Normally, the team at Work Psychology Group would get together for a festive meal and one of Business Manager, Sarah Stott’s, famous quizzes.
However, with us all working from home full-time and spread across different tiers, we have had to get more creative than usual.
As much as we would love to give each other a hug or high five, doing so whilst social distancing isn’t an option. Therefore, we opted for several festive bursts of fun throughout December.
Not only did this help to keep the Christmas magic alive across the month and the screen time low. It also meant we could enjoy several different activities in 1-hour slots across different days of the week.
Virtual Escape Room
First up was a virtual escape room. The clever games have been rising in popularity since the late 2000s. But since the boom in home working, more and more people have taken on the challenge virtually. We used people engagement provider, Green Hat People to host the game. The premise was that our files had been hacked and we had to complete as many puzzles as possible within 45 minutes to get them back.
We were separated into four teams using online breakout rooms. The clever tech captured every team’s score, so once the 45 minutes was up the winning team was revealed. On the night it was Victoria, Jo, Amy, and Charlotte (The Terry Chocolate Oranges) who were crowned victorious.
Music and Crafts Night
It’s not really Christmas until you have sung a carol or two! But this wasn’t just ordinary caroling. Victoria Roe, our Senior Consultant, sent us all Christmas crackers containing whistles of different pitches. The pitch of your whistle would determine when you would blow it. We did this over Microsoft Teams and after a bit of practicing we were able to play White Christmas, Jingle Bells, and Good King Wenceslas. The digital lag time and odd frozen screen wasn’t going to stop us from finishing the set!
We were also able to deck our own halls with Christmas ornaments thanks to master crafter and office manager Jo Hasse. Jo sent around sparkly materials and templates so we could design our own Christmas ornament. Designs included Christmas wreathes, poinsettia and snowflakes. We’re not sure we lived up to Jo’s talents, but we had a lot of fun getting crafty.
Cookery School and Musical Bingo
Our last night of Christmas fun saw us get together virtually for two of the finer things in life: food and bingo!
Despite being one of our Senior Consultants on the team, Charlotte Flaxman also wears another hat. The toque type!
We consider Charlotte our Head Chef because back in the days when we had office fuddles (where we would bring in some snacks or treats to help power us through the day) we’d all look forward to seeing what invention she would whip up. There’s no shop bought pork pies or box of chocolates when Charlotte is around.
Which is why, it wouldn’t be a WPG team celebration if our Head Chef wasn’t there to talk us through a culinary masterpiece. Charlotte sent out a list of ingredients we would need to make a carrot side dish for our Christmas dinners, as well as mulled wine.
Whilst our Christmas dish was cooking, consultants Jessica Bird and Jordan Buxton led us on a round of musical Bingo. We had bingo cards with Christmas music titles on them. The pair played clips of the songs, and we had to work out which song it was before we could cross it off!
We hope that you’ve managed to find ways to celebrate with your team at the end of this very strange year. And we wish all the best for a safe and peaceful Christmas and New Year,
