That a work Zoom Christmas party is a really hard thing to organise!

[Laarkawaay]

It is 2 hrs during the day, so I can't fall back on a booze theme. Team of 15 and, yes I can do a quiz, but we can we do a quiz for 2 hours?! AIBU that this is a pretty hard ask? What's everyone else doing for their virual Christmas parties - though I'm not even calling it that as I'm worried it will be even shitter if I do!

We are doing one, organised by our manager.

We are having a Christmas quiz followed by a reflection on the past year. We work in an area that has been very involved in COVID and we are not looking forward to January.

Then we've got team awards in categories such as "best mute button fail" "best pet co-presenter" etc

I started this job in April and so have never met some of my team IRL. I am happy to go along with this.

Oh my god I'd rather shit in my hands and clap

Escape rooms work well for this - you can make one on google forms or buy a ready-made one. There are loads of variations and means you can stick groups in breakout rooms to solve stuff if you want to.

Bingo! Email everyone their numbers/cards and then be the bingo caller. Easy and no stress on anyone having to do anything special.

Get everyone to email you a pic of one eye and get people to guess which belongs to who

Give everyone a letter and a theme and they have 30 seconds to write down as many words related to that theme that start with the letter. You get points for any one that no-one else has thought of

Send everyone a pack of food/drinks/whatever

Say it's 2 hours, finish at 90 mins and let people who want to leave, leave and others stay on if they want to!

I think this sounds fun and it does depend on the team, we have development days in work which are a bit of work related stuff with a load of team building via fun. Id love this as we have flexi so can take 2hrs whenever i like within reason. And covid causing wfh and not seeing colleagues much, we could do with team building!

Do a guess that song quiz (use discord)
Charades over zoom
Everyone find 1 household object to do an exercise move with (balancing book on head while doing squats, etc)
Everyone has to draw a colleahue with eyes closed and without pencil leaving tje page
Wackiest hairdo
Everyone choose a song and describe what it means to them
'Guess who i am' game
Everyone send an interesting fact bout themselves to you, then the group as a whole have to guess whos is whose - good to get to know eaxh other
No reason why there couldnt be the old marshmallow/ bisxuit / cracker eating competition
Send everyone a picture from an adult colouring sheet a few weeks in advance (email or post if printer issues), theyve got to colour using whatever materials they have and the best one wins - have different categories eg most resourceful, best thought out , most colourful etc - so people who only have used 2 pens but done a good job get something!
Make your own shoes exercise - again resourcefulness so id not be providing anything more than a cardboard box, some markers, scissors and glue to people (tell ppl to email you if they need materials - most people have old cereal boxes and scissors at home if nothing else!)
Drink making classes - could do a cocktail making theme although this includes spending, i suppose the alcohol gift sets could be a christmas present to people? Could always do mocktail theme instead if you have anyone on team who doesnt drink
Making work related lyrics to well known xmas songs eg 'dashing through the room, with markers in my hand, herding grumpy men, oh when is hometime when?' (Crappy eg ive just thought of - i work in probation, and a bit of humour is good!)

Thats all i can think of lol

We are having a Christmas quiz followed by a reflection on the past year.

Words fail me.

@likeamillpond

*We are having a Christmas quiz followed by a reflection on the past year.*

Words fail me.

😂

It’s seems really unfair that someone has landed this project on you OP with no ideas and no budget. I feel for you because it’s obvious you want to do your best to make it work. Sensible senior leadership teams will know that most colleagues don’t want this kind of thing or are indifferent, so the least they could’ve done is give you some direction and some cash.

Can’t you push back on your bosses a little? Have they absolutely ruled out 2 hours off instead? Or what about reducing it to an hour’s party at the end of the day with the following hour off as a compromise? At least an hour will go by quickly - you can do a brief quiz, scavenger hunt, and chat/drink.

Hope it goes ok. Make it clear (subtly) to the participants that you had no choice so they don’t blame you!

Have it if you must, just please don't call it a party.

Make your own shoes exercise

What the actual fuck - are you Father Noel Furlong?

Everyone find 1 household object to do an exercise move with (balancing book on head while doing squats, etc)

Good fucking God. WHY?!

