There are many ways to celebrate and gather in the workplace, not limited to just the holidays. Many workplaces come together to celebrate retirements, birthdays, anniversaries or tenure, office changes, employee or organizational accomplishments, among others.
Workplace celebrations and gatherings are important for many reasons. For one, they bring your staff together, allow them to socialize with one another more informally, and often help build and strengthen relationships. Second, they enhance the culture of a workplace, making it fun and enjoyable. Third, celebrations and gatherings provide a means of recognizing personal and workplace achievements and milestones and showing appreciation for them in a public manner.
We’ve compiled a robust collection of 100+ ideas for reasons to celebrate, ways to celebrate, and local places to celebrate with your employees throughout the year.
Ideas for reasons to celebrate or gather with employees
- Holidays
- Retirements
- Birthdays
- Graduations
- Promotions
- Anniversaries or tenure
- New babies or adoptions
- New year or end-of-year
- Major project kick-offs, milestones, or completions
- Office changes (new office, renovations, major improvements, etc.)
- Beginning of or end of a busy season
- Employee appreciation/recognition
- Employee, team, and/or organizational achievements
- Company anniversary
- Team-building
- Charitable causes
- Break from work
Ideas for ways to celebrate and gather with employees
- “75” days of celebration to celebrate “75” years in business
- Annual employee appreciation day
- Apple picking
- Baby showers
- Beach parties
- Black-tie galas
- Boating or cruise events
- Bonfires
- Bowling nights
- Breakfast with Santa
- Breakfasts or luncheons with the President
- Bus trips or excursions
- Busy-season kick-off and/or wrap-up parties
- Cake parties
- Carnivals
- Casino, card, or poker nights
- Charitable walks or runs
- Chili cook-offs
- Christmas in July
- Cinco-de-Mayo parties
- Clam bakes
- College logo days
- Comedy clubs
- Company picnics
- Company-paid staff vacations
- Cook-offs
- Cookouts
- Corn-hole tournaments
- Coworker trivia
- Crazy hat or shirt days
- Cultural/ethnic celebrations
- Day at the spa
- Day at the zoo, park, or amusement park
- Desert decorating contests
- Desk decorating parties (holidays, birthdays, etc.)
- Dessert parties
- Dinner at the President’s house
- Dinner with live band or DJ and dancing
- Dinner-dances
- Easter egg hunts
- Employee talent shows
- Fall fests
- Family fests with activities, contests, and entertainment
- Field days
- Fundraisers
- Gift exchanges or white elephant parties
- Gifts or celebrations for Mothers Day and Fathers Day
- Golf outings and scrambles
- Halloween costume contests
- Halloween decorating contests
- Hayrides
- Ice cream socials and ice cream truck visits
- Indians, Browns, and Cavaliers opening day celebrations
- Internal happy hours
- Karaoke events
- Laser tag
- Limo service to luncheons/dinners
- Local sporting events
- Local theatre or plays
- Luaus
- March Madness events
- Mid-winter slump events
- Monthly potluck birthday parties
- Movie nights
- National food days
- Night at the races
- Nintendo Wii contests or tournaments
- Office putt-putt
- Office Thanksgiving luncheons or potlucks
- Office trick-or-treating for employees’ children
- Open-houses
- Paintball
- Paper airplane contests
- Pinewood derby
- Pizza parties
- Potlucks
- Raffles
- Retirement parties
- Salad bar lunches
- Scavenger hunts
- Scrapbooking parties
- Service award parties
- Shopping days for the holidays
- Silent auctions
- Skits
- Snow days (tobogganing, sledding, skiing, and/or ice skating)
- Soup sampler days
- Special employee weeks or days (administrative professionals, nurse’s week, maintenance day, etc.)
- Sports tournaments (flag football, softball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, etc.)
- St. Patrick’s Day festivities (catered corned beef lunch, parade watching, etc.)
- Staff off-site retreats
- Surprise fun days (go to the movies, etc.)
- Tailgates
- Take your children to work days
- Take your parents to work days
- Theme parties
- Ugly sweater holiday parties
- Visits from Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny
- Wear your sweats to work day
- Wedding showers
- Weekend trips to Kalihari or Put-in-Bay
- Whirleyball
- Wine and cheese tasting
Ideas for local venues for your celebrations
- Akron Aeros Canal Park
- Akron Zoo
- Blossom Music Center
- Cadillac Ranch
- Cedar Point
- Cleveland Botanical Gardens
- Cleveland Browns Stadium
- Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
- Country Clubs
- Dave and Busters
- Edgewater Park
- Goodtime III
- Hale Farm
- Hilarities Comedy Club
- Hotels
- House of Blues
- Kalahari
- Kennywood
- Lake County Captains Classic Park
- Nautica Queen
- Playhouse Square
- President of the Company’s Home
- Progressive Field
- Put-in-Bay
- Quail Hallow
- Renaissance Hotel
- Restaurants
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- Seven Springs
- Shorby Club
- Swings N Things
- The Q
- Waldameer Water World
- Whisky Island
- Windows on the River
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