay organized before, during, and after the party activities to ensure things go smoothly. 🥳
25 Memorable Virtual Christmas Party Ideas
No matter the size of your team, these virtual holiday party ideas, along with key virtual meeting etiquette rules, will turn your virtual party into the highlight of the season. Let’s get started and make this year’s party a hit!
1. Virtual white elephant gift exchange
For one of the best virtual Christmas party ideas, you can’t go wrong with a silly gift exchange. Before the event, be sure to set and share the budget limit for gift items. 💰
Participants then pick a gift and send the host an image (along with a wrapper design). The host can use ClickUp’s Virtual White Elephant Template to display these gifts, hidden behind the wrapper designs, and number them for easy reference. You can also use a randomizer app to determine the order in which participants “open” gifts.
During the party, participants choose a gift to open. They can keep their pick or steal from someone else. If a gift is stolen, the affected player chooses again. To keep the game interesting, set a maximum limit on the number of steals.
The host uses the template to keep track of gift ownership and steal count. The game ends after the first player has a final turn to keep or swap their gift. After the party, everyone buys and sends the actual gifts to each other. 🎁
2. Virtual Christmas Pictionary
This Christmas Pictionary game is easy to set up and bound to keep everyone engaged. You need an online whiteboard tool, like ClickUp Whiteboards, to share with your team.
Before the party, prepare a list of Christmas-themed words and phrases like:
- Mistletoe kiss
- Elf on the shelf 🧝
- Gingerbread man
When it’s game time, split the team into small groups. Secretly send one group member a word to draw on the whiteboard (via your video app’s private chat) while others guess.
Set a timer for each round to last about 30 to 60 seconds. If a team guesses right, they score a point. Rotate illustrators in each team to make it more interactive. The team with the most points at the end wins.
3. Mad Libs holiday skit
For a laughter-filled party, look no further than a Mad Libs holiday skit. For this Christmas game, you’ll first need a script for a holiday-themed skit.
Don’t worry if you’re not a playwright—you can find plenty of examples online or use ClickUp AI, an AI tool for event management, to help you whip up something. The key is to leave blanks in the script for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
During your party, everyone contributes by suggesting words to fill in the blanks without knowing the skit’s context. After you’ve filled in all the blanks, assign roles to team members to perform the skit using the words you just came up with.
4. What’s in the gift box?
Let your remote team channel their inner detective with a virtual holiday party game combining mystery and fun. 🕵️
As the host, you fill a gift box with a “mystery item.” During the party, participants can only ask yes or no questions to help them guess the item. For example:
- Is it round?
- Can you wear it?
- Would you find it on a Christmas tree?
Whoever guesses correctly earns a point for themselves or their team. Keep the game going with various items in the box, and by the end, the person or team with the most points wins.
5. Christmas on a deserted island
This is similar to the virtual escape room game but even better—it’s about creativity, team collaboration, and storytelling.
Split remote workers into teams and ask them to bring a limited number of items (about five to 10) to celebrate Christmas on a deserted island. Let them use a whiteboarding tool to present their choices with images. 🏝️
After brainstorming in breakout rooms, teams come back together to share stories about why they picked each item. Listening to each team’s perspective and reasoning makes this game interesting and fun.
6. Holiday trivia
This is a fun way to test your team’s holiday knowledge with trivia questions covering Christmas traditions, history, movies, music, you name it.
As the host, you’ll prepare questions in advance and read them out during the event. If someone thinks they know the answer, they raise their hand in the chat. If they’re wrong, the next team who raises their hand gets a chance. It’s as simple as that. ✅
7. Christmas costume contest
Spice up your virtual Christmas party with a fun costumey vibe. Let your team show off their holiday spirit in festive outfits—from Santa hats and suits to elf costumes and unique DIY holiday creations.🧣
Add a competitive twist by having everyone vote for categories like “Most Creative,” “Funniest,” or “Best DIY Outfit” using your video call’s polling feature. Don’t forget to include a virtual “photo booth” by capturing a team photo to preserve the holiday memory.
8. Holiday scavenger hunt
Scavenger hunts are one of the most interactive (and easiest!) virtual Christmas party ideas to make happen. Simply whip up a list of 5 to 10 holiday items for everyone to find at home. Some ideas include:
- A holiday card
- Funny family photo
- A symbol of achievement
- Favorite holiday movie or book
- Best corporate gift ever received
Show everyone the list when the party starts, hit a timer, and watch the scramble begin. When everyone returns, let them share their items and the story behind them. You can declare a winner afterward—the participant who bags the most items before time runs out wins. ⏰
9. Guess the Christmas song with emojis
Everyone can hum along to classic Christmas jingles, but will they recognize them as emojis? This virtual Christmas party idea is about turning popular holiday tunes into emojis. For example, ⛄🎩❄️ could be Frosty the Snowman.
