With no ‘mad Friday’ parties and Christmas catch-ups, you might be feeling like you’re at a bit of a loose end this festive season.
That doesn’t mean, though, that there aren’t plenty of ways to celebrate with your loved ones – you’ll just have to get creative.
Zoom, Houseparty, and Skype can help you bridge the gap left by the dearth of Christmas parties.
But, rather than simply sitting chatting (and having those awkward moments as one person tries to speak while another butts in because of the lag), it’s better to keep things moving with some activities.
These ones can all be done from home cheaply or for free, and will make for a fun party with no lulls.
1. Bingo
You can theme your bingo game around Christmas, your friend/work group, or anything you want.
Simply make a bingo card for each person attending, email it over to them, and become a bingo caller for the evening.
2. Scavenger hunt
This game is great fun if you have a small or medium size group.
Call out items your attendees might have in their home (like a Christmas jumper, a pet, or an advent calendar) and the first one back gets a point each time.
Extra points go to the person who comes back with the funniest item or a creative or punny one – for example, a beef Wellington if you ask for Wellingtons or an egg on a tartan blanket if you ask for a Scotch egg.
3. Team picture scavenger hunt
If you have a larger group, you can split your party into breakout rooms, and get them to play as a teams.
Have them send pictures of themselves holding the items or using them, with points deducted for being late, not completing the list, or photoshopping pictures.
4. Big fat quiz of the year
Your friends, family, and colleagues have probably all been doing Zoom quizzes for months now.
Switch it up by keeping it topical, focusing on events, celeb news, and everything else that happened on this very weird year.
Question ideas include ‘What was the date the UK went into lockdown for the first time?’ or ‘Which town did Dominic Cummings drive to to test his eyes?’
5. Who said it?
Your group probably have all manner of funny stories and quotable moments, so read out the wackiest comments they’ve made and get the team to guess who said it.
The more embarrassing the better, so go through old social media posts to get the best ones.
6. Christmas karaoke
Have one person put on instrumental versions of classic Christmas songs and sing your hearts out.
You can either go one at a time or join in together.
7. Secret Santa, 2020 style
Obviously it’s not possible to open presents together or deliver them in person. However, if you use services like Amazon Prime you can send gifts with next day delivery.
Have everyone put their address in with their name before picking them out (there are online tools for this like Elfster), and open the gifts as part of your party.
8. Hire an entertainer
With the entertainment industry suffering, comedians, singers, and speakers are still looking to work.
If you have some spare cash, get in touch with your favourite performers and see if they might be willing to be part of a Zoom gig. That takes the pressure off feeling like you need to provide everyone with entertainment, and will be super impressive.
9. Hold a cocktail class
Provide a shopping list for your guests or drop ingredients off at their doors. Then, show everybody how to make and shake some signature drinks.
Just remember to make recipes easily modified into mocktails for those who don’t drink.
10. Snatch Game
If you’ve ever watched RuPaul’s Drag Race, you’ll know all about Snatch Game, which is basically Blankety Blank but with more silly impressions and risqué questions.
You play host, and read out questions where your guests fill in the blanks. You can either choose for the funniest or the correct answers to win.
For extra fun, each person has to pretend to be a celebrity of their choosing, with bonus points for best impersonations and best costumes.
11. Breakout room icebreakers
Some groups are so full of people that it’s difficult to get a proper conversation going. In these cases, breakout rooms and conversation starters can be helpful.
Give five or ten minutes for each question then switch the breakout rooms again so everybody gets to meet everyone else. Get people to talk about their 2020, their favourite foods, or their most embarrassing moments.
12. Give out awards
Particularly in a staff party, it can be nice to recognise people for the effort they’ve put in over the year.
Awards can be anything from silly things like ‘biggest office gossip’ or ‘most creative interpretation of the work dress code’ to heartfelt moments ‘hardest worker’ or ‘work MVP’.
Make and email certificates afterwards for a finishing touch.
13. SPEECH!
Speeches aren’t just for weddings, and with the year that’s in it they can get pretty emotional.
Speak about how you’ve all coped as friends, family, or a workplace, and be sure to thank everyone for how they’ve been there for you. You could also assign topics for other group members to speak about.
14. Christmas card competition
Before you start your party, tell guests that their task is to come up with the funniest Christmas card.
Go through each one by sharing your screens or showing the physical cards off, with the best one getting a prize. Hilarity guaranteed.
15. Charades
Charades is a classic game, and can be easily played over Zoom or another video chat service.
