How to Throw a Virtual Holiday Party Your Employees Will Love

Hold the booze, call off Santa, and save the good times and laughter until December of 2021. Not so fast! American ingenuity has led to a just-in-time reinvention of the holiday office party, and you’ll be surprised at just how engaging and enjoyable an event you can hold in the midst of a pandemic.

Go virtual and go bold. All it takes is a little advance planning. Here’s how to do it right!

Start with a virtual happy hour or wine tasting

Sourced has innovated a way to take the boozy holiday office party online with no designated drivers required. So get everyone feeling festive by kicking off your virtual party with a happy hour featuring Sourced custom cocktail kits, delivered to your employees’ doors, prior to the event. They’ll be able to pick out their own cocktail options and a Sourced bartender will host the first 15 minutes of the web conference, explaining how to mix the drinks and offering tips on the best way to make and enjoy premium cocktails before turning it over to your MC.

If your employees prefer wine, you can turn your happy hour into a wine tasting by advance ordering your employees 3-bottle wine sets under $50 from Wine Insiders. The wines are unique and a great value.

Send an e-gift to each employee

Use CorporateGift.com to show your year-end appreciation and motivate your team with thoughtful gifts to celebrate the holidays, mark milestones, and reward superior performance. They make the virtual holiday gifting process headache-free by letting your attendees pick their gift of choice at your set budget points. Just submit a list of emails in their dashboard and let them take care of the rest.

Hold a virtual secret Santa

If you’ve ever wondered what a secret Santa might be like without all of the frustrating re-gifting, your hunch is right. It’s more enjoyable, and can be wrapped up in less time. So coordinate your exchange in advance online by using Giftster which randomizes names and functions like a gift registry, letting your employees put together a gift wish list with store links. As an alternative, you can also propose exchanging online gift cards from any store, of a certain amount, so that everyone gets something of equal value.

Host a virtual game or event

Sites like the Go Game and City Hunt offer customizable virtual game platforms for your employees including scavenger hunts, trivia contests, virtual cocktail parties, ugly sweater fashion shows, and more to bring employees together for a memorable experience. Go Game offers live professionally trained hosts and a keynote broadcast and reception area.

Celebrate year-end success with an online awards ceremony

Your stars of 2020 deserve recognition in front of their peers, so add this to your holiday party agenda and make it creative! In addition to your traditional awards, reward quirky and unique achievements such as “most hours worked in a week,” “best work-from-home setup,” “most in need of muting,” or “worst virtual meeting hair.”

Recognize team achievements and try not to leave anyone out, if possible. This is not only a great way to provide needed recognition, but it also commemorates the unique ways in which your team overcame the challenges of 2020 and became closer in the process.

Announce a NEW employee rewards program

When you’re planning your virtual event, assure high turnout by promising a surprise announcement – an employee rewards program, starting in 2021. Tie this announcement to recognition of how deserving your employees are of recognition, and how grateful you are for their hard work under hardship. You’ll find plenty of programs online that can be customized to your particular values and performance objectives, including Reward Gateway. Peer-to-peer award nominations are a great way to harness the power of rewards as performance incentives.

Even if we can't all be together under the same roof, there are still fun and creative ways to celebrate the holidays with your team. Enjoy!