Here is our list of the best team celebration ideas for work.
Team celebration ideas for work are ways to show team members how much you appreciate them and recognize their accomplishments. Examples include making accomplishment timelines, throwing surprise parties, and happy hours. Many team celebrations can happen regularly, but events such as holiday parties and outings are specific to different months and seasons.
These activities are similar to virtual team celebration ideas, birthday games, and office party ideas. These events are a way to show employee recognition.
The article covers:
This list also includes:
- in-person team celebration ideas
- company celebration ideas
- end of project celebration ideas
- activities for celebrating team success
- team celebration ideas for employees
Let’s get into it!
List of team celebration ideas for work (events and activities)
From virtual happy hours to accomplishment timelines, here is a list of team celebration events and activities that will raise the morale of your entire team.
1. Create an Accomplishment Timeline
Accomplishment timelines are one of the most creative team celebration ideas for work. Timelines give folks a visual chronology of accomplishments. It is fun to look back and see how far team members have come.
You can choose an editable online document such as Google Forms and encourage team members to add milestones. Another option is to make a meeting where you add the accomplishments together.
You can stick to professional accomplishments or ask them to add personal milestones like getting married, having a child, or mastering a skill.
There are many significant accomplishments to add to the timeline. For example:
- Meeting a tough deadline
- Helping a coworker in need
- Leading a successful campaign
- Building a positive relationship with a new client
- Giving a good speech
Once the group understands how the accomplishment timeline works, review it weekly or monthly.
Great for celebrating: Employee milestones (5 years, 10 years, 20 years, etc), retirements, work anniversaries, projects, new team members
Cost: Free
2. Initiate The Great Guac Off
The Great Guac Off is a team guacamole competition. This ultra-fun experience is the perfect way to create a festive atmosphere around the office.
A host travels to your location with all supplies, and handles setup and cleanup. This high-energy facilitator also leads your group through 90-minutes of avocado-themed activities. First, teams compete in trivia and mini-challenges to earn secret ingredients. Then, teams work together to craft epic guacamole recipes. Finally comes tasting and judging.
The Great Guac off is one of the best ideas for team celebration ideas for employees because it gives groups one more victory to celebrate and ends with a tasty snack!
Great for celebrating: End of the year celebrations, team outings, product launch, employee appreciation day, team creativity day
Cost: $80 per person
Learn more about The Great Guac Off.
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3. Start a Celebration Fund
A celebration fund is a way to build anticipation in the workplace and is one of the best in-person team celebration ideas. You could tie team celebrations to revenue spikes or try something creative such as a “good habits jar” where team members contribute each time they progress towards a goal. Even a few dollars a month will add up and result in a fun time.
The trick with a celebration fund is to keep it casual. Nobody wants to watch the fund dry up after a difficult month. Make sure the fund builds up until the celebration, then start again. It is also wise to let people know what the celebration will be in advance.
Great for celebrating: Birthdays, random holidays, professional or personal accomplishments for employees
Cost: Varies. We recommend companies contribute at minimum $100-$200 per month or at least $50 per employee per year for celebrations.
4. Make Time For Shout-out Lists
Shout-out lists are impromptu and casual celebration ideas. For example, you can announce an upcoming shout-out list or hold a regular roundup. The main idea is to eliminate the structure and open the floor for anyone to speak. Shyer employees will appreciate the opportunity to get recognition without taking center stage for too long.
When you begin this activity, inform employees that anyone can shout out a recent accomplishment. Teammates can use anecdotes, compliments, emojis, or high fives and thank you notes to celebrate their co-worker’s efforts.
For best results, keep these meetings short since they can be hectic. Recording some of the compliments is optional, and you can also choose to add them to a timeline or post them on a compliments wall.
Great for celebrating: Weekly wins, employees who go above-and-beyond, everyday awesomeness, coworker gratitude, successful presentation, positive client feedback
Cost: Free
This activity is similar to gratitude walls.
