Make the Most of a Quarantined Christmas - 10 Tips for Hosting a Virtual Christmas Party

Make the Most of a Quarantined Christmas  

10 Tips for Hosting a Virtual Christmas Party

Christmas has always been “the” holiday in my family for as long as I can remember. Big family gatherings with aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, friends, godparents…you name it, and they were there! This year will be different. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will not travel or gather for Christmas. I am sure many of you are in the same boat. 

If you’re celebrating Christmas virtually with friends and family this year, this post has lots of ideas to help you make it special and memorable. I hope this post helps you find ways to make this Christmas as memorable as ever. 

1. Send an Invitation

Establish the vibe for your Christmas party early by sending beautiful Christmas invitations. Yes, you could just send a text, but the Christmas holiday is all about the details! If you prefer saving time and trees, you can find beautiful templates for electronic invites on Evite or Paperless Post. 

2. Send a Party Pack

Your guests will flip when you send them a box filled with party favors and treats. Sending everyone the same items helps to foster a sense of togetherness. Here are some suggestions:

• Christmas Cookies
• Popcorn
• Sparkling Cider or Wine
• A tree ornament
• Santa Hats (personalize them for an added touch)
• Reindeer ears
• Supplies for games and crafts you will play together (see activities below)

3. Dress Up

Send a note to everyone ahead of time and encourage them to come to your online party dressed in Christmas-themed attire. Whether it’s matching pajamas, ugly Christmas sweaters, Christmas-inspired face painting, challenge your family to put their creative hats on! The kids in your life will enjoy this, and you can take it a step farther and organize a contest for specific categories like best dressed, most colorful, funniest, most unique, etc.

4. Share a Meal Together

Plan to share a meal at the same time. Set up your device on the table and engage in dinner conversation. If a virtual dinner conversation feels awkward to you, plan some icebreakers/conversation starters ahead of time. 

• What is the strangest Christmas present you ever received?
• What is your favorite scripture?
• What part of the nativity story speaks to you?
• What is your favorite holiday food?
• What is your favorite Christmas flick?
• What act might land you on the naughty list?
• What act might land you on the nice list?
• What are your new year’s resolutions?

5. Play Secret Santa

Streamline and minimize gift-giving by playing Secret Santa. Everyone is assigned one person for which they are to buy a gift. You can scramble the names and text everyone individually, or you can use a website like Elfster. Elfster allows everyone to register, scramble, and assigns names for you, and allows participants to list gift suggestions. 

6. Play Games

Here is a list of games you can play online together:

• Bingo – you can include the bingo card in the party pack, or email printable cards to folks and have them print it.

• Scattergories – Swellgarfo offers a great version with a question template already in place, a built-in timer, and a random number generator to boot. One player will need to share the Swellgarfo screen with other players and everyone will need to record their answers on scratch paper. Alternatively, the original playing card lists are readily available online and individuals can simply jot down their answers on scratch paper. However, this super DIY approach will require additional tools such as a random letter generator and a digital stopwatch. 

• Jackbox video games – Jackbox boasts a bunch of virtual games, in which you can use your tablet or smartphone as a controller and play with up to ten peeps at a time on your PC. Contestants need to use a separate device from Zoom to play the game. 

• Heads Up! App - It's a classic word game where players have to describe the word on the screen to the person holding the screen to their head. You can choose from a range of categories and play with as many people as you want.

7. Kids Activities

Here is a list of activities you can enjoy with the kids online.

• Bingo
• Scavenger Hunt – give clues for items kids can find around the house. The kids have to run and find them and report back to the screen with their findings.
• Christmas crafts – decorate Santa hats, build a gingerbread house, decorate a gingerbread man. You have to prepare by sending supplies in advance. 
• Read a story aloud
• Talent Show – have the kids perform for the entire family. 

8. Watch a Move Together

Check out this article from Wired. com to learn about various options for hosting a virtual watch party and the pros and cons of each. 

9. Sing together

Have you tried singing happy birthday on a zoom call? It’s a hot mess! Internet connections usually throw the timing off.  Don't let this discourage you from singing together. Here are some workarounds:

• 12 days of Christmas – assign a day to each person so you are not all singing at the same time. Make it fun by creating your own version based on a theme (I stole this from thw tv show A Different World). 
• 12 days of Christmas – Pandemic style (12 tracers tracing…11 zoom calls calling…)
• 12 days of Christmas – political version (proceed with caution!! You know your family)
• 12 days of Christmas – hood version

• Karaoke – What better way to celebrate the birth of our savior, by making a joyful noise. Apps like Stingray, Smule, and watch2gether are great for virtual parties. There may be a fee involved for these songs. YouTube has plenty of Karaoke videos and is free. Internet connections might impact the timing of the audio and the person singing. If people can connect to their interest via an ethernet cable instead of WIFI – this will help. To save time, you may want to send people a list of songs in advance so that songs can be queued and ready. 

10. Pray Together

Spend time thanking God for the gift of Jesus Christ and for allowing the family to be together (even if you are not actually together). Remember those who are homeless, alone and grieving losses and ask for God’s divine intervention.