3 Ideas for a Fantastic Remote Office Holiday Party in 2024
An office holiday party is a great event to hold. It offers everyone a chance to let loose a little bit, enjoy coworkers in a fun setting, and look back on the year (whether to celebrate wins, or commiserate about challenges).
If your business is one of the thousands who are continuing to work fully or partially remote this year, we want to offer a few great ideas on how to make a remote holiday party just as memorable and fun as the ones in years’ past.
#1 Zoom Happy Hour, with a twist
Lemon twist that is! OK, so a Zoom happy hour isn’t revolutionary, but you can spice this one up by creating a shared sensory experience you normally don’t have when you’re apart: all tasting the same great cocktails & mocktails. Here’s how to make it work:
Decide on your signature cocktail (or two). You want to have a drink or two that people can choose from. If only doing one drink, it’s best to choose something like Vodka that has a neutral flavor. If doing two, you could mix in a whiskey drink for whiskey lovers. It’s also fun to name the cocktails something meaningful for your company.
Decide on your signature mocktail. In order to be inclusive of people who don’t drink, or are cutting back, it’s important to have a mocktail option that people can choose and still feel like they’re participating and sharing in the experience. There are a ton of recipes online; get started with this list of top mocktails.
Purchase the ingredients (or send the recipes). If you have the time and resources to create a really great experience, then actually purchasing the needed ingredients and creating a gift-box to send your employees is best. Ideally, your recipes should be something that can be made from ingredients that come in small bottles, so you can easily purchase & send small amounts. (For example, small juice bottles, and mini-bottles of liquor). You can also include any other fun items in the gift box, like sweets or company SWAG. If you don’t have the ability or time to do all this, another option is to send the recipes to everyone and have them purchase the goods themselves. You may end up with a lot of employees who don’t actually follow through, but is at least more feasible logistically.
Set a time, send the Zoom - and celebrate!
Does all that sound like a bit too much work? Fortunately there are tons of individuals and companies who offer a remote-team zoom cocktail experience led by a mixologist, or at least provide all the materials on your behalf. Check out Sailor Guevara as one great such option.
#2 Animals Animals Animals
Put the Zoo in Zoom. OK technically they use GoToMeeting, but we can’t pass up a good animal pun.
Sweet Farm is a non-profit sanctuary working to address the global impacts of factory farming across animals, the plants and the planet. Just our luck, they had the brilliant idea to offer video tours of their farm. For different prices, you can reserve 10, 20 or 30 minutes for one of their staff to walk around and show you all sorts of wonderful farm animals like llamas, pigs, cows, goats and horses. It’s a family-friendly experience that everyone will love - you could even have your staff bring their kids! It’s a completely unique experience to spice up your party!
#3 Virtual White Elephant Gift Exchange
Speaking of animals…
White Elephant is everyone’s favorite holiday game. You take a bunch of silly gifts, some light competition and mix in your team’s personalities and you’ve got a recipe for a fantastic office holiday party!
Before White Elephant Online, there was no way to play this game 100% virtually. But that’s where we come in, offering the first completely online experience for playing White Elephant (also known as Dirty Santa or Yankee swap). White Elephant Online offers everything you need to host a great online event (in conjunction with Zoom or the video platform of your choice).
Check out our other blog post for more details and 5 reasons White Elephant is perfect for office holiday parties. And signup below for free to start planning your 2024 remote office holiday party today!