35 Holiday Team Building Activities, Tested with Real Teams

Holiday team building is how a team actually ends the year together — not just a party on the calendar, but games, outings, and traditions that give December some shape. We know the season well: teambuilding.com has hosted 6,000+ holiday parties for clients like Apple, Amazon, and Google (as of August 2026), and December is by far our busiest month, with roughly a third of the entire year's events packed into a few weeks.

This guide collects 35 holiday team building activities that actually earn their place — hosted events ranked by real survey data, Christmas team building games with full instructions, free in-office ideas, quick formats for team meetings, outings, and winter activities that work for every tradition. It draws on ideas from Christmas team building and office Christmas parties, and pairs with our lists of virtual holiday team building activities and hybrid Christmas events.

This list includes:

1. What is holiday team building?
2. Best holiday team building ideas, ranked by survey data
3. Holiday team building games & challenges
4. In-office Christmas team building activities (free & low-cost)
5. Christmas team meeting ideas & holiday icebreakers
6. Holiday team outings
7. Winter team building activities
8. What we've learned from 6,000+ holiday events
9. Holiday team building ideas to avoid

What is holiday team building?

Holiday team building activities are end-of-year games, events, and traditions that bring teams together during the holiday season. Examples include gingerbread competitions, holiday trivia, cookie swaps, and volunteering days. The purpose of these activities is to celebrate the year, strengthen working relationships, and make sure every teammate — in the office or remote — feels included in the season. These ideas are also called "Christmas team building activities," "festive team building," and "holiday group activities."

Holiday team building is a seasonal subcategory of team building activities. It is similar to Christmas team building and office Christmas party ideas; the online version is virtual holiday team building and virtual holiday parties, with hybrid Christmas events in between. Within the category, this guide includes holiday team building ideas, holiday team building games and challenges, Christmas team meeting ideas, holiday icebreakers, and team outings; for question-only openers see Christmas icebreakers, and for the season before it see Thanksgiving team building.

The best programs mix formats: one anchor event (hosted or DIY), a few in-office traditions that run through December, and a quick game or two in regular team meetings. The sections below are organized the same way.

Best holiday team building activities, ranked by survey data

If you want the celebration to feel effortless, book a professional host and celebrate alongside your team instead of emceeing for them. We rank our own hosted events with the Team Building Score, which combines confirmed bookings, verified reviews, ratings, and post-event survey outcomes. Here are our top holiday events by that score:

Browse all bookable events — virtual and in-person. Four holiday favorites from the catalog:

1. Virtual Holiday Party

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Virtual Holiday Party

The world's #1 virtual holiday party since 2020.

Virtual90 min$40 pp 5.0(9,189)

Our fully hosted Virtual Holiday Party is the top-scoring holiday event on the platform. An expert host leads your group through 90 minutes of seasonal games like Holiday Pickle Hunt, Holiday Trivia, and Gift Grab, designed to maximize communication, collaboration, and laughter. The event runs on Zoom, and we also support Webex, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and other platforms — ideal for remote and hybrid teams, or offices spread across locations.

Learn more about the hosted Virtual Holiday Party.

2. Holiday Feud

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Holiday Feud

Put your team's festive spirit to the test with this event based on the nostalgic game show favorite. Available now!

Virtual45 min$30 pp 5.0(1,359)

Holiday Feud is ideal for teams that want a quick, festive way to bond during the busiest month of the year. Groups face off to guess the most popular answers to seasonal survey questions, a high-energy host keeps the mood jolly, and an animated game board brings a real game show atmosphere. It is short, competitive, and works for nearly any group.

Learn more about Holiday Feud.

3. Ultimate Holiday Game Show

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Ultimate Holiday Game Show

All the classic game show vibes come to your location with a festive twist.

In-Person90 min$60 pp 5.0(77)

Ultimate Holiday Game Show is our large-group format: a host and co-host travel to your venue, fire up a scoreboard on your AV setup, and run teams through classic game show showdowns with holiday twists. It accommodates 60 to 1,000+ players, is fast-paced and competitive yet merry, and is not specific to any one holiday — a real advantage for big, mixed teams.

