How To Plan A Christmas Party For Remote Teams in 2026 [Games, Ideas, Agenda]

Christmas Party For Remote Teams made easy with browser based games, virtual escape rooms and simple ideas to plan a festive online session people enjoy.

Here is a mix of practical ideas plus three games you can run with your team in December 2026: Robo Word Finder, North Pole Night Shift, and Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes. You can mix and match these into a single holiday session or spread them across December. Want to compare more festive options? See our Christmas party games online.

Start with the basics: what kind of Christmas session do you want?

Before you pick activities, it helps to answer three simple questions:

How much time do you have?
30 minutes, 60 minutes, or a full afternoon all lead to very different plans.
How many people are joining?
Some games are great for small teams of 4 to 8, others work better when you can split into multiple breakout rooms.
What is the goal?
- Just relax and laugh together
- Help people connect across departments
- Give a little structure to an end of year social

Once you know this, you can pick a mix of light, low effort activities and one main game that brings everyone together.

Quick, low prep Christmas activities for remote teams

Use a few of these as a warm up before you start a game or as small team traditions throughout December.

1. Holiday show and tell

Ask everyone to bring one thing to the call that feels “Christmas” or “holidays” to them. It can be:

A decoration
A snack or drink
A memory or tradition they want to share

Give each person 1 to 2 minutes to show it on camera and explain why it matters to them. This is simple, inclusive and works across cultures.

2. Remote Secret Santa (without shipping chaos)

You can run Secret Santa without packages getting lost:

Use a simple online draw tool to match people.
Instead of physical gifts, set a small budget for digital gifts, for example:
- Gift cards
- Ebooks or games
- Donations to a charity the receiver cares about

Open the gifts together on a call and try to guess who bought for whom.

3. Holiday playlist take over

Create a shared playlist and ask everyone to add 2 to 3 songs:

One classic holiday song
One “anti Christmas” or non seasonal song they love
One guilty pleasure

Play parts of the songs during your call and ask people to guess who added what. This is a nice background element during games and breakout sessions.

Ask everyone to bring a holiday snack from where they live. During the call:

Show the snack on camera
Rate it together (appearance, taste, nostalgia level)
Let people share recipe links after the session

This works especially well with distributed teams who live in different countries.

5. Ugly sweater contest

Ask everyone to turn up in their most outrageous holiday sweater (borrowing from relatives is allowed). Give each person 30 seconds to tell the story behind it, then vote in the chat for categories like “most festive”, “most questionable” and “best light show”.

6. Two truths and a tinsel lie

A holiday twist on the classic. Each person shares three statements about their holidays: two true, one made up. Everyone else votes on the lie. You will learn more about your colleagues’ family traditions in ten minutes than in a whole year of stand-ups.

7. Rapid-fire holiday would you rather

Fire off quick festive dilemmas and let people answer by unmuting or typing in the chat. “Would you rather eat fruitcake for a month or listen to holiday music non-stop?” “Would you rather wear an ugly sweater every day or never get another gift?” It keeps the energy up between bigger activities.

8. Give something back together

Pick a cause as a team and do something for it during December. That could be a food drive with a local food bank, a pooled donation, or everyone sharing in one minute why a cause matters to them. Keep it optional, and reveal what the team did together at the party.

Robo Word Finder: light, browser based fun for busy teams

Best for: 15 minute session, all hands, low effort fun
Energy level: Light and playful

Robo Word Finder is a free co-op word game for up to 10 players. Your team steers a robot across a giant letter board and spells words together, and every letter pick is shared. Load a custom word list full of Christmas words (think reindeer, tinsel, mistletoe) and it becomes your own holiday word hunt. Everyone joins via link, no installs or downloads needed.

Why it works well for remote teams:

People can join from anywhere, even with a weaker laptop or connection.
It is easy to play alongside a drink or snack.
Teams can chat on your usual video tool while solving.

Nice ways to use it:

As a warm up before your main Christmas game.
As a quick activity for teams that are already busy in December and cannot commit to a long event.
As a regular short break throughout the month, for example a 20 minute Friday word hunt with a new festive word list each week.

North Pole Night Shift: A Christmas Escape Room for remote teams

Best for: A 90 minute holiday event, teams of 2 to 8 who like puzzles and story
Energy level: Engaging, collaborative

The elves clocked out. Your team runs the workshop tonight. North Pole Night Shift is our Christmas co-op escape room, for 2 to 8 players, where your team takes over the North Pole workshop for the night.

What makes it good for remote teams:

It runs entirely in the browser, ideal if your team is spread across countries.
Everyone plays on their own screen and works together to crack codes, search scenes and share ideas.
You can split larger groups into multiple teams and compare times at the end.

How to get the most from it:

Start with a short welcome round so people know who is in their group.
Encourage teams to talk out loud. The magic is in hearing each others thought process.
Leave 10 to 15 minutes after the game for a quick “what worked well” chat, or just to share favorite moments.

Don’t want to run it yourself? Book North Pole Night Shift as a hosted game and a game master hosts the session for your team.

Want a shorter room for a bigger group? Boxing Day Never Comes is our second Christmas escape room: a family Christmas Day that restarts every time the crackers bang at 3 p.m. It takes 4 to 10 players and about an hour.

Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes: for teams that enjoy pressure and chaos

Best for: Groups of 4 to 20 who like fast decisions and a bit of chaos
Energy level: High, intense, lots of laughter

Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes is a cooperative game where one person sees a virtual “bomb” and the rest of the team has the manual. The person with the bomb describes what they see, the others guide them through the instructions. Nobody can see the whole picture, so communication is everything.

Why it works especially well online:

You naturally split roles. “Bomb defuser” shares their screen, everyone else reads from the manual or a PDF.
People practice clear, calm communication under time pressure, but in a playful context.
It creates plenty of funny moments, perfect for an end of year session.

Tips for running it as a team activity:

Rotate the “bomb defuser” so more people get a turn in the hot seat.
Start with easier modules so everyone can learn the flow.
Use breakout rooms if you have many people, then bring everyone back to share how it went.

If you would rather have someone else run it as part of your holiday event, book a hosted game and a game master hosts it for you.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes The Experts

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes The Defuser

Putting it all together: a 60 minute remote Christmas session

Here is one simple agenda you can copy and adapt:

0 – 10 minutes: Holiday show and tell, one object each (ugly sweaters welcome)
10 – 15 minutes: Share your team playlist and guess who picked each song
15 – 45 minutes: Main game
- Robo Word Finder with a Christmas word list for a lighter session, or
- Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes for a high energy group
45 – 60 minutes: Open chat, highlight funny moments, announce informal “awards” such as best detective, calmest under pressure, most unexpected idea

If your team is larger, you can run the same structure in multiple breakout rooms and then come back for a shared closing round.

Got two hours? The escape room version

0 – 15 minutes: Two truths and a tinsel lie, or a quick round of would you rather
15 – 105 minutes: North Pole Night Shift, in teams of 2 to 8
105 – 120 minutes: Compare escape times, share favourite moments and hand out the awards

How we can help

If you want to run one of these games but you are not sure which one fits your team size or time zones, you do not need to figure it out alone. Browse our Christmas party games online, or book a hosted game and a game master will run your Christmas session so you can just enjoy it.