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I recently spoke with a corporate events manager about office Christmas party games.
She is in charge of organizing her company’s hybrid holiday celebration.
Aside from Secret Santa, nothing is off the table.
When planning office Christmas parties, I’m looking for three elements in party games:
Basic stuff, right? We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here.
So, I’ll share the stack of 20 ideas I sent in an email to the corporate events manager with you.
But first off, I think it’s worth ruling out a few games straight off the bat.
Here’s what’s on my naughty list this year.
Let’s take a moment to bury the classics that overstayed their welcome.
You see the same awkwardness play out every year. We don’t need any of this.
The good news is that modern office Christmas games don’t need to feel like mandatory fun.
Before diving into the full list, let’s start with the real crowd-pleaser you’ll want to try.
Water Cooler Trivia has quietly become the must-have Christmas party game for both remote and in-person teams. It takes the stress out of planning and delivers an instant morale boost.
Christmas parties tend to have two kinds of guests: the eager and the cautious.
You’ll find that trivia bridges that divide beautifully.
Everyone can play, nobody feels singled out, and it generates plenty of laughter.
One, two, and three! That’s my criteria for a good office Christmas party game met.
Water Cooler Trivia’s format is very simple.
A quiz goes out through Slack, Teams, or email.
People answer questions whenever they want.
Once time’s up, everyone gets the results, complete with fun commentary and rankings.
You can choose themes like holiday movies or Christmas traditions from around the world.
My team writes the questions so that each one is a conversation starter.
Example: Which country started the custom of putting up Christmas trees?
Suddenly, you’ve got jokes, banter, and a thread full of GIFs.
The questions are written by real trivia writers.
Teams can tell when a question is generated by AI.
That’s not necessarily a problem.
But when teams know the quiz is carefully curated for them, this authorship becomes part of the appeal.
This is the feedback we are getting in conversations with team leaders who use Water Cooler Trivia weekly.
If you’re planning your 2026 party, give it a shot. It’s free to try for four weeks. You’ll know within 10 minutes if your team’s hooked.
Here’s my “nice” list of in-person, virtual, and hybrid-friendly ideas. Entirely cringe-free! Actually, I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Curated Christmas-themed quizzes with festive categories and office humor. Works for in-person, virtual, and hybrid teams.
Describe movie titles with emojis and make co-workers guess. Simple, fast, and you’ll find it’s surprisingly competitive.
Teams decorate gingerbread houses at home and share photos. Judges vote on creativity and chaos. You can mail a gingerbread house kit from Amazon to each employee.
Make a list of festive items (snow globe, candy cane, red mug) and let people find them in their homes or around the office. This’ll work best in the days leading up to Christmas.
Every person roasts the season, not each other. They can unleash their inner Grinch and talk about their biggest Christmas pet peeve. Extra points for creativity!
Upload photos and watch your team dance like elves. You can’t go wrong with this. Guaranteed laughs!
Fill cards with seasonal cliches like “someone mentions Hallmark movies” or “Mariah Carey starts playing in the office.”
Everyone brings a wrapped gift. Each correct trivia answer earns a swap option. At least it keeps Secret Santa interesting.
Guess if the line came from a movie, song, or someone on your own team. Great for remote calls.
People wear something holiday-themed. The winner gets bragging rights. Maybe you can think of a more creative way to celebrate the winner.
Teams pass wrapped gifts across desks using only spoons or chopsticks. It’s hilarious to watch. And yes, you can buy on chopsticks in bulk on Amazon.
Replace words in a Christmas story with random nouns or verbs. Have one volunteer read it dramatically.
Set a timer. Give each team five minutes to decorate a mini tree. Judge for originality. This isn’t about quality!
Hide random objects in stockings and make players guess using only touch. Works in-person or over camera.
Pick ridiculously trivial topics like “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?” or “Do candy canes taste good?” Chaos guaranteed.
Have everyone submit their best festive meme. Vote anonymously. The winning meme becomes the office screensaver.
Each person adds a holiday song to a shared Spotify playlist. The challenge: no repeats and no Mariah Carey.
Crumple paper into snowballs and try to land them in holiday-themed boxes. Low effort but still plenty of potential to generate laughter!
You can provide art supplies and challenge everyone to make a personal ornament. They hang them on the office tree.
Everyone writes a three-line Christmas haiku. Read them aloud with dramatic flair.
So, we’ve reached the end of the article, and I’ve mentioned Mariah Carey twice.
I guess that means someone just ticked “Mariah reference” off their festive bingo card.
Anyway, Water Cooler Trivia leads the way because it fits any setup and feels nothing short of effortless.
Why? Because we write trivia around your team’s interests and deliver each quiz at the time that works best for your schedule.
You’ve made it all the way to the end, which can only mean one thing...
It’s time to lock in some festive fun. Take this as your sign to start a four-week free trial of Water Cooler Trivia.
