While life during the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly been challenging, it has also brought new ways to socialize and stay connected. If you and your friends or family members are physically apart but want to celebrate the holidays together, be sure to check out our NEW Virtual Christmas Cookie Party. They are fun all by themselves, but you can make them even more enjoyable with this list of ideas that will sweeten even the sweetest of virtual holiday party.

1. Hold a Secret Santa Gift Exchange

This requires some planning before the event, but Secret Santa gift exchanges are quintessential holiday experiences. You can use a website like Draw Names to easily organize and assign participants, set the parameters for gifts, and communicate with guests. Have each person ship their gifts to the recipients, using the organizer’s address on the return label to keep their identity a surprise. Then, let everyone open their presents before or after they make their cookies or brownies. 

2. Make a Holiday Playlist Together

Is there anything more festive than holiday music? From Let it Snow to All I Want for Christmas is You , the music is one of the best parts of the season. You can start your virtual event by sharing a link to a collaborative Spotify playlist (see this link for instructions on how to do this) so everyone can add their favorite tunes. Then, play the songs and sing along while you all bake the night away!

3. Encourage Guests to Dress Up

Have people wear their favorite ugly sweaters, their Santa hats, their reindeer antlers, their jingle bells, and their red and green attire—‘tis the season! Dressing up is always a fun way to bring in the festive spirit. You can hold a vote and give a small prize to the person who has the best costume. In 2020, the legal department from Netflix outfitted each team member with custom ugly sweaters featuring gavels and televisions. We helped them with some fun light-up holiday bulb necklaces.

4. Compare Family Traditions

Holiday family traditions are some of the most special and the most unique, and people always love to hear about others’ traditions. You can ask each person to send in a photo of their favorite family tradition, then you can compile them in a Google Slides or Powerpoint presentation and allow guests to share about them during your virtual holiday party. Or, you can play it Two Truths and a Lie style, where the guest names three traditions—two of which are real—and the other participants guess which ones are legitimate and which one is made up.

5. Utilize Virtual Backgrounds

Zoom lets participants set their own virtual backgrounds, and you can use this as a fun conversation starter for your party guests. For example, you can ask everyone to set their background as a scene from their favorite holiday movie, a photo from their favorite holiday vacation, or a picture of their hometown decorated with festive lights. Don’t be surprised if this ends in fierce debates about whether Elf or Home Alone is the best Christmas movie!

6. Do Holiday Mad Libs

Do you remember these from your childhood? I used to fill these out with my cousins when we were on road trips, and they never lost their ability to make us laugh. You can use websites like Woo Jr. to find Winter Mad Libs or Christmas Mad Libs. When you’re on your call, you can have each guest come up with a noun, adjective, verb, etc., fill in the corresponding blank spots, and see what story you come up with—it’s bound to elicit a giggle or two from your guests.

7. Get Competitive with Games

A little bit of friendly competition is never a bad idea. Consider playing holiday-themed bingo with these free printable cards , doing a round of trivia with Kahoot! quizzes on Christmas movies or general holiday information , or challenging guests to collect items from this list in a Zoom scavenger hunt.

8. …or Get Creative with Christmas Cookies!

Just because you may not be physically with everyone doesn’t mean you still can’t enjoy those time honored holiday traditions that we enjoy together. With our NEW Virtual Christmas Cookie Party you’ll be able to show off your creative side using cookie cutters, jams, sprinkles and whatever other clever items you have to make delicious holiday cookies. Plus, during the event we can put together a little show-and-tell competition to see who has made the most creative cookie decorations … or at least who can tell the best story around it!

All of these extras can be incorporated into your Virtual Holiday Party … and to be honest, some of them already just are. (We love holiday music and virtual backgrounds!) Just let us know if there is something that you’d like to incorporate and we can help make it happen.

The post How to Sweeten Your Virtual Holiday Party in 2021 appeared first on Local Food Adventures.