Does your street go big on holiday lights, or is one house doing all the work?
Holiday lights: warm white, every color at once or none?
What goes on your front door in December: a wreath, lights or nothing at all?
What is the best holiday light display you have ever seen?
When should holiday lights go up, and when must they come down?
Which building near you puts its lights up first every year?
Which holiday decoration would you never allow in your home?
Which holiday song could you happily hear on repeat?
Which holiday song have you already heard too many times this month?
Holiday food 9
Candy canes: eat them, hang them up or avoid them?
Gingerbread house: build it, eat it or watch it collapse?
Is fruitcake a food or a doorstop?
What do you bring to a holiday potluck when you have no time to cook?
What is the best dish anyone has ever brought to a party you were at?
What is the strangest thing you have seen on a holiday dessert table?
Which holiday cookie should be sold all year round?
Which holiday food only tastes right in December?
Which holiday treat do you only pretend to like?
Gifts and wrapping 9
Do you save nice wrapping paper and gift bags to use again?
Holiday cards: by mail, by text or not at all?
What is the hardest thing you have ever had to wrap?
What is the most useful gift anyone ever gave you, for any occasion?
What would you wish for this winter that cannot be wrapped?
When should gift shopping start: October, early December or the night before?
Which gift is always welcome: warm socks, snacks, a candle or a book?
Which gift of yours, for any occasion, got the best reaction when it was opened?
Wrapping style: crisp corners, gift bags only or a tape disaster?
Office party 10
Best team celebration: lunch out, a potluck or an afternoon off?
Cookie swap: do you bake from scratch, buy a box or only do the tasting?
Holiday sweater day: all in, a subtle nod or a firm no?
How long do you stay at a holiday party: first out, a solid hour or last to leave?
Invent a year-end award that this whole team deserves to win.
What is the best or strangest thing you have seen unwrapped at a gift exchange?
What would you decorate at work if nobody could say no?
Which game should every office holiday party have?
Which song should open the office party playlist?
White elephant strategy: steal early, steal late or keep what you open?
Before the break 9
December at work: a sprint to the finish or a slow fade?
First morning of the break: what time does your alarm go off, if at all?
How many working days do you have left this year?
Inbox at zero before the break, or is that January's problem?
On which day in December does work really stop where you are?
What is one thing you are leaving for January on purpose?
What will be the last thing you do at work this year?
Which habit from this year should the team carry into January?
Which plant, snack or mug gets left at work over the break, and will it survive?
December festivals 8
Dreidel is a spinning-top game for Hanukkah. Which game would you teach this room?
Hanukkah runs eight nights and Kwanzaa seven days. Which day of the year deserves a week?Hanukkah begins on 25 Kislev in the Hebrew calendar, so its date moves each year. Kwanzaa runs December 26 to January 1.
Hanukkah, solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year: which would you like to know more about?
Kwanzaa's Karamu is a shared feast. What dish would you carry to a feast for fifty?The Karamu feast is usually held on the sixth day of Kwanzaa.
Latkes, sufganiyot, sugar cookies or fruitcake: which plate do you head for first?Latkes and sufganiyot are fried foods eaten at Hanukkah.
Which December food from any tradition would you most like to try?
Yalda night means staying up late with fruit and poetry. What keeps you up past midnight?Kept in Iran and neighboring countries on the winter solstice. Pomegranates and watermelons are the fruits.
The year's longest night comes at the winter solstice. How would you spend the extra dark?December 21 or 22 in the Northern Hemisphere.
Multiple choice 6
A big shared meal: would you rather host it, bring a dish or do the dishes?
A card arrives in the mail: fridge door, mantel, a string on the wall or a drawer?
A gift receipt in the box: thoughtful or a bad sign?
Giving a gift or opening one: which do you enjoy more?
Holiday playlist at work: speakers on, headphones only or not until the party?
New Year's Eve: out until midnight, home by ten or asleep by nine?
How it works
Holiday icebreaker questions go wrong when they assume everyone in the room keeps the same holiday. These 60 December cards ask about lights, food, gifts, the office party and the last week before the break; none asks what anyone celebrates.
Read the full guide
Open the party or the last meeting
At a party, press Office party: ten cards on the cookie swap, sweater day and the gift exchange. For the last meeting of the year, press Before the break and ask "What will be the last thing you do at work this year?" With fifty people, Multiple choice has 23 cards to settle by a show of hands.
How the deck stays inclusive
Christmas is celebrated culturally by many non-Christians, yet a December room may also hold people who keep Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the solstice or nothing at all. So 52 cards name no festival. Most December festivals cards give one fact, then ask something anyone can answer: "Kwanzaa's Karamu is a shared feast. What dish would you carry to a feast for fifty?"
Hanukkah's date moves every year, so check a calendar before planning around it. Kwanzaa always runs December 26 to January 1.
A lull in the gift exchange? Deal "Is fruitcake a food or a doorstop?" while the next person unwraps.
New to white elephant? Each turn is a choice between unwrapping a new present and stealing one that is already open.
Questions and answers
Are these holiday icebreaker questions safe for a team with many traditions?
Yes. No card asks which holiday you keep, what you believe or where you will spend the break. The festival cards ask for a dish, a game to teach the room or a day that deserves a week.
Which festivals do the cards name?
Six: Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, the winter solstice, Yalda night and New Year's Eve. Notes in the list under the deck give the fixed dates, such as December 21 or 22 for the northern solstice.
How is this deck different from the winter one?
The winter deck covers snow, cold and January with no holiday in it, plus new year cards. This one covers the December festivities: lights, food, gifts, parties and the run-up to the break. Use this one until the last working day, then the winter deck.