Show everyone these emoji combos using a slide show, or send them in the chat. Whoever guesses the song correctly scores one point, and the person or team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
10. Virtual snowman building contest
Even without real snow, you can still have fun building digital snowmen—choose an online whiteboard as your canvas. 🎨
During the party, set aside time for everyone to draw and show off their snowman. When everyone’s done, you can have a poll to see whose snowman design is the crowd favorite.
11. DIY Christmas crafts
Designing Christmas crafts is another festive way to get everyone to show off their artistic skills. Pick one or two easy crafts and send your team DIY decorating kits with all the necessary items. ⚒️
Set aside time for making these crafts, either with you (or another team member) leading the team or following steps in a YouTube tutorial. At the end of the session, you can capture a shot of everyone’s designs and share them on social media or even have the team vote for their favorite design.
12. Virtual talent show
Discover your team’s hidden skills and talents with a holiday talent show! This is an engaging virtual team-building activity to see a different side of your colleagues and appreciate their diversity.
To get the talent show rolling, ask your team members to prepare a short act or demonstration of their talent beforehand. Talents can be anything like:
- Singing
- Juggling
- Playing an instrument
- Reciting an original poem
- Performing magic tricks or stand-up comedy
After everyone’s had their moment to shine, you can vote for fun titles like “Most Creative Act” or “Biggest Surprise Talent.” 🏆
13. Christmas movie night party
Hang out with your team in a relaxed setting for your virtual Christmas bash. Choose a Christmas movie that everyone can enjoy, or send out a poll ahead of time to decide on a flick. 🎥
Before the party, you can send everyone a package with Christmas cookies, hot cocoa kits, popcorn, or other snacks or cover their snack costs. During the movie, use your video app’s chat to share laughs, comments, or those “no way” moments to keep it fun and engaging.
14. Virtual holiday dance class
Get your team into a festive mood by blending Christmas tunes with simple dance moves. 🕺
You can get a dance teacher or have a team member who loves to dance lead a simple routine. The dance routine should be fun and easy to follow so all team members can participate and have a good time.
15. Holiday word search challenge
Add a festive twist to the classic word search game at your virtual party. Search online for Christmas-themed word search puzzles featuring words like “mistletoe,” “reindeer,” “Santa Claus,” and “snowflake.”
Copy and paste these puzzles on Google Slides or ClickUp Whiteboards, one slide (or whiteboard space) per participant or team. During the party, give everyone time to find as many words as possible. The person or team who finds the most words wins. 🎉
16. Words in a word challenge
This virtual Christmas party idea is about finding many small words from a larger, festive-themed word. For example, from “Christmas,” players will find words like “Christ,” “charm,” “star,” and so on.
When you’re ready to play, create a list of holiday-related words. Share one of them with your team and give them three to five minutes to brainstorm as many smaller words as possible.
You can make it challenging by allowing at least three or four words. Everyone can jot down their words, and when time’s up, everyone shares their list. The participant with the most words wins. 📝
17. Guess the “zoomed in” object
Ever looked at something close up and barely recognized what it was? Chances are, you’ve never tried it, and that’s exactly the twist in this game.
To prepare for this activity, find photos of Christmas items and other random objects. Zoom in on a specific part of each image using your computer’s photo app. 🔎
During the event, screen share each zoomed-in photo so participants can guess what it is. If they don’t get it, keep zooming out until they do.
18. Christmas crossword puzzle
Here’s another classic word game to get your team’s brain buzzing. Find a Christmas-themed crossword puzzle and showcase it on separate slides in Google Slides, giving each participant or team their slide to work on.
Participants can work on this solo or in teams. With teams, separate each into a breakout room. Once time’s up, regroup to check the answers and see who got the most right.