5. Watch a “Victory” TV Show or a Movie
Watching movies is a common pastime. This celebration is not the most social choice, but it is a great way to make introverts more comfortable being around their co-workers.
You can choose a popular TV show if a movie seems too long. Whichever you choose, it might be a good idea to vote on the title of choice. A democratic process will keep folks more interested. You could feature different shows or films and break people into smaller groups.
If you don’t fancy sitting quietly, you could turn your viewing session into a game. For example, choose a famous line or action from the movie and have everyone drink or take action whenever it happens. You can keep it casual or tally up points. Either way, the competition can liven up the evening.
Pro tip: Choose a “celebration show” that you and the team only watch together once you make progress on goals. The anticipation will drive team members to meet milestones, and the ritual of gathering to watch together will boost team culture.
Great for celebrating: High-performing quarter, overcoming a challenge or crisis, successful event, achieving work-life balance
Cost: Free or $5 – 20 (cost of streaming service or renting a movie)
6. Exchange Gifts
Gift exchanges are not merely a Christmas party game. This activity is a great opportunity for employees to learn more about each other and express team gratitude. Participation can be optional, but it is wise to set a modest budget.
If you have a small, tight-knit team, then an exchange will be easy to execute. On bigger teams, there may be many unfamiliar faces. To eliminate any anxiety about buying a gift, you could create a theme for the gift exchange or ask for suggestions from recipients to provide givers with guidance.
Great for celebrating: Holidays (not just Christmas), employee appreciation day, employee engagement score improvement, successful rebranding, team wins
Cost: $10 – $35 per person
Here are more office gift exchange ideas.
7. Hold Professional Accomplishment Meetings
Professional accomplishment meetings are one of the best end of project celebration ideas. However, you can hold these events regularly and without reason.
Before starting the session, define which accomplishments you want your employees to focus on. Then, meet online once a week to review recent accomplishments. These meetings can be separate from other work-based meetings and are a great way to break up a busy workday.
You can pre-select accomplishments to feature during the meeting or encourage teammates to speak up and shout out accomplishments they achieved or witnessed throughout the week.
For bonus fun, choose a long-term goal and unique rewards for meeting milestones and accomplishing the goal. For example, for every 100 five-star reviews your team racks up, they earn 5 minutes of “recess” to go outside and play a game together.
Great for celebrating: Projects, quotas, completion of professional or personal goals, surpassing customer satisfaction scores, customer retention milestone
Cost: Free – $50
Here are more innovative meeting ideas.
8. Solve an Escape Room
Escape rooms require teams to solve puzzles and find the solution to a mystery before time runs out. The goal of the game is to escape the room. Since the challenge is a cooperative activity, team members will share the success or learn to lose together.
This challenge is a fantastic activity for both team building and critical thinking. Team members must communicate and rely on one another if they want to succeed. Besides being entertaining, escape rooms also teach people how to think through a tough situation rather than panicking or giving in to stress.
Plus, if the team is successful, then you can celebrate your work victory and your escape room victory and relish the double win!
Pro tip: Create an escape room as a way to announce a team or company accomplishment. The puzzles and clues can hint at the achievement, and by solving the room team members uncover the official announcement.
Great for celebrating: Launching a new product or initiative, hitting a financial goal, record-breaking performance, winning a competition, reaching a certain number of years in business
Cost: $25 – $40 per person
Check out this guide to DIY escape rooms.
9. Sing with a Karaoke Party
Karaoke parties are one of the most fun activities for celebrating team success. This event allows team members to unleash their inner musicians and belt out their favorite 80s tunes. Thanks to websites like YouTube and Spotify, it is easy to pull up instrumental tracks with lyrics if you want to go low-budget. However, going to a karaoke bar will feel more festive.
With an event like karaoke, it is always best to make performance optional since not every team member will be as gung-ho on sharing their shower voice.
However, a karaoke party is bound to be lively and fun and is a great event to hold in tandem with a happy hour or cocktail party. You could make the event more robust by playing games such as name the song or fill in the blank lyrics.