Learn more about Ultimate Holiday Game Show in person or the virtual version.

4. Gingerbread Games

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Gingerbread Games

Crown your office's Gingerbread Games champion as you join us for an exciting end-of-year celebration that re-energizes and brings together your team.

In-Person90 min$80 pp 5.0(129)

Gingerbread Games is a 90-minute hosted competition with a themed gingerbread build-off as the main event. For in-person events, our host comes to your office or venue with gingerbread house kits; for virtual events, we ship gingerbread people kits to participants in advance. Either way, the judging round is the part your team will still be talking about in January.

Learn more about Gingerbread Games.

Holiday team building games

Christmas team building games are the fastest way to turn a gathering into an actual shared experience. These nine are the ones we would run ourselves — each with real instructions, and each playable in a normal office. For more options, see these team building games and online Christmas games.

#	Game	Group size	Time
5	Holiday Trivia	Any, in teams	30–45 min
6	Hidden Pickle Hunt	Any	Background
7	Seasonal Scavenger Hunt	10–60	20–60 min
8	Holiday Bingo	10–100+	20–30 min
9	White Elephant Exchange	6–30	30–45 min
10	Secret Santa	Any	All month
11	Merry Murder Mystery	6–20	60–90 min
12	Holiday Escape Room	4–10 per room	60 min
13	Indoor Snowball Fight	10–40	15–30 min

5. Holiday Trivia

Holiday Trivia is the most reliable holiday team building game there is: split attendees into teams of four to eight, then challenge them to answer festive questions across categories like music, movies, food, traditions, and winter weather. We recommend featuring other wintertime holidays besides Christmas, and mixing in multimedia rounds — play a few seconds of a carol for "name that tune," or show an ultra-zoomed photo of a holiday object and let teams guess what it is.

Teams can write down answers, buzz in with jingle bells, or play along on their phones via a Kahoot quiz that scores speed and accuracy automatically.

Here is a list of Christmas trivia questions to build your game from.

Best for: Any group, teams of 4–8
Time: 30–45 minutes
Materials: Question list, jingle bells or phones (free)

6. Hidden Pickle Hunt

The Christmas pickle is a real tradition: an ornament hidden in the tree, with a prize for whoever spots it. Our hosts run a fast-paced version called Holiday Pickle Hunt inside our hosted holiday parties, and the office adaptation is just as fun. Hide a dozen pickle ornaments (or paper pickles) around the office among the regular decorations — some easy, some devious. Post the total count, give everyone a scorecard, and let the hunt run in the background all party or all week.

The first person to log every pickle location wins; if nobody finds them all, award the prize to whoever found the most.

What we've learned: background games like this one are the cheapest engagement you can buy — they give people a reason to wander, mingle, and talk to coworkers they would not otherwise approach.

Best for: Any party or office week, runs in the background
Time: Ongoing
Materials: Pickle ornaments and a prize (~$15)

7. Seasonal Scavenger Hunt

Seasonal scavenger hunts split the group into teams of three to six that race to complete tasks and retrieve objects from a clue list — snap a photo with a Santa look-alike, score a coworker's holiday cookie recipe, find a bag big enough to be Santa's sack. Set a time limit of 20 to 60 minutes depending on the length of the hunt, and include a few puzzles or riddles for variety.

Here are scavenger hunt clues to build your list, and a guide to virtual scavenger hunts for distributed teams.

Best for: Teams of 3–6, 10–60 people
Time: 20–60 minutes
Materials: Clue list and prizes (free to cheap)

8. Holiday Bingo

Holiday Bingo gets guests mingling. Give each attendee a card of people-based squares, then send them off to find coworkers who match the descriptions and collect names. The first player to mark five squares in a row and yell "Bingo" wins.

For more versions of the game, check out this guide to team building Bingo.

