3 Office Party Alternatives for 2020

The holiday office party - like a good Mad Libs story, includes excitement and anticipation, but can quickly veer into cringe-worthy. With many companies still allowing their employees the opportunity to work remote, a traditional, large celebratory gathering is unlikely. However, that doesn’t have to mean you have to go full Bah Humbug!

Three Alternative Holiday Office Party Ideas

Give Back, Separately, but Together

Stemming from a scene frequently seen at churches around the country, set up a Giving Tree. If you have employees in the office you can use an artificial tree, but if a majority of you are remote I’d suggest organizing it virtually instead. While this idea does take a bit of organizing and a few team captains to spearhead the collecting and delivering of goods, there is nothing more seasonal than giving back. Ideally, you can arrange it so that donated items span a variety of budgets. To really up the ante you can offer raffle tickets to everyone that participates. Depending on the size of your organization choose 3 to 5 raffle winners with prizes like dinner at a favorite local restaurant or some company swag.

The Great Company Bake Off

Help your recipients embrace the trend of learning new skills while “at home.” These DIY Food Kits come with the gift of memory making. For an added bonus of fun, challenge your employees to take pictures/videos while cooking up their creations and sharing them on your preferred method of communication (Chat, Slack, Email) or really step your game and post on your company’s social media!

Gather Anyway, Kind Of

It’s not unusual to see coworkers attending virtual Happy Hours these days. Encourage that team spirit and really put it to the test with Virtual Team Building. You can set the dress code however best fits your company culture and they can safely BYO without the expense of Uber! You can still infuse this tech focused celebration with a virtual Secret Santa thanks to resources likes Elfster.

Whatever you choose, we recommend marking the end of the year in some fashion. As for us, we took a picture for our company card during one of our morning Zoom chats and are trying to figure out how to do all the above, because who says you only have to celebrate once?