The holidays are an incredibly busy season, and it’s easy for team members to get overwhelmed with the heavy workload. It’s important for team leaders to make sure their team feels appreciated and supported.
The right holiday team-building experiences can provide a much needed break to your team while improving their sense of belonging and connection.
Especially for remote or hybrid teams, it might seem challenging to find a holiday experience that works for everyone. In this article, we’ll share five options that are sure to be enjoyed by your entire team, whether they’re in the office or at home.
The Importance of Team-Building in the Holiday Season
With the stress of the holiday season, it’s easy to mistakenly think team-building wastes time.
The reality is that the right team-building experience can improve your team’s productivity. A sense of camaraderie is important for efficiently completing tasks during this busy season, but many professionals are experiencing isolation instead.
A recent study of 5,000 professionals found the following:
- 82% reported feeling lonely at work
- 49% report increased loneliness compared to pre-pandemic levels
- 40% attribute this loneliness to fewer face-to-face interactions
Thoughtful and inclusive virtual experiences can help your team reconnect during the holiday season and facilitate meaningful conversations between team members.
Intentional team-building can produce the following benefits:
- Increased productivity
- Higher levels of creativity
- Less burnout
- Increased job satisfaction
These events are an excellent way to boost morale, since they give your team the opportunity to step away from work and enjoy meaningful experiences with coworkers.
Finally, holiday events give you the opportunity to show your appreciation for your team’s accomplishments. It shows that you care, which can make employees feel acknowledged and improve productivity.
Below is a list of some of Teamraderie’s most popular holiday team-building experiences.
5 Holiday Team-Building Experiences
1. Tartine Bakery and Coffee & Tea Tasting
Research from the University of Chicago shows that eating together increases feelings of trust and cooperation. What better time to facilitate this sense of camaraderie among your team than the holidays?
Receive a box of Tartine’s most famous baked items, a Coffee & Tea Press, and your choice of coffee or tea. A top barista will show you how to use your French Press and share the story of “America’s Most Influential Bakery.”
2. Virtual Holiday Gift Exchange
The holidays are often associated with gifting. Hosting a corporate gift exchange can be tricky, however, particularly if your workforce works from home.
This experience takes a unique approach to gift-giving—using a custom virtual board game to identify each team member’s unique strengths and assign them “gifts.” At the end of the experience, each team member is sent a gift that relates to their individual strengths.
3. Holiday Cookie Decorating
Decorating cookies is a timeless holiday tradition. In addition to being a fun activity, it’s an excellent way to connect with your teammates.
In this experience, a kit is sent to each team member that includes cookies and icing. A food and beverage expert leads your team through the process, teaching various decorating techniques and helping revitalize your team spirit.
4. Holiday Cocktail Making
Making cocktails together is another enjoyable way to spread holiday cheer. If you’re searching for an interactive experience that brings your team together, this mixology workshop is an excellent option.
Your team will receive a kit with the necessary ingredients, and will be led by a master mixologist in crafting three winter-themed holiday cocktails. This is another excellent way to connect with your team members through an enjoyable shared holiday experience.
5. Holiday Tea Tasting
With the stress of the holiday season, a tea tasting experience is an excellent opportunity to relax together.
In this experience, you’ll enjoy the time-honored tradition of holiday tea. Your team will receive an elegant kit with various holiday teas, a mug, two different types of honey, and assorted cookies.
How To Plan Team-Building During the Holidays
With the abundance of tasks you need to complete during the holiday season, planning an experience can be challenging.
To set yourself up for success, it’s important to take the following steps:
- Determine your goal: What’s the purpose of this team-building event? Is it to have fun? Bond with your team? Provide recognition? Consider your main goal as you move forward in the planning process.
- Choose a date and time: This may be easy if everyone is in the same location, but harder if people are across time zones. Check-in with everyone to be sure you choose a date and time when everyone is able to attend.
- Find a virtual option: If you have team members who work remotely, choose an experience that works on a virtual basis.
- Choose a platform: Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom are all great options. Make sure you provide your team with all the details ahead of time so they can make room in their schedules.
Even with these steps completed, it’s challenging to gather the necessary resources to set up a team-building event for your team. For this reason, it’s important to make sure the team-building process is as easy and seamless as possible.
Let Us Take Care of the Planning for You!
If you’re struggling to plan your team-building event, don’t worry—you have options. One of them is to leave some of the planning to someone else.
Teamraderie will ensure that your team-building experience goes smoothly by hosting your experience for you so you can focus on celebrating the season together.
We have a variety of experiences to choose from, many of which include kits that are shipped to each individual participant. This makes the holiday team-building experiences feel much more festive, since the kits are almost like gifts that each team member gets to open. They also make the experience more interactive and can lead to a more connected team, even over a distance.
If this sounds like something that would benefit your team, check out our experiences to find the one that best meets your needs. From kit-based holiday experiences to learning experiences to improve your team’s productivity and collaboration, we have a wide range of options to choose from.
