9 mins 
1. What is a Virtual Holiday Scavenger Hunt?
A virtual holiday scavenger hunt is a festive version of the classic game that’s hosted and played online. Players typically follow a trail of holiday-themed clues to look for various items like Christmas tree decorations, snowman figurines, fairy lights, mittens, and more around their homes. Since it’s hosted virtually, it’s perfect for global teams to do something fun together during the holiday season, even from a distance.
2. Why Should You Play a Virtual Holiday Scavenger Hunt?
A virtual holiday scavenger hunt is an opportunity to bring your remote team together for some festive fun. Chasing items or completing challenges within a time limit can be thrilling for the participants. It gives them a rush of adrenaline that makes for the perfect memorable experience to share. What’s more? The hunts also help encourage interaction among players and improve their bonding.
These virtual scavenger hunts are designed to get the remote players to move around and stretch their muscles right at home. They’re also easy to set up and don’t cost much, even if you’re using a virtual holiday scavenger hunt platform.
3. 5 Best Virtual Scavenger Hunt Platforms for Remote Teams
3.1 Hooray Teams Holiday Scavenger Hunt
Hooray Teams’ holiday scavenger hunt is the perfect excuse for teams to leave their desks and join a fun, festive adventure. Participants will follow a series of frosty clues to look for various holiday-themed items around their house. Expect to look for accessories, treats, decorations, and other quirky winter finds.
Their events are led by lively hosts who lead the group, tally finds, and spread festive cheer along the way. You can even customize the game with custom challenges, riddles, and icebreaker questions for a more personalized experience.
Pricing: $249 (per group)
Duration: 60 minutes
Participants: 2 to 1000 people
3.2 Watson Adventures
You can now take your group on a trip around the world using virtual holiday scavenger hunts from Watson Adventures. From the Vienna Christmas Market to the festive celebrations in Budapest, these hunts are the most convenient solution for digital holiday travel. The fast-paced hunts require players to explore various websites right from their desktop app. Players must then answer questions and complete activities to finish their challenges.
Do you want your festive scavenger hunt to be more inclusive and cover more holidays and traditions from around the world? Watson Adventures offers holiday-themed hunts for Hanukkah, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, and more. An amazing feature of its events is that all of them can be customized for kids, family, or office gatherings.
Pricing: Customizable
Duration: Customizable
Participants: Customizable
3.3 Wildgoose
The team at Wildgoose goes all out to make your virtual holiday scavenger hunt immersive and fun. Not only do you get a remote host, but you also get some great holiday music to help create a festive atmosphere. Their games include holiday-themed audiovisual challenges, trivia, and more for team members to test their holiday wits while searching for themed items around their homes.
The scavenger hunts include 3 holiday-themed rounds that are tailored in a way that encourages collaboration and initiative among participants. To wrap up the event, they host a fun end-of-year social to give teams an opportunity to socialize and get to know each other better.
Pricing: Starts at $15 per person
Duration: 45 minutes
Participants: 6 to 500 people
3.4 BreakoutIQ
BreakoutIQ is the premier team-building solutions provider for all types of remote teams. It's a virtual holiday scavenger hunt that includes fun challenges centered around crowd-favorite holiday movies, family traditions, gifts, locations, decorations, and more.
Participants are required to complete these challenges by searching the web, using items from home, or coming up with clever on-the-spot creations. There are 3 rounds of 10 minutes each, and each round is centered around discovery, creativity, or trivia to keep things interesting. All of this means you can rest easy and leave the task of maintaining the festive mood to the company’s professional facilitators and hosts.
BreakoutIQ also provides a gifting service that allows you to send branded packages to coworkers or gift cards to your loved ones. If you need to plan the event on a custom date or time, don’t worry! the team easily accommodates flexible scheduling.
Pricing: $375 onwards
Duration: 60 minutes
Participants: 650 people
3.5 Social Scavenger
Virtual holiday scavenger hunts with Social Scavenger are like nothing you’ve seen elsewhere. Whether you want to run an old-school scavenger hunt where participants search for holiday decor or a Winter Olympics, it’s got you! Social Scavenger offers one of the most varied lists of challenges to choose from and also allows you to customize your own.