Best for: Mingling formats, 10–100+ people
Time: 20–30 minutes
Materials: Printed Bingo cards (free)

9. White Elephant Exchange

White Elephant is the gift exchange with a gift-stealing twist. Players bring wrapped gag gifts, draw numbers for turn order, and then either unwrap a new present from the pile or steal an already-opened one from another player. The last player can steal from anyone. Because the gifts are silly rather than sincere, there is no pressure to pick the perfect present — which is exactly why it plays so well at work.

Keep the budget cap low ($15 works) and participation opt-in. Here is a guide to running White Elephant online.

Best for: Groups of 6–30
Time: 30–45 minutes
Materials: One wrapped gift per player (capped ~$15)

10. Secret Santa

Secret Santa is the classic month-long tradition: employees opt in, draw a name, and shop for their assigned recipient within a modest limit like $10 to $25. The group gathers to open gifts together, and recipients guess who their Santa was. Asking participants to list a few gift categories up front saves coworkers who do not know each other well.

For a slower-burn variant, run Stocking Stuffers instead: everyone hangs a stocking at their desk on December 1st, and coworkers slip small gifts and kind notes into each other's stockings all month.

Here is a guide to virtual Secret Santa and a list of Secret Santa games.

Best for: Any team, opt-in
Time: Runs all month
Materials: Gifts within a $10–$25 cap

11. Merry Murder Mystery

A Christmas-themed murder mystery — who slayed Santa at the ugly sweater party? — is a welcome break from wall-to-wall cheer. Choose a festive mystery kit, hand out character roles, encourage costumes or props, and let players hunt for clues and interrogate each other until someone unravels the case. Small teams shine here: everyone gets a real part in the story.

Check out this guide to murder mystery games.

Best for: Small groups, 6–20 people
Time: 60–90 minutes
Materials: A holiday mystery kit and props

12. Holiday Escape Room

Escape rooms are timed puzzle games where players work together to break out of a locked-room scenario — and December is peak season for themed rooms. Visit a local venue running a seasonal room, or build your own: hide a key inside a hollow ornament, make the string lights blink a code, or lock a box with a number combination hidden in the lyrics of "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

Here are Christmas escape room ideas and DIY escape room puzzles.

Best for: Problem-solvers, 4–10 per room
Time: 60 minutes
Materials: A booked room or DIY puzzle kit

13. Indoor Snowball Fight

Plush snowball kits turn any wide-open office space into a dodgeball arena. Split into two teams, hand out equal ammunition, and blow the whistle: players hit by a snowball are out, and the round continues until one side remains. Call timeouts to reset ammo, and clear the breakables first.

Best for: Playful teams, 10–40 people
Time: 15–30 minutes
Materials: Plush snowball kits (~$20)

In-office Christmas team building activities (free & low-cost)

You do not need a venue or a budget line to make December feel different at work. These in-office Christmas team building activities run on supplies you mostly already have — several are completely free — and they layer well: pick one competition, one food tradition, and one giving activity.

#	Activity	Cost	Format
14	Office Decorating Competition	Free–$	Team competition
15	Holiday Cookie Swap	Free (potluck)	Food tradition
16	Hot Cocoa Bar	$	Standing station
17	Advent Calendar of Team Activities	Free	Daily ritual
18	Ugly Sweater Day	Free (BYO sweater)	Dress-up + contest
19	Holiday Card Crafting	$	Craft station
20	Acts of Kindness Challenge	Free	Month-long challenge
21	Team Traditions	Varies	Annual ritual

14. Office Decorating Competition

Decking the halls goes faster — and gets funnier — when it is a competition. Assign each department or team a zone, set a deadline, and judge on creativity, theme, and craftsmanship. Have each team explain their concept before the vote, and let the whole company pick a winner with sticker ballots. Playing carols and putting candy out turns the setup itself into the party.

Here are Christmas decorating contest ideas and more friendly work competitions.

15. Holiday Cookie Swap

A cookie swap is a dessert-only potluck: each participant bakes at least one kind of cookie, the team arranges everything buffet-style, and everyone makes up a sampler plate to enjoy in the office or take home. Pair it with a team recipe book — collect each contributor's recipe plus a few lines about what it means to them, assemble the collection in Canva, and send it around as a keepsake.

