Holiday Party Games for the Office: 25 Work Christmas Party Games (Remote-Friendly, No Alcohol)

Most office holiday party games lists are written for a party that does not exist: thirty people, a free afternoon, a budget and a team that loves being asked to perform. The real version looks different. You have an hour in a conference room, three coworkers dialing in from home, one manager who wants something fun but not cringe, and a group where half the people only know each other from Slack. Somebody has to run it, and that somebody is probably you.

So this list starts with the room, not the theme. You get 25 work Christmas party games sorted by setup: icebreakers for the first fifteen minutes, team games for a big hall, remote-friendly games for Zoom or Teams, games for a small team around one table, and gift exchange games that do not get awkward. Each game has group size, time and what you need. Then printable holiday trivia with checked answers, a tool to make your own quiz about your team and a 60-minute run of show.

Pick office party games by room size

The same game can be a hit or a disaster depending on how many people are in the room and where they are. Before you pick anything, decide which of these three parties you are actually running:

• The 10-minute Zoom. A standing team call with the holiday tacked on. You need games that start in one sentence and end on time: holiday trivia, a quick draw round, a two-minute scavenger hunt at home.
• The 12-person team in one room. A conference room or a restaurant table. This is where most games work, including anything that needs everyone to hear everyone.
• The 50-person hall. Round tables, background noise, a microphone that someone keeps forgetting to switch on. Play in table teams, with one voice per table, and keep every round under five minutes.

Icebreaker games for the first 15 minutes

People arrive in waves, grab food and stand with the two coworkers they already know. These five games mix the room without anyone standing up to give a speech. For the rest of the year, our team building activities for work follow the same no-pressure rules.

• 1. Holiday people bingo. A card of 16 squares: someone who has been at the company less than a year, someone who has a holiday tradition from another country, someone who can name all of Santa's reindeer. Guests find a match for each square and get a first name written in. For 12-80 people, 15 minutes, you need printed cards and pens.
• 2. Two truths and a holiday. Each person shares three holiday facts about themselves, two true and one invented, and their table guesses the fake. Keep it light: favorite holiday food, worst gift ever received, a tradition from childhood. For 4-10 people per group, 10 minutes, nothing needed.
• 3. Guess the desk item. Before the party, collect one photo from each person of something on their desk or in their home office. Show them on the screen and guess who they belong to. Works for remote people too. For 8-50 people, 15 minutes, you need photos and a screen.
• 4. Holiday song emoji. Post a Christmas song written only as emojis in the team chat. First person to reply with the title gets a point. Run ten of them while people arrive. For any number of people, 10 minutes, you need the chat.
• 5. The name tag word. Every name tag has a holiday word on the back: snowglobe, mistletoe, tinsel, fruitcake. The goal is to get other people to say your word in conversation. For 15-60 people, all party, you need name tags.

Team games for a big room (20 to 60 people)

With more than twenty people, individual games stop working: nobody can hear, and the loudest ten people play while the rest check their phones. Turn every table into a team with a name, and every game into a short round where the table decides together.

• 6. Table trivia. Five rounds of five questions, read from the stage, answers on a sheet per table. Use the holiday trivia below as round one, then rounds about your industry, your city and the year. For 20-100 people, 30 minutes, you need answer sheets and a microphone.
• 7. Minute to win it, holiday edition. Each table sends one person to the front for a one-minute challenge: stack ten plastic cups into a pyramid and back down, move five candy canes between bowls using only a candy cane, unwrap a gift box wrapped in five layers while wearing oven mitts. For 20-60 people, 20 minutes, you need cups, candy canes, boxes and mitts.
• 8. Name that holiday tune. Play the first five seconds of a Christmas or winter song. Tables write the title, the one that is fastest and right gets a point. For 20-100 people, 15 minutes, you need a speaker and a playlist.
• 9. Holiday charades relay. One person from each table comes up, reads a word, runs back and acts it out for their table. Once the table guesses, the next person runs. First table through ten words wins. For 20-60 people, 15 minutes, you need printed word slips.
• 10. Guess the size. Show photos of ten holiday objects, like a snow globe, a gingerbread house kit or an inflatable lawn snowman, and each table guesses its weight or height in inches. Closest guess wins the round. For 20-80 people, 15 minutes, you need photos and the real numbers.
• 11. Game show on the big screen. A quiz on the room's screen where each table plays on one phone. The host is a voice on the screen, so nobody has to be the quizmaster. Details in the TV section below. For 20-80 people in table teams, 20 minutes, you need a screen and one phone per table.

