The festive season is a perfect time to show your team how much you appreciate their hard work. And what better way to do it than to throw a great work Christmas party.
We know that planning your work Christmas party can be a daunting task. To help you out, we’ve put together some party ideas that are sure to get your team in a festive spirit.
Day Out Christmas Party Ideas
Day out at a theme park
This is a great idea if you have a large team with loads of kids. Check if the theme park offers Christmas themed packages e.g. a Christmas themed buffet, rides and attractions, and Christmas themed entertainment.
Christmas excursion on a steam train
Kick start the festive season in style with an indulgent day excursion aboard a luxury heritage train. Travel to Edinburgh, Oxford or Chester for Christmas shopping and sightseeing. Onboard, enjoy Christmas themed brunch and dinner while sipping on champagne.
A truly restful Christmas
By Christmas time we’re all usually in need of a little pampering to help get us into the festive mood, so why not treat your team to a spa day? Add a Christmas twist with festive food, from traditional lunches and dinners to buffets and cream teas, plus lashings of mulled wine, Champagne and mince pies. This is the perfect opportunity to reflect on your successes throughout the year, pamper and unwind.
Day out at the Winter Wonderland
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland is London’s spectacular Christmas destination! Get ready to fully immerse yourself in all things festive. With plenty of attractions on offer, including UK’s largest open-air ice rink, funky new après ski vibes at Bar Ice and jaw dropping acts in the Circus MegaDome, your team will be spoilt for choice.
Christmas Market Tour
Visit a local Christmas market where you can explore festive stalls, shop for unique gifts, and enjoy seasonal treats like mulled wine and gingerbread. Even better, if the market has an ice skating rink to take a spin on!
Christmas Caroling Adventure
Spread some Christmas cheer by organising a carolling excursion to sing Christmas carols at local nursing homes, hospitals, or within your community.
Holiday Shopping Excursion
Organise a group shopping trip to a nearby shopping district or shopping centre to shop for Christmas gifts, decorations, and enjoy holiday sales. Build in a festive lunch and some mulled wine to make it the perfect festive afternoon.
Night Out Christmas Party Ideas
Christmas crazy golf party
Why not add some interactivity to your Christmas night out? Have fun playing the craziest golf and enjoy a less corporate environment. Pick your golf venue of choice and work with them to design a Christmas themed food and drinks package.
A drag queen Christmas
Enjoy an evening of glitz and glam at a cabaret drag show. Get merry as you watch a glittering lineup of incredible drag performers, who will ‘sleigh’ you with lip-sync battles, live vocals and jaw-dropping dance acts.
Bus pub crawl
Hire a bus and see how many pubs you can visit in one evening. You can deck the bus out with tacky tinsel and festive fairy lights. Build some challenges into the evening at each stop to add interactive fun.
Outdoor Christmas Lights Tour
Hire a tour company or rent a bus to take your group on a tour of the best Christmas light displays in your area. This would be a great addition to the above!
Christmas boat party
Christmas party afloat is a great festive team night out with a nautical twist. Whether you’re looking for something cheap and cheerful or a fine dining experience, there are options to suit your needs.
Ballie Ballerson Shoreditch
If you are looking for something different to do in London, check out Ballie Ballerson Shoreditch where you can have a party in a ball pit. Head for a games night or big ol’ bash, where bottomless bubbles, DJs and plenty of pizza await at this Winter Wonderland.
Immersive Christmas play
Enjoy a delicious feast whilst the scene is set. Then get into character as you and your team become the stars of the show in an immersive Christmas play.
Dance Class Party
Take a dance class together, such as salsa, ballroom, or swing dancing, and then put your new moves to the test on the dance floor.
Christmas Costume Ball
Hire a venue and host a formal Christmas costume ball, where guests dress in elaborate holiday-themed costumes or masquerade attire. Wine and dine them and let them dance the night away!
Christmas Office Party Ideas
Festive bandeoke
Take the karaoke to the next level with the festive bandeoke experience. This is your chance to sing your favourite Chrimas hits on stage with a phenomenal, fully live, professional band. Possibly the best party entertainment ever!
