Crowd pleasing office Christmas games

[Worzel9]

Help me out! I’ve been in my new job for less than a month and have been asked to organise the Christmas do. It’s a small office of 14 people and ages ranging from 20-50.

We’re closing the office at lunch for a buffet and then they’ve asked for ‘games’, before we go out for the evening - which is all booked.

I need help with the games. Apparently anything too competitive is a no go as people take it too seriously. They’re pretty easy going and would prefer something funny.

Any ideas? I was going to do a scavenger hunt but can see someone falling down the stairs 😂

Good lord. That is an oxymoron if ever there was one. However, I am one of the office twats who loves a game. I always enjoy boat races, where you balance an after eight on your forehead, then wiggle your face until it ends up in your mouth, then the next person has a go. Teams of eight.

My other favourite (everyone will hate you) is human hungry hippos, where you buy some of those balls that go in ball pits at soft play and some plastic laundry baskets. The four players wear bike helmets, lie face down on skateboards with a skipping rope tied round their waists and holding a laundry basket. You throw the balls into the middle and the team push the players into the middle and they try to catch balls with the laundry basket and they get dragged back with the ropes. As I say, everyone will hate you, plus it’s really dangerous.

If you want to choke your coworkers, you could play fluffy bunnies, where you fill their mouths with marshmallows and they have to say ‘fluffy bunnies’. Continued, counting marshmallows, until they can’t be understood/are sick.

This is a bit of a poisoned chalice you’ve been given here, OP. Good luck!

I don’t envy you!

Depends how silly and uninhibited they are, really. You could be terribly sensible and play Who Am I? PostIt note on their forehead and they have to work out who or what is on it by adding only yes/no/maybe questions. Or you could be terribly silly and play Spoonface. Any variation on a bowl of Smarties on one table, an empty bowl on another, and players have to transfer the Smarties using a spoon that they hold in their mouth. No hands allowed. They can be blindfolded/have to carry a tray of drinks/go through an obstacle course on the way. Or pass the Smartie from person to person, again only using the spoons held in their mouths, until it gets to the other bowl.

Table Round, like in a pub quiz. Logos is an easy one to prepare. Screen shot twelve logos and just paste a small part of each one into a Word table. Players have to identify the logos.

Opinions: choose uncontentious but daft comparisons, eg Cheese or chocolate? Designate one side of the room as cheese, the other side as chocolate, and people have to put themselves where they agree.

Over COVID I did a Christmas quiz using some (very) old Argos catalogs which had just been put up online. I would pick two “hilarious” items from the, say, the 1984 Argos catalog and people would have to pick which of the two was more expensive. One notable example was a silver plated liquor dispenser in the shape of a grouse, vs a set of shag pile car mats. Repeat x20 questions using different catalogs from various eras, my colleagues loved it. Lots of “Omg I had one of those!” and laughing about particularly tacky items, but it also involves zero skill. Works best with an overhead projector or something, and maybe one of those apps or webpages where you can answer via your phone after scanning a QR code.

I had to do this at one office. Big winner was a scavenger hunt - gets everyone rushing around laughing.

Everyone has say five minutes, on a countdown on a big screen or whatever, to find and bring back ten items from anywhere in the building / premises.

From memory I listed something with the company logo on it, something orange, something soft, something organic (as in an apple or a plant or whatever), a liquid, a hole punch and a few other office-type things.

Here’s the twist though - make the prize really worth winning. Speak to HR, what can they wangle? A day’s free annual leave is massively popular. Another year I got Facilities to agree to letting us have one of the coveted reserved parking spaces right by the building as a prize for the following year. I also once got Production (we were a foods manufacturer) to give £200 credit on factory products. None of these things cost the company much at all but they were massively popular prizes that really motivated people to win!

If someone asked/volunteered me to do this I would arrange to slip on the wet toilet floor and sprain my ankle the week before the buffet. I bloody hate corporate games.