If you’ve got friends and family all over the country, serving overseas or they just can’t come by your home this year, you should consider hosting a virtual Christmas celebration! Virtual celebrations are a great solution to lots of obstacles that would get in the way of having an in-person celebration. Whether you want to host it over FaceTime or Zoom, here are some things to consider as you plan your virtual Christmas celebration!
- Figure Out Your Platform: Before you start inviting friends and family, figure out which virtual platform you’re using! It’s important that you have the right platform. Browse online for a free platform or one that’s relatively inexpensive. Many have timing restrictions for their free plans! You want to make sure that whatever platform you use, you have enough time for everyone to open any personalized gifts or tell each other something special about their holiday season. You’ll want to ensure your platform has a chat function, too, so that anyone can chat back and forth with any of the other attendees.
- Create Your Invite List: Who’s making it to your virtual celebration? Consider everyone and whether or not they’d actually show up. Take into account any older family members you have. Grandma might not really understand how to click the Zoom link in her email (if she has one!). Your cousins might have toddlers running around, so they’d constantly be away from the camera. Realizing that not everyone would be best suited to join in on the virtual fun is an important part of your planning. Invite the family members you know will make the whole thing seamlessand make sure to send a sweet card to everyone whom you were unable to invite!
- Pick a Night and/or Weekend: It’s important everyone has the availability to make it to your virtual celebration. Sure, you can’t please everyone, but choosing a night and/or weekend to host your virtual celebration is the best way to try to include everyone. Mostly everyone will be working during the day and the week, so an evening on the weekend is usually the best time for everyone. Your friends and family will be very thankful you considered their busy schedules to accommodate them!
- Send Your Invites Out Early: Don’t wait until the week before your intended celebration date to send the invites. Send an RSVP out to everyone a month away and then send a follow-up reminder two weeks out. Have RSVPs due a few days before the event so that you don’t have to deal with anyone bowing out at the last minute. While emergencies do come up, it’s important that everyone you invite recognizes you took the time to plan the event, and they’ll appreciate that you took the time to make sure they knew well in advance that it was happening!
- Do a Practice Run: If you all decide to invite Grandma, who’s never used FaceTime before, you should do a practice run! This is especially if you’re using a non-mobile platform, such as Zoom. You can work out any kinks, teach each other how to use the mute button, locate the chat box and figure out the best lighting for everyone. Try and do this at least a week or two out from the event.
- Create a Secret Santa Game: Did you know you can play Secret Santa virtually? That’s right! Place everyone’s names into a random Secret Santa generator online. Choose one that lets the players know via email who their chosen person is. Then, make sure everyone playing has each others’ addresses. Instruct everyone to send the gifts out at least three weeks in advance to account for any delays in shipping. Tell everyone to make the return address your address (since you’re hosting) so no one knows where the gifts came from. Give a budget to your players, but encourage them to purchase gifts that remind them of their person, such as a sweet custom blanket. During your virtual celebration, have everyone go around and open their gift, guessing who sent it to them!
- Include a Cocktail or Two: For those planning an adults-only Christmas celebration, why not include an alcoholic beverage or two? There are lots of Christmas cocktails out there, perfect for a virtual event. You can either send out some ideas with your RSVPs or encourage everyone to bring their own unique Christmas cocktail recipe to the event. Then, go around in the beginning and have all the attendees tell each other what they made!
- Decorate Some Cookies: Many local bakeries are offering decorate-your-own cookie boxes, where you purchase a box of undecorated sugar cookies and bags of frosting to DIY. Send these boxes to everyone participating in your virtual Christmas celebration, then carve out some time for everyone to decorate them virtually together! Give decorating prompts by sharing your screen with everyone so they can see the picture of the snowman, reindeer or other Christmas-themed items. Then, when everyone’s finished, sit around with some milk and enjoy your freshly decorated cookies!
- Send a Memento: As a thank you to everyone for participating in your virtual Christmas celebration, remember to send them something! A cute family ornament is a great memento to send your family who participated as a way to commemorate the event. Be sure to send it a couple of weeks before the event so it arrives either the day of or shortly after! You’ll want to make sure that everyone has enough time to hang it for a bit on their trees before taking decorations down after the holiday.
- Take a Screenshot: While everyone is on the call together, have everyone pause and smile at their camera. Take a screenshot to post on social media later or save and send in a virtual Christmas card! This way, everyone can see how much fun you all had. Then, if you host another one next year, you can take one to compare to the year before!
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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