Your employees need something to celebrate. And with a little creativity, you can still celebrate together.

In the face of a global pandemic, it was easy for us at Citrix to agree that we would not have in-person holiday parties this year. As we thought about what we wanted to do instead, two themes kept emerging.

First, the events of 2020 left many people in our communities struggling, and we wanted to help. For this, we chose to amplify our giving strategy, making donations on behalf of our employees to provide 13 million meals to families in need around the world in partnership with a few nonprofits.

Second, our colleagues, like yours, had worked so hard to continue serving customers and innovating while adapting to new ways of working, even as they faced personal challenges. We wanted to recognize that. We created a companywide online gratitude board — a growing collection of employee notes celebrating the achievements made during a difficult time.

Some of the most meaningful festivities will happen among smaller teams as they celebrate their accomplishments together — at a distance — and look forward with optimism to the year ahead. We equipped our managers with a year-end celebration idea guide to get them thinking about what makes sense for their teams. With a little creativity, leaders can offer more than another meeting of staring at each other’s virtual faces in boxes on a screen. Here are nine ideas to consider as you look to spread some much-needed end-of-year cheer:

  • Get ugly. Have a seasonal sweater-themed virtual party and award prizes for the most dreadfully dressed.
  • Cook something up. Exchange your favorite holiday recipes and whip them up together online. Assemble a cookbook with the collected recipes.
  • Share traditions. In a virtual happy hour, have each team member share their favorite holiday ritual against the backdrop of their decked-out homes. Family members and pets welcome!
  • Get crafty. Launch a Microsoft Teams holiday-background design contest and implement the winning submission companywide.
  • Share the magic. Hire a magician to perform an online show highlighting some of the “magic” you’ve achieved throughout the year.
  • Be vocal. Create a seasonal playlist of your team’s favorite songs and host a virtual sing-along.
  • Give back. Identify a charity or cause that your team is passionate about and take a day to volunteer virtually together to support it.
  • Search for meaning. Create a custom word search and set your team on the hunt for words highlighting key milestones and accomplishments in 2020 to remind them of their success.
  • Give thanks. Create a virtual forum where your team can express their gratitude and thank colleagues for everyone to see.

This holiday season, even if you can’t give employees a buffet, a photo booth, or dance floor, you can give them something else they really want: a reason to believe. Remind them of your purpose, your progress toward it, and the people they get to do the work with — even at a distance — every day. In the end, it’s the people, not the party, that brings us back year after year.