What we've learned: food traditions carry more weight than they look like they should — shared meals are one of the oldest team rituals there is, and the recipes-with-stories version doubles as a get-to-know-you exercise.

16. Hot Cocoa Bar

A cocoa station needs minimal equipment: a kettle or canteen of warm milk (plus a non-dairy option), cocoa powder or syrup, and a spread of mix-ins — crushed candy canes, marshmallows, flavor shots, whipped cream, and a few wildcards like chili powder or cereal. Leave it standing all day so it doubles as a mingling spot, and encourage one-on-one cocoa breaks in place of coffee catch-ups.

17. Advent Calendar of Team Activities

Instead of one big event, schedule a small surprise for each workday of December: "take a team cocoa break," "share the best gift you ever received," "wear the most festive thing you own." Reveal one activity per day, advent-calendar style, and mix in a few larger anchors like a team lunch or an escape room. The daily rhythm keeps the season present without demanding a big block of anyone's time.

18. Ugly Sweater Day

Pick a date, announce a contest, and let everyone's most hideous knitwear do the rest. Award categories beyond "ugliest" — most creative, best DIY, most subtle — so more people can win, and vote with stickers. For extra fun, set up a decorating station with felt shapes, bows, and ornaments so people can upgrade a plain sweater on the spot.

Here are more tips for ugly sweater parties at work.

19. Holiday Card Crafting

Set up a table with fancy paper, markers, and decorations, and give the team time to make cards for clients, colleagues, or family. You can bring in a calligrapher to teach fancy lettering, or stage a DIY photo booth with props for photo cards. Cards for the wider community — a nearby senior center, or troops overseas — turn the craft session into a giving activity too.

Here are holiday message ideas to write inside the cards.

20. Acts of Kindness Challenge

Challenge the team to a minimum number of good deeds through December: hold the door, cover a task for a busy teammate, give five genuine compliments in a day. Post a suggestion list, issue occasional daily challenges, and skip the scorekeeping — the point is the habit, not the points. It is one of the most effective free morale boosters we know, and the culture of gratitude tends to outlast the month.

21. Team Traditions

The strongest thing you can build in December is something the team does every year. It does not have to be Christmas-related — cannolis from the same bakery on the last working day, an annual laser tag match, the same terrible group photo pose. Pick one thing, repeat it annually, and let the anticipation become part of the team's identity.

Christmas team meeting ideas

Not every team can carve out an afternoon in December. These Christmas team meeting ideas take 5 to 15 minutes at the top of a regular meeting — enough to make the season felt without touching the agenda. They work equally well in the conference room or on a video call.

22. Christmas Icebreaker Questions

Open December meetings with one festive prompt: "What is the best present you ever received?", "What is your favorite holiday tradition?", "What is your most chaotic holiday travel story?" One question, one round of answers, five minutes — done. Here are Christmas icebreaker questions and our master list of icebreaker questions for work.

23. Holiday Would You Rather

Would You Rather forces a choice between two festive fates and always sparks debate. A few starters: Would you rather sleep through the holidays entirely or host every relative you have? Would you rather hear one carol on loop for a week or have every meal taste like eggnog? Would you rather rewrap every present you give or handwrite forty cards? Check out this list of Would You Rather questions.

24. Holiday This or That

Rapid-fire either/or prompts — real tree or fake tree, gingerbread or sugar cookies, open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, "Die Hard" is or is not a Christmas movie — played by moving to one side of the room (or voting with reactions on a call). It takes ten minutes and reliably uncovers the office's most passionately held opinions. Here is a master list of This or That questions.

25. Seasonal Superlatives

Collect votes for Christmas-themed superlative categories — most likely to snoop for presents, laughs most like Santa, most likely to finish shopping before Halloween, best holiday baker — then announce winners in a meeting or over team chat. Include a write-in category so people can invent their own honors. It is a lightweight get-to-know-you game that doubles as end-of-year recognition.