Great for celebrating: Welcoming new team members, successful collaboration with a client, promotions, new partnership, team retreats, positive media coverage
Cost: $5 – $20 per person per hour
You could even let people share their favorite team-building songs that inspire them to keep it more professional.
10. Hold an Extraordinary Awards Ceremony
Awards are the most common ideas for team celebrations. Companies often hold yearly awards to celebrate employees. However, it is also wise to host awards within departments or teams, especially if your organization is large. Celebrating successes with team awards allows more team members to receive recognition, and also allows for more specialized and specific awards.
You do not have to go the traditional awards ceremony route, with a dress up dinner and trophies.
Here are more creative ideas:
- Create a “knighting” ceremony and give employees titles instead of trophies.
- Develop an awards ceremony linked to company core values, and give awards to employees that embody the organization’s ideals.
- Craft collaborative scrapbook pages for the award, with photos and examples of the achievement. Employees can collect their cumulative “awards” in a book.
- Turn the awards ceremony into an interactive game show where the audience guesses winners based on clues. Some employees win awards, and all team members have the chance to win points and prizes.
Pro tip: If you want to get medals or trophies in small quantities with unique designs, Etsy is a good resource.
Great for celebrating: Company culture, professional milestones, positive employee attitude, completion of an employee development program, internal awards
Cost: Free – $100 per person
11. Take a Group Workshop or a Class
Learning is one of the best ways to keep life fresh and interesting. Employers often hold workshops for job-related skills. However, it is nice to celebrate with a seminar or class for pleasure.
Here are a few ideas for group workshops:
- art
- cooking
- mixology
- standup comedy
- candle and soap making
- meditation and mindfulness
- exercise
You can enjoy these experiences in-person or online. You can often find facilitators willing to travel to you, although it is nice to go offsite.
If you do workshops regularly, then rotate the topics. For example, one month you could try cooking lessons and the next could focus on ceramics. The more varied you do your workshops, the more teammates you will engage.
No matter what you choose, fun workshops will leave your teammates with new skills and lifelong memories.
Great for celebrating: Launching an employee resource group, team bonding activities, cultural diversity celebrations, new office or location opening
Cost: $30 – $150 per person
Check out more workshop ideas.
12. Bring in an Entertainer
Many entertainers do virtual shows. For example, you can invite a performer to liven up your team celebration online or book a performer to come to the office.
Your team members might be able to interact with the entertainer directly since there is a smaller audience. For instance, requesting songs from a skilled guitar player or participating in a magic trick.
Here are some ideas for entertainers:
- musicians
- magicians
- DJs
- psychics
- comedians
- impersonators
- motivational speakers
- meditation experts
- storytellers
Entertainers will inspire your team and get their creative juices flowing.
Great for celebrating: Receiving an industry accolade, achieving a new company record, product launch, sales goal met, project completion, company anniversary, retreats
Cost: $100 – $10,000, depending on the type of entertainment and performance and scale of the event
13. Celebrate in the Morning with a Victory Coffee Break
Most folks do not think about celebrations happening first thing in the morning. However, a coffee break is a perfect celebration to wake up your team and get them excited for the workday.
You can set up a breakfast party in the office, take the team to a local cafe, or reimburse the cost of a cup from employees’ coffeeshop of choice. Whatever approach you choose, these events are a good chance for your team to begin the day on the right foot and get a caffeine boost before tackling their busy schedules.
Great for celebrating: Diversity and inclusion milestones, wellness initiatives, safety record, cross-department collaboration
Cost: Free – $5 or $10 per person
Here are lists of morning meeting games and office breakfast ideas.
14. Honor Employees of the Moment
Employee of the month is one of the most common team celebration ideas for work. However, you can also celebrate “employee of the moment.”
This recognition structure allows you to focus on the achievement more than the time period. Some months, multiple team members may shine. Rather than choose only one team member to honor, you can highlight employees whenever they go above and beyond.