Remote-friendly holiday party games on Zoom

Hybrid parties usually fail the people at home: they get a laptop on a chair at the end of the room and cannot hear a word. These six games are designed for a video call, whether everyone is remote or only part of the team. They need nothing mailed out and work on Zoom, Teams or Google Meet.

• 12. Home scavenger hunt. The host calls an item and everyone has 60 seconds to bring it on camera: something red, the oldest ornament you own, a mug with a story, something that plays music. Fastest back gets a point. For 4-40 people, 15 minutes, nothing needed.
• 13. Holiday quick draw. One person gets a word in a private chat and draws it on the call's whiteboard, everyone else types guesses. Words: snowman, sleigh, candle, igloo, reindeer, fireplace. For 4-20 people, 15 minutes, you need a shared whiteboard.
• 14. Holiday trivia with chat answers. The host reads questions from the trivia below, everyone answers privately in the chat to the host, who reads out the scores after each round. For 4-100 people, 20 minutes, you need this page.
• 15. Ugly background contest. Everyone sets the most festive virtual or real background they can manage, and the team votes with reactions. For 4-100 people, 5 minutes, nothing needed.
• 16. Would you rather, holiday edition. Would you rather give up holiday cookies or holiday music? Spend the holidays somewhere hot or somewhere snowy? Everyone answers with a thumbs up or down and one volunteer defends their pick. For 4-50 people, 10 minutes, nothing needed.
• 17. Screen-shared game show. The quiz from game 11 also works on a call: the host shares the game screen with sound on, and remote players join with their own phones. A game takes up to 8 phones, so bigger groups play in teams, and remote people do best as their own team because the call adds a second or two of delay. For 2-30 people, 20 minutes, you need screen sharing and phones.

Christmas party games for a small team

With eight to fifteen people around one table, you can play games where everyone hears everyone, and you get the best part of a small team party: the jokes only this team gets.

• 18. Who said it at work. Before the party, collect harmless quotes from the team chat this year, like a typo that became legend, a meeting catchphrase or a lunch opinion. Read them out and the team guesses who said it. Ask permission for anything borderline. For 6-15 people, 15 minutes, you need a list of quotes.
• 19. The team year in review. Go month by month. For each month, the team shouts what happened: the launch, the move, the week the coffee machine broke. The person who remembers the most gets a small prize. For 6-15 people, 15 minutes, nothing needed.
• 20. Holiday Pictionary on a whiteboard. Two teams, a conference room whiteboard, one minute per drawing. Words from the quick draw list, plus your own work words, such as quarterly review, reply all or out of office. For 6-15 people, 20 minutes, you need a whiteboard.
• 21. Most likely to, the office edition. Who is most likely to reply to an email on December 25? Who is most likely to bring cookies they did not bake? On three, everyone points. Keep it kind. For 6-20 people, 10 minutes, nothing needed.
• 22. A quiz about the team. Everyone answers five questions about themselves in advance, and the host builds a quiz: whose first job was at a movie theater, who has visited the most countries. Use the quiz maker below. For 6-20 people, 20 minutes, you need a printed quiz.

Gift exchange games that don't get awkward

A gift exchange is the one office tradition that can go wrong in a hundred small ways. Agree on a small spending limit in advance, make joining optional and set the rules before anyone unwraps anything.

• 23. White elephant with a steal limit. Everyone brings one wrapped gift, draws a number and either unwraps a new gift or steals one already opened. A gift can be stolen only twice, then it is frozen, which keeps the game under twenty minutes. For 8-40 people, 20 minutes.
• 24. Secret Santa with a clue. Each giver writes one clue about themselves on the tag, and the receiver has to guess who gave the gift before they open it. For 6-40 people, 20 minutes.
• 25. The left-right story. Everyone stands in a circle holding a wrapped gift while the host reads a short holiday story full of the words left and right. Each time one of them comes up, gifts move that way. When the story ends, you keep what you are holding. For 8-30 people, 10 minutes, you need a story with lots of lefts and rights.

Printable office holiday trivia with answers

Sixteen holiday trivia questions that work for any team, including coworkers who celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or nothing at all. Every answer was checked against Britannica and the original sources. Print one sheet per table and read the answers from this page. For a longer Christmas round, use our Christmas trivia questions and answers.

Print this sheetShow answersFree to print at home. Answers print on a separate page.

