Top 25 Office Holiday Party Ideas In The Professionals

1. Give a Hot Chocolate Bar & Decorate Cookies

Jenn Nicken, CEO, The Chef & The Dish

Build up an extravagant hot chocolate pub, right down to the cocoa! Load on avocado, chocolate shavings, and sugar, and then ask each guest to bring something decadent to add. Each person in the party is responsible for bringing biscuits. Perhaps some will bake their particular snickerdoodles, and others might purchase Italian Wedding Cookies from the shop. After that, let the decorating and festivities begin.

2. Celebrate Unity & Shared Values

Dr. Marlene Caroselli, Author & Adjunct Professor, UCLA & National University

Dr. Maulana Karenga initiated the observance of early African American virtues the exact same year Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Fifty decades later, 28 million individuals worldwide spend seven days in December confirming unity, self-determination, collective labour, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and religion. Gather colleagues, and ask each to inform one way the company affirms one of these values. And then…present the boss with a collective present to show the team’s appreciation.

3. Volunteer Collectively & Spread the Gift of Goodwill

Stephanie L. Jones, Author, The Giving Challenge

A fun way to celebrate the holidays with your workplace would be by giving back. Locate a local nonprofit and volunteer for a group. Maybe cook a meal for a homeless shelter and eat together as a team. Or host a celebration in the local boys and girls club. You can get cheap party favors and candy treats at the Dollar Tree for everybody to enjoy.

4. Have the Team Out for a Competitive Sport While Wearing Holiday Costumes

Casmin Wisner, PR Representative, Jive Communications

My group loves visiting TopGolf for holiday celebrations and the occasional celebratory occasion. While this doesn’t sound super exceptional in and of itself, dividing your team into groups and rival in costume as heroes vs villains, or Who’s vs Grinches would be hysterical. That is definitely an occasion my staff, who enjoys dressing up, enjoys.

5. Hire a Magician to Entertain Employees While They Nosh

Remy Connor, Professional Magician, www.RemyConnor.com

I am commonly asked to come outside to company holiday occasions, on business property or at event spaces to interact and mingle with coworkers and perform. The guests are always pleasantly surprised to have amusement. It boosts morale because employees feel as the company is adding more than simply standard drinks and meals. You don’t need to be a mentalist to see everyone laughing and gasping in astonishment!

6. Escape the Office & Enjoy Some Sunshine

Shelley Grieshop, Creative Writer, Totally Promotional

If your business is situated someplace warm, host the holiday celebration for an offsite outdoor location, like a park or pavilion, to ensure employees don’t feel as though they’re in the office and can get some beams. In the entry, provide a screen of one-size-fits-all sunglasses — the latest party tendency for breaking up the ice and placing a enjoyable tone. If you decide to personalize the party sunglasses along with your company name or site address, you’ll be giving away a gift that will double as an advertising tool for you!

7. Take the Team Ice Skating

Jason Perkins, Founder/CEO, San Diego SEO Business

Every year, I usually take my group out for dinner or lunch. It is a simple gesture, but it is also a excellent way to save on price. Following lunch, we engage in a team action like ice skating to help build relationships and relaxation together, which I feel is a fantastic beginning for better productivity in the office.

8. Go On a Dinner Cruise — River, Lake, or Sea

Deborah Sweeney, CEO, MyCorporation.com

A few decades back, we took our whole team out on a dinner cruise at the Ventura refuge for our holiday party. We previously celebrated at restaurants, but because our business is based out of southern California, we figured why not go out at the waterfront? Everybody carpooled there, and we boarded the ship and had dinner and drinks before going out to the deck together.

Our ship was decorated for the boat parade and the atmosphere was amazing! The lights, holiday decorations, songs, lots of thoughts, and a lot of people. Even the weather was a little misty, which makes it the perfect setting for a holiday party!

9. Invite the Team to Your House

David Waring and Marc Prosser, Founders, Fit Small Business

David stated,”we hosted the holiday celebration at Marc’s house in New York, and I think it worked out great. The place was large enough where everybody had plenty of room but small enough where people were forced to mingle. I believe the personal setting caused people to enjoy themselves more and undoubtedly improved morale. It’s a great way for people that do not normally work together to get to know each other.”

And Marc added,”it is vital that you get buy-in out of your spouse or partner. In my case, my partner managed the decorations, ordering and preparing the space to host a party. We agreed the company would pay for cleaning the house and decide on a budget for which the company will reimburse the household. The cleaning made a large difference in my partners relaxation level in hosting the party.”

