Christmas Icebreaker Questions for Work

A quick Christmas question or game gives that energy somewhere to go. Pick whatever fits your team from the list below: openers that land no matter what your team celebrates, work-safe would-you-rather and this-or-that rounds, prompts made for video calls, and a few reflection questions for that last retro before everyone clocks off for the holidays.

Holiday icebreaker questions for work

Start here if your team doesn't all celebrate Christmas, or you're not sure. These openers work for everyone in the room, and none of them asks what people are doing over the break or who they're spending it with.

Which end-of-year holidays do you celebrate, if any?
What is one tradition you look forward to every year?
Which food tastes like the holidays to you?
What is the best thing about this time of year where you live?
Do you decorate early, decorate late, or not at all?
What is one small thing that makes the end of the year feel less hectic?
What song do you always end up hearing this month?
What is a holiday film or show you would happily watch again?
If you get time off, what is the first thing you will do with it?
What is one thing you want to finish before the break?
What is a gift you have given that you were pleased with?
What is the coziest part of your December?

Christmas icebreaker questions

For teams where Christmas is the shared reference point. These stay on the safe ground of food, films and traditions, with nothing about beliefs or money, so they work as get-to-know-you questions in a meeting or as Christmas conversation starters over a team lunch.

Which Christmas film do you defend even though nobody else agrees?
Real tree or artificial tree, and how strongly do you feel about it?
What is the best Christmas food, and what is the most overrated?
Fruitcake: yes or no?
What is the strangest Christmas tradition you have come across?
What is a Christmas song you would ban from every store?
What was the best present you were given as a child?
Do you open presents on the day or the night before?
What is the worst Christmas sweater you have ever worn or been given?
Christmas morning, up at dawn or a slow start?
What is one Christmas thing you quietly find overrated?
What is the first thing that tells you Christmas has arrived?

Christmas would you rather questions (work-safe)

Two options, pick a side, defend it. Every one of these is safe to read out in a meeting, which is more than can be said for most Christmas would-you-rather lists you'll find online.

Would you rather have a white Christmas or a warm one on a beach?
Would you rather give the perfect gift or receive one?
Would you rather do all your shopping in one day or spread it over a month?
Would you rather wrap fifty presents or write fifty cards?
Would you rather host everyone or be a guest all season?
Would you rather eat only roast dinners for a week or only desserts?
Would you rather have an extra day off in December or an extra day in January?
Would you rather be in charge of the food or in charge of the music?
Would you rather decorate the whole office or judge everyone else's decorations?
Would you rather sing at the office party or run the quiz?
Would you rather get one big gift or twelve small ones?
Would you rather have no travel and no snow, or a long trip through a blizzard?
Would you rather start January with an empty inbox or an empty to-do list?
Would you rather work the quiet week between the holidays or the busy week before?

Christmas this or that

One-word answers, no thinking allowed. This is the quickest warm-up on the page: read them out, let people answer on instinct, and a whole team gets through a dozen holiday this-or-that questions in two minutes.

Real tree or artificial?
Star or angel on top?
Colored lights or white lights?
Roast potatoes or stuffing?
Gingerbread or shortbread?
Hot chocolate or mulled wine?
Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?
Handmade gift or gift card?
Sweet treats or savory snacks?
Holiday sweater or normal clothes?
Snow or sunshine?
Big gathering or a quiet few days?
Carols or pop Christmas songs?

Holiday would you rather questions for the office

Trade-offs about how your team actually spends the weeks before Christmas: the party, the time off, the decorations. These surface real preferences, which is useful if you're the one planning any of it.

Would you rather have the office party at lunch or after work?
Would you rather have a Secret Santa or no gifts at all?
Would you rather take your time off in one long block or a day here and there?
Would you rather finish early every Friday in December or take the last week off?
Would you rather organize the party or just show up?
Would you rather have a quiet December and a busy January, or the other way round?
Would you rather do a team lunch or a team activity?
Would you rather get a company gift or an extra half-day?
Would you rather have your year-end review before the break or after it?
Would you rather work with the office decorated or kept exactly as it is?

Virtual Christmas party icebreakers

A virtual Christmas party has no corner to drift to, so the quiet people get quieter. These prompts are built for the call: each one can be answered on camera or typed in the chat, so nobody has to unmute to take part. They work just as well for any virtual holiday party.

Show us one decoration within reach of your desk.
Put one emoji in the chat for how your December is going.
What is behind you on camera that has a story attached?
Type the first holiday song that comes into your head.
What is in your mug right now?
Hold up the last thing you wrapped, or the last thing you were given.
What is one thing you can see out of your window today?
Rename yourself with your holiday alter ego for this call.
What time zone are you in, and what is the weather doing?
Drop a photo in the chat of your view, your pet, or your desk.
What is one thing that has made you laugh this week?
In one word, how are you arriving at this call?

