FUN WINTER TEAM BUILDING IDEAS
winter team building activities and games
This article will feature ten awesome winter team building ideas for remote and in-person teams, as well as free icebreakers and game ideas to help connect and engage your teams!
As the hustle and bustle of the final quarter unfolds, we understand that maintaining team cohesion can be a challenging task. The impending holiday season and year-end deadlines often leave little room for the essential moments of connection that foster a strong team spirit. However, fear not! In the spirit of warmth and togetherness, we've curated a list of virtual team-building ideas tailored for the winter season.
From festive crafts to delectable food and drink experiences, virtual happy hours, and engaging games, these activities are designed to not only alleviate the year-end stress but also to strengthen the bonds that make your team feel united. Let’s discover innovative ways to keep your team engaged and uplifted during these colder months, together!
Treat your team to the ultimate winter-themed session hosted by KraftyLab including games, crafts, happy hour and much more. To learn more, connect with our team today and let’s plan together.
Virtual Winter Team Building Activity Ideas:
1. Winter Team Baking
The colder months are all about indulgence, about treating ourselves to yummy foods and desserts and enjoying them with our loved ones. For a fun and creative spin on a classic bake-along, invite your team to learn how to make and decorate delicious and impressive desserts like chocolate truffles which are rich and decadent, or a two-in-one craft and dessert like a hot chocolate bomb. If you are looking for a fun holiday-themed session, invite your team to decorate tasty Christmas, winter, or Valentine’s Day-themed cookies in a cookie decorating class.
KraftyLab’s Cookie Decorating Class.
2. Winter Cooking Class
Speaking of cozy, nothing says winter like a warm and comforting pot of soup, so invite your team to a unique winter cooking class! This Zero Waste Cooking class is led by a chef and cookbook author, who will show your teams how to make delicious meals using ingredients you already have on hand, repurpose leftovers and reduce waste in the kitchen. Scrappy cooking is a practical take on corporate sustainability training!
Altenatively, bring a nutritionist in to lead a Healthy Eating workshop and empower your teams with the tools to make healthy eating approachable and exciting. Your colleagues will learn how to build a balanced plate and learn how to make three quick and healthy meals, perfect for a busy work day! This class is a great way to kick off the new year, making healthy living easier for your team and supporting their well-being.
KraftyLab’s Zero Waste Cooking Class.
3. Winter Wellness Session
Speaking of wellbeing, we may not be able to do it all, but incorporating wellness sessions into your team events will help support your team’s well-being journeys, primarily through the winter months. If you are unsure where to start, invite an expert mental health speaker to deliver an engaging session talk on a topic relevant to your team, like avoiding burnout or the role of nutrition and exercise on mental health.
You can give your teams practical skills through meditation and yoga classes, which will give them the tools to unwind and practice mindfulness with the team and in their own time. Finally, thinking of wellness holistically, you can invite a Bucket List Coach to help your teams identify goals and dreams and prepare to take charge of their destiny personally and professionally.
Virtual Yoga Class For Winter Team Building.
4. Virtual Winter Happy Hour
Just because the sun isn’t shining does not mean we should skip out on happy hour. This winter, treat your team to a special mixology session full of cozy holiday flavors. An experienced bartender will guide your colleagues as they learn how to whip up three delicious cocktails or mocktails that will impress their friends and family beyond this mixology session. A fun way to elevate your mixology experience is by adding in a fun game like Winter Trivia or some Winter Icebreaker questions that your instructor can facilitate to boost engagement.
KraftyLab’s mixology class with all-inclusive kit.
5. Wine & Unwind
Invite your team to a luxurious virtual wine tasting experience for a true winter/holiday treat! To elevate this experience, allow your teams to choose an experience that is exciting to them, as our classes cater to different tastes and hobbies. We offer arts and crafts experiences like our Sip And Paint session, or our Wine And Craft experience where teams can choose from soap making, candle making or even Japanese Marbling.
Alternatively, your team can enjoy a classic wine tasting, guided by a professional with a passion for quality hand-crafted wine and explore three distinctive wines, or a wine and charcuterie where teams will learn how to build and assemble their own charcuterie boards, perfect for this time of year.
For this experience, check with your team ahead of time to ensure they are interested in consuming alcohol. For teams of drinkers and non-drinkers, mixology is better suited as we offer cocktail and mocktail alternatives.
