It can feel difficult to feel connected to family and friends this holiday season if you aren’t able to gather in person together (and haven’t been able to for a while). But don’t let your holiday cheer go to waste; we have some virtual Christmas party ideas for you to try!
We’ve put together some fun ideas that will keep you and your family’s festive spirit alive and well this year. It isn’t quite the same by any means, but it still can create fun memories to reminisce on in the future.
- Cookie/Holiday Recipe Exchange – This would be a great one to do a week or so beforehand so participants can make their recipes and have them at their celebrations, even if the original recipe creator can’t be there.
- Gingerbread House Decorating Contest – Put those hours you spent watching The Great British Bake-Off to work with this sweet challenge! Have family members create their own gingerbread houses as single participants or teams. Get inspiration from Pinterest, use a kit, or just see where the creativity takes you as you construct your gingerbread house. Keep the voting in the family or post it on social media and see who can get the most points. Not only will you have a tasty treat to divide later, but you also get to see everyone’s creative side shine through.
- Christmas A-Z – Perfect for the whole family that’s celebrating over Zoom or in person! Start with the letter A and name a Christmas-themed item for each subsequent letter until you get to Z. Once you get to the end, you can give points for each letter and start a new round back to A.
- Trivia – Trivia can be the perfect game over FaceTime, and the best thing is, you can tailor this to your family since you’re creating your own game. You can stick to a holiday theme with your questions, see just how well everyone knows each other with family-focused questions, or do a mix of both. Just pick an announcer and let the trivia begin! Have players jot down their answer/put them in the comments and dole out points accordingly.
- Virtual Gift Exchange – Missing your normal gift exchange this year? Take it virtual with a Secret Santa service like Elfster or Draw Names! These websites can help you draw names for your exchange, manual or Amazon-linked individual wish lists, and price filters to help you find gifts to stay in the exchange’s budget. Set a deadline for everyone to send their gifts and plan a date to open them together over Zoom or FaceTime. No peeking until then!
- Ugly Sweater Contest – Break out that glue gun and get crafting for this challenge! Give participants a deadline to have their sweater made or bought by and have a virtual meeting planned to show them off. Let family members (or include others on social media) vote on their favorite, most creative, and even tackiest Christmas sweater.
From all of us at ECCB Outdoor, we’d like to wish you a happy and safe holiday season! Do you have any other virtual games we forgot? Let us know below!