How to Organize a Virtual Secret Santa for Employees

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A lot of offices have shifted to working from home and with the holiday season just around the corner it’s time to think about how you might modify your office traditions to enjoy them from a distance. One great idea that everyone can participate in is a virtual Secret Santa. It’s simple and easy to put together with Christmas gift cards. Here are some steps to make this year’s Secret Santa better than ever!
 
  • Instructions: The best way to get started is for the company to send all participants a digital Christmas card that includes an Amazon gift card and the name of the person for whom they are assigned to purchase a gift. All employees get the same amount so it’s fair. Instruct employees to spend the full amount of the gift card on a secret Santa gift for the recipient to whom they were assigned. The gift should be shipped directly to that person by a specific date. Make it clear that everyone should put their gift aside until the date when everyone will open the gifts together! 
     
  • Virtual Party: Send out free Christmas invitations for your virtual holiday party when everyone will come together to celebrate the holidays (and open their Secret Santa gifts). Encourage guests to wear holiday attire like ugly sweaters or holiday costumes, let them know about activities for the virtual party, and share any other relevant details (like the platform you’ll use to host the virtual party).

  • Activities: Keep the atmosphere light and festive with some simple, but fun holiday activities:

    Holiday Trivia: Collect interesting holiday-themed questions and divvy up your colleagues into teams. The questions can be as hard or as easy as you want, multiple choice or free answer, but it should depend on how competitive your colleges are!

    Name that Tune: Divide your party into teams (individual participants work too) and play only the first few notes of a popular holiday song. If no one guesses correctly, play a little more of the song until someone gets it. This game can be played by taking turns or letting whoever ever knows call out depending on how you want to organize it.

    Ugly Sweater Contest: Before the party, select a couple of judges from amongst the partygoers or bring in some judges from outside your office. Create different categories to be scored like “Most festive” or “Ugliest” sweaters.
 
  • Open Gifts: When all the other activities have been finished it’s time for the main event! Have everyone take turns opening up their gifts and revealing what they have received. For an added twist, you can have everyone take a shot at guessing who their Secret Santa was!
     
  • Thank Guests: Once the fun is all over, you can reach out to everyone that participated by sending a free Christmas eCard with a thank you message inside. Thank them all for attending but also thank them for everything that they have done for you this past year.  Everyone will most definitely appreciate the gesture after such a long and hectic year.
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