Check out the rules online, and if you want you can make it specific to 2020 or your industry or interests.
16. Wrapping paper recreations
Whereas Pictionary means drawing pictures and guessing them, this one uses leftover wrapping paper.
Participants have to recreate a word, phrase, film, TV show (or anything you choose) with the paper, and you all guess what it is, with a vote at the end to find the person who did it best and therefore wins.
17. Cookie decorating
Get people to buy (or send) some plain biscuits and colourful icings, and have fun doing an activity during your party.
To add a competitive element, choose a theme like emojis or rock legends or landscapes, and see how people flex their creative muscles with a winner chosen at the end.
18. Guess the word
Look up some uncommon words online and get your partiers to take a stab at the definition.
To keep things moving, have points for the funniest answers as well as the closest to correct.
19. Pictionary
We all know how to play Pictionary, so make this as challenging as you want to keep it interesting.
Have people work in teams if you have a very large group.
20. Make a picture
Taking a team picture isn’t really fun when you’re not all together, but a bit of creativity can go a long way.
Use your hands to create a giant love heart, or make it seem like you’re all pouring each other drinks from your little Zoom boxes.
21. Recap your 2020
In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s been a super weird year. Have your guests go around one by one talking about their biggest moments from 2020, with achievements and changes taking front and centre.
Sending out some prompts beforehand to help people think about what mattered them most can spark inspiration.
22. Order food
Recipe boxes went big this year, and options from the likes of Six by Nico and Wahaca can be sent right to someone’s door for them to cook and eat with you (without necessarily being with you).
Alternatively, Deliveroo and Uber eats mean you can send any food you want to them. This is more appropriate for staff parties where you’d normally go out for a meal, but is a nice touch to bring people together.
23. Who’s in the photo?
Have a look through your partiers’ social media profiles, cropping pictures so you can’t see their face.
Share your screen and have people work out who’s in each photo. Go for the funniest and silliest pictures they have to make it interesting.
24. Christmas movie watch-along
If your group isn’t normally super chatty, Netflix has a feature where you can watch the same thing at the same time as other people.
You can turn your microphones off, snuggle up with the film, and use the chat function to talk about your favourite bits.
25. Guess the gift
For this game, you’ll need to ask each guest to pick an item around their house and wrap it up.
The more oddly-shaped and hard to guess the better. You then play 20 questions to find out what it is.
26. Murder mystery night
It’s a difficult one to organise, but makes for an incredibly enjoyable night. Give each of your guests a role with a backstory, and you play host.
You’re mysteriously killed by one of the cast, but only you and them know who did it. Everybody has to work together to find out the murderer, while the murderer has to work to frame someone else.
27. Bake off
Either do this as a bake-along if you have a small party, or have people present their finished bakes.
Granted, you can’t taste the cakes or pastries, but they can be judged on style and how they fit the theme. Points off for store-bought.
28. Wine tasting
Any wannabe sommeliers in your party? Send your wine list (make sure they’re easily purchased from supermarkets) beforehand, and have them read out tasting notes.
You can also get people to guess the flavours of each wine, or try another drink like gin or rum.
29. Talent show
Everybody has a party trick, and this is a funny way to showcase them.
Whether it’s their newfound love of twerking or their impression of Kermit the Frog, you’re bound to find out a lot about the interesting talents your friends possess.
30. Virtual race night
Tools like this one mean you can host a race night without a horse or dog in sight (apart from your pets jumping into the camera of course).
There’s no real gambling involved so nobody loses out, but you’ll get a leaderboard that shows how much you’ve ‘won’ for some healthy competition.
31. Taskmaster
Take inspiration from the hit TV show Taskmaster to get your party-goers doing all sorts of silly things.
Games like grape in the hand or grape in the mouth (which you can see among other previous tasks here) are easily done at home with no extras needing to be bought.
32. Bush tucker trials
Another one that comes from a TV show, bush tucker trials are feared as much as they are long-awaited.
It might be a bit tricky to send edible insects, but you can still do eating challenges with everything from pickles to tuna to gummy worms (lovely). These sweets will also do the trick.
33. Guess who?
Using a 20 yes-or-no questions format, play well-known game Guess who? with your partiers.
The only difference here is that your attendees can be the people you’re guessing from.
Do you have a story you’d like to share?
Get in touch at MetroLifestyleTeam@metro.co.uk.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/12/19/33-ideas-to-have-a-zoom-christmas-party-that-isnt-rubbish-13772931/
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