26. Team Holiday Playlist

Ask everyone to add two or three songs to a shared seasonal playlist, then play it in the office or link it in the team channel. The team building move: have people guess which coworker contributed each song. Here are more team building songs to seed the list.

Holiday team outings

Sometimes the best thing you can do for a team in December is leave the building. These holiday team outings work as standalone celebrations or as the second half of a workday.

27. Christmas Light Tour

Load up a bus or a caravan of cars and tour the best light displays in town — a professional drive-through show, or the neighborhood famous for going overboard. Walking routes work too. Cap the night with cocoa and it is a complete, nearly-free evening that every age and energy level can enjoy.

28. Ice Skating

An outdoor rink, rented skates, and an hour on the ice make a classic winter outing. Book a group time slot if the rink takes reservations, and scout quieter hours if it does not. The wobbly first laps are the team building — nothing flattens an org chart like everyone clinging to the same railing.

29. Holiday Team Dinner

The end-of-year meal is the most common holiday team activity for a reason — and the research backs the instinct. In a 2015 Cornell study of a big-city fire department, Kevin Kniffin and colleagues found that crews who ate meals together received notably higher performance ratings than crews that rarely shared food. Book a restaurant, cater the office, or cook together — a holiday group cooking class turns the meal itself into the activity.

30. Ice Bar Happy Hour

For a happy hour with a story attached, find an ice bar — a venue built of carved ice, glasses included — or a winter pop-up. Structure the hour with a round of trivia or festive icebreakers so it is a shared experience rather than just drinks, and make sure the menu includes great non-alcoholic options like spiced cider and fancy cocoa.

31. Holiday Volunteering

December is peak giving season, and service projects consistently rank among the most meaningful team activities: sorting toys at a donation drive, adopting families to shop for, caroling at a senior center, or a general give-back day in the community. Employees notice — in Deloitte's 2017 Volunteerism Survey of 1,000 employed U.S. adults, 89% believed companies that sponsor volunteer activities offer a better overall working environment, and 70% said volunteer activities boost morale more than company-sponsored happy hours.

We practice this one ourselves: our Do Good Dash event gamifies giving back, and our grant program has supported hundreds of nonprofits. For distributed teams, here are ways to volunteer online.

Winter team building activities

Winter team building activities celebrate the season itself rather than any one holiday — which makes them the most inclusive formats on this list, and keeps them useful deep into the new year.

32. Winter Office Olympics

A seasonal competition built from silly physical events. Split into teams, pick uniforms (garland counts), and run a medal table:

• Reindeer relay: a relay race where runners hand off a red foam nose instead of a baton
• Speed skating: contestants race down the hallway with empty tissue boxes over their shoes
• Ice fishing: a timed dig for rubber balls in buckets of ice water
• Igloo building: teams erect structures from empty cardboard boxes, judged on speed and style
• Santa's sack race: entrants hop to the finish line in garbage bags

Keep score, award medals, and photograph the podium. Remote teams can play the virtual office Olympics version.

Best for: Competitive teams, 10–60 people
Time: 45–90 minutes
Materials: Relay props (mostly free)

33. Bubble Ball Snowball Fight

Rent bubble soccer equipment and stage a "human snowball fight": players suit up in inflatable bubbles and bounce off each other, dodgeball-style, until one team remains standing. Colored jerseys under the bubbles keep the sides straight. It is ridiculous, safe, and the photos alone justify the rental.

Best for: High-energy groups, 8–20 players per round
Time: 30–60 minutes
Materials: Rented bubble ball kits

34. Escape Everest: Quest for the Yeti

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Escape Everest: Quest for the Yeti

Can your team find the yeti and escape Everest? 

Virtual90 min$40 pp 4.9(1,855)

Escape Everest is our fully non-secular hosted option: a 90-minute virtual or hybrid expedition up the Himalayas, with complex puzzles, a digital dossier app, competitive sabotage between teams, and expert hosts to sherpa the adventure. It is the right pick when you want a December event with zero holiday framing at all.

