Your startup is not just your revenue stream, your career, or your office; it’s the life of everyone in your office. And no matter how hard life is, you need to enjoy every second whenever you get a chance. What can be a better occasion to enjoy than Christmas and New Year’s Eve? It’s a universal festival. Regardless of the country or religion that a person belongs to, everyone enjoys Christmas and the New Year. Also, celebrations help to boost the overall morale of the office employees and increase the rate of retention. In fact, according to research, 80% of employees leave their jobs because they do not get enough appreciation and a morale boost. Hence, a little celebration once in a while is important to keep things alive and vibrant.
However, you need to make sure that each and every person in your office actually enjoys this eve. This is why we have decided to come up with this post, which contains some delightful New Year celebration ideas in the office.
This post includes:
New Year Party Ideas for Offices With More Than 50 Employees
New Year Party Ideas for Offices With Less Than 50 Employees
New Year Party Ideas for Remote Organizations
Corporate Gift Ideas for New Year
New Year Party Ideas for Offices With More Than 50 Employees
If you own a big company and have a pretty large number of people working in the office, then it might seem challenging to come up with a good idea for the New Year celebration in the office. However, with these unique New Year activities for big offices, you can simply get the best of your sizeable office:
- Ask employees to bring their families on New Year’s Eve: Families are always important. They are the reason people grow up so well. And they are the reason that you have great employees in your company. Why not share this happiness of new things with all the people? Hence, ask your employees to bring their family members to the New Year party. When the families of the colleagues meet each other on this special occasion, everyone will be happy and closer to each other.
- Theme Party: Maybe it’s very cliché, but you can choose a unique theme like everyone having to wear shorts or pajamas with a suit on at the New Year’s party. Or maybe you can ask them to wear their school or college uniform, etc. Theme parties will never be out of fashion; you just have to be creative with the idea. Some of the themes you can have are superheroes, ballroom gala, medieval times, 20th-century eras, science fiction, Hollywood glamour, carnival, retro, winter, games, and masquerades.
- The Boss Speech: The founder or the head of the office might be asked to come to the podium towards the beginning or in the middle of the New Year party in order to deliver a funny speech to the people. The founding boss, along with the other key executives of the company, can review the whole year in the office and talk about the best moments, thereby throwing some light on the future plans. It will make the employees more connected to the company.
- Cubicle Decorating Contest: Run a contest for cubical decoration in the office. This way, your employees will have some fun, and your office will look festival-ready.
- Lunch/dinner Party: A large office implies that there are numerous employees attached to the firm. Though it is a constructive idea to throw lunch or dinner parties in the case of small offices, it is too hectic and expensive when it comes to large organizations. However, when it comes to New Year’s Eve or a dedicated day to usher in the new year, it certainly calls for some delicious gourmet delights.
- Fashion show competition: The new year is the onset of new trends in everything, including fashion. Therefore, conducting a fashion show competition on New Year’s Eve sounds like it would brighten the office atmosphere further, and it is a perfect suit for bigger offices!
- Food fest/competition: Contests never fail to attract people, and more so when it comes to special occasions like New Year’s Day or the evening before it. Therefore, you can always go for food fests and food competitions conducted at the office or in any other venues near it for all your office employees.
- Music Festival: Along with eating, listening to good music goes hand in hand. This is why you can easily consider organizing a corporate New Year’s party music fest on the occasion of the New Year’s celebrations. A musical band or a famous artist can join in to make things even bigger!
- Going Rave: Monotony has become our best companion for quite a time now. The black-and-white sedentary lives most of us lead seem not to go anywhere. This is why, by calling the new year an occasion, an office can plan things going rave with good food, drinks, music, a new year celebration in the office, and tons of entertainment! This could be one of the most fun and interesting activities for New Year celebration in office.
- Singing and Dancing Contest: A singing and dancing contest in a big office sounds like a carnival in itself where everyone can take part and help entertain their colleagues. These contests not only help the office employees get an enthusiastic boost but also help them recognize the hidden talents in their bay-mates, cubicle-mates, and others.
- Spotting the Talent: Talents bloom among us, and when it comes to large offices, there are many talented people, most of whom go unnoticed. However, occasions like Christmas and New Year can help bring these talented employees to life! Engaging in festive New Year activities for employees can provide a platform for showcasing their skills and fostering a sense of camaraderie. Whether through team-building games, talent shows, or creative contests, these activities create an environment where employees’ hidden talents can shine, adding an extra layer of joy and connection to the holiday celebrations.
- Casino Night: Usher with a fun casino night bash replete with poker, roulette, blackjack, and more! This novel theme sparks friendly competition among colleagues. Casino décor, snack counters, music, and attractive prize giveaways will ensure a rocking happy hour flowing into a memorable New Year countdown.
