As Q4 comes to a close, leaders are looking to motivate teams to start the new year off strong.
Unfortunately, research shows that the holiday season can be a stressful time for employees.
The right holiday team experiences can provide a much-needed break to your team while improving connection and building momentum.
In this article, we’ll share four options that are sure to be enjoyed by your entire team, whether they’re in the office or at home.
The Importance of Holiday Team-Building in 2025
Recent research found that over half of employees feel more stressed than usual during the holiday season, with 41% of workers experiencing a dip in productivity.
Thoughtful and inclusive virtual experiences can help your team reconnect and facilitate meaningful conversations between team members.
According to Harvard Business Review (HBR), intentionally cultivating team connection produces the following benefits:
- Increased productivity
- Higher levels of creativity
- Less burnout
- Increased job satisfaction
Holiday team experiences 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.
Below are four specific types of celebration you can host for your team.
4 Holiday Team-Building Experiences
1. Share Food & Drink With Your Team
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?
For virtual and distributed teams, sharing food can be challenging.
Our “Sweet Drinks & Cozy Treats” experiences give you a seamless way to promote connection through shared snacks, even if your team is distributed.
2. Host a Holiday “Happy-Hour”
Enjoying cocktails together is another enjoyable way to spread holiday cheer.
Our “Sip & Celebrate” holiday experiences are an excellent way to accomplish this. Our virtual, inclusive format means that:
- Everyone can join, since there’s no “maximum occupancy.”
- Non-alcoholic options for each experience allow all team members to join.
- Logistics are taken care of, providing a stress-free way to celebrate.
These research-backed experiences are designed to promote connection and motivate your team going into 2026.
Plus, the drinks are delicious!
3. Get Creative as a Team
Research from HBR shows that creative team activities build motivation.
Giving your team a moment to express themselves through a festive, hands-on creative workshop can prompt reflection and build momentum.
Our curated “Festive Creativity” experiences give leaders an opportunity to spark team creativity in an easy, fun, and accessible way.
4. Show Your Team Personal Recognition & Appreciation
The holidays are often associated with gifting.
However, hosting a festive gift exchange can be tricky, particularly if your workforce works from home. Plus, standard gifts or swag can feel impersonal.
Research from HBR shows that the most impactful appreciation is personalized and specific, and doesn’t just focus on the highest performing team members, but acknowledges everyone’s strengths.
Our holiday-themed “Recognition & Gifts” experiences provide a simple yet effective way to give team members impactful and personal appreciation.
Considerations for Holiday Team-Building
If you’re hoping to provide your team with an opportunity to connect over the holiday season, there are several factors to consider.
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? 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 can attend.
- Find a virtual option: If you have team members who work remotely, choose an experience that works virtually.
- 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.
Our experiences are:
- Live: Synchronous experiences that bring your team together from any location.
- Virtual: Designed to work seamlessly with any modality—hybrid, remote, in-person, or distributed.
- Expert-led: Every experience is led by an expert in their field, anywhere from renowned authors and professors to Olympic athletes.
- Interactive: Teamraderie’s experiences will keep your team engaged, ensuring everyone has a chance to participate.
- Research-backed: Every experience is inspired by academic research from Harvard, Stanford, and more.
- Outcome-oriented: These interactive workshops are purposefully designed to help improve an outcome, such as connection, inclusion, well-being, leadership skills, and more.
If this sounds like something that would benefit your team, check out our holiday experiences to find the one that best meets your needs.