Festive game show
Bring your Christmas office party to life with entertainment based on popular TV game shows. With stunning visual sets, music, banter and professional entertainers to encourage enthusiastic interaction and spirited competition, this will be a hit with all the employees.
Not-a-Christmas-Christmas-party
You may have heard of Christmas in July parties when during the Summer’s hottest month you pretend it’s Christmas – complete with a tree, gift exchange and hearty meal. Turn the tables on this tradition with a beach-themed romp in the depths of Winter. Beach balls, Pina Coladas and a Summer hits playlist – even the office Grinch will enjoy this event!
BYOT: Bring your own tradition
Not everyone celebrates the same holidays. Bring together your employees of different religious faiths and backgrounds to enjoy a feast featuring a variety of cultural dishes. This event allows employees to share viewpoints and unique cultural experiences.
Bring your pet to the Christmas party
Because pets like nothing more than to be dressed up… Why not throw a party celebrating them and their adorable outfits. Imagine a gathering with lots of puppies dressed in Santa hats. If that’s not Christmas joy, we don’t know what is.
Food truck rodeo
Create your own festive mini street food festival at your office. You can ask employees to vote on which cuisine they would like to see at the event. Then treat them to lunch or after-work feasting extravaganza with food trucks. You could team this with live music or other entertainment, such as stand up comedy or a festive movie showing.
Storytime with Santa
If your company has a large reception area that would fit a winter wonderland scene, set up a Santa’s shop. Set a time and day for employees to bring their kids and young family members along for a family festive fun.
Christmas Science Experiments
Set up science experiments and demonstrations with a holiday twist, such as creating fake snow or making ornaments.
Santa’s Workshop Craft Party
Transform your work space into Santa’s workshop, providing craft stations where guests can make their own holiday decorations or gifts.
Unique Christmas Party Ideas
Paint and sip
Sip on hot chocolate or mulled wine, while you are guided step-by-step through painting a work of art. Make sure to theme the workshop with a festive theme, such as Santa’s workshop or a winter wonderland.
Ski lodge Christmas party
When it comes to cosy Christmas parties, there’s just something about a ski lodge retreat that ticks all the boxes. Transport your team into a magical ski lodge with pine trees, falling snow, reindeer, snowmen, ski racks, piste maps and strings of fairy lights and lanterns to provide that festive feel.
Hire a stately home
We’re sure you’ve visited a stately home before, but have you ever stayed the night? Why not hire one to host your work Christmas party. This will give you the flexibility to design a bespoke programme of activities. Not to mention, your team will get a night or weekend away from the office!
Christmas on the farm
If you want to try something out of the box, why not whisk your team away on a farm adventure. Surrounded by beautiful countryside, enjoy a festive hog roast and tipple under the stars. You can also compete in a series of farm-based team challenges, such as sheep herding, scarecrow making and the farmer Olympics!
Bubble football
Bounce, bump and bash each other in inflatable Bubble Suits! This is the perfect opportunity to get revenge on your boss at the work Christmas party.
Christmas multi-sensory dining
Turn your team Christmas dinner into a multi-sensory dining sensation. Inspired by Christmas festivities, the multi-sensory dining will provide a carefully crafted experience with food, ambience, art, lighting and music that will excite all of the senses.
Bring the North Pole to you
Can’t make it to Lapland? Then why not bring Lapland to you! Pop up igloos, fake snow, an ice skating rink and hot chocolate with marshmallows. You can create your very own Winter wonderland!
Incentive trip to Lapland
Of course, you could always take the above one step further. Get your team over to the real Lapland for a once in a lifetime opportunity! Design an action-packed few days to experience everything the location has to offer… and of course, meet the big man himself!
Team Building Christmas Party Ideas
Advent adverts
Can you create a Christmas TV advert that John Lewis would be proud of? You will be given a brief, a budget and a limited props department. Then it’s your turn to see if you can do a better job than the big brands. After designing, casting and filming your adverts, the winners will be crowned!
Christmas charity bike build
Create and give the perfect gift this Christmas and improve the life of a child at this special time of year. In this empowering activity, you’ll learn bike building knowledge, create a build plan and take on fun challenges as a team to earn the bike parts needed to build your bike!