“Employee of the moment” also allows you to acknowledge achievements as they happen rather than wait several weeks.
We recommend creating a special Slack channel or board in the office for the employee of the moment, and announcing the win with an email or during a meeting.
Great for celebrating: Successful negotiation, personal milestones, exceeding expectations and metrics, positive reviews, teamwork
Cost: Free
Here are more employee of the month ideas.
15. Send Gifts
Employer gifts are one of the most common company celebration ideas. Gifts are a great way to show appreciation, especially when the presents are thoughtful and personal. Giving gifts will require coordination since you may not know where your team members live. While sending virtual gifts like gift cards is a viable option, physical gifts are exciting and interactive.
The company could choose to send out gifts to all employees. The team could also pitch in to send a gift to a team member celebrating a birthday or accomplishment.
A good gift can go a long way toward employee satisfaction and will likely boost camaraderie and promote a healthy reputation for the company.
Great for celebrating: Birthdays, work anniversaries, weddings, graduations welcoming new family members, housewarming, winter holidays, breaking records, just because
Cost: $25 – $100 per employee per occasion
Check out these lists of corporate employee gifts and care package ideas.
Budgeting for team celebrations
The budget for team celebrations can vary depending on factors like company size, event frequency, and the type of celebration. Here’s a general guideline to help you plan:
Company Size:
Small Companies (up to 50 employees): $20-$50 per person per event.
Medium Companies (50-200 employees): $15-$40 per person per event.
Large Companies (200+ employees): $10-$30 per person per event.
Event Frequency:
If you plan monthly events, then you might allocate a smaller budget per event.
For quarterly or annual celebrations, you might want to increase the budget for something more elaborate.
Type of Celebration:
Casual Gatherings (pizza parties, happy hours): $10-$25 per person.
Special Events (holiday parties, milestone celebrations): $30-$75 per person.
Outings or Offsite Events (team socials, team building retreats): $50-$150+ per person.
Additional Costs:
Do not forget to account for decorations, entertainment, gifts, or prizes.
As a rough estimate, a budget of around $100-$500 per event for a small team and $1,000-$5,000 for a large team could be appropriate, depending on the event’s scale.
5-minute team celebration ideas
Not every team celebration has to be a big event. It is also important to recognize employees day-to-day. Here are quick and easy (and free) last-minute team celebration ideas to acknowledge everyday wins.
1. High-Five Circle
Gather the team in a circle and have everyone give each other high-fives while cheering for the win.
2. Shout-Out Session
Take 5 minutes to go around the room (or virtual meeting) and let each team member give a shout-out to someone who contributed to the win.
3. Mini Dance Party
Play an upbeat song and have a spontaneous 5-minute dance break to celebrate the achievement.
4. Victory Pose
Have everyone strike a victory pose for 5 seconds, capturing the moment with a quick photo.
5. Quick Team Toast
Gather the team for a quick toast with coffee, tea, or sparkling water to acknowledge the success.
6. Celebration Selfie
Take a group selfie to commemorate the win and share it on your internal communication channels.
7. Success Stickers
Hand out stickers or pins that team members can wear proudly for the day to celebrate the achievement.
8. Team High-Five GIF
Create a quick GIF of everyone on the team high-fiving (in person or virtually) and share it in your team chat as a celebration.
Expert Insights
“One thing I’ve noticed is that teams are more connected when they feel valued and seen as individuals. When leaders offer recognition and create spaces for casual, non-work interactions, it creates a sense of belonging. Teams that have fun together tend to build stronger bonds.”
-Michelle Carra, teambuilding.com host
Conclusion
Team celebrations are a fun way for your team to unwind and feel like the company values employees’ hard work. Ideas such as happy hours, online games, and shout-outs keep employees happy to work for you. When it comes to planning a fun celebration, you should ask the team for ideas to ensure that the party fits the occasion and employee interests.
Next, check out these lists of fun work social committee ideas and ways to foster company pride. Also, check out this guide to ice cream socials.
