One cooperative December activity for a work team, with steps, minutes and a debrief question.
Christmas Team Building Games
A Card Verse, One Line Each, Folded1. The first person writes the opening line of a four-line verse for a greeting card and folds the paper so that only the last word shows. 2. The next person writes a second line that rhymes with that word, and folds again. 3. After four lines, open the paper and read the verse aloud. 4. Write a second verse with no folding, and compare the two. Setting: in person. Group: 4 or more. Time: 8 min. Needs: paper and pens. Debrief: What changed when everyone could see the whole verse?
These Christmas team building games are cooperative activities for a team at work in December, built from wrapping paper, ribbon, old greeting cards and paper snowflakes. Nobody has to buy a gift, and nothing asks about beliefs.
Read the full guide
Deal one card, or one of each type
Press Pick another activity for a new card. One of each type deals an energizer, a communication game, a problem and a trust activity. The Setting line on each card says in person or on a call.
Christmas themed team building games for a mixed team
Some of the cards use only winter or the end of the year, with no gifts, greeting cards or tree: among them Coldest to Warmest in the Chat, A Snowflake With Exactly Twelve Holes, A Wish That Costs Nothing and Credit Where It Started.
Questions and answers
Which of these work on a video call?
The ones whose Setting line says on a call. Coldest to Warmest in the Chat and Everyone's Snow in One Frame were written for one, and A Snowflake With Exactly Twelve Holes and A Wish That Costs Nothing run either way.
Does anyone have to buy a gift?
No. The materials are scrap and office leftovers, such as old greeting cards, wrapping paper and ribbon. A Gift Tag for Something You Did hands out thanks on a tag, and the name draw is a puzzle about the method, not an exchange.
What is a quick Christmas team building game for a big group?
Human String of Lights takes five minutes with any number of people in a line, and Four Corners, Five Folds takes six, in groups of four with one sheet of wrapping paper each.
How is this different from Christmas party games?
Each activity here is cooperative and ends with a debrief question about how the team worked. Games for the party itself are on Christmas party games for adults, and none is repeated here.
The Bell Must Not Ring1. Stand in a circle. The leader starts a small jingle bell around it, passed from hand to hand. 2. The aim is a full lap without one sound from the bell. 3. If it rings, the bell goes back to the leader and the lap starts again. 4. Time a silent lap, then try to beat the time. Setting: in person. Group: 4 to 20. Time: 5 min. Needs: one small jingle bell, a stopwatch. Debrief: What did the people who passed it silently do with their hands that others copied?
Coldest to Warmest in the Chat1. Each person looks up the temperature outside where they are sitting, and keeps it to themselves. 2. With microphones off, each person posts a first name and a temperature in the chat, once. The posts have to run from the coldest place to the warmest. 3. One post out of order, and the chat starts again from the coldest. 4. The coldest desk on the call gets a round of applause. Setting: on a call. Group: 3 to 20. Time: 5 min. Needs: nothing. Debrief: How did you work out where you stood before you had seen anyone else's number?
Everyone's Snow in One Frame1. Each person tears one sheet of scrap paper into small pieces and holds them in two hands. 2. On "three", everyone throws their snow in front of the camera at the same moment, and the host takes a screenshot. 3. Look at the picture together: who was early, and who was late. 4. Tear a second sheet and go for one perfect frame. Setting: on a call. Group: 3 or more. Time: 4 min. Needs: a sheet of scrap paper for each person. Debrief: What did the team change to get everyone into the same frame?
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Energizers, continued
Four Corners, Five Folds1. Groups of four each hold one corner of a sheet of wrapping paper, with one hand. 2. Without anyone letting go of a corner, the group folds the sheet in half five times. 3. A dropped corner means the sheet is opened out and the group starts over. 4. Groups that finish try again with their other hands. Setting: in person. Group: 4 or more. Time: 6 min. Needs: a large sheet of wrapping paper for each group of four. Debrief: Who called the folds, and how did that get decided?
Human String of Lights1. Stand in one line. Each person is a bulb, and sitting or crouching is "off". 2. The leader "plugs in" one end, and the bulbs come on one after another down the line. 3. Then call a pattern: every second bulb, a blink that travels down the line, the two halves in turn. 4. The team invents one pattern of its own and performs it for the leader. Setting: in person. Group: 6 or more. Time: 5 min. Needs: nothing. Debrief: How did the line keep its timing with nobody counting aloud?
