How Can We Organize a Fun and Engaging In-House New Year's Celebration for 200 Colleagues?

Hi Friends,

I need some advice on how to organize and celebrate New Year's at work. The target audience is approximately 200 people. Please do not suggest syncing with any event management; I would like this to be an in-house affair that simply involves people.

I have seen various similar posts posted earlier, but none of them has received a fruitful response so far ☹️. Seniors' help is humbly requested.

TIA,
Medha

Dear Medha,

If you are looking for 3 to 4 hours of indoor events, you can consider activities such as a treasure hunt, creative games like creating an ad and jingle, a "dress the boss" game, and team games where everyone is involved. You can find ideas online and depending on the available space, you can create in-house games. Starting with "tol ke bol" type games can help get people engaged, and you can also include activities like a ramp walk.

Good luck with your programs.

Regards, Harshad

Hi Medha,

You can make this New Year event a team-building activity with lots of team events like dance, fashion parade, singing, mono-act, etc.

All the best for your event!!!

Madan :)

Hi Medha,

You can have some simple games like bursting the balloons, mono acting, and can have competitions like best-dressed male and best-dressed female. All the best for your events!

Regards

Thanks for the helpful ideas and suggestions. I am sure these will really help. Those who still have some more are more than welcome to share – the more, the merrier! 🙂

Hi,

Yes, it's a good place where people can display their talent in a group. However, people need lots of motivation and encouragement to participate, which I am experiencing while organizing our office party. I also request all managers and senior employees to come up with a 15-20 minute skit. In addition to this, games where a maximum number of people can participate, such as dance with the ring games, would be great. End the event with a surprise gift for the winner followed by a DJ. A party theme of black, red, or masks is also a good idea. So go ahead, and share your thoughts with us.

Hey,

Go for a theme party, anything you like. You can organize talent hunt programs and arrange for a DJ (people love to dance) and good food. Ask all the managers to accompany the team members; it will definitely help boost their morale. Involve one or two persons from each department to assist in selecting games, food items, etc. This way, people will not complain later about something missed in the arrangements.

All the best...

Bips

Hi...

What you can do is organize some games from 4 to 6 in the office for the year-end week. We had games like Carrom, Scrabble, Chess (as nominations were high, conducted them for all three days and took up the finals on the 4th day), Antakshri, Ad Mad, Dumb Charades (team-based - nominations were asked), and finally Housie for the 5th day, open to all the employees. On the 6th day, we organized a small get-together to announce the winners and served snacks.

It was real fun, as involvement was from across the departments and everyone could participate in one or the other game. Also, taking out 1 to 1.5 hours from work was relaxing for everyone. We really enjoyed a lot.

Maybe you can try this out this year.

Warm Regards,
Sakshi Gupta

Hi…
What you can do is organize some games from 4 to 6 in the office for the year end week We had games like – Carrom , Scrabble, Chess( As nominations were high conducted them for all the three days and taking up the finals on 4th day) , Antakshri, Ad Mad, Dumbsharades (team based – Nominations were asked)and finally Housie for the 5th day open to all the employees. On the 6th day we organized a small get -together to announce the winners and served snacks n all..
It was real fun. as involvement was from across the departments and everyone can participate in one or the other game. Also taking out 1 -11/2 hours from work was relaxing too.. for everyone.. we really enjoyed a lot..
May be.. You can try this out this.. Year…
Warm Regards
Sackshi Gupta

Hi,

You can have sequence of events to welcome the New Year whole heartedly:-

- In addition to entertaining games & regular stuff for employees you may ask them to do some philanthropic activities. Encourage donation etc.. people will feel more connected to society.

- encourage people to kick start a good habit & ask them to set targets for themselves
-- Help to start such habits- put posters / send mailers with motivating messages

- Organize a mela with different concept conveying message: - “We care for you”
-- ask a nearest gym (or gym with multiple chains) to come for weight check & tie up for membership & discounts.. Few people may enroll
-- Ask parlors for similar thing.
-- can give free health checkup for your employees.. Many labs have checkup packages of general routine.
- - book stall – people can purchase books

There can be lots of thing try something more motivating for people.

Have a very prosperous & successful year ahead. :icon1:

Regards

Sheetal Sehgal

1. Milling-around: Ask employees to move around and meet their co-workers. Suddenly stop everyone and instruct them to learn more about the person directly opposite, to the right, or to the left of them. Encourage them to share as many details as possible with the entire group. This activity fosters a sense of fun and unity, allowing employees to get to know each other better.

2. Ensure there is an anchor for the events. The anchor will guide employees and challenge their quick thinking by asking questions that test their common sense.

