From days devoted to volunteer work, to catered feasts in the office, there are many ways to celebrate Thanksgiving in the workplace. If your team is remote or hybrid this year, your usual methods may not make sense, but you can still make the holiday feel special! No matter how you celebrate it, Thanksgiving is an amazing opportunity to give thanks and show gratitude, two things that many people do not practice frequently enough.

As you prepare for this special holiday, keep an eye out for opportunities to show gratitude and spread kindness. In the workplace this could mean recognizing your co-workers, celebrating successes from this past year, or coming together to simply enjoy each other’s company.

Celebrating Thanksgiving in a Virtual Workplace

To help you get started, we’ve put together a list of 15 ways that you can celebrate Thanksgiving with your team whether you are in-office, hybrid, or fully remote.

15 Ways to Celebrate Thanksgiving in a Virtual Workplace

1. Give Recognition

Don’t underestimate the power of a compliment. Send some words of acknowledgement and appreciation to every individual on your team. If you are part of a large team, this can take some time, but the result of making your co-workers feel valued and appreciated makes it worthwhile. Be sure that your recognition is always specific, genuine, inclusive, and values-based.

2. Send Thank You Notes

Go a step further by sending your recognition through the mail. Receiving a handwritten note in the mail always makes you feel special. Have everyone on your team randomly select a colleague to write and send a thank you card to.

3. Virtual Cooking Class

If someone on your team is an expert at preparing one Thanksgiving dinner dish, allow them to lead the virtual room in a cooking tutorial. Or you can even hire a professional to lead the room in a Thanksgiving-themed virtual cooking class. Grab your apron!

4. Organize a Volunteer Day

Choose one day this month to spend with a local nonprofit or charity. If your team lives in close proximity to each other, you can volunteer at one place together. If your team is dispersed, allow each individual to spend the day volunteering at a local charity of their choice. Afterwards, get together virtually to share your experiences and reflect on the service you did as a team.

5. Thanksgiving Story Telling

While in a virtual room, your team will build a fictional Thanksgiving story together, one sentence at a time. The first person will come up with the intro sentence, and then each person following has control over the next element. Assign someone to record or write down the story as it is created so that you can read it aloud at the end.

6. Sip & Paint

Send each member of your team a basic painting kit, or have them purchase one themself. Choose hand turkeys, or another Thanksgiving theme for everyone to paint. Enjoy working on an art project while sipping on a glass of wine together in a virtual room. At the end, share your creation with the rest of your team.

7. Coffee Chats

Invite a coworker that you don’t usually meet with to have coffee or lunch with you. If your team is remote, you can invite them to a virtual social and spend some time one on one getting to know each other a little bit better. If you are a team leader, you can also assign pairs for coffee chats to ensure everyone is doing them.

8. Send Gift Baskets

If you have the budget, sending something to each member of your team that they can enjoy with their families at home is a good alternative to providing a holiday meal with your team in the office. And who doesn’t love a special home delivery? This could be anything from pie to drinks to an actual meal.

9. “What are you thankful for?”

Go around the room (virtual or physical) and have each person name something they are grateful for. The answers are completely open-ended, so feel free to say something work-related or personal! They will give some insight into who each person is and can help your team grow closer.

10. Start and End Meetings on Time

This may sound obvious, but making a point to be punctual or even giving your co-workers some extra time back can be a way to show gratitude this month. It’s the little things.

11. Share a Company Slideshow

Collect old and recent photos of members of your team and put them into a slideshow. Join each other in a virtual room and go through the slideshow together. This activity pairs well with any virtual happy hour or cocktail party.

12. Autumnal Mixology

Follow along with a Thanksgiving cocktail recipe together and have every person in the room create the same drink. You could also make a contest out of it and have each person create their best looking thanksgiving cocktail to be judged by the rest of the team. Cranberry, pear, cinnamon, and clove are some popular autumn flavors.

13. Sign up for a Turkey Trot as a team

You don’t have to be physically together to take part in something as a team. Many cities offer turkey trot races, and chances are you will know some people participating, even if no one from your office lives in the same place as you. Snap a photo at the finish line and share it with the rest of your team.

14. Team Reflection

We are often moving so quickly that we miss out on opportunities for reflection. Before getting into the eating and the drinking portion of your Thanksgiving party, spend some time reflecting on the success of the company from the past year.

15. Company History Lesson

Share rich conversation while socializing in a virtual room by going through the history of your company. Have a leader or the CEO tell the company’s origin story, and then open up the discussion to questions. You will certainly learn something new about your place of work and maybe even discover a new appreciation for being a part of it.

Scoot: Better Virtual Meetings to Build Engagement

Scoot is a revolutionary platform for virtual meetings and events, geared towards dynamic human experiences and relationship-building. Scoot enables meeting attendees to move, giving them freedom to be themselves and making it the best platform to host all of your virtual holiday parties!

To see a demo of the Scoot platform and determine if it is the right fit for your next virtual social, contact us.