As it gets closer and closer to the holidays, everyone is trying to figure out how they’re going to handle this holiday season. Depending on your personal situation, this may mean only gathering with the members in your household, getting together with a small “bubble” of people, or trying to still get together with the whole family. Or you may even be thinking about hosting your first Christmas party over Zoom.
There’s no miracle handbook for how to handle the current situation. But if social distancing is a big part of your holiday plans, here are some ways you can still enjoy the holidays with your family and friends all by using Zoom.
While Zoom was once just a program used for business meetings and webinars, it has really become an avenue for all sorts of social events in 2020. People are using Zoom for all sorts of parties. Zoom is being used for art classes, music lessons, and for in home teaching. For those that are confined to their homes, Zoom has opened up a lot of ways to still be social while being safe.
Staying at home doesn’t mean that you can’t celebrate the holidays with your loved ones. Whether it’s just a group of friends or your entire family, you can all still get together for a Christmas party over Zoom. And if the thought of just hanging out and chatting on Zoom seems boring, here are some ways to spice up your Christmas Zoom party.
Movie watching party
Does your family have a tradition of watching a specific Christmas movie together? For years, it was a tradition of ours to watch A Christmas Story on Christmas Day. It’s also a tradition to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade while we start cooking Thanksgiving dinner.
You can still watch movies or parades together through Zoom and chat during the commercials. Just remember to mute yourself while the movie is on or you could hear the movie echoing in the background.
Bingo
This is a classic holiday game in my family. We play bingo with a white elephant type of twist. Everyone buys 3-4 small items. These are inexpensive items. Each item gets wrapped and placed on a table. Each person that gets Bingo can pick an item off the table and unwrap it.
Or if they want to, they can steal an already unwrapped gift from another person. And each gift can be stolen up to three times before it is “dead” and can’t be stolen again.
And while this version does involve everyone being in one location, you can definitely modify this for Zoom. You’ll need one person who calls the numbers, so in order to make this Zoom-friendly, you’ll send the “caller” all the little wrapped gifts.
The caller can then put the gifts on a table and each winner can pick a gift that the caller can either unwrap then (if you want to play white elephant style) or put aside and send to the winner for them to unwrap.
I highly recommend sending post-it notes for the caller to put on each gift to keep track of who to send it to. If you want some free bingo cards that you can print out, here are 16 unique bingo cards.
Painting Class
There are several paint your own canvas places that have started offering virtual painting classes. Why not find a holiday themed painting that you and your friends all like and join the virtual class together? Instructors teach the class over Zoom and everyone paints in their own home. You could even have a contest to see who is the most creative with their painting.
Head’s up
This is an app that you can download to your phone. After you press start, you put the back of the phone against your head, screen facing out, and the other players have to give you clues to help you guess the word that’s on the screen. You just keep track of how many correct answers you get during the time limit.
This is a great game to play when you’re standing in line to help you pass the time. We have played this game numerous times at theme parks when we’re waiting in hour long lines.
To make this Zoom friendly, you can change your Zoom video from mirror to non-mirror image so that the writing on the phone is not reversed.
You’ll also have the option in zoom to hide your view of yourself so that when you hold your phone up, you won’t be able to see the answers yourself. Or just keep your eyes closed on the honor system.
Open Presents Together
Not only can you use Zoom for games, but you can also use Zoom to do traditional family activities like opening gifts together. You can mail your gifts to each family member and then gather the presents by the screen before you open. As you open the gifts, you can share what you received and also see all your family open their gifts.
Holiday Charades
Play a game of charades with a holiday theme. Each person can come up with something to pantomime that is holiday related and everyone else can try to guess. Or you can play in teams.
Christmas Trivia
Make a list of holiday themed trivia questions. Then have everyone use the “raised hand” icon in Zoom to see who answers each question first. If you need help coming up with trivia questions, you can get a list of questions at Icebreakers or on Parade.
Make Ornaments Together
If you’re mailing your gifts to your family, why not include a small “craft kit”. One tradition we used to do in our family was make an ornament every single year. These ornaments don’t have to be complicated.
