There’s probably not a single soul out there that doesn’t look forward to holiday seasons and chances to attend parties. This, of course, goes for office holiday parties as well. If you and your colleagues are wondering how to make this year’s holiday seasons stand out from the previous ones, consider going for some of the following office party ideas:
1. International cuisine potluck
A potluck is generally a fantastic way to make every single person feel like they belong to a given community and that they can contribute to it. It brings out a sense of togetherness and inspires people to be selfless, to direct their effort into showing care and consideration to others. If you and your colleagues have not had an office potluck before, make sure you give it a try this time, cause you are bound to love the outcome.
You can make the whole thing even more interesting by deciding on what countries’ cuisines you all would want to get a taste of. Write the countries’ names on tiny pieces of paper, place them in a box, and then have every person draw from it. Whatever country each person draws, they need to bring a meal originating from it.
2. Quizzes
A lot of people really enjoy an opportunity to share with others the richness of their general knowledge. And what better way to do that than participating in a well-thought-out quiz? The party attendees should split into teams with an equal number of members, while the quiz organizer will have the honor of being the moderator. You can make all the questions be related to one specific topic that agrees with everyone, or you can make a mix of questions about different fields of interest, for example, movies and famous actors, music, history, sports, literature, etc.
3. Cocktail-mixing ordeals
In case your office collective is great fans of mixology and exciting tastes of cocktails, you may want to think about organizing a cocktail mixing ordeal. A few colleagues can form a “committee” and be the judges, while those eager to win a nice prize can “register” as contestants. It goes without saying that, if you are planning to do this, make sure that you get the necessary “materials and tools” beforehand so you don’t end up discouraging the mixologists’ creativity!
4. Secret Santa
Chances are you are planning a Christmas party, and no such party is complete without an exchange of thoughtful Christmas gifts among people who respect and appreciate each other. In case you have never heard of Secret Santa, here’s a chance to grow to love this idea. Secret Santa is a tradition where members of a certain community give each other gifts after a random assignment of the names. That means that nobody purposefully chooses the person they will be giving a present to, and nobody gets deliberately chosen as a gift recipient. That way, everyone will surely be included and nobody can find out who they got their gift from (unless the gift giver reveals themselves, which people generally avoid doing).
5. Team Christmas-tree decorating
To really let the spirit of Christmas overwhelm everyone at the party, you can ask each member to come help with the preparations. Instead of decorating the Christmas tree and setting up the festive lights yourself, you can do it all together and make this holiday occasion more special. Just like with organizing a potluck, the coworkers’ sense of belonging would grow stronger if they shared such warm moments and used them as an opportunity to bond as a team.
6. Photobooth
Want to surprise your coworkers even more? Bring a cool photo booth at the party! If there is one thing people excel at when they party, it’s taking photos. Getting a photo booth is an especially good move to make if you are throwing a costume party. It would be such a shame to let so much creativity and colorfulness get lost in oblivion. Give your team an opportunity to eternalize their special moments and make solid proof of their joined fun and goofiness.
7. Field trip
The kind of field trip you decide on will largely depend on the number of team members, their age and preferences, as well as your budget. Still, however much you can afford to spend on this group event, it will undoubtedly be worth it. You can organize a walk in nature followed by a pleasant picnic, a visit to a nearby-city attraction, take the whole crew to a great theatre performance, invite them to a paintball tournament with paintball guns, and so on.
8. Getting out of the office
The amount of time you all spend at the office is far from negligible. Taking that into account, many people opt to have their office parties… away from the office! This is quite understandable seeing how a nice change of scenery can often do a lot of good. By choosing a different venue for the given occasion, you can make the members of the collective feel much more relaxed since they will not be associating the party location with work as such. The atmosphere is very likely to feel much more natural and tension-free, and people will behave more like their genuine selves.
9. Healthy-nutrition party
You wish to raise awareness of the importance of health and healthy nutrition among your coworkers? A healthy-nutrition party may be just what you were looking for. Instead of chugging pints of beer and sending streams of hard liquor and coke down your throat to wash down pounds of pizza, snacks, and cake, think in the other direction. Surround your colleagues with smoothies, freshly squeezed juice, dried fruit, healthy snacks and sweets, their favorite kinds of tea, and so on. This will also be a way to show that there’s more than one way to have and enjoy a party, and what’s more, with this health-friendly spirit, it doesn’t matter if you enjoy your event at 9 PM or 9 AM!
To sum up…
Regardless of how much you can splash out on a holiday event for your coworkers, with a touch of creativity, you will always be able to come up with an idea for an amazing party. The most important thing is to bear in mind what really matters, and that is bonding.
Article written by Stella.Ryne.
