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10 mins 
1. How Office Christmas Party Games Can Boost the Festive Spirit?
Work Christmas party activities for adults foster interactions between your staff across departments. People who might not usually encounter one another or only have perfunctory exchanges during office hours will be able to build connections, paving the way for more seamless workplace communication.
Don’t forget that Christmas parties are also a good way to reward staff for their hard work throughout the year. Enjoyable perks like a festive shindig improve employee retention and engagement, sending them off for the holidays with a positive impression of the company culture.
2. Best Office Christmas Party Games to Play with Your Colleagues
2.1. White Elephant Gift Exchange
Also known as Dirty Santa, a White Elephant Gift Exchange involves each participant bringing along a wrapped Christmas present, which is placed on a table in the center of the group. The price of the present is usually capped at a certain level so that the value of the gifts is roughly equal.
Names are drawn out of a hat to determine the order of play. The first person selects a present from the pile and opens it, making sure that everyone else can see what they have received. The second player can then choose to either pick from the center or steal the present from the first player. If the first player’s present is stolen, they then get the opportunity to steal or pick again, the only prohibition being that they cannot take back the present that was just stolen. Play continues in this way until every participant has a gift.
While there’s not much in the way of strategy to the game since you can’t really predict what other people will do, a White Elephant Gift Exchange can be a highly engaging entertainment that keeps everybody on tenterhooks, as they wait to see who will nab the best prizes and who gets stuck with damp squibs.
2.2. Christmas Carol Charades
There’s never a dull moment with Christmas carol charades, which easily tops the list of funny office Christmas party games. Before the evening starts, the organizer compiles a list of popular Christmas songs, such as “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer”, or “In the Bleak Midwinter.” These are then written on individual slips of paper, folded, and placed in a Santa hat.
During the party, everybody is divided into two or more teams, depending on how many people are present. Each participant takes a turn pulling a slip of paper out of the hat. They then must use only silent gestures to act out the carol – strictly no speaking allowed! Everybody else guesses what carol is being depicted, with the person who first guesses correctly scoring a point for their team. Usually, there is a time limit of about a minute, but you can adjust this to give people a longer or shorter period, or even do away with the limit entirely.
Christmas carol charades are a superb way to test your team’s creativity while also guaranteeing plenty of humorous exchanges.
2.3. Holiday Photo Booth
While not a game per se, a holiday photo booth is a great addition to any festive gathering. Equipped with themed props, your team can capture some silly memories that are bound to be the stuff of water cooler chat the following day.
Holiday photo booths are also excellent fodder for company social media accounts, giving you a chance to present the lighter side of your business online. This can be beneficial when attracting fresh talent who are actively seeking a positive workplace culture.
2.4. Christmas Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are ideal for team building all year round, and it’s easy to add a Christmas spin to the activity.
There are two different styles of scavenger hunt you can try. The first is to create a checklist of things that each team must do, such as “Take a photo with someone wearing a Christmas jumper” or “Find something that is red.” The lists can all be the same or they can differ slightly, but the winning team is always the one to complete their hunt first.
The second variation involves a series of cryptic clues, for instance: “Run, run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the ___.” The first clue will lead teams to the location of the second clue, and so on until they find the final hiding place.
2.5. Squid Game Challenge
Based on Netflix’s biggest TV hit of all time, you can organize your own “Squid Game”-style challenge, just without the brutal murder if your staff fail. Essentially, the host prepares a series of contests for everyone to play. At the end of each round, the people who lose are eliminated. This continues until only one person remains.
It’s possible to use several games from the TV show for your office party. For example, tug-of-war and red light, green light can be played without any adaptation, and the Dalgona candy game can easily be altered so that people have to cut out Christmas-themed images like a stocking or a snowman.
Alternatively, you can change the activities entirely but preserve the elimination-style gameplay.
2.6. Ugly Sweater Fashion Show
A real Christmas classic, the ugly sweater has become crystallized as a symbol of the holiday season as vivid as Santa Claus or his elves, so why not turn it into a fun social activity?
