10 Thanksgiving Office Party Ideas to Embrace the Holiday Spirit

Looking for Thanksgiving office party ideas to uplift your team’s spirit and build some camaraderie within your organization? Here are some ways to show your employees your appreciation during the Thanksgiving holiday season.

Holidays and festivals mark a time of celebration for employees, and while some of them get to celebrate with their families, others who live away from home or don’t have elaborate family traditions aren’t as lucky. Taking a moment out of the hustle and bustle of work to create a space for employees to relax and spend time with each other can be quite healing for the entire workforce. 

While Thanksgiving celebrations at work come with their own set of problems and considerations, getting a headstart on planning the festivities ensures everything flows smoothly, giving you a chance to plan everything out carefully. 

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Thanksgiving Office Party Ideas to Celebrate Your Team

Despite Thanksgiving fast approaching, work activities often tend to take precedence over actual planning for the event. Reassigning the task to a small team of individuals who are already busy leaves you with a very uneventful celebration that only feels like a distraction rather than a display of any positive feelings. 

Just as the name suggests, Thanksgiving is one time of the year when employers benefit from taking time out to appreciate employees and their presence at the organization. The sense of unity and cheer that drifts through the workplace can be extremely uplifting, and help workers approach the end of the year with a positive outlook for the next one.

Organize a Potluck

Tried and tested holiday rituals are always a safe bet when it comes to Thanksgiving celebrations at work. Potlucks allow your organization to come together and eat a hearty meal together, bonding over the food that represents each employee’s culture. If you have a very young workforce that is unlikely to be able to cook in large batches or face other restrictions, you can take the initiative to organize a spread for the office party instead.

If a potluck isn’t feasible, for example, when the team works remotely, then a recipe swap can also be a good way to exchange traditions. An online party can be arranged where everyone is asked to sit down for the call with their favorite food and drink.

Host a Talent Show

Employees are usually extremely reluctant to participate in such events but with a really nice reward on the line, they might just pull out their bag of tricks and provide the entertainment for the night. This is a great way to liven up the party and bring out other sides of the employee. 

Employers should make it a point to appreciate the employees who step up to take the stage in front of their coworkers. A participation award is a must.

Recognize Employee Achievements

Thanksgiving work activities should always be used to create a space where exceptional employees are acknowledged and appreciated for their hard work. When employee reviews are conducted, make a note of employees who went above and beyond expectations to perform their roles or those who excelled at their assignments. Let the organization know that you are grateful for their contributions.

Hand Out Fun, Personalized Awards

Apart from appreciating legitimate accomplishments that relate to the work that employees perform, it can also be fun to create some unique awards that cheer employees up and that a wider range of employees can hope to receive. Michael Scott from The Office knew the value of a Dundee, and in a similar fashion, you can create some fun award categories relevant to your organization. 

To acknowledge these positions, you can also create some personalized trophies or memorabilia that the winners can keep as a reminder of their victory.

Hold a Themed Workshop or Class 

If you want to use the Thanksgiving celebrations as a way to help employees unwind and do something creative for a change, organize a themed workshop or class that interested candidates can attend. This is a great way to help employees spend time with each other in a more relaxed atmosphere, where they aren’t being pushed by deadlines and targets.

Pottery and gardening workshops, cooking classes, and sip and paint events, are just examples of workshops that can be organized for interested employees.

Community Service and Volunteer Work

The joy of doing a good deed can be quite invaluable. Instead of focusing solely on office party plans for Thanksgiving, you can arrange a way for interested employees to join the employer in some volunteer work that can help a NGO or segment of the local community. This can range from clean-up events to fundraisers for a particular cause. 

Ask Employees to Express Gratitude Towards One Colleague

Design an event where employees can express their thanks to each other. While it’s impossible to review each employee’s entire list of colleagues they appreciate, having them show appreciation for one colleague may be possible. Similarly, you can also design a gratitude wall where employees can stick post-its or write a message for their colleagues and teammates.

Organize a Group Game Event

While employees relax over a good meal, you can also try to organize a sit-down game event that everyone can participate in. Housie or Bingo is a classic choice at times like this as it gets everyone involved without adding any pressure on them to do well. Trivia Night, Pictionary, or a scavenger hunt are other examples of games the employees can play.

Set Up A Themed Photo Booth

Everyone loves having fun photos to remember the day with and a photobooth is a great way to record the occasion for everyone who chose to be a part of it. A themed photo booth where everyone is asked to make the same expression or pose in a certain way provides a great collage of memories to represent the workforce and it can encourage every employee to join in.

Organize an “Away Day”

The workspace is associated with the various stressors that employees encounter day to day, which is not an ideal context for a celebration. Your Thanksgiving celebration plans at work could involve taking the employees to another location where they can spend the day. 

Most workers will likely prefer to spend the actual day of Thanksgiving with the family, so a local winery or museum may be a better choice for a short day out before the holiday. If you have an active workforce, a hike or another outdoorsy plan might work as well.

You can finalize the destination after shortlisting a few options and conducting a poll to give them the freedom to pick the one that is most appealing to them.

While coming up with Thanksgiving office party ideas, first make an effort to understand your workers and their preferences to get a sense of what they would enjoy the most, and try to plan out the events accordingly. At the end of the day, these events are about creating an optimistic, gratitude-filled atmosphere at work so take your time and plan a celebration where every employee feels welcome. 

The post 10 Thanksgiving Office Party Ideas to Embrace the Holiday Spirit appeared first on The HR Digest.

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