Ten Team Moments, Hands Up1. Before the session, the leader lists ten things the team did this year: the office move, the big release, the day the printer gave up. 2. Read them out one at a time. 3. Everyone who was part of it raises a hand, looks around and lowers it. 4. For the last one, the leader picks something that every person in the room was part of. Setting: in person or on a call. Group: 3 or more. Time: 5 min. Needs: nothing. Debrief: Which moment had more hands, or fewer, than you expected?
Walk in Step Along the Ribbon1. Six people stand in two lines of three and hold one long ribbon between the lines, in their hands, at waist height. 2. They walk the length of the room and back. 3. The ribbon must not go slack and must not be pulled tight. 4. Swap the front pair to the back and walk it again, this time without speaking. Setting: in person. Group: 6 to 24. Time: 6 min. Needs: a ribbon about as long as three people standing in a line, for each group of six. Debrief: What did you watch to keep in step once nobody could speak?
Communication 7
A Card Verse, One Line Each, Folded1. The first person writes the opening line of a four-line verse for a greeting card and folds the paper so that only the last word shows. 2. The next person writes a second line that rhymes with that word, and folds again. 3. After four lines, open the paper and read the verse aloud. 4. Write a second verse with no folding, and compare the two. Setting: in person. Group: 4 or more. Time: 8 min. Needs: paper and pens. Debrief: What changed when everyone could see the whole verse?
A Code of Bell Rings1. Two people sit at opposite ends of the room, each with a bell. They have one minute to agree on a code of rings. 2. The leader then shows one of them a made-up question with three possible answers. 3. Using only the bell, that person sends the answer across the room. 4. The team watches and says where the code broke down. A new pair then builds a better code. Setting: in person. Group: 4 to 20. Time: 8 min. Needs: two bells, question cards with three answers each. Debrief: What did the second pair put into its code that the first pair had left out?
Build the Chain I Cannot Say1. One person looks at a card that shows an order of six colors. 2. Using gestures only, with no words and no pointing at paper, they get the rest of the team to build a paper chain in that order. 3. The builders may talk to each other. 4. Hold the chain beside the card. Then a new signaler takes a new card. Setting: in person. Group: 4 to 12. Time: 8 min. Needs: paper strips in several colors, tape, color-order cards. Debrief: How did the builders check that they had understood a gesture?
Every Message Starts Where the Last One Stopped1. The team signs one large card for another department. 2. Each message has to begin with the last word of the message before it. 3. Nobody plans ahead: each person reads only the message just written. 4. Read the whole card aloud before it is delivered. Setting: in person. Group: 3 to 20. Time: 8 min. Needs: one large greeting card and a pen. Debrief: Where did the chain take the card that nobody would have planned?
Explain Our December Habit to a Newcomer1. The team lists three things it always does at the end of the year at work: the last-day lunch, the desk cleanup, the clearing of the shared calendar. 2. Whoever joined most recently picks one. 3. A teammate who has been on the team longer has thirty seconds to explain how it works and why it began. 4. The newcomer says it back in one sentence and asks one question. Setting: in person or on a call. Group: 3 to 20. Time: 6 min. Needs: nothing. Debrief: Which part of the habit could nobody explain?
Five Words Changed in the Winter Paragraph1. The leader reads a short paragraph about a snowy walk to work, once. 2. The leader reads it again with five words changed. 3. Each person writes down the changes they caught. No talking. 4. Pool the lists and count how many of the five the team caught together. Setting: in person or on a call. Group: 3 or more. Time: 5 min. Needs: a short paragraph in two versions. Debrief: Which change did only one person catch, and what were they listening for?
Hands in Pockets, Direct the Wrapping1. In pairs, one person is the director and keeps both hands in their pockets. 2. The other is the wrapper, who does only what the director says and decides nothing. 3. Together they wrap one box in paper and ribbon in four minutes. 4. Swap roles with a second box, and set the two parcels side by side. Setting: in person. Group: 4 or more. Time: 10 min. Needs: two boxes, wrapping paper, tape and ribbon for each pair. Debrief: Which instruction did the wrapper have to ask about twice?