- Show Off Your Talents: Organize an office talent show to discover your coworkers’ hidden talents. It’s a fun way for everyone to shine and show their skills. Plan carefully, and don’t be afraid to ask for help—organizing a talent show can be tricky but worth it!
- Karaoke Extravaganza: Host a karaoke night and let your coworkers sing. It’s a fun way to celebrate, and you might find some hidden singing talents in the office.
- Photo Booth: Set up a photo booth with fun props and backgrounds. It’s a great way for employees to take pictures and remember the celebration. Make sure to share the photos later as a keepsake.
- Tech-Free Zone: Create a tech-free zone during the celebration. This will help everyone talk to each other and take a break from screens.
One of these ideas shall fit your budget and work wonders for your organization this year!
Muskaan Kapoor
New Year Party Ideas for Offices With Less Than 50 Employees
If you have a small business, store, or startup, then it is easier to execute some creative ideas. However, if you are blank about how to celebrate this New Year with your small team, these are some ideas to consider:
- Ask them to predict the next year: Ask your employees to predict the next year. Let them predict the year for the company and for the world events too (like elections, sports matches, etc). Make their video while they predict and save it. Next year, when you guys gather again for the New Year office party, play those videos. It will be fun for everyone.
- Let everyone give a speech: If you’re planning fun celebrations for companies and don’t have too many employees, consider giving everyone a chance to give a speech at the New Year’s party. Let them share insights into what they’ve learned this year, their resolutions, or anything else they’d like to express. Incorporating these personal touches into the festivities can enhance the sense of belongingness among employees during your lively and enjoyable company celebration.
- Secret Santa: Many startups celebrate both Christmas and New Year together. So, if you want, you can still celebrate the New Year by playing Secret Santa with your team. You can all play Secret Santa and gift each other something. Secret Santa is a kind of game in which all the people of a group exchange gifts anonymously. However, make sure no one is left because it will lead to demotivation and will ruin the beginning of the year.
- Bonfire: Grab a music player, some wood, and some drinks, and go to the backyard of the office. Or maybe you can go on camping trips to the hills or a forest on New Year’s Eve for a celebration party. Light a bonfire with your colleagues, exchange life advice, play some games, and have fun together. If you have 5 to 25 people in the company, it’s a great way to spend time with the employees.
- A daytime off: Ask your employees to come early on the 31st, do some work, and then go shopping together. You can provide them all with some shopping coupons. It will be a good way to make their last day of the year great. Also, this way, they will get time to get ready for the office New Year party.
- Host the party at some other place: Book a hotel, restaurant, or maybe a resort for the office New Year Party if you have a budget. Why do everything yourself? Just delegate the work to others (third party) and let your employees have fun. Also, I am sure you don’t want your office to look like a mess on the first day of the New Year.
- Lunch/dinner ideas: A New Year office party experience never fails regardless of the party or the organization. Therefore, going forward with a lunch/dinner date with the employees is a great New Year office party idea way to usher in the new year together!
- Happy hours: Happy hours don’t really need an occasion, and they almost always shoot our excitement to the zenith. The happy hours are, therefore, something that even the New Year’s office celebration can consist of.
- Photo contests: Photo contests are something that offices can certainly look up to where the employees can arrange for photoshoots based on their own preferences and setups and let others decide. There can also be a poll based on the total photos received, and the best photographs and photographers can be awarded!
- New Year Giveaway: Host a fun giveaway contest at your New Year’s Eve party and give cool prizes to the top participants. Giveaways are a great way to boost friendly competition among your coworkers. You can pick gift cards, phone accessories, useful tools, or personal care items as prizes.
100 Party Games for New Year’s Celebration in the Office
New Year Party Ideas for Remote Organizations
If you have a business model that does not require the presence of employees in the office, like a Blog or a software company, etc., then you must have virtual employees in its place. Virtual employees work from their homes. However, they are still counted as your employees, so you need to do something to boost their morale on the occasion of the New Year. To increase their belongingness to the company, you can do the following things on New Year’s Eve:
- Arrange for a virtual Secret Santa: Yep! That’s possible. You can use Amazon Prime accounts to send gifts. Moreover, there is a website called Elfster, which is dedicated to hosting Secret Santa; you can use their service for this purpose. Or you can simply ask your employees to send the gifts to the head office and then send them to the receivers. However, you can also send them gifts by the name of the company to make them happy.
- Distribute free passes or coupons: If you think buying and sending a gift is a long process, then just buy some passes or coupons online and gift them. Tell them to enjoy the day with the passes you have sent. This way, you can make sure that they are having fun. This will give them mental rest and increase their productivity.
- Play online games together: To enjoy the eve, you can play some online games with the whole squad on New Year’s Eve. The best players can also be rewarded after the gameplay.
- Give away food hampers: A remote-working organization can easily dedicate funds to afford food hampers for each one of the employees, who can order foods and beverages for themselves and their families and enjoy together.
