10 Holiday Engagement Ideas to Celebrate with Your Team

Regardless of where you do your work and whether you’re fully remote or taking advantage of a hybrid schedule, the holidays are the perfect opportunity to harness the season of giving to foster community within your company.

It’s easier to find ways to give back to the local community near your headquarters or office locations. How can you foster that same giving spirit with a remote or hybrid team? Here are a handful of ideas to build connections this holiday season.

Holiday Engagement Ideas to Boost Team Spirit

The holiday season is an ideal time to harness the holiday spirit and foster community within your organization, regardless of whether you have fully in-person staff or hybrid workers who frequently come into the office. Focusing on activities that encourage Holiday team building and local engagement can significantly boost morale and connections. This section incorporates ideas related to traditional celebrations, appreciation, and giving back to inject energy and Holiday cheer into the workplace.

1. Organize Volunteer Opportunities

Charitable giving involves more than just donating money; spending time volunteering as a team is an excellent way to bond and build a strong culture of community within your organization. If you have employees near your headquarters or office locations, it is easier to find ways to give back to the local community.

These opportunities can include finding local soup kitchens where the team can volunteer, working with an animal shelter to socialize pets awaiting adoption, or organizing simple drives for gently used clothing donations.

If your company operates in multiple regions, regional groups might volunteer in slightly different ways based on local needs. You should consider giving your team a few hours off specifically for local volunteer opportunities in their respective areas. Be sure to collect and share photos from each volunteering event to highlight the collective impact you’ve made in your local communities.

2. Ugly Sweater Party and Cookie Decorating Workshop

Traditional celebrations are crucial for recognizing accomplishments and fostering connections as the calendar year wraps up. If you are already planning a holiday party, you may skip a new event, but setting aside time to celebrate the end of the year with your team is recommended. Hosting an Ugly sweater party or a Cookie decorating workshop are great ways to gather the team.

These celebrations do not require a massive budget to be thoughtful or effective. For example, the party can be as simple as finding an hour during the workday where the team can reflect on the past year and share how they plan to spend their holidays.

3. Holiday-themed Desk Decorating Contest

To inject Holiday cheer directly into the daily work environment, a desk decorating contest is a fun, light-hearted activity. This activity encourages employees to personalize their workspaces and offers an inexpensive way to engage in Employee engagement. Getting a group involved in planning the judging and prizes will generally lead to better engagement and turnout for the event.

4. Secret Santa Gift Exchange

A Secret Santa gift exchange is a classic way to build personal connections and excitement among team members. This activity can foster community by encouraging thoughtful interaction.

5. End of Year Recognition Ceremony

Even if companies have tightened their budgets due to economic uncertainty, it remains crucial to recognize employees and celebrate their accomplishments together. Holding an End of year recognition ceremony incorporates the vital principle of cultivating a culture of appreciation.

Recognition doesn’t always require lavish budgets. You can give public recognition during holiday parties (whether virtual or in-person) or through company newsletters. Non-monetary rewards, such as offering employees additional vacation days or flexible work hours, or gifting them cards to use during the holiday break, are also highly effective forms of appreciation.

To ensure that appreciation is consistently flowing across teams and departments, organizations can utilize software like Enboarder to nudge people and culture leaders with helpful reminders and inspiration. Whether you choose to announce your appreciation publicly or send a private, thoughtful note to teammates, acknowledging their contributions will inevitably make your connections stronger.

Holiday Employee Engagement Ideas for Remote Teams

While it is easier to find ways to give back and foster community near a physical headquarters or office location, the holidays are still the perfect opportunity to harness the season of giving and build connections, regardless of whether your team is fully remote or operates on a hybrid schedule. It is essential to ensure that your employees know how and when they can connect to avoid the “plague of loneliness” that can occur when individuals work in a silo. This section focuses on ideas that can effectively foster the giving spirit and strengthen connections among remote teammates.

6. Holiday Card Exchange (Share Traditions Virtually)

The holiday season often brings a lull in the pace of work, making it the perfect time to connect with your remote teams and learn more about their families and traditions. Even if all your team members celebrate similar holidays, it is unlikely they all celebrate them in exactly the same way.

Encourage teammates to share photos, recipes, and stories that inspire deeper conversations and connections. These shared traditions can highlight the unique ways your team members celebrate within their own families. To help facilitate this culture sharing and build memorable moments, organizations can utilize solutions like Enboarder, which provides nudges and reminders.

7. Virtual Holiday Party Games

If you are already planning a celebration, you may skip this one, but setting aside time to celebrate the end of the calendar year with your team is recommended. Since these teams are remote or hybrid, the celebrations must be executed virtually.

A virtual party doesn’t require a large budget to be thoughtful. A Virtual holiday party can be as simple as finding an hour during the workday that works for everyone to share how they will be spending their holidays and reflect on the past year. Incorporating simple Virtual holiday party games can encourage interaction and team building. Public recognition can also be given during virtual parties.

8. Team Fundraising (Virtual Giving)

The concept of giving back and encouraging volunteer opportunities can be adapted for remote teams through virtual Team fundraising. Charitable giving does not always mean donating money. Remote teams can collectively engage in fundraising efforts that allow contributions or activities to be performed from their respective areas. It is important to find ways to foster that same giving spirit, even without a shared physical office.

9. Online Holiday Workshops

To enhance shared connection and team building, consider hosting Online holiday workshops. These virtual events allow team members to participate in a shared activity—like a digital craft session or a holiday cocktail mixing class—from their homes. This type of scheduled connection helps teams build rapport with each other, leading to a strong sense of community and helping to ensure no one works in a silo.

10. Holiday Playlist

Creating a shared Holiday playlist is a low-effort, high-impact way to cultivate connections. By inviting remote team members to contribute their favorite holiday songs, you encourage them to share a piece of their personal experience with the entire team. This shared artifact can serve as a simple, continuous connection point that extends throughout the season and helps build organizational affinity.

Find Out What Your Team Thinks

The best way to get good engagement in your activities is to get a group involved in planning them! The more dynamic your group, the more dynamic your community and turnout for your events will be.

Not every event needs to be company sponsored, either. Don’t discourage the team from coming up with ideas and activities that can take place away from the office and their daily routine, too.

If an initial idea doesn’t make the cut for this season, don’t delete it. For example, a volunteer opportunity might not work because it’s not the right weather in the winter, so keep it in a list to use for the summer.

Prioritize Community Year Round

It’s inauthentic to host events to build community within your organization only during the holidays. Rather than making it your focus for a few months, prioritize these same initiatives throughout the year! The holiday season is a good opportunity to reboot your efforts to create a strong company culture and sense of community. But if you’re going to go back to business-as-usual in the new year, your employees will take note.

Find ways to continue the culture and connections they’ve made throughout the year by continuing the activities you’ve focused on now. Whether you’re volunteering together or giving heartfelt thank yous to the team in company meetings, none of that has to stop when the clock strikes midnight on 31 December.

Using software like Enboarder can help facilitate building community within your organization. Ready to learn more about how we can help build better connections? Get started here.