Secret Santa and gift exchange questions

Ask these before the Secret Santa draw and people end up with something they actually want. Send them around as a short form a week ahead, and the whole thing gets easier for everyone, especially whoever drew the new hire.

What is a gift within our budget that you would genuinely be pleased with?
What is something you already have plenty of?
Are there any allergies or things we should avoid?
Sweet, savory, or neither?
What is a small thing that makes your workday better?
What hobby have you picked up this year?
Practical gift or silly gift?
Is there a store you always enjoy something from?
What is the best gift you have been given at work?
What is a gift you would happily receive every year?
Would you rather get something to keep or something to use up?
Are you collecting anything at the moment?

Winter and new year icebreaker questions

For the first meetings back after Christmas, when the decorations are down and January needs a warm-up of its own. Nobody wants to be asked how their break was for the third time that morning; these give people something else to say.

What is one thing you want to do differently this year?
What is the best thing that happened to you last year?
What is one thing you learned that you did not expect to?
What are you leaving behind in last year?
What is one word you want to describe this year?
What is your favorite thing about winter?
What is your strategy for dark mornings?
What is a small win from the last twelve months that you have not told anyone about?
What are you looking forward to in the next three months?
What is a habit that actually stuck?
What do you want more of this year, and what do you want less of?
Which month of last year would you most like to redo?

End of year reflection questions for teams

Less of a warm-up, more of a retrospective. If you run one team session before everyone disappears for Christmas, these are the questions that make it worth the hour.

What is the one thing this team should keep doing next year?
What is the one thing we should stop doing?
What was our best decision this year?
What is something we got wrong but handled well?
What did we ship this year that you are proudest of?
Which of our working agreements actually held up?
What slowed us down most often, and is it still there?
Who deserves credit for something that went unnoticed?
What is a problem we have been carrying for months that we could finish in January?
What did we learn the hard way that we should write down?
If we could change one meeting on our calendar, which one and how?
What is one thing you want this team to be known for next year?

Christmas party games for work

A question round is enough for a team meeting. A Christmas party, especially a virtual or hybrid one, needs a bit more structure or it turns into eleven people watching one person talk. These six run in ten minutes or less, need nothing posted or printed, and work with people spread across time zones.

Christmas trivia. Ten questions, two teams, answers in the chat. Eighteen ready-made questions with answers are in the next section, and the first round reaches beyond Christmas so nobody is at a disadvantage. Run it as a Quick Quiz.
Christmas movie emoji quiz. Post a row of emoji, and the first person to name the movie wins the point. Fast, visual, and it works in any language. Emoji Guess does the scoring for you.
A would-you-rather round. Read six of the questions above and have everyone pick a side, then ask the two people who disagreed most to defend themselves. This or That runs it live and shows the split.
Guess the decoration. Everyone holds up one thing from their desk or room, and the group guesses whose is whose.
Two truths and a holiday lie. The classic, with all three statements about this time of year.
Secret Santa clue round. Before the reveal, each giver reads out one clue about their recipient and the group guesses who it is.

The first three are free to play in the browser, with no signup for the people joining.

One thing worth saying about all of these: keep participation optional. Christmas is not an easy time for everyone, and a game that puts someone on the spot about family, money or travel has done the opposite of its job. Ask about food, films and music instead, let people answer in the chat, and keep it short.

Christmas and holiday trivia questions and answers for work

Call it the Christmas quiz, the xmas quiz or just the December quiz: a trivia round is the one Christmas party game that works the same in a room, on a call, or across both at once. Read each question out, give people fifteen seconds, and take answers in the chat so nobody has to shout over the person who always knows.

Three rounds of six are below, answers included. Pick ten if you only have ten minutes. The first round deliberately covers more than one tradition, so a team that does not all celebrate the same thing still has a fair shot at winning.

Round one: winter holidays around the world

How many nights does Hanukkah last? Eight.
What does the word Hanukkah mean? Dedication.
How many principles does Kwanzaa celebrate, one for each night? Seven.
What is the candle holder used at Kwanzaa called? A kinara.
What is the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere called? The winter solstice.
Which country’s New Year tradition is to eat twelve grapes at midnight? Spain.

Round two: films, books and music

Which film leaves Kevin behind while his family flies to Paris? Home Alone.
What is the name of the Grinch’s dog? Max.
Which Charles Dickens story features the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come? A Christmas Carol.
What is the best-selling Christmas single of all time? White Christmas, by Bing Crosby.
Which reindeer was invented in 1939 for a department store’s promotional booklet? Rudolph.
Which song is traditionally sung at midnight on New Year’s Eve? Auld Lang Syne.