They can be something as simple as a wooden shaped ornament that you paint or a plastic ornament that you decorate. Just gather what each person needs to create the project in a small bag and include when you ship your gifts.
And after everyone has opened presents together on Zoom, you can sit down and craft your ornament together.
Paper Plate Drawing
Have everyone grab a paper plate and a pen. Then place the paper plate on top of your head and without looking, draw something holiday related on the paper plate while it’s on your head. Once everyone is done, show them off one by one and have each person guess what the drawing is. This is where you’ll really find out who is secretly talented, lol!
Scavenger Hunt
This is a game everyone can join in. At the start of the game, give everyone a list of 10-20 items that they have to write down. Then give all the players a time limit of 15-20 minutes. When you shout “go”, all players will rush around their homes trying to collect items that fit the scavenger hunt descriptions.
You can either give the first person that comes back a prize or give everyone that found all the items a prize. When all players have returned, have all of them show the items they found. It’s really fun to see the creativity that some people have when trying to find items that match.
Secret Santa
This one will take a little more organization. One person will have to act as the coordinator. If you’re the coordinator, you’ll put everyone’s name in a hat or bowl. Make a list of all your family members that are participating. Then, draw a name for each one and write that name down beside the family member’s name. This person will be the secret person that they shop for. Make sure to set a price limit for the gifts.
Then either call, email, or text each person and let them know who they are secretly shopping for. Have each person mail this gift to you, and then you will mail the gifts to each recipient.
Once all of your family have gathered via Zoom, each person can open their gift and try to guess who their Secret Santa was. Secret Santa can be very helpful when it comes to your budget. Families can opt to just get one Secret Santa gift instead of gifts for each family member which not only saves on gifts but also saves on shipping.
Need some ideas for handmade gifts? Here are 30 Mason Jar gifts you can give this Christmas.
Mail a Swag Bag
Some people like to give little gifts or party favors when they throw a party. I usually like to leave a little gift such as a photo frame or an ornament on each place setting. If that’s something you like to do too, consider mailing a “swag bag” to each person that will be at your Zoom party.
You can put items like candles, fuzzy socks, and snacks inside of a little stocking and send to each person. You could even take it up a notch and tell everyone to wear their fuzzy socks to the Zoom party!
Photo Props
Photo booths and photo props have become increasingly popular over the last few years. Many people set up their own photo booth or photo backdrop at their parties and take crazy photos using all the props. They are great for those candid photos.
Tell each guest to go and get a prop or two for photos and then when it’s “show time” on Zoom, have everyone put on their props and take a screenshot. It’s always interesting to see what props people will come up with!
Holiday Book Club
Need an idea for a girl’s night during the holidays? You can all read a holiday or winter themed book and then get together on Zoom to discuss the book over a glass of wine. Sometimes you just need a night to be social and a book club is a perfect activity for Zoom.
Have a Themed Party
Choose a theme for your party. You can have an ugly sweater party and have everyone dress in their ugly sweaters. You can theme your party around a particular Christmas movie and have everyone dress up as a character. You can use your theme in your swag bags, in your photo props, and even in your trivia questions. So get creative with it!
Holiday Murder Mystery
This may sound a little morbid to have a “murder” during a holiday party but you could easily change it up and make it more light-hearted. You could have a “who stole the Christmas tree?” mystery. The host would assign “roles” to everyone before the Zoom party begins.
Then at the start of the game, the host would come up with a story about how a Christmas tree went missing and start giving out clues. Everyone would then have to interview each other to see who they thought stole the tree.
For a family friendly non-murder game here is a Who Kidnapped Rudy Reindeer game.
Or for a more adult adventure, you can find more murder mysteries at Red Herring.
The holidays might look very different this year, but just because you may not be able to get together in person with your family, it doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy spending time with them. This year has shown us many ways that we can pivot and still have fun even if it’s at a distance. So this holiday season, step up your Zoom party game and go have some fun!
Don’t forget to grab your Free Christmas Bingo Cards here!!
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