Winter Holiday Icebreakers for Your Remote Team

The winter holidays provide a perfect excuse to break up long stretches of virtual meetings with light‑hearted games. When colleagues are scattered across different locations, holiday icebreakers can bring people together, spark conversation and create moments of shared laughter. The following ideas help remote teams celebrate the season without complicated rules or expensive setups.

1. Virtual Holiday Bingo

Icebreakers should be fairly quick and uncomplicated, like bingo. Keep it simple and create a holiday bingo board, using various holiday images, forgoing any letters on top of the grid. Create several versions, mixing the images up and around on the grid. Email your remote team mates their holiday board in advance to print out and have ready to go. Consider a prize for the winner.

Preparation & Materials

• Create a bingo board using holiday images instead of letters; mix the images on several boards and email or mail them to participants ahead of time so they can print them out. Include items that are inclusive and relatable for everyone.
• Have a pen or marker handy to mark the squares and, if you like, decide on a small prize for the winner.

How to Play

• At the start of the call, share your bingo board or call out the images one by one.
• Participants mark their boards when they have that image. The first person to complete a row, column or diagonal and call out “Bingo!” wins.
• Consider playing multiple rounds with new boards if time allows.

2. Virtual Winter Holiday Never Have I Ever

This virtual game is another quick and easy ice breaker. Create a list of 10 or so various holiday related questions. Consider these holiday questions.

• Never have I ever peeked at presents in advance
• I don’t believe in Santa
• Never have I ever bought a gift and kept it for myself
• Do not like pumpkin spice
• Never have I ever wore an ugly sweater

Have your team members hold up their hand, for each question they can answer yes to, one finger goes down. The last person with any fingers still up is the winner.

Preparation & Materials

Write about ten holiday‑themed statements such as “Never have I ever peeked at presents in advance” or “Never have I ever worn an ugly sweater.”
Let participants know they will use their fingers to keep score, no special props are needed.

How to Play

• Each player holds up one hand with all five fingers extended.
• The host reads a statement. If a participant has done the activity, they put one finger down. If not, they leave their finger up.
• Continue reading statements until only one person has any fingers remaining. That player is the winner.

3. Virtual Holiday “Name That Tune”

The holidays are full of festive music. From holiday music over the decades to holiday music in our favorite holiday films, there are many tunes you can include in this remote icebreaker. Try selecting 10-12 songs that most people would be familiar with, maybe throw in a few wild cards to keep your team on their toes. If you decide to do songs that are also in popular movies, you can make it more challenging by having them name the song and a film it’s in.

Preparation & Materials

• Choose 12–20 well‑known holiday songs from movies or radio. Including a few lesser‑known tracks keeps players on their toes.
• Prepare short clips or hum the melodies yourself; make sure you have a stable internet connection and good audio quality.

How to Play

• Play or hum the first few seconds of a song.
• The first person (or team) to correctly identify the tune scores a point. For extra challenge, ask players to name both the song and the movie it appears in.
• Continue until you have gone through all the songs; the highest score wins.

4. Holiday Trivia

Holiday trivia can be a low‑pressure way to spark conversation and friendly competition. BreakoutIQ’s holiday trivia game emphasizes inclusive questions and a lively atmosphere to ensure everyone enjoys the session

Preparation & Materials

• Develop a list of holiday‑themed questions covering different cultures and traditions. Mix easy questions like “What color is Rudolph’s nose?” with more challenging ones.
• Divide participants into small teams and prepare a simple scoring sheet or digital poll.

How to Play

• Share the trivia questions one at a time via screen share or in the chat.
• Give teams a short time to discuss and submit their answers.
• Tally the scores after each round and announce a winner when all questions are complete.

5. Virtual Gift Exchange

A gift exchange brings holiday cheer even when teammates are miles apart. A virtual version works by sharing imaginative gift ideas or small tokens rather than requiring everyone to mail presents.

Preparation & Materials

• Decide whether your exchange will be “virtual only” or involve sending small gifts. In a purely virtual version, participants can describe or show a “gift” they would hypothetically give a colleague, so no one feels pressured to buy anything.
• Assign gift recipients randomly (for a Secret Santa) or let each person choose whom they will “gift.”

How to Play

• Send each participant the name of their recipient privately if you’re doing Secret Santa.
• On the call, have each person reveal their virtual gift or open a physical one, describing why they chose it.
• Allow the recipient to react and thank the giver, continue until everyone has shared.

6. Virtual Ugly Sweater Party

Ugly sweater parties are classic holiday gatherings where guests wear the tackiest holiday sweaters they can find. Going virtual doesn’t diminish the fun, participants can still flaunt outrageous knitwear and see everyone’s creations on screen.

Preparation & Materials

• Encourage guests to find or make a gaudy sweater. People can search online for quirky sweaters or customize a plain sweatshirt with felt patches, garland or lights.
• Send playful invitations that capture the over‑the‑top mood of the event and include the date, time and meeting link.
• Choose a video‑conferencing platform that allows spotlighting participants and running polls for voting.

How to Play

• At the party, invite participants to show off their sweaters. Use the platform’s spotlight feature so each person gets a moment to shine.
• Ask attendees to describe or pose in their sweaters, then open a poll or ask for private messages to vote on the most outrageous outfit.
• Award a small prize or bragging rights to the winner.

Love The idea of Holiday Themed Fun to Spice up Your Remote Team Meetings?

Thinking about doing more? Consider Remote Team Building Holiday Events! Here at Breakout IQ we specialize in fun, creative and engaging remote team building events. Let us support you in providing some holiday excitement for your team this year.