Round three: food and traditions

Which country is credited with starting the decorated Christmas tree tradition? Germany.
In which country is a bucket of fried chicken a popular Christmas Eve meal? Japan.
Which country sends London a Christmas tree for Trafalgar Square every year as a thank you? Norway.
What is left out for Santa in the United States, and what is left out in the United Kingdom? Milk and cookies in the US, mince pies and sherry in the UK.
Which plant is traditionally hung in a doorway at Christmas? Mistletoe.
On what date is Boxing Day? 26 December.

Run it as a Quick Quiz if you would rather not keep score yourself. And if the room wants funny rather than factual, the funny icebreaker questions work just as well in December.

Christmas and holiday question of the day ideas

Not every team wants a fifteen-minute game. If you run a daily standup or a morning meeting in the run-up to Christmas, one question a day does the same work with none of the setup. Take six from any list above, put one at the top of each day’s agenda, and let it run for the last two weeks before the break.

Three things make a Christmas question of the day land rather than fizzle:

Ask it before the meeting, not in it. Post it in the team channel the night before. Anyone who needs a minute to think gets one, and the meeting itself stays short.
Keep it to one. A question of the day stops being a question of the day at three. Save the rest for the party.
Rotate who picks. The person choosing pays more attention than the person answering, so pass it around.

When the decorations come down, keep going with a winter question of the day from the winter and new year list above. January is the month a team most needs a warm-up and least feels like having one. For questions with no season attached, the question of the day collection runs all year.

Want a question picked for you? The free icebreaker generator draws from every question on this page and its sister pages. For openers that are not tied to a season, browse the would you rather and this or that questions, the icebreaker questions for work, or the virtual icebreakers built for remote teams, or head back to all our icebreakers by use case.

If the end-of-year reflection questions are the ones you came for, they work best as a retrospective: run them as a team session and turn the answers into things you will actually do in January.

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What are good holiday icebreaker questions for work?

Good holiday icebreaker questions for work stay light and never assume what someone celebrates or who they are spending the break with. Ask about food, films, music, or traditions rather than plans: 'Which food tastes like the holidays to you?' or 'Which end-of-year holidays do you celebrate, if any?' works for any team. The point is to give everyone something easy to say in the first two minutes, so keep it to one question, answer it yourself first, and move into the agenda while the energy is up.

What are some fun and easy Christmas icebreaker games?

The easiest ones need no preparation and no props. A would-you-rather round works with any group size: read out two festive options and have everyone pick a side. A Christmas movie emoji quiz is quick and visual, and it works well in a chat window. Two truths and a lie about the holidays takes five minutes and gets a laugh. For a virtual party, a decoration show-and-tell gets everyone on camera without putting anyone on the spot. All of them run in ten minutes or less.

How do you run a holiday icebreaker in a virtual meeting?

Pick a question that can be answered in the chat as well as out loud, so the people who would rather not unmute can still take part. Read it, answer it yourself, then give people fifteen seconds before you take answers. Anything that involves holding something up to the camera works especially well on a video call, because it gives people a reason to turn their video on. Timebox it to two or three minutes and move on.

How do you keep holiday icebreakers inclusive at work?

Three things cover most of it. Ask about the season rather than a specific religious holiday, or ask which holidays someone celebrates rather than assuming. Avoid questions about family plans, travel, or gift spending, because they land badly on anyone whose December is difficult or expensive. And make participation genuinely optional: let people pass, answer in the chat, or keep it short. An opener that puts someone in an awkward position has done the opposite of its job.

What are good Christmas would you rather questions for adults?

For a work setting, keep the two options about preferences rather than anything personal. 'Would you rather give the perfect gift or receive one?' or 'Would you rather be in charge of the food or in charge of the music?' spark a real, low-stakes argument and reveal something about how people think. Most would-you-rather lists online are written for children's parties or lean rude, so read anything you find elsewhere before you put it in front of a team.

What are good winter icebreaker questions?

Winter questions are the ones that still work in January and February, once the holidays are over and the decorations are down. Ask about the season itself and about the year ahead: 'What is your strategy for dark mornings?', 'What is one thing you want to do differently this year?', or 'What are you looking forward to in the next three months?'. They do the same job as a holiday opener without depending on a date that has passed.

What are good holiday trivia questions for work?

Good holiday trivia questions for work spread across more than one tradition, so the round does not quietly favor whoever grew up with the same December as the quizmaster. Mix winter holidays around the world with films, music and food: 'How many nights does Hanukkah last?', 'Which country sends London a Christmas tree every year?', or 'What is the best-selling Christmas single of all time?'. Eighteen questions in three rounds of six is about right for a party and ten is plenty for a team meeting. Read each one out, give fifteen seconds, and take answers in the chat so the quiet people still play.

How long should a holiday icebreaker take?

Two to three minutes for a normal team meeting, which is one question and one round of answers. An office party or an end-of-year team session can justify longer: fifteen minutes for a game, or a full hour if you are running a proper end-of-year retrospective. The rule is the same as any other icebreaker, which is that it should be in proportion to the meeting it opens.

Christmas icebreaker questions and games for work