KraftyLab’s wine tasting + cheese pairing class.
6. Winter Arts & Crafts
Stress can be high around the holidays and winter, so allowing your teams to relax and unwind can provide great relief. Send your team some fantastic crafty kits, like soap making or candle making, in their favorite winter scents like pine forest, pumpkin eggnog, and apple cinnamon. An experienced instructor will guide your teams as they discover just how simple it can be to create something wonderful from the comfort of their home. Plus, they will have a great end-result product they can enjoy or share with a loved one!
Virtual Candle Making Class For Winter Team Building.
7. Free Virtual Winter Party Games
Free Games
Among all the holiday parties and events, sometimes we want a fun engagement opportunity without the high price point, so check out some free office party games! Winter Scavenger Hunt will have your team compete against each other to see who can find as many winter items around their home in as little time as possible! For a fun session of music bingo, check out this Winter Virtual Bingo with fun cold, winter, and ice-related song titles.
Winter Icebreakers
Icebreakers are a great addition to any virtual event or team building session, as they help facilitate connection and engagement among team members. When we don’t see each other all the time, it can be hard to initiate conversations about non-work-related topics. Check out some fun winter icebreaker questions and This Or That questions to kick off your next winter event!
Do you put whipped cream or marshmallows on your hot chocolate?
Do you prefer the summer or winter Olympics?
What is your favorite winter holiday?
Have you ever participated in a winter sport, i.e. skiing, snowboarding, or ice hockey?
If you could spend New Year’s Eve anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Gloves or Mittens?
Football or Winter Sports?
Sugar Cookies or Gingerbread?
Soup or Chilli?
Eggnog or Mulled Wine?
Slippers or Fuzzy Socks?
Peppermint or Salted Caramel?
Fireplace or Bonfire?
White Elephant or Secret Santa?
Fudge or Bark?
In-Person and Outdoor Ideas:
8. Outdoor Community Volunteering
Charity team building activities are a great way to instill holiday cheer into your teams and give back to the community. Think about groups that are most vulnerable to the harsh weather and find out what organizations are working to support them in these times of need.
A great way to help teams work together is to build care packages for unhoused individuals, filling backpacks full of essential winter supplies. Each backpack can include helpful items like single-serving snacks, hygiene products, and items to keep warm. You can connect with a local shelter to distribute these backpacks/care packages. Check out this article to learn more about charity team building and the fantastic organizations you can support.
9. Winter Outdoor Team Building Activities
If your team is up for it, why not take on the great outdoors with a fun twist? A winter Scavenger Hunt can encourage teamwork, strategy, and planning as they compete against the clock and one another. It does not have to be complicated; all you need to do is create a scavenger hunt list and group chats for each team so that colleagues can collect their findings and photos. Don’t forget to prepare some fun prizes for the winners! This is a great team building and teamwork opportunity for new and established teams.
If you are close to the mountains, or if your team is willing to travel for a fantastic end-of-year trip, why not channel your own company Winter Olympics? You can organize an incredible competition with fun winter sports like skiing, snowboarding, and tobogganing. Elevate this experience with fun touches like an Olympic opening ceremony costume runway, games like Guess The Anthem, and some Olympic-themed trivia. You can assign countries to each participant and learn more about each country and its Olympic history as part of your experience.
We recommend giving your team plenty of notice and say when planning physical sports and having alternative options ready to suit all ability levels and be inclusive of all team members.
10. Winter Offsite Event
For a warmer winter option, how about taking your team on a day trip of sorts and bringing them somewhere fun? Great options include a bowling alley, arcade, mini-golfing, go-karting, or an indoor amusement park. If your team is daring, ice skating is the perfect winter activity! Your team will get to indulge in a fun activity while building relationships and making memories.
If you want to bring the offsite to the office, host a fun Winter Watch Party with your team and create goodies, snack boxes, or gourmet popcorn gifts to enjoy during the movie. Let the team vote on their favorite winter or holiday-themed movies like Elf, Frozen, Home Alone, or Eight Below!
Thank you for sticking around till the end! I hope these ideas have inspired you and can help you and your teams have fun together this winter. Remember, the activity you choose matters less than you think. After all, the goal is to bring your team together, so let them have a say in which activity they participate in to increase their likelihood of having fun. Happy team building!
STAY CONNECTED & FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @THEKRAFTYLAB
