“There’s magic in the night, when the pumpkins glow by moonlight.”
Halloween is just around the corner, and it marks the beginning of the festive season as well.
With the challenges this year’s brought in everyone’s life, no occasion for celebration should go unnoticed.
As we all know that halloween celebrations can be a lot of fun celebrating with your loved ones. They can also prove to be a great way to boost morale and mix things up for your team.
Now that most organizations have employees working remotely, it is time to come up with workplace activities and team building exercises to lift up holiday spirits among remote working employees.
Although it can be challenging to celebrate Halloween with employees working from home, numerous organizations are finding ways to celebrate the spookiest of all holidays. This is a great way to incorporate elements of entertainment into the monotonous work life and give everyone a chance to bond over festivities.
Here are some awesome ideas to kickoff celebrations at work:
Dressing Up
Halloween cannot be Halloween without people dressing up spookily, channeling their creative energy. And costume contests help break the monotony of working from home and gives people a chance to shake their life up a bit. Thanks to technology, virtual video meets have become effortless and teams can interact without any hindrance.
Setting up a virtual costume contest is a great idea to engage remote working employees, you can set up a theme and ask employees to submit their pictures. Later, you can announce the winners virtually. Even better, you can organize a virtual event over video call where every one can showcase their modeling skills, dressed up as their favorite character for halloween.
To make it interesting, and interactive, you can choose winners for different categories like
The Best Dressed, Funniest Outfit, Scariest look and so on. From vampires to werewolves and scary clowns to ghosts, the spookier the costumes the more fun the competition.
This way a spirit of competition is instilled in team members and it’s an opportunity to bond with colleagues as well.
- Pumpkin Carving
Pumpkin carving is a Halloween tradition followed by people worldwide and this an exciting activity that can happen on a video conference. You can time the contest, and the person with the best carved pumpkin gets a prize. Employees can involve their family members especially the kids in this task and display their artistic flair.
Get everyone involved in the contest, and each member gets to cast their vote in favour of their favorite. The ones who are not very artistic or inventive come up with funny and quirky designs, and others surprise everyone by their creativity. Either way this is something out of the ordinary and hosting this event can be a great success.
- Halloween workstation decor
Working from home has its perks but you sure do miss working out of work stations with memoirs you’ve collected over time.
Halloween workstation styling is an exciting activity where team members decorate their desks at home or the area around it with halloween decor items like cardboard cutouts, weird streamers, sharpie drawings, mini pumpkins, or anything eerie that makes your desk standout. The person with the most festive decorations gets a prize decided unanimously by the team.
After all, getting your work out of a spooky, bizarre location might be a lot of fun and help you get a Halloween vibe going.
- Virtual trick or treating
There’s no Halloween without trick or treat, and therefore, teams must come forward with their own version of trick or treat which will of course be a virtual one. With no one to judge you on the basis of your age, virtual trick or treating is a breath of fresh air for all team mates. Each member sends digital treats like gifs, gift cards, online vouchers etc., to their colleagues which helps them catch up after a long time.
Such activities are not only entertaining but also a great way for members to build a rapport with each other. They are great team building opportunities and also help showcase various talents and skills possessed by the team mates. I bet everyone will love this modern take on the age old Halloween traditions and leave everyone nostalgic.
- Retelling scary stories
Since you are not together in person with your team, getting everyone hooked to a conversation can be a challenge. But that is until one of you begins telling a super chilling Halloween story which makes everyone petrified yet engaged all at once.
Storytelling contests are a fun way for colleagues to interact without worrying about hierarchies and ranks. Everyone brings their own anecdote to the table and shares a piece of themselves with everyone.
And for those of you who are easily scared by ghosts and those who love alone, this might be quite a challenging task. These events are not about incentives and winning, rather this adds a personalized touch to the whole celebration even if you’re scared to your bones.
- Promote a good cause
Even though Halloween is about fun and celebration, nothing beats the feeling of giving someone else a reason to celebrate. Each team member can choose a way to give back to the society and tell everyone what it is about and why they support this cause. From donating to a charity to putting some volunteer work or simply helping anyone in need, Halloween can be about giving as well.
There should be no reason to do something nice, but if this Halloween is giving you one make the most of it. Tell about your cause, talk about why it needs attention and what you can do to make it better. You all can collectively work around something as well and lend your assistance to those in need. This creates a positive atmosphere and highlights the inner goodness in every individual.
- Halloween movie marathon
Just when you thought your Halloween celebrations could not be more thrilling a scary movie marathon might be just what you need. With countless online platforms it is super easy to organize a company movie nights You can choose your favorite movies from a list of classic halloween movies and stream it virtually with your team. This way individuals can build a connection with each other and eliminate the feeling of being so far off from each other.
A movie night might be a much needed break from your everyday routine and are a great way to spend an interesting few hours with each other. So buckle up and draft a list of the finest Halloween hits this Halloween!
- Halloween Bingo
One of the best and least complicated games for Halloween is a virtual bingo session. This game requires nothing but digitally designed squares with various Halloween related questions. Team mates can split up into groups and ask the questions only to know who has done those things and who has not. This is a way to spill their funny secrets and give their colleagues an insight into their lives.
This bingo offers a lot of variety and brings a lot of entertainment to a virtual Halloween party. This bingo can also involve a few fun but doable dares making the game more personalized and interactive. Write your top questions, dares or activities and send them in to be included in the bingo. This is a fun team activity with someone for and from everyone.
- Cookathon
The last one that we have on this list is another exhilarating activity – a live cookathon where two people challenge each other at a dish virtually while everyone else watches them cook their life away. It is a great way to gel with your team and display your cooking skills.
Since it is a time specific activity, people get competitive and act all funny which is hilarious to watch. This is a great way to build synergy in your team and get them to know each other better.
Winding up
Working remotely can take a toll on you and disrupt the work-life balance, hence any cause for celebration is welcome. And, what better than Halloween? An occasion full of uncanny surprises!!!
As stressful as the situation in the world is, these small events act as stress busters and are thoroughly enjoyed by employees who’ve been working remotely for a long time now. It is healthy not only for your mental health but also a great opportunity to bond and interact with your colleagues.
Don’t let this Halloween be anything other than fun. Even though you’re not physically present at work having a gala time, you should still keep your spirits high and festive. Instead of spending Halloween like any other working night, pep yourself up and be ready for a scary yet invigorating night.
Happy Halloween!
