As the year comes to a close, it’s the perfect time to bring your team together to reflect and celebrate accomplishments from the year.
Hosting a holiday party in Gather gives your remote team a shared Space to move around, jump in and out of conversations, and create shared memories with colleagues. You can sit by the fire, decorate a tree, or even race go karts – all from the same Space, without ever dealing with the logistics involved in real-life events!
Watch the recording of the livestream event, or read the full guide below.
Ready to host your team’s favorite virtual holiday party yet? Follow these steps to plan your party in Gather!
1. Create your Space
No holiday party is complete without seasonal decorations. Luckily with Gather, you don’t have to worry about purchasing one-time use decor or attempting to hang up mistletoe.
If you already have an office on Gather, you can follow the tips in our Winter Decorating Guide to customize your existing Space for the holidays.
Using our Object Picker or the Mapmaker, you can place winter objects like:
- Snowmen
- A giant gingerbread house
- Trees covered in snow
- Presents
- Food for a holiday feast
If you’re trying Gather for the first time or want to create a special Space or Room just for this occasion, you can start with one of our two winter-themed templates.
Winter Cabin
A small Space best for 2-25 people. It includes an outdoor fire pit, a lake, and a cozy cabin perfect for team conversation.
Winter Gathering
A larger Space best for 25-50 people. It comes ready with firepits, picnic benches, and a log cabin so everyone can retreat “inside” when it gets too cold.
If you’re hosting a holiday party for more than 50 people, we recommend creating a custom Space or decorating one of our larger templates. You can view all templates here or access them by going to “Create Space” > “Advanced templates and setup for experts.”
2. Add games and activities
Now that your Space is decorated for the occasion, the next step is to decide what activities you want available during your party.
Gather has several built-in social experiences you can play together, including the Gather Grand Prix and Board Game Night. You can also embed individual board games into your Space such as Tetris, Codenames, Draw Battle, and more. You can see the full list of games here.
Pro-tip: Can’t find the game you’re looking for? You can embed a URL into any object on Gather for quick access from your Space.
Beyond actual games, consider how you can use your Space to bring people closer together. For example, you could have everyone help decorate a giant tree, leave shoutouts for each other on a gratitude board, or share their favorite memory from the year. (You’ll find tips for these activities in our Winter Decorating Guide.)
Activities like this encourage people to move throughout the Space you’ve designed and bump into their colleagues naturally, as opposed to relying on structured holiday party activities.
The most important thing is to create opportunities for people to connect, so don’t put too much pressure on it!
3. Invite your team
Now it’s time for the fun – bringing your team together in your holiday Space!
First, make sure you’re set up on a plan to accommodate all your guests. If there will be fewer than 25 people at your party, you can use Gather for free. If you’ll have more than 25 people, make sure you’re set up on either our Monthly Subscription or a Daily plan. You can view pricing here.
When it’s time to send out invites, you can either invite people as Members or Guests of your Space. If this holiday party is just for your team, they’ll probably all be Members. If you’re inviting friends or family members, we recommend inviting them as Guests.
You can learn more about the difference between Members and Guests here, or learn about user roles for Members here.
As people join the Space, they’ll be able to customize their avatar. Be sure to let them know about the seasonal outfits and accessories like ear muffs, winter hats, or even dressing up as a gingerbread person!
Show avatar image from decorating guide
Once everyone has arrived, especially if you have users to Gather, you may consider a quick tour of the Space you’ve built so everyone knows how to navigate and where to find things.
4. Enjoy!
Time for your team to share some memories and enjoy each other’s virtual company.
To get the most out of your time together, we recommend making sure everyone is aware of some simple and fun features of Gather:
- Press ‘z’ to dance!
- Press ‘f’ to throw confetti
- Press ‘x’ to interact with objects
- Use the emotes to express yourself, even when your audio/video is off
- If enough people use the confetti, heart, or clap emote at the same time, you’ll see/hear a surprise :)
Start decorating your holiday Space on Gather
Ready to host your best virtual holiday party yet? Log in or create your first Space to get started. If you’re looking for additional help planning the event or building a customer Space, you can reach out to the Gather Ambassadors.