Christmas party over zoom sounds like a particular low point of 2020 for me. And that’s really saying something.

The thought of sitting at my computer screen with a glass of wine while my husband wrangles with the kids downstairs. Just now n

Just no.

Scavenger hunt?

@vanillandhoney

Everyone find 1 household object to do an exercise move with (balancing book on head while doing squats, etc)

Good fucking God. WHY?!

Well, quite!

I have never been so glad to work in a place filled with really conservative people as when reading on here the things people would inflict on their colleagues in the name of "fun".

All of my ideas are things weve actually done in the past ... either in actual work, or on other zoom stuff (arts and craft club over zoom)- and having an household object and doing something with it was actually quite fun. I bet some of you are right joys to be around misery guts

I do Friday zoom drinks with my team quite frequently. This week a few of us were there on and off from 5pm to 11pm. It is great, lots of laughs, chat, just like you would in a pub. People get up and go and do kids bedtimes etc and come back. It's made such a difference to some people l, especially those living alone.

There's a reason it's hard to do: because you shouldn't bother. Dear god, the horrors!

Send people a nice voucher and give them a half day holiday!

If people genuinely want to do something, poll them for ideas they would enjoy.

Our lot are loads more sociable than I expected so there's a little group of them who have volunteered to organise stuff. I think their best decisions so far are a) it's all optional, b) thirty minute maximum and c) offering four or five different things over December so people can go to none, all, or any number in between. That also helps fit round different shift patterns and time zones. They did a poll to get votes for most popular activities.

(And nobody's getting extra time off, because loads were furloughed so have bucketloads of accrued holiday to use already.)

@MotherForker

I do Friday zoom drinks with my team quite frequently. This week a few of us were there on and off from 5pm to 11pm. It is great, lots of laughs, chat, just like you would in a pub. People get up and go and do kids bedtimes etc and come back. It's made such a difference to some people l, especially those living alone.

That sounds fine, though. It's optional, not within work time (so doesn't feel forced) and people can come and go as they please.

Very different to two hours of "enforced fun" during work time.

@Hellzbellz25 that proper made me snort

I literally cannot imagine anything more horrendous than two hours of enforced 'fun' over zoom

Mine is 10-4. 6 hours of forced zoom fun. Do I win?

The first hour I have to plan myself for some team fun.

Then there is an awards ceremony. With poems. That we have to write and perform.

Then make and eat lunch together.

Next I think will be some sort of quiz or bingo or scavenger hunt.

Finally we might be able to drink. I think I will have to drink throughout to get through it. Or feign internet issues.

Horrendous.

And for those claiming anyone who wouldn't enjoy this kind of thing must be miserable or hate Christmas- can you really not see how a night in the pub in your own time socialising in real life is different to two hours sat on your own staring at the computer trying not to talk at the same time as all the other little boxes? I always enjoy the Christmas night out but a zoom thing just wouldn't cut it

@Schoolchoicesucks

Mine is 10-4. 6 hours of forced zoom fun. Do I win?

The first hour I have to plan myself for some team fun.

Then there is an awards ceremony. With poems. That we have to write and perform.

Then make and eat lunch together.

Next I think will be some sort of quiz or bingo or scavenger hunt.

Finally we might be able to drink. I think I will have to drink throughout to get through it. Or feign internet issues.

Horrendous.

My condolences

@Schoolchoicesucks

Mine is 10-4. 6 hours of forced zoom fun. Do I win?

The first hour I have to plan myself for some team fun.

Then there is an awards ceremony. With poems. That we have to write and perform.

Then make and eat lunch together.

Next I think will be some sort of quiz or bingo or scavenger hunt.

Finally we might be able to drink. I think I will have to drink throughout to get through it. Or feign internet issues.

Horrendous.

That's just terrible. I honestly don't know what to say.

The thing with a zoom chat / party is it needs some kind of structure

A quiz would work but how many quizzes have you had? We seem to have loads of work Zoom quizzes so the Christmas party should be something different IMHO.

A murder mystery is good but depends how many people you have. Pictionary and charades work on Zoom. A scavenger hunt is a good idea.