Learn more about Escape Everest: Quest for the Yeti.

35. Early New Year's Eve Party

You will not be with your coworkers on December 31st, so celebrate early: champagne flutes (and sparkling cider), noisemakers, resolutions, end-of-year toasts, and a countdown to a faux midnight. It works as a party theme that includes everyone regardless of tradition, and doubles as a symbolic reset before the new year. Here are New Year's team building ideas and virtual New Year's Eve party tips.

What we've learned from 6,000+ holiday events

December is our peak season, and running thousands of holiday events has taught us which planning decisions actually matter:

Book in October — most teams already do. Teams lock in their December events a median of 23 days ahead, and 62% of December bookings are placed in October or November. Prime dates, venues, and hosts go to the teams that decide early; teams that start planning after Thanksgiving choose from what's left.

Thursday is the sweet spot. Thursday is the most popular day for team building events across our platform, and December celebrations are most often held on Thursdays, typically starting mid-afternoon. Friday events compete with personal plans; Thursday events get better attendance and still feel like a treat.

Structure beats an open bar. The events people rave about have a spine: an opener, one or two anchor games, and a defined ending. The wider market has caught on — Bloomberg's holiday party coverage, which quotes our own Angela Robinson throughout, documented companies replacing booze-centered parties with hosted, activity-first celebrations that more of the team can actually enjoy.

Make December double as recognition. The end of the year is the natural moment to thank people specifically for what they did — in toasts, superlatives, and award moments built into the event. Gallup and Workhuman's recognition research finds employees who receive great recognition are 20 times as likely to be engaged as those who receive poor recognition — and a holiday gathering is the easiest stage you will get all year.

Honor the whole season, not just Christmas. Your team likely celebrates several traditions or none at all. Winter themes, New Year countdowns, and end-of-year gratitude include everyone — and if December is simply too busy, move the party: we hold our own internal company holiday party in February, when the team can actually relax and enjoy it. For specific traditions, see our guides to Hanukkah activities, Diwali celebrations, and Kwanzaa activities for work.

Keep participation visibly optional. Every activity on this list works with volunteers. Gift exchanges, costumes, performances, and photos should all be opt-in — nobody should have to publicly decline.

Holiday team building ideas to avoid

A few December staples survive on tradition alone. Having watched thousands of end-of-year rooms, here is what we would skip — and what to do instead:

Idea	Why skip it	Verdict
Mandatory gift exchanges with real budgets	A $40 minimum is a tax on your lowest-paid teammates. Keep exchanges opt-in with a $15 cap — White Elephant keeps it silly.	Cap it
Forced carol karaoke or talent shows	Performance pressure in front of the whole company creates anxiety, not cheer. A playlist and optional sing-alongs deliver the music without the spotlight.	Skip it
Alcohol as the only plan	Drinks-plus-nothing splits the room into cliques and creates HR risk. Anchor the gathering with a game first, and stock great non-alcoholic options.	Add structure
"Voluntary" events on personal time	A mandatory-fun Saturday announced in December reads as a demand, not a gift. Announce dates in October and hold events during work hours.	Plan ahead
Roast-style awards	"Most likely to be late" is funny to everyone except the person who wins it. Keep superlatives warm and celebrate real contributions.	Keep it kind
Christmas-only framing for a mixed team	Not everyone celebrates. Seasonal and winter framing costs you nothing and includes the whole team.	Widen it

For the finer points of behavior at these events, see our holiday party etiquette guide.

Final Thoughts

Holiday team building is the rare work tradition nearly everyone shows up for — which makes it the best-leveraged team investment of the year. Pick one anchor event, layer in a couple of in-office traditions and meeting-sized games, book it by mid-October, and keep every activity opt-in. Do that, and the December gathering becomes the thing your team measures every other company's season against.

If you would rather celebrate with your team than run the show, browse our bookable events — virtual and in-person — and grab a December date before they go.

Next, check out these holiday party themes, these holiday party alternatives, and this guide to virtual holiday parties.