The way this game works is simple: ask each member of the team to wear their most lurid, over-the-top Christmas jumper to the office party. Over the early course of the evening, have one of your staff pick out the 10 or so most stupendously hideous pieces of apparel, then ask the wearers to come to the front of the room.
Each of the chosen participants then gets a chance to strut their stuff on your make-do runway. Finally, ask each person to step forward in turn and have everybody else applaud their favorite outfit. The person who receives the loudest cheers wins.
2.7. Snow Globe Shake-off
Is there a technique to keeping the snow in a snow globe from settling? Your staff will flurry about trying to figure that out in this competitive little game that’s all in the wrist.
As simple office Christmas party games go, this is one of the easiest to organize. All you need is a handful of snow globes so that several people can simultaneously play. If you want to add a more competitive edge to the proceedings, create a draw and offer a prize to the overall winner.
2.8. Face on the Elf
What would your staff look like with the bodies of elves? There are several apps that will help you find out, including the seasonally popular ElfYourself app. Alternatively, you can do things the old-fashioned way with scissors and glue.
Like having a holiday photo booth, this activity is a great one for social media kudos, sharing the light-hearted side of your business’ workplace culture.
2.9. Guess the Christmas Movie/Song
This activity is great for introducing an engaging multimedia element to the Christmas proceedings, though it does require some audiovisual equipment.
Divide your staff up into teams, then play a series of yuletide bangers, such as “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and “Santa Baby” through the sound system. For the movie element, you can either hand out pieces of paper with stills from films like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Scrooged,” or you can project the images onto a screen.
Tot up the points at the end to see which group knows their Christmas classics best, with a prize for the top-scoring team.
2.10. Bobbing for Candy Canes
We’ve all heard of bobbing for apples during Halloween, but what do you do for Christmas? Bob for candy canes, obviously!
If you’re looking for funny Christmas party games for adults, this is bound to get a few hoots of laughter, as managers and executives alike attempt to land as many candy canes as possible, building camaraderie as they play.
Rather like the magnetic fishing game, each participant uses a candy cane to attempt to hook as many other candy canes as possible in a minute. You can play this game as a battle between two or more opponents simultaneously, or simply set up a list of everyone’s scores, with the highest scorer at the end of the night crowned the winner.
2.11. Gingerbread House Decorating Contest
Push imagination and ingenuity to the fore with a decorating contest. Supply your team with gingerbread slabs, colored icing, and all manner of edible ornamentation, then sit back and see who creates the most gorgeous candy edifice, one that Hansel and Gretel would find utterly irresistible.
Gingerbread house decorating is one of the best Christmas party games for small groups, as it’s a nice creative activity but does require quite a bit of space, making it impractical for big teams unless you are doing it virtually.
2.12. Christmas Trivia
Rounding off our list of office Christmas party games is another perennial crowd-pleaser, the Christmas quiz. Test your team’s knowledge on everything from traditional celebrations to festive food and drink to find out who’s the ultimate yuletide aficionado.
Trivia is always a solid team-bonding activity, promoting inclusivity, communication, and a bit of friendly competition.
3. FAQs
3.1. How do you entertain guests at Christmas?
Preparing two or three games is a good place to start, but don’t forget to organize suitably festive refreshments as well, from classic Christmas finger food like pigs in blankets to brimming glasses of mulled wine.
3.2. What games to play for the Christmas party?
We’ve already listed a dozen Christmas games ideas for adults above, but there are loads more you can try, too, such as holiday Pictionary, ornament relays, or (if the weather permits) a good old-fashioned snowball fight.
3.3. How do you have a fun office Christmas party?
The key to a memorable office Christmas party is to strike the right balance between organized games and open conversation. On the one hand, you want to set the scene with some entertaining activities that get people in a jolly mood, but make sure you also allow plenty of time for people just to chat with office friends and casually socialize.
3.4. How can you enjoy virtual Christmas party games for remote teams?
If you want a seamless virtual Christmas party experience, companies like Hooray Teams provide a raft of games and workshops that are all professionally hosted, so that all of your team can relax and enjoy. Options range from trivia contests and scavenger hunts to Christmas cookie decorating and wreath designing.
