PULTEVENT
Virtual holiday party games: 7 formats for a remote team
Friday, four in the afternoon, the second week of December. Thirty-eight tiles on the call. Denver has a cat on the keyboard, Leeds is already on the mulled wine, and somebody in Kraków has their camera pointed at the ceiling. The host shares one window. On it sits a QR code, and one by one the tiles look down at their phones.
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Remote holiday parties fail in a predictable way. Everybody unmutes at once, nobody can hear the question, and the one person who knows the answer is on a train. After a few years of running these for distributed teams, I stopped trying to play games through the call itself. The call carries the picture and the laughter. The phones do the playing.
Here's how it works. The host runs a console in a laptop browser and shares the stage window in whatever video call the company already uses. Colleagues scan the code on that shared screen and play from their phones, no app, no account. Their answers, votes and ornaments show up on the stage everyone is watching. Phones need an internet connection, which people on a video call have anyway.
Seven games for a remote holiday party, in running order
1 Holiday quiz from phones
A short quiz on seasonal trivia: films, food, songs and traditions from the countries your team lives in. Questions appear on the shared screen, answers come from phones, and the score updates in front of everybody.
How to run it. Write a couple of questions for each office location. The Madrid team should get at least one they know better than anyone.
It gets every phone connected in the first minutes, and it quietly tells people the party includes them wherever they log in from.
2 Baby photo guessing
Childhood photos of colleagues go up one at a time. Phones guess, then the reveal gives the name.
How to run it. Collect photos by direct message, not in a group channel, and keep them secret until the day. Include a manager or two.
Remote teams know each other as faces in boxes. A toddler in a paper crown does more for that than any icebreaker.
3 Best background vote
Everyone was told to decorate the space behind them. The host names five finalists, phones vote, and the result bar stays hidden until you press the reveal.
How to run it. Spotlight each finalist for ten seconds so everyone gets a good look. Keep the result covered for a beat longer than feels comfortable.
It rewards the effort people made before the call and gives the quiet ones a moment on camera that doesn't involve talking.
4 Decorate the Tree
A big tree fills the shared screen. Colleagues touch the tree on their phones and their ornaments fly up to it while a scoreboard counts on screen.
How to run it. Ask everyone to mute and just tap. Count down out loud, then stay quiet and let the tree fill.
It's the one moment the whole team does the same thing at once, which remote teams almost never get to feel.
5 Region against region
Split the call into two or three teams by region or by department. A second quiz round counts toward the team scoreboard instead of individual scores.
How to run it. Mix time zones inside each team if you can. Americas versus Europe sounds fun until one side has been up since six.
Team scores give people a reason to cheer for someone they've never met in person.
6 The raffle
Every guest who joined by QR holds a raffle ticket on their phone. The host draws live on the shared screen while everyone checks the ticket on their phone.
How to run it. Announce early that everyone who stays to the end is in the draw. It's the kindest attendance policy there is.
Remote parties leak people after thirty minutes. A raffle near the end keeps them on.
7 Closing credits
The finale rolls like a film: photos on one side, names rising up the other. Everyone who came gets a line.
How to run it. Put the organizers under a heading at the top and the rest of the team below. Play something warm under it and say nothing.
Video calls usually end with somebody hitting leave mid-sentence. Credits give the party a last frame.
Works in any video call
You share one browser window. There's nothing to install on the call itself and nothing for guests to install on their phones.
Phones instead of unmuting
Answers come in by tap, so thirty people can respond at once without talking over each other.
Built for 45 minutes
Seven short formats that fit a late-afternoon slot before people drift off to pick up kids or catch a train.
A proper ending
A raffle drawn live and closing credits with everyone's names. It feels like a party finished, not a meeting that ran out.
A 45-minute running order
Five minutes for people to arrive and scan. Ten for the quiz. Eight for baby photos. Five for the background vote. Four for the tree. Eight for the team round. Then the raffle and the credits in the last five. That leaves a little slack for the inevitable person whose camera won't turn on.
Forty-five minutes is the length I recommend for a remote holiday party at work. People come with good intentions and a kitchen full of noise behind them. An hour and a half is too much to ask, and a short party that ends on a high is better than a long one that ends with half the tiles gone.
Sharing the stage window
The platform opens two windows. The console is for you, with the buttons, notes and next question. The stage is for the audience. In the video call you share the stage window only, not your whole desktop, so nobody sees the answers you're about to reveal.
Share with computer sound turned on if your call offers it, otherwise the music and effects stay in your room. Check it with one colleague ten minutes before the start. Almost every tech problem at a virtual party is a sound problem.
Lag, muting and the person on a train
Shared video arrives a second or two behind reality, and it varies from person to person. That's one reason answers go through phones rather than through everyone unmuting: nobody has to shout over a delay. Still, leave a little longer on each question than you would in a room.
Ask people to stay muted during answering and unmute for the reveals. Someone always forgets. Let it go, it's a party. If a colleague's phone connection drops, their place is held for ten minutes, so they can rejoin without losing their score.
Language and what to prepare
Guest screens follow each person's phone language, which matters for a team spread across Europe. The host console is being localized into English. The ready-made quiz decks are mostly Russian at the moment, so plan to write your holiday questions in the quiz builder. It takes pictures, audio and video, and an evening is enough to put ten good questions together.
Before the day, gather baby photos, a few team pictures for the credits, and the list of raffle prizes. That's the whole shopping list.
Trying it out
You can test the whole thing with two colleagues on a quick call: a free 3-day demo, no card. If it suits you, the full version is a one-time license, no subscription, with current prices at https://pultevent.ru/en/. Sign up for the demo at https://pultevent.ru/login.html?mode=register&next=/app/
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted events since 2014: more than 500 weddings, office parties and birthdays. TOP 100 Awards named him best host in Moscow in 2024 and in Saint Petersburg in 2023, and he still runs his own nights from this console. More at pultevent.ru/en.
How to host virtual holiday party games for a remote team
- 1
Book 45 minutes in the calendar and ask everyone to decorate their background.
- 2
Collect baby photos and team pictures privately a week ahead.
- 3
Write a short holiday quiz in the quiz builder with a question or two for each location.
- 4
Ten minutes before the start, share the stage window with sound and check it with one colleague.
- 5
Show the QR code while people join and let everyone scan in before the first game.
- 6
Run the seven formats in order and finish with the raffle and the credits.
FAQ
Which video call platforms does it work with?
Can colleagues play on the same computer they use for the call?
Do people need to download anything?
How many remote guests can join?
What about colleagues in different time zones?
Can we mix remote and office staff?
Is there a free trial?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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