Office holiday trivia

16 questions, 1 point each

1. 1.In which year was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer created, as a booklet for the Montgomery Ward stores?
2. 2.What is the name of the family in Home Alone?
3. 3.Who plays Buddy in the movie Elf?
4. 4.What is the name of the Grinch's dog?
5. 5.What brings Frosty the Snowman to life in the song?
6. 6.What is Scrooge's first name in A Christmas Carol?
7. 7.Who wrote A Christmas Carol, and in which year was it published?
8. 8.On the fifth day of Christmas, what does my true love give to me?
9. 9.Which composer wrote the music for The Nutcracker ballet?
10. 10.Which singer made White Christmas famous?
11. 11.Which of Santa's reindeer shares a name with the Roman god of love?
12. 12.How many reindeer pull the sleigh in the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, not counting Rudolph?
13. 13.How many nights does Hanukkah last?
14. 14.How many days does Kwanzaa last?
15. 15.The poinsettia is native to which country?
16. 16.At which New York City landmark does a giant Christmas tree go up every year above an ice rink?

playbuzzin.com · Start it on the TV, the rest is in your pocket

Answers: Office holiday trivia

1. 1. 1939, by Robert L. May.
2. 2. The McCallisters.
3. 3. Will Ferrell.
4. 4. Max.
5. 5. An old silk hat.
6. 6. Ebenezer.
7. 7. Charles Dickens, 1843.
8. 8. Five gold rings.
9. 9. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
10. 10. Bing Crosby.
11. 11. Cupid.
12. 12. Eight.
13. 13. Eight.
14. 14. Seven, from December 26 to January 1.
15. 15. Mexico.
16. 16. Rockefeller Center.

Make your own quiz about your team

The best questions at an office party are about the people in the room. Type your own, one per line with the answer after a vertical bar, and print them as a quiz sheet or cut-out cards.

Sheet title

Layout

CardsNotebook

Your questionsWho on the team has visited the most countries? Whose first job was at a movie theater? Which coworker can solve a Rubik's cube? Who brought the best snack to the office this year?One question per line. Add the answer after | (optional). Up to 40 items. Nothing is uploaded, it all happens in your browser.

Print this sheetFree to print at home.

Who knows the team?

1. 1.Who on the team has visited the most countries?
2. 2.Whose first job was at a movie theater?
3. 3.Which coworker can solve a Rubik's cube?
4. 4.Who brought the best snack to the office this year?

playbuzzin.com · Start it on the TV, the rest is in your pocket

A 60-minute run of show

Most office parties have an hour of real attention before people drift back to their desks or head home. Here is how to spend it, for a room of 20 to 50 people with a few remote coworkers on a call.

1. 10:00 to 0:10, arrivals: holiday people bingo (1) and the name tag word (5) start by themselves. Remote people play holiday song emoji (4) in the chat.
2. 20:10 to 0:15: welcome in two sentences, table teams get names, remote players become their own team.
3. 30:15 to 0:35: table trivia (6) with the printable round, or the game show on the big screen (11) with remote people joining through screen sharing.
4. 40:35 to 0:50: one active game, either minute to win it (7) or the charades relay (9).
5. 50:50 to 1:00: gift exchange (23 or 25), winners announced, done. End on time and people will remember the party as fun.

The best office party ends ten minutes before people expect it to.

Start it on the TV, the rest is in your pocket

Trivia at an office party has a job nobody wants: someone reads questions into a microphone, counts points on a napkin and is not really at the party. Buzzin gives that job to the screen already hanging in the conference room. The game starts in a browser on a smart TV, on a Chromecast, on a laptop connected to the projector over HDMI, or through the BuzzinTV app on LG TVs with webOS 22 or newer, Philips TVs with Titan OS, Android TV, Google TV and Amazon Fire TV. Players scan a QR code on the screen and their phones become buzzers. Nobody installs anything on a locked-down work laptop or on their phone, and nobody makes an account. Which setup works in your room is covered in our guide to smart TV party games with phones.

TV Show is a trivia game with a voiced host: the question and four answers on the big screen, the fastest correct tap on a phone scores. For a big room, play in table teams with one phone per table, the table argues and one person taps. Because everything runs over the internet, remote coworkers join with their own phones when the game screen is shared on the call. For a smaller team there is Werewolves - Prime time moon, where the screen narrates the night in the village and every player's secret role sits on their own phone. More on how groups play together on one screen is in our guide to party games for large groups, and if the same people come to your New Year's party, we have New Year's Eve games sorted by the hour.

If you play it at your holiday party, tell us on Discord what your team liked and what is worth improving: https://discord.gg/nbVVeWNXFm.