3. The anchor can sing a specific song with a different tune. Employees must identify the actual lyrics corresponding to that tune.

4. Include games for couples such as Ramp Walk, Dance, Acting, or Role Play.

5. Organize games exclusively for singles to boost their competitive spirit.

6. Consider adding games for children like balloon dancing or a magic show.

7. Activities like Dance, Mimicry, Mono-acting, and Dumb-charades will help fill in the party schedule.

Happy Partying,

Rajesh KS
+91 99085 68450

Dear All,

I have one question: Is this kind of partying required in the current scenario like an economic meltdown or terror attacks? Please comment.

Dear Member,

Invite family members and their children to the workplace. Organize some interesting games and programs and reward them. Children are happy when with their parents too. Take photographs to create sweet memories of their lives, and personally touch their feelings to keep them happy. Don't spend too much money on event management. 😊

Regards,

Hi,

I thought of suggesting that we have arranged our Annual Holiday Party for Christmas and New Year. The venue is in Faridabad, which is poolside with a view and can accommodate 300 people. Our party will start at 3 PM.

First, we have some games. The first is the DART Competition, followed by a Singing Competition, then a Dancing Competition. This will be followed by a Jam Session starting at 8 PM until midnight with drinks and dinner, providing a chilling out experience with DJs for complete fun.

We are also providing a cab to employees who need it. Additionally, we have invited employees' families and friends.

Hope this information helps.

Regards,
SJ

Hi Medha,

You could go for a "Food Festival," have each department plan some varieties to be made which do not involve cooking in the office. The departments need to prepare everything in their department. This needs to be done in a stipulated time frame. You can select one or two judges who will visit each department and select the winner.

I had arranged such an event a few months back as one of our Saturday activities, and the food festival happened to be the best one. It involved everyone in the office, and this activity can last for 3-4 hours, with people eating what they have prepared and having music on in their departments while they are preparing.

Regards,
Meera.

Dear Medha,

Having a week-long party is really good. Every day, an hour's time is fine. It is really nice when there is some type of competition and teams are formed.

- You can form teams with 10 to 15 members.
- Every day, arrange an event that will not exceed one hour.
- Keep points for each team based on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each event or assign fixed points.
- Through such grouping, teams come together, fostering team spirit.

Events like:
- Organize one-minute games (you can search on Google for many ideas).
- Potluck event
- Indoor games
- Etc.

Please write to me if you need any help: alwayspadma@yahoo.com

Medha,

Keeping in mind the recent tragic attacks, you can celebrate the diversity of our nation which carries on despite many setbacks, by having a unity in diversity theme for your party.

- Have everyone come in their ethnic costumes - maybe you can give out a small prize for the person who dresses in the most authentic way.
- At least a week prior to the party, ask them to come up with games that are played from their region of the country (not just the usual charades and antakshari). You can then select all those games that do not take too much time and make the necessary arrangements for them.
- While you celebrate the new year, you could ask people to remember the less fortunate in our country and donate or at least pledge to help one such person next year - support a child's education, help a weaver or rural artisan by buying their product, etc.
- During lunch or dinner, when people are busy eating, maybe you can have volunteers disclose their new year's resolutions - the best voted one gets a small prize.

Hope you have a great celebration. Please remind people not to drink and drive.

Hi Rekha,

I want to arrange a party or a small event for New Year's or Christmas in my office. However, we have many resident engineers who are unable to come to our office even for a few hours. Please suggest some games or activities that can be enjoyed by the resident engineers as well.

Thank you.

Organize a grand party with wine and dine in the office on the day of inauguration with the following provisions:

- Good Quality Liquor
- Bites and Snacks
- Mutton, Chicken, Fish (Butter Fried)
- Dessert
- Ice Cream
- Allotment of Uniform to all employees

Please let me know if you need any further assistance or modifications.

Hi Friends,

I am organizing some fun activities on New Year's Eve in the office itself. Please help me draft a nice invitation email for this event.

Thanks,
Swati

Hi, if you want to organize team-building activities, you can create teams and then arrange various competitions. These could include quizzes based on Bollywood, Hollywood, or other topics of interest to the employees. Alternatively, you could have interactive sessions such as extempore. For example, you could collect a number of interesting topics, write each one on a slip of paper, and then have one team member at a time pick a slip and speak on that topic for three minutes.

Another idea is to write events from a single story on different slips, and different people can pick up a slip, start the story with their own creative twist, pick up another slip, and continue the story by linking the various slips together. I tried these activities in my office, and they were very engaging events.