Problem solving 8
A Name Draw Where Nobody Gets Their Own1. The team has to design a name draw for a card exchange, using only paper slips and a bowl. 2. Two rules: nobody may draw their own name, and nobody may learn who drew whom. 3. Teams have six minutes to write a method that works however many people join. 4. Test each method with the people in the room, and vote for the one to use. Setting: in person. Group: 3 or more. Time: 10 min. Needs: paper slips, pens and a bowl. Debrief: What broke in the first method you tried, and who spotted it?
A Snowflake With Exactly Twelve Holes1. Each team gets three sheets of paper and scissors. 2. The challenge: fold and cut a snowflake that has exactly twelve holes when it is opened, no more and no fewer. 3. Teams plan on the first sheet, test on the second and cut the real one from the third. 4. Open all the snowflakes at the same moment and count the holes. Setting: in person or on a call. Group: 3 or more. Time: 10 min. Needs: three sheets of paper and scissors for each team. Debrief: How did the team predict the number of holes before it cut?
Least Ribbon Around Three Boxes1. Each team gets three boxes of different sizes and a ball of ribbon. 2. Tie the three into one bundle that can be carried by its ribbon, using as little ribbon as possible. 3. Cut the ribbon off and measure it. 4. The shortest ribbon wins, provided that the bundle survived a walk across the room. Setting: in person. Group: 3 or more. Time: 10 min. Needs: three boxes, ribbon, scissors and a tape measure for each team. Debrief: What did the team give up in order to save ribbon?
One Sheet, Four Boxes1. Each team gets four boxes of different sizes and one sheet of wrapping paper for all four. 2. For three minutes nobody cuts: the team sketches on scrap paper where the piece for each box will come from. 3. Cut and wrap. Every side of every box has to be covered, and there is no second sheet. 4. Teams set their parcels beside their offcuts, and the room compares what was left over. Setting: in person. Group: 3 or more. Time: 12 min. Needs: four boxes of different sizes, one sheet of wrapping paper, scissors, tape and scrap paper for each team. Debrief: What did the sketch miss that the scissors found?
Paper-Chain Bridge for One Ornament1. Set two chairs an arm's length apart. 2. Each team builds a bridge between them from paper-chain links and tape. Nothing else may touch the chairs. 3. After eight minutes, hang one shatterproof ornament from the middle link. 4. A bridge that holds for ten seconds earns a wider gap. Setting: in person. Group: 3 or more. Time: 12 min. Needs: paper strips, tape, two chairs and a shatterproof ornament for each team. Debrief: What did the team change after the first sag?
Tallest Stack of Old Greeting Cards1. Each team gets twenty old greeting cards and no tape. 2. In six minutes, build the tallest tower that stands on its own. Cards may be folded but not torn. 3. Hands off. The leader measures each tower. 4. Each team may then borrow one idea it saw at another table and build for two more minutes. Setting: in person. Group: 3 or more. Time: 10 min. Needs: twenty old greeting cards for each team, a tape measure. Debrief: Which idea did your team borrow, and why that one?
Twenty-Four Doors in Ten Minutes1. The team makes a countdown calendar for its own office wall: twenty-four small doors, one for each working day or so of December. 2. Behind each door goes something that costs nothing and takes a minute: a tip, a thank-you, a stretch, a riddle. 3. Split the doors among the team and write for ten minutes. 4. Read all twenty-four aloud and swap out any that are near repeats. Setting: in person or on a call. Group: 3 to 20. Time: 15 min. Needs: twenty-four sticky notes or a shared document, pens. Debrief: How did the team make sure that the doors were not twenty-four versions of one idea?
Wrap It Without Tape1. Each team gets one box, one sheet of wrapping paper and one length of ribbon. There is no tape. 2. Wrap the box so that no part of it shows. 3. The test: the leader lifts the parcel by its ribbon and turns it over once. 4. Teams whose wrapping holds show the others their fold. Setting: in person. Group: 3 or more. Time: 8 min. Needs: a box, a sheet of wrapping paper and a ribbon for each team. Debrief: Whose idea did the team try first, and how was that decided?
Trust 7
A Card for the Team Down the Hall1. The team picks another team that made its year easier. 2. Each person writes one line on a shared card that names something specific that team did. 3. No line may only say "thanks for everything". 4. The whole team walks the card over and hands it in together. Setting: in person. Group: 3 to 20. Time: 10 min. Needs: one large card and pens. Debrief: What did writing a specific line make you notice about the other team's work?