10. Celebrate Zulu New Year’s Eve

A family restaurant chain in San Diego, Filippi’s Pizza Grotto, does this every year in their Mira Mesa place to keep employees and guests off the street at night, also to prevent conflict with other New Year’s strategies that participants might have.

Zulu describes Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). That is 7-10 hours ahead of most of the united states. So rather than starting your celebration at midnight, start it in the early afternoon, and watch the year turn to 2018 in GMT, possibly by steaming live TV on your iPad into BBC One in the united kingdom, and projecting it on the large screen.

11. Rent a Photo Booth Complete with Holiday Props

Photographer Adam Mason @MasonPhotoDC from DC-Photobooth tweeted about his best party ever, highlighting photos of this fun had using a photobooth at the party. He said that “The best part was most of these folks are acquaintances or friends so everyone in the area felt right at home. The props helped folks feel at ease and smile big for the camera in this DC photobooth. There was a steady flow of over 300 people the entire night at the Christmas Party.”

Photo booths are not prohibitively expensive — they run approximately $100 to $150 per hour, and you may only require one for an hour or two.

12. View a Ridiculous Film like Office Christmas Party

Depending upon the size of your team, you are able to bring everyone together in a large conference room along with your typical holiday food and beverages, and also have your very own private screening of a movie that you flow from Amazon Prime or Netflix. In case you have a large team, consider contacting your local movie theater, and lease out one of those film rooms for 3 hours, then giving your employees with popcorn and snacks as you see that holiday movie. Other excellent holiday picture options include Scrooged, Elf, Home Alone, along with A Christmas Story.

13. Light Up a Year-End Bonfire in the Parking Lot

Apparent the parking lot and haul a huge metal garbage can into the middle. (Get a local burn permit first if you need one, so the authorities don’t appear and spoil your pleasure!) Then have each group member talk about a favorite memory in the year, as well as secretly jot down something they repent. Gather the favorites! Burn the regrets! Then celebrate with S’mores. Who cares whether it’s winter?

14. Host a Multi-Cultural Food Festival & Gift Exchange

You can do this anytime of the year, but consider hosting your party in December when many cultures celebrate holidays such as Hanukkah, Bohdi Day, Kwanzaa, and even particular dates like Milad un Nabi and the Winter Solstice.

Each individual brings a food dish and a smallish token gift (state under $5) that represents their ethnic heritage, like a Swedish Dala horse. For example, a person from Germany could bring Lebkuchen molasses cookies, and someone from Hawaii could bring Sweet Bread Holiday Stuffing. Then, since the celebration gifts are exchanged, food is tasted, and tales are shared, you produce holiday cheer and increase overall cultural consciousness and teamwork.

15. Give Workers a Surprise Afternoon Away to Shop

This is one of my favorites because the thing many workers crave most at the end is off time to find vacation errands done. So give them some shopping time with paid time off.

Begin with an in-office holiday brunch with bagels, orange juice, and coffee. Then, hand everyone a gift certificate to the mall or to big-box store like Target, about the state they head directly over, and spend another two hours buying something nice for somebody in their family (or themselves). Then, give them the afternoon off — compensated! They will love comparing and shopping purchases with coworkers, and will love your thoughtfulness. And they will still have the time to pick up their ugly Christmas sweater from the dry cleaners until it closes.

Need a way to track employee time off? Look at using Gusto payroll software.

16. Have a Food Station in Every Department

Replace the annual potluck — the most frequent holiday party idea we heard — with something a little more engaging which needs your team members to function in teams.

For instance, allow accounting bring appetizers, promoting bring soup, IT bring salad, HR bring snacks, and revenue bring dessert. Then head over to the executive package for a cocktail. Better still, ask each section staff to decorate their functioning table using a motif, like Nutcracker or Santa’s Workshop. Then travel the office, sample the fare, and vote to the best of each class — food and theme. Bon appetit!

Celebrate with champagne toasts and streamers! Limit the alcohol and finish the party by 5 pm local time so no one risks a DWI.

17. Take Kids from Head Start into a Build a Bear Workshop

The holidays are all about family. So why not contact your regional Head Start office and invite parents to bring the little ones and join your team in a Build a Bear Workshop on a particular date/time?  You or your team can cover the bear-building substances and watch the joy on small faces as they customize their very own bear. Call first to be sure you can bring your’party’ to the shop, by making a booking and confirming that meals and beverages can be brought in.

Obviously it does not need to be Build a Bear — that is only an example. The point is to take the kids (and their parents) to do something that, as low income households, they could not afford to do on their own.