Every scavenger hunt includes 30 challenges, some as creative as “Panic Purchases”. If you don’t prefer their existing holiday-themed events, you can request the company to create one, especially for your group. However, we’d suggest going with the existing suggestions since they are already optimized for boosting creativity as well as building team connections.
Pricing: $20 to $40 per person
Duration: 60 to 90 minutes
Participants: 10 to 250 people
4. Bonus Holiday Scavenger Hunt Ideas
4.1 Decor Dash
Kick off your holiday scavenger hunt with a fun decor chase that is perfect to bring instant cheer to your team. The participants need to look for various classic decorations around their homes, like ornaments, wreaths, lights, and tree toppers, within a set time. You can even disguise the items with riddles or puzzles to add a festive twist.
Here’s a decor hunt list for your team:
4.2 Festive Attire Hunt
The holiday season calls for dressing up in cozy outfits to celebrate in style. And for this idea, your team will scavenge for various festive attire and accessories based on given prompts to show off their winter flair. The items can include winter fashion staples like scarves, socks, coats, ear muffs, beanies, fuzzy slippers, or even fun pieces like Santa hats and reindeer headbands. Once the timer is up, participants can show their finds on camera, and the one with the most correct items wins.
Here are some stylish prompts for your team:
4.3. Holiday Photo Hunt
Holiday photo hunt is an Insta-worthy scavenger hunt idea for teams who want to create lasting memories in an entertaining way. You can create a list of visual prompts for team members to capture festive photos within a limited time. This can include selfies with decorated nooks of the house, decor pieces, or even views from the window. For evaluation, team members can submit their entries to a shared folder for the moderator to tally and declare the winners.
Here are some ready-to-use photogenic prompts for your team:
4.4 Treat Hunt
Holidays are incomplete without freshly baked goods, and for this idea, your team will hunt for various festive treats together. You can create a list of prompts that hint at holiday snacks, desserts, and beverages, and share it with the participants. They can then scout their home kitchens or snack stash to bring the related items before time runs out.
Here are a few delicious treat hunt prompts for your team:
4.5 Holiday Color Hunt
You might have heard about the color walk trend, where people go for a walk and spot things of a chosen color. Well, for this idea, we’ll turn that trend into a little adventure and prompt teams to look for items in holiday colors in their immediate surroundings. Create a list of simple prompts tailored to holiday hues for participants to find something that matches them before the timer ends. You can even award bonus points to the team members who come up with quirky, unexpected finds.
Here are some colorful prompts for your team:
5. FAQ
5.1 How much does a virtual scavenger hunt cost?
Virtual scavenger hunts can cost anywhere from $6 to $100 per person. Some scavenger hunt platforms also offer flat rate options for groups. Most platforms have a minimum price they request as a deposit, regardless of group size.
5.2 How to play a remote holiday scavenger hunt?
To play virtual office scavenger hunts for holidays, you’ll need to select a video conferencing platform and make a list of items/challenges for the hunt. Assign a moderator to lead the game, tally finds, and keep everyone engaged throughout. Decide the rules, time limits, and choose gifts for winners in advance to avoid extra rush on the day of the event. Send out meeting invites with all the necessary details so everyone can join the session on the scheduled date.
5.3 When to host virtual Christmas scavenger hunts?
The best time to host a virtual Christmas scavenger hunt for teams is the Friday before Christmas. This can help teams wrap the week on a festive note and give them an opportunity to spend the holiday with their loved ones.
5.4 How long do remote scavenger hunts last?
Virtual team building scavenger hunt for holidays lasts between 60 and 90 minutes, depending on the number of items to find and other add-ons like trivia or icebreaker games.
5.5 How to show the finds during virtual team scavenger hunts?
Teams can share pictures of their finds or show the items on camera for the host to tally them and decide on a winner.
