Planning a Holiday Party for a Hybrid or Remote Team
A practical way to plan one company holiday party when half your team is in the office and half is scattered across time zones.
Your company has an office in one city and employees working from a dozen others. The holiday party used to mean picking a restaurant and a date. Now half the guest list will be watching from a laptop, if they show up at all, and the usual plan of catered food and a Secret Santa table does not translate.
The hard part is not the venue. It is deciding what counts as attending when some people are in the room and some are in another time zone, and making sure food, gifts and photos work for both groups without one side feeling like an afterthought.
Decide the format before you set a date
Pick one of three common formats first, because it changes everything downstream: the date, the invite wording, the budget and what you ask guests to RSVP for.
- In-person party with a remote segment. Office staff gather for food and a short program; remote staff join by video for a toast, an award or a game, then log off. Works well when most of the team is local.
- Two separate events. An in-office party and a smaller virtual gathering on a different day, each planned around what that group can actually enjoy. Costs more coordination but avoids the awkward hybrid video call in the middle of a room.
- Fully distributed party. Everyone joins remotely, including local staff, with a delivered food or drink kit ahead of time. Simplest to run fairly when the team is mostly remote or spread across many cities.
A rough rule: if more than a third of the team is remote, plan the virtual portion as its own event rather than a bolt-on to the in-office party. A ten-minute video call wedged into a live room rarely feels good to the people on the screen.
Build one guest list, split into two groups
Keep a single invitation and guest list, then split it into an office group and a remote group so each gets the details that matter to them: parking and dress code for one, a shipping deadline and log-in link for the other. Grouping guests this way also lets you send a reminder to just the group that has not replied instead of nagging everyone.
- 5-6 weeks out: confirm format, date and budget; block the calendar for both groups' work hours across time zones.
- 4 weeks out: send invitations with format-specific details; ask for shipping addresses in the RSVP if you are sending kits.
- 2 weeks out: send a reminder to anyone who has not replied; finalize headcount for catering and kit orders.
- 3-5 days out: confirm the deadline is closed, place the final food and shipping orders, and post the video call link.
The RSVP deadline calculator can help you work backward from the event date so the reminder and the final order both land with enough runway, especially if kits need to ship before the party.
Food and budget across two setups
Office catering and remote food kits are two separate budget lines, and they rarely cost the same per person. Catering scales with headcount using ordinary rules of thumb; the party food calculator gives a starting point for quantities once you have a firm number. Shipped kits scale with a flat per-box cost regardless of how much any one person eats, so a smaller remote group with a modest per-box budget can still add up quickly once shipping is included.
A workable split many teams use is a fixed dollar amount per person no matter the format, then let the office team choose a caterer within that amount and let remote staff pick from two or three kit options at the same price point. This keeps the party feeling equal even though the delivery method is different. Budgets and what counts as generous vary a lot by company size and industry, so treat this as a starting point rather than a fixed rule.
Make the remote half feel like part of the room
A few small choices make the difference between remote staff watching a party and actually being in one.
- Schedule the video segment early in the event, before the room gets loud, so remote guests are not straining to hear.
- Give remote staff something to do during the call, not just watch: a quick round of show-and-tell, a poll, or reading out a raffle winner.
- Set up a shared photo album on the invitation so both groups can post pictures from wherever they are, then let people download the whole set afterward.
- Keep a running message wall on the invitation before and after the event for people to post plans, playlists or thank-yous, so the conversation is not limited to the live call.
Invitation wording and RSVP questions
State the format plainly in the invitation so nobody guesses whether they need to show up in person, log in, or wait for a box. If you are collecting shipping addresses or meal choices, ask for them right in the RSVP form rather than in a follow-up email.
Join us for the annual holiday party. In-office team: doors open at 12:00 at [address]. Remote team: your kit ships the week before, and we will all raise a glass together on the video call at 12:30. RSVP by [date] so we can order the right amount of everything.
More invitation wording examples for corporate events can help with trickier lines, like inviting plus-ones for the in-person portion only, or telling contractors and part-time staff whether they are included. Browsing corporate event templates is a fast way to get a design out the door once the wording is set, and if you want to start from scratch, the full template library has options across other occasions too.
After the party: photos and thank-yous
Once the party wraps, both groups should end up with the same access to what happened. If you used a shared photo album on the invitation, remind everyone it stays open for a set number of days so remote staff can add their own pictures from the video call or their kit setup, not just view what the office posted. A short thank-you message to the whole list, sent through the same invitation rather than a separate email chain, keeps the closing note consistent for everyone who attended, in whichever format they joined.
Frequently asked questions
Should remote employees get the same budget as in-office staff for a holiday party?
Many companies aim for a similar per-person amount even though the format differs, since a shipped kit and a catered lunch rarely cost the same. Matching the dollar amount rather than the delivery method tends to feel fairest, though final budgets depend on company size and are a leadership call, not a fixed rule.
How early should food and gift kits ship for a remote holiday party?
Aim to have kits arrive three to five days before the event to allow for shipping delays, especially during the holiday season when carriers are busiest. Collect shipping addresses in the RSVP with enough lead time, ideally four weeks out, so orders can be placed well before the deadline.
Is a fully virtual holiday party worth it if only a few employees are remote?
Usually not on its own. If remote staff are a small minority, a short video segment folded into the in-office party, timed early before the room gets loud, is often enough. A separate virtual event tends to make more sense once remote staff are a third or more of the team.
How do we handle plus-ones when part of the team is remote?
Decide separately for each format. In-person events can allow plus-ones if the venue and budget support it. For shipped kits, a plus-one usually means a second box, which adds real cost, so many teams either skip plus-ones for the remote portion or cap it at a smaller add-on gift rather than a full kit.