18. Plan a Photo Scavenger Hunt with a Holiday Twist

Select ten or so places inside a small geographical area (perhaps 2-3 blocks) close to your workplace and provide individuals, pairs, or teams of co-workers using a list of hints for vacation things which you have concealed or identified in advance (e.g. the tree in Central park, the bear in the store window).

They will have a great time searching for each item and taking a photograph of it. The first crew to return to the workplace with photo evidence that they’ve found all 10 items wins. Give a small gift bag of holiday items for employees to take home so everyone wins. Company culture wins.

19. Produce Outrageous Ice Cream Sundaes

Ice cream isn’t confined to summer or warm climates. In reality, according to kitchn, the people of Norway eat the most ice cream per capita. So go large, and host an ice cream social with multiple tastes and each topping you can think of. Or, make it even more imaginative with asking team members to bring their favourite toppings, cones, and more. Decorate sundaes first, then judge, and consume the best ice cream sundaes. Of course, you’ll have leftovers. Send them home with your employees, so their kids and family members may share in this fun winter treat.

20. Have a Gingerbread House Making Competition!

Unless you’re Martha Stewart, buy some pre-made gingerbread house kits in the grocery or hobby shop and provide 1 kit to every 2 people in your office. Set the timer, and see who will build the nicest looking (or most creative) gingerbread house within 30 minutes. Increase the fun by purchasing plenty of extra icing (in capsules ), hard candy, and sprinkles for them to decorate their gingerbread homes.

You would be surprised, but some of your employees may even add background tchotkes to their gingerbread scene. You will find one with a miniature Harley parked out its candy cane entry, somewhat wooden reindeer made from sticks, or a bobblehead Santa on the roof.

21. Produce a Holiday Cocktail Competition

Ask employees to think of a distinctive holiday-themed cold or hot beverage beverage recipe and purchase all the trimmings — believe’Chimney Ash Hot Martini’ — vodka, orange juice, red hots and chocolate shavings. Your job as the sponsor is to supply multiple drinking glasses in most types, blenders, ice stirrers, and cocktail napkins. When the beverages are constructed, take photos and consume! As a bonus, write down your recipes and share them with family, friends, and customers to show them your workplace and team members know how to have fun.

22. Take Your Team on a Limousine Tour of Holiday Lights

If your group can fit at a 10-passenger limo, consider taking the entire set on a tour of your city’s holiday lights. It is surprisingly affordable. Rates (even in new york ) run around $200 to get a 3-hour limousine, also tip. You can acquire the limousine pick team members up at the workplace and plan a predetermined route through attractively decorated areas of city, perhaps with a stop in a Christmas or toy shop (for some shopping) or request the driver to do a drive thru into some fast food place like Jack-in-the-Box just for fun. Provide champagne and snacks at the limo, and let the festivities begin on 4 wheels.

23. Decorate Business-Related Ornaments for Your Office Christmas Tree

Spend a holiday party hour or so at work taking a rest from the daily grind, and performing a holiday craft collectively. If you run an auto store, purchase small scale model automobiles, hot glue, thin cable and have your mechanisms decorate tiny vehicles to hang on the tree.

You may choose to set up the tree, provide holiday snacks, and purchase all the equipment beforehand. Afterward, host your workplace celebration round the tree, as each employee works to add their merry touch. Use diamonds, diamonds, styrofoam or balls, or anything else associated with your business and brand. If you’re a plumbing store, decorate copper 90-degree elbow straps with glitter. I once worked with an ammo manufacturer, whose holiday decor was created from shell casings.

24. Visit an Art Gallery (such as they did in Love Really )

Ever seen the movie Love Really ? Bear in mind that holiday party theme in a brassy art gallery full of nudes? While we do not advocate risque artwork for your holiday celebration, many venues like personal art galleries, small regional museums, and even some smaller retail shops will let you rent their space for a holiday party. Unusual spaces with a great deal of visual stimulation provide great conversation starters so that everyone’s not sitting there looking at their empty paper plate while awaiting the white elephant gift exchange. Start calling about now. Cool venues go quickly.

25. Arrange a Team Art Class

Here is the one I wish I could attend. Employ an art teacher, one who does acrylic painting, or has access to this pottery studio, or only visit one of these’paint your own ceramic’ areas, or ask your florist to lead a workshop in your breakroom. Then invite the whole staff to find out a new ability, while enjoying one another’s company.

When it’s a pottery location, employees can hand-make ornaments and menorahs. If it’s a painting studio, then have the instructor plan a group painting in advance, such as a winter snowfall scene in the hills. A florist can deliver substances so each worker could earn a wreath. You have the idea. And as soon as you have this event scheduled, invite me alright? I really like art.