19. Santa’s naughty list
Find out who’s been “naughty” this festive season (or previous ones) with this Christmas version of “Never Have I Ever.” As the host, you’ll say statements starting with “You’re on Santa’s naughty list if …”
- … you’ve never built a gingerbread house
- … you’ve re-gifted a Christmas present
- … you’ve opened a present before Christmas morning
Players put down a finger for each activity they’ve done. To make it more interesting, you can allow them to share stories behind each finger they put down. Continue the game until you’ve exhausted your list or only one person has fingers up—they’re the winner. 👆
20. Extreme “candy canes” game
This virtual holiday version of Extreme Spoons is guaranteed to be a hit at your office Christmas party—replace the spoons with candy canes. 🥄
Each player needs a candy cane and a deck of cards. To get started, everyone shuffles their cards and picks four. Now, they’ll pick one more card from the remaining deck and discard it in a “trash” pile or replace it with one of the cards in hand.
The goal is to collect four of a kind as quickly as possible. Once you do, show your candy cane to the camera for others to do the same. Whoever’s last to show their candy cane gets a “C” from “CANDY.” Spell out “CANDY,” and you’re out. Keep playing until one player is standing.
21. Santa’s word scramble
Here’s another fun virtual Christmas party idea: Everyone tries to untangle scrambled letters to form Christmas-related words. You can make it more challenging with themes like Christmas foods, movies, and songs. 🎶
As the host, create a slide deck with Christmas words mixed up. For example, “Santa Claus” becomes “tanas ualsc” and “mistletoe” turns into “emitlost.” Participants can say the answers or type them in the chat area. The participant or team who gets the most words right is the winner.
22. Christmas caroling karaoke
How about a karaoke session with a fun twist to make your virtual shindig more exciting?
Create a karaoke holiday playlist with popular Christmas carols and any favorites requested by team members. Find these songs on YouTube, complete with lyrics on the screen for everyone to sing along. 🎤
To level up the fun, throw in an Impersonation Round. Get everyone to sing like famous singers or celebs—it’s guaranteed to be a laugh riot.
23. Christmas “this” or “that”
This is a team-building activity with icebreaker questions to connect, share stories, and learn about each other’s holiday traditions. 🧑🎄
Prepare a slide deck with fun holiday-themed choices like:
- Real tree or artificial tree?
- Eggnog or hot chocolate?
- Meet the Grinch or be the Grinch?
- Christmas ugly sweaters or pajamas?
- Keep decorations until Jan 5th, or take them down by New Year’s Day?
After asking each question, allow everyone to pick their preference (via a poll) and explain their choice. This often sparks funny debates and boosts team bonding.
24. Live virtual performance
Hosting a live virtual performance is like having a private concert or show for your team in their living rooms. 🛋️
To set this up, hire a professional performer, like a singer, magician, or comedian. Choose someone who can engage an audience and provide a fun performance. It’s the perfect activity that allows your team to sit back, relax, and be entertained.
25. Online Christmas awards ceremony
An online Christmas awards ceremony is an excellent way to close your holiday event on a high note. If you’ve hosted several competitive games, this is the perfect time to announce the winners and their prizes.🏅
Some award ideas include productivity gifts, digital gift cards, movie tickets, happy hour boxes, or even an extra day off. You can also include a special “Thank You” award for everyone for their contribution to making the party a success.
Virtual Christmas Party Planning FAQs
Here are answers to frequently asked questions about virtual office Christmas parties.
How do you host a virtual holiday party?
Set a date for the event, choose a video conferencing platform like Zoom, plan engaging activities, and send digital invites with an agenda. Some of the best activities include a virtual Secret Santa or white elephant gift exchange, Santa’s Naughty List, and This or That.
How do you make a virtual Christmas party fun?
Ask your team to dress in Christmas-themed attire, start the party with fun games and icebreakers, and play background music during activities or breaks. Keep the event inclusive by encouraging participation from everyone.
How long should a virtual Christmas party be?
It should last about 1 to 2 hours. This is long enough to engage in various activities without causing screen fatigue.
Create a Fun and Memorable Christmas Party With ClickUp
Planning the perfect party during the holiday season can be stressful. But with these virtual Christmas party ideas and ClickUp, it doesn’t have to be! 🎄
ClickUp’s all-in-one project management platform is packed with features to keep your plans in check:
- Track task details: Create lists for all your to-dos, assign them to members of the planning team, set deadlines, and keep tabs on progress
- Stay on top of deadlines: Set task reminders so you never miss a beat 🥁
- Communicate with others: Share updates with your planning crew via task comments and chat
- Take requests and feedback: Use ClickUp’s forms to collect team requests (like music, movie, and snack preferences) before the party and gather feedback afterward to improve future events 🤩
Sign up for a free ClickUp account to stay organized and create a lively and memorable celebration!