Ice Breaker Games for Christmas Meetings

Let's face it, your wintertime work meeting isn't exactly a nog-fueled, Santa-tastic, holiday-party good time. But it doesn't have to make your coworkers or employees wish for just one more day of PTO in the calendar year. Christmas-themed icebreakers can infuse your ho-hum meeting with a little bit of ho-ho-ho holiday cheer!

From classic secret Santa gift exchanges to creative Christmas party Q&As, get ready to make some holiday magic. We've got a list of icebreaker games that are sure to get you off of the naughty list.

And don't worry if you're more of a stats- and data-driven workforce-ideas type of manager, boss or small-business owner. We won't leave you hanging this holiday season. Keep scrolling, and you'll find meeting openers and games galore!

Adam from accounting knows nothing about Maci from marketing, and Sarah from sales thinks Henry from HR's name is Bill. How can Christmas party icebreakers help your team to, well, actually become a team?

The answer to this question is a sleuth-y version of secret Santa that will become a favorite holiday tradition in your office. After all, who doesn't like a Christmas gift from a coworker? Write each team member's name on a note card. Fold the card and toss the names into the plastic Halloween pumpkin bowl that's still in the break room. Each employee picks a name at random from the bowl.

Here's where the sleuthing comes in! To find the perfect secret Santa gift, each employee will need to learn more about their person. They can subtly question their giftee or even ask coworkers about the person's likes, hobbies and interests. Now you're ready to break some ice at the start of your mid-December meeting with the gift exchange.

Two-plus years of zoom virtual meetings and cyber everything made all of us internet whiz kids. Put your team's tech-savviness to the test with holiday movie and musical jingle icebreakers. Turn classic charades up a notch with a cinematic holiday party game. This team-building exercise is an easy way to introduce each member to the group and encourage everyone to work together.

Break the team into groups of three or more. Write famous Christmas movie or Christmas song titles on slips of paper. Each group will pick one and use their phones to create a team film that depicts the title. The other small groups will screen the Academy Award or Grammy-ready clip and try to guess the movie/song. Bonus points for the group that reuses candy canes, holiday decorations, Christmas cards, a fully decked-out Christmas tree or just about anything with a snowman in their video!

Forget about the boring ol' icebreaker questions that every boss uses. Take a hard pass on anything related to work, your company's history of each employee's resume, and swap these icebreakers for seasonal sparklers (a.k.a., holiday icebreaker questions)!

Whip up a list of cute, creative and maybe even helpful Q's to A. Oh, and make sure each one has a Christmas or holiday theme. This "get to know you" game will become a Christmas story your team will tell for years to come.

Not sure where to start? "Entertaining," "awesome" and "unexpected" are adjectives that should describe your questions. Ask each team member to share the worst holiday gift they've given, the worst gift they've received, their biggest holiday baking fail, why they're on the nice list, how and when they finally realized Santa wasn't real, which reindeer best matches their personality and their fave holiday hacks.

Yeah, that's right. Your morning meeting just turned into an office party filled with Christmas games and so, ho-ho-ho much more! Between the secret Santa Claus holiday gift exchange, Christmas icebreaker questions and cinematic team-building activities, you've kicked any lingering Grinch vibes out of your workspace and opened your team up to some serious seasonal cheer.