The twelve games of Christmas
Compete in 12 games of Christmas, which could include air hockey, darts, pool and giant Jenga. A gift is awarded to the winner of each one. The team with the most presents at the end of the event will be crowned Christmas Champs.
Santa’s sleigh box derby
Using only basic materials and tools, build sleighs from scratch and go bumper to bumper in a flurry of festive races. After a briefing, you will receive a construction kit. You must then work together to devise the best way to build it. Prizes will be awards for the fastest, but also the most festive in appearance!
Ice carving class
Take your staff to try their hand at ice sculpting. Not only will they be sculpting their creative ice masterpieces, but also carving out stronger work relationships with their colleagues. Your team could be challenged to create stunning centrepieces for your Christmas dinner afterwards.
Deliver care packages to the homeless
Spend the day with your team handing out care packages to the homeless in your community. Items to consider including in a package are socks, gloves, wet wipes and pre-packaged snacks. Add a Christmas card with a heartfelt message to brighten the recipient’s day.
Gingerbread house build-off
Gingerbread house build-off is a fun Christmas team building activity. All you need is materials to build delicious displays and a theme e.g. pop culture Christmas, festive fairy tales or holidays throughout history. At the end of the activity, judge the houses with a prize for the best creation.
Secret Santa Team Building
Instead of traditional Secret Santa, have each team member draw a colleague’s name and be responsible for planning a fun team-building activity or outing for that person.
Office Decorations Competition
Organise a friendly competition where teams decorate different areas of the office or workspace. Provide supplies and decorations, and let creativity shine.
Virtual Work Christmas Party Ideas
Advent calendar challenge
This unique virtual team game will treat your staff to a host of fun festive challenges throughout December. Every Monday to Friday, virtual team challenge will open a new window on the Advent Calendar app providing a new set of bespoke Christmas themed puzzles and challenges. Perfect to help bring teams together for some light-hearted and festive fun.
Task the master with a Christmas twist
Inspired by the famous Task Master TV show, the event is hosted by a professional comedic host playing the role of the master. Everyone receives in advance a Christmas themed game pack with everything they need to play. Teams then go head to head in fun competition to try and crack a range of crazy challenges.
Online Christmas cooking class
Whether you decide on a holiday-themed menu or something completely different, cooking classes are always a crowd-pleaser. Learn new skills from a talented chef and devour a delicious meal at the end of the night! You could practice making a full-course turkey dinner or try something new and bake Argentinian holiday empanadas! You could even choose to book some of the UK’s most recognisable and well-loved chefs, like José Pizarro, Neil Rankin or Tom Kerridge, for live demos and interactive cooking classes.
Online Christmas film watch-along
You can bring new life to old Christmas Classics with this virtual celebration. First, pick a beloved Christmas film and then encourage your team to chat and comment while you watch it. You can use Netflix Party or something similar. The funny conversation will make for an entertaining viewing experience and will bring out your team’s sense of humour. You could complement this idea by sending everyone a ‘night in’ hamper with cinema essentials.
Drive-in cinema
You could take the above one step further. If your employees live close to one another, watch a festive film at a drive-in cinema. They usually serve food and drinks and you can enjoy the film from the comfort of your cars.
Christmas around the world
Many teams live and now work remotely and Christmas may look different in each city/country. This event will celebrate all the wonderful traditions during the holidays. You can create short slideshows or videos to show off how you celebrate and give a virtual tour. This is a great way to compare holiday traditions and ‘get outside’ without any airport hassle or traffic.
Virtual craft events
From candle making and wreath decorating to holiday wrapping/tag designing, get crafty with an online making workshop. Packages with everything you need will be delivered in advance. Not only is this a chance to get creative and have some fun, but you will be left with something to take away or give as a gift for Christmas. This is a great option as it can be designed to fit a range of different preferences and budgets.
Christmas cocktails and tarot cards
A magical combination of learning how to make a delicious cocktail, then getting a tarot card reading whilst you sip on your mystical creation. Take part in a group mindfulness visualisation session, followed by individual readings for those who want to partake.
Now you have some ideas for inspiration, it’s over to you. Go and get planning your best work Christmas party yet!
If you need a helping hand this year, our team of friendly event planners would love to assist. Get in touch to discuss your event plans and how we can help.
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