- Unleash the talents: Virtual offices require the employees to work from their homes, which hardly brings all of them together. Though the supervisors frequently have chats with the members of their teams, the colleagues rarely converse with themselves, and least of all, know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, hobbies, and more. Therefore, when it comes to the new year’s celebrations, an introduction with the office colleagues and their bosses and recognizing each others’ talents is something well worth it. Talented employees shall also be entitled to some rewards.
- Conduct photo/video contests: The virtual office employees cannot work together, and this is why the sharing of photos and videos can be considered a great time pass activity that can even be a part of the New Year’s celebration. The top 3 photos and videos shot in the localities of the employees can also be entitled to awards and recognitions!
- Conduct award functions to recognize the employees: Awards and recognitions are an integral part of an office’s awards and recognition program. These help the employees feel proud of the work they do, along with helping the office keep track of its key performers across domains.
- Decipher Your Team’s New Year Resolutions: For a fun virtual New Year’s Eve party with your team, try the “Guess Your Team’s New Resolutions” game! Ask everyone to share a New Year’s resolution with you through email. When you have them all, put the resolutions in the chat. Then, let everyone take turns guessing who wrote each resolution. To make it even more exciting, each person can share one real resolution and one made-up one!
- Virtual Background Contest: Host a Zoom background contest where team members can show their creativity with New Year-themed backgrounds. It makes virtual meetings more fun.
- Crowdsourced Yearbook: Create a digital yearbook by asking team members for photos, quotes, and memories. This will capture the highlights of the year and reflect everyone’s experience. These ideas are designed to be fun and different for teams of all sizes.
Note: You can mix up the ideas according to your needs and wants. For instance, a theme party is not just for big companies; an office with less than 50 employees can also have one. You can implement these ideas in other corporate events like the Tamil New Year celebration in office, the End of Financial Year party, and other corporate parties too.
Archana Karthikeyan
Corporate Gift Ideas for New Year
Gifting has always been an integral part of any new beginning in life. When is there a better time than starting the year with memorable and useful gifts to the most precious gems of your company who truly bring radiance to your company and work hard for it to shine bright?
So, if you are also looking to get the best of your employees, then gifting them with presents is the least you can do. Here’s a list of some gifts that you can give your invaluable employees:
Be the Real Santa
Gift your employees what they might need, and needs may differ individually. One way is to get to know their wishes by putting up a wish box and getting them whatever they want. But this can be feasible only for a very small number of employees.
A better and more practical way is to give them vouchers. Vouchers can be for:
- Shopping: If you wish to gift something to wear, you can go for Myntra vouchers or Pantaloons vouchers. For electronics, vouchers for Croma can be given. To provide a wider choice, Amazon or Flipkart is the best choice.
- Spa: Who wouldn’t want a holiday relaxing and stress-releasing at a wonderful spa? It might be the best way for employees to celebrate their New Year.
- Gym: A healthy employee is the true asset of the company. Regular exercise is important for good health, and the gym is the best place to ensure that. You can gift them a membership in a gym.
- Movie: Gift movie vouchers to your employees and their families. Let your employees spend some quality time with their families.
- Travel: Nothing can be better than giving your employees a break from their monotonous office schedule and providing them with the privilege of spending a few days away from city life in a calm and serene place. This will boost the productivity of your employees after a wonderful break.
Sweet Treats
Christmas and New Year are incomplete without sweets. This week is all about cakes, cookies, muffins, puddings, and whatnot. A perfect gift for the new year can be a box full of these sweet treats and please the inner child within every employee by gratifying their sweet tooth.
Grooming Kits
Self-grooming is really important. Employees are considered to be the reflection of an organization. A clean, well-groomed employee is a requisite for the image of the company. A branded grooming kit can be an exemplary gift this New Year. Grooming kits are generally gender-specific. A perfect kit for men can include face wash, shampoo, deodorant, shaving foam, aftershave lotions, talc, etc. Kits for women may comprise perfumes, body wash, moisturizers, etc.
Indoor Plants/Succulents
Indoor plants are among the few plant types that can grow well inside the four walls and do not require much care or maintenance. Such plants have multiple benefits. They keep the air inside your home or office clean and pure and help your office be proud of its uniqueness. Beautification has a new meaning with succulents and other indoor plants that can be brought inside an office cubicle. Desk plants are commendable gifts for your worthy employees, with which you can allow them to greet a green friend at their desk every day.
Tickets for Traveling
One rarely hates traveling. Besides, with the dreaded pandemic getting on our nerves, most of us have mostly stayed indoors. However, with the relaxation of the restrictions worldwide, people around the world are unwinding by traveling to their favorite destinations, including your office employees. Therefore, traveling tickets can well be one of the most sought-after gifts from an office!
