How do you properly approach an online Christmas party?
It’s December and the Christmas season is fast approaching. As we look forward to the holidays and reconnecting with friends and family, there’s an added challenge this year: how to organize an online Christmas party? Luckily, I had time until January, because shortly before Christmas everything came to a head with work and we just couldn’t find a date together.
One of the most important steps in organizing an online Christmas party is choosing the right date and time. Since there are only three of us at the moment, that’s the smallest problem. After a short and amicable vote via Whatsapp, the right time for all time zones was set. At a Christmas party, it is important that all participants have the necessary technology to participate in the celebration. Since we all work remotely anyway, that wasn’t a big challenge anymore.
Next, it’s time to start thinking about the nature of the online Christmas party. It was clear from the outset that this would be rather easygoing and relaxed for us. Everyone has to take care of their own food and drinks, whether self-made or ordered. The main thing is that it tastes good and you feel good.
How do you pass the time at an online Christmas party?
Christmas Movie Charade
An important part of the celebration are the activities that you can do together. Since we were separated both in time and space, this is the time to dig deeper into the bag of tricks. In order to create a little Christmassy winter mood, I came up with the idea of playing “Christmas Movie Charade”. The aim of the game is to guess a Christmas movie (whether classic or offbeat). The Christmas film you are looking for can only be described in a few words. Anyone who is generally familiar with films will be in the lead here. Here are some tips on how to prepare the game for your team:
- Choose a platform suitable for the game. Zoom, Google Meet, or a similar platform that allows multiple people to attend and talk to each other at the same time.
- Make a list of Christmas movies for participants to guess.
- If possible, divide the participants into teams.
- Explain the rules of the game and make sure everyone understands how the game works.
- One team member chooses a movie from the list and tries to spell it out with one word or with no words at all, while the other team members try to guess the movie. The team that guesses the movie first gets a point.
- Set a time limit so the game doesn’t take too long.
- Count the points at the end of the game and choose the winning team.
- Think of a small reward for the winning team to increase motivation.
Bucket List Bingo
It is clear that it cannot stay with one game. Finally, I had two hours to fill. Since I knew that we like to have lively and exciting conversations as a team, I came up with the idea of creating a bingo bucket list. A bucket list is a list of things you absolutely want to experience or achieve in life before you “kick the bucket.” This is kind of a personal to-do list that everyone can create for themselves and that can contain both serious goals and less serious wishes.
With this game you get to know your team in a completely different way. To prepare, I took all the letters of the alphabet, with each letter representing a question. For example: “D stands for the digitization tool, which doesn’t exist yet but you want to use” or “I stands for the IDEA that ends all problems in the world.” The possibilities are unlimited and you don’t have to work through the whole alphabet. There is no big common goal in this game. It’s about getting to know your team better and finding common ground. Since the game is still in the “beta” development phase, feel free to spread suggestions in the comments on how to implement a reward or goal in the game in a meaningful way 😉
And how was it?
Planning our first online Christmas party together was a small challenge, but I got unrestricted freedom from Jana (and what was also possible given the technical requirements). It doesn’t always have to be mulled wine at the Christmas market or an expensive Christmas party with an on-site event. This opportunity is perfect for remote teams in particular to celebrate the end of the year or, like us, to start the new year in a good mood. If an online Christmas party is to be held in a larger group, it would be worth choosing a gamemaster beforehand to take care of the organization during the event.
Overall, preparing an online Christmas party was a fun challenge. It showed me that you can also have a great party online. By using technology and a little bit of creativity, we were able to create a fun celebration that reminded us that the holiday season isn’t just about where we are, it’s about who we are with. We laughed a lot and supported each other and it showed us that the post-Christmas period can be magical even at a distance.