A Card to Open in January1. Each person writes a card to the team: one thing they will bring to the team's work next year. 2. Seal the cards in one envelope, and write the date of the first meeting of January on it. 3. The leader keeps the envelope where everyone can see it. 4. At that meeting, the cards are handed back and read aloud by their writers, or kept private. Setting: in person. Group: 3 to 20. Time: 8 min. Needs: a card for each person, one large envelope. Debrief: How did it feel to put a promise in an envelope and not on a list?
A Gift Tag for Something You Did1. Each person draws a teammate's name from a bowl, and redraws if it is their own. 2. On a gift tag, write "To" with that name and "For" with one thing that person did this year that helped you. 3. Hang the tags on a paper tree on the wall. Every name is on exactly one tag. 4. Each person finds their own tag and reads it to themselves. Setting: in person. Group: 4 to 20. Time: 10 min. Needs: gift tags, pens, a bowl of name slips and a paper tree. Debrief: What was on your tag that you had forgotten doing?
A Wish That Costs Nothing1. Each person names one thing they would like from the team next year that costs no money: agendas a day ahead, or a quiet hour on Fridays. 2. After each wish, teammates who can help make it happen raise a hand. 3. The leader writes each wish down, with the number of hands beside it. 4. The list goes up where the team will see it in January. Setting: in person or on a call. Group: 3 to 20. Time: 10 min. Needs: nothing. Debrief: Which wish got more hands than its owner expected?
Credit Where It Started1. The leader names three things that went well for the team this year. 2. For each one, the team traces it back aloud: whose idea started it, and who picked it up next. 3. Each name goes on the board beside the result. 4. The team looks for a name that should be on the board and is missing. Setting: in person or on a call. Group: 3 to 20. Time: 10 min. Needs: a board or a shared document. Debrief: Whose part in a result had the team nearly forgotten?
One Habit Stays in the Old Year1. Each person writes on one slip a work habit of their own that they want to leave behind, and on a second slip a habit they want to keep. 2. The first slip goes into a box, unread by anyone. On a call, each person folds it and drops it into a drawer. 3. Each person reads the second slip aloud, or passes. 4. The leader seals the box and puts it away. On a call, the drawers are shut on a count of three. Setting: in person or on a call. Group: 3 or more. Time: 8 min. Needs: two paper slips for each person, a box (on a call, paper at each desk). Debrief: What made the habit you kept worth saying aloud?
The Question That Helped This Year1. Each person thinks of a question that a teammate asked them this year and that turned out to help. 2. Go around. Each person says the question and who asked it, and nothing else. 3. The person named says only "thank you". 4. The leader writes the questions up as a list for the team to keep. Setting: in person or on a call. Group: 3 to 12. Time: 8 min. Needs: nothing. Debrief: What do the questions on the list have in common?
How this list was compiled: Written by the Game Night Generator editors on 2026-10-03 for the person who runs a team session at work in December. Every activity is cooperative and uses the season's own materials: wrapping paper, ribbon, old greeting cards, a jingle bell, paper snowflakes, gift tags. The names, the steps and the debrief questions were written for this page, and each entry is one way to run its activity, not a rule book. The group sizes and the minutes are estimates for planning; no result of team building is claimed or measured here. The screen is the one used for the office set of this site's Christmas party games: nothing asks about beliefs or about how anyone spends the holiday, nobody has to buy a gift, there is no alcohol, nobody is touched, lifted or blindfolded, a ribbon is only ever held in the hands, and anyone may pass. It is this site's own rule and not legal advice. Twelve of the activities name nothing of Christmas, only winter or the end of the year, for a team that does not all keep the holiday: Ten Team Moments, Hands Up, Coldest to Warmest in the Chat, Everyone's Snow in One Frame, A Code of Bell Rings, Five Words Changed in the Winter Paragraph, Explain Our December Habit to a Newcomer, A Snowflake With Exactly Twelve Holes, Least Ribbon Around Three Boxes, A Wish That Costs Nothing, One Habit Stays in the Old Year, The Question That Helped This Year and Credit Where It Started. No activity has a puzzle with a fixed answer, so none cites a solution. Read on 2026-10-03 at Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icebreaker_(facilitation). Party games for a December office party are on the Christmas party games for adults page, and none is repeated here. Licence: own work