Essential Workday Gift Hamper
The workday essentials gift hamper has everything you need to work well. It’s a great idea for a corporate New Year’s gift. The stuff inside is picked out with care for your team. It’s a nice way to show your employees that you want them to have a comfy workspace. Giving this gift on New Year’s adds a special touch; your team will appreciate it. This thoughtful gift lets your team know you value their comfort and productivity. It’s a practical and meaningful way to kick off the New Year together.
A Few More Thoughtful Gifts
There are a number of objects that can be quite useful for office-goers for daily use, the need of which they don’t even realize unless they start using them.
- Power banks/portable chargers: Our phones have become an integral part of our lives. In fact, according to a report, there will be more than 3.5 billion smartphone users in the world. A few hours without a smartphone brings an abrupt halt to our work. And charging sockets are not always available all the time and everywhere. Power banks can be a convenient gift for all employees.
- Customized laptop/phone covers: Laptop covers and phone covers are the first things we buy after buying the laptop and phone, respectively. A customized cover can bring a sense of belongingness toward the company among employees.
- Headphones: Music is the best and the most accessible way of relaxing after a tiresome day. Gifting headphones or, nowadays, even AirPods can be an impressive option as this may portray you as an employer who cares about his/her employees.
- Pendrives: Pendrives are portable secondary storage devices that are always handy for a working person. Important data, files, etc., can be stored in a pen drive and extracted as needed and conveniently. This can be a workable gift.
- Customized coffee mugs: The need for our favorite cuppas never ends, and customized coffee mugs from offices can simply be another useful addition to the collection of tea lovers and coffeeholics. That is why an office can decide upon gifting coffee mugs to its employees.
- Software upgrades: Software is our faithful friend in the sedentary desk lives most of us live. However, every now and then, we often discover our software is out of date. This is why software upgrades are the things we frequently look out for. Getting these software upgrades for free from our offices can be more than rejoicing!
- Diaries/Notebooks: Encourage continuous learning by gifting customized notebooks and planners. Available in various colors and textures, these useful corporate giveaways motivate teams to journal learnings, scribble ideas, plot goals, and chronicle growth through the year. Matching pen sets make these apt New Year mementos.
The list of considerate gifts can be endless. Although this ritual of gifting may seem to be materialistic, and the gifts you give may be exhaustive, it’s a conduit of showing how much you value your employees and how much you care for their needs.
Kinnary Nensee
Conclusion
New Year is not just another occasion; it is a time of happiness, of festivities, of showing how much you love and care for yourself and the people surrounding you. Most of all, the New Year is a time of hopes, dreams, and staying together. This is why presents, gifts, and parties are really important during this occasion. So, why should an office be an exception?
Office presents and parties ooze the festive spirit that its employees feel and these are very important to boost the morale of the employees working for an organization and enhance overall productivity. Therefore, you must try to make the celebration prominent and full of fun without dragging the work in between. However, it is essential to invite everyone and treat them all equally. Though they might have other plans, inviting your clients during the year’s end is also something you can go for. Wishing everyone through emails, even your ex-employees and competitors is also a sign of positivity and a good human being as you are.
StartupTalky family wishes you a very Happy New Year 2025! Share this post with all the entrepreneurs, businessmen, and employees you know.
FAQs
How can I bring more fun to the office party?
Arranging everything based on the mood of your employees is a good option to bring more fun. Remember, on the day of partying, everybody wants to forget his or her worries. Study everyone’s likes and dislikes to make better arrangements.
What is the office party etiquette, and how to follow them?
The office party is the key option to know your office colleagues well. Hence, whenever we are partying, we should consider a few rules to enjoy ourselves more freely and let others enjoy themselves in the same way.
- Always go on time and dress appropriately.
- Greet them with a smile and also say goodbye with a smile.
- Try to understand others’ feelings, respect their boundaries, and be friendly with them.
- If you like or dislike anyone, never try to make an ill-behaved face in front of others.
- Always do light conversations instead of heavy ones.
What are the top corporate gifting platforms?
Some of the top corporate gifting platforms are:
- Etsy
- Swagup
- Caroo
- Uncommon Goods
- Swag.Com
- CorporateGift.com
- Gifts for Good
- Tinggly
- Xperience Days
Why is corporate gifting important?
Corporate gifting is a good idea for making good connections with the office staff. The gifts received by the employees form a part of their memory and help them reflect upon their belongingness in an organization.
How to celebrate New Year in office?
Some of the best New Year party ideas in office include:
- Decorate the Office: Add festive decorations.
- Team Lunch/Party: Organize food and games.
- Recognition Awards: Celebrate team achievements.
- Fun Activities: Host games or a talent show.
- New Year Resolutions: Share goals for the year.
- Small Gifts: Give goodies or hampers.
- Countdown Moment: Celebrate together with a toast.
