12 Fall Team Building Party Ideas
As we move into October and November, your employees may be working extra hard to meet their last few productivity goals or crush a few more numbers. Which makes this the perfect time of year to host a fall team building activity for your team - after all, you want to reward them for all their hard work!
And what better way to show your team how much you appreciate them than with a fun-filled, festive fall team building party? The winter holidays are just right around the corner, so you probably want to start planning the party before the real stress of the holidays gets here.
If you’re stuck on ideas, don’t worry - we’ve got you covered. Here are 12 of the best Fall team building party ideas to help your team celebrate all that they've accomplished whether they’re working remotely or back in the office:
1. Fall Paint Night
All you team really needs to have an awesome Paint Night event are some art supplies. In terms of instruction, there are plenty of tutorials available on YouTube that will give your team step-by-step instructions on how to create a wonderful masterpiece. Fall themed art tutorials are often a popular choice because of all the wonderful colors that the season tends to bring, such as this particular good one from Joni Young. It’s easy to search for fall painting instructions on YouTube, and help your team create a painting of an apple orchard, jack-o-lantern, or anything else you can think of that’s related to fall. You can pick up the supplies you’d need to host a Paint Night at most craft stores or even have them shipped to you from Amazon. Hosting the event is pretty easy, all you really need to do is project the tutorial session in a conference room, make sure everyone has their supplies ready, and then get painting! If your team is mostly working remotely, we wrote this article that might help on how to host a virtual paint night event for remote teams.
If you’re looking for an even easier way to do a paint night event with a team that is mostly remote, then we offer a Virtual Paint Night. We ship all the supplies to each of your participants individually, and one of our professional instructors then guides your team through the creation of a painting of your choosing. We super encourage everybody to get engaged and ask as many questions as they want. There are tons of great options for fall paintings, so I’m sure you’ll find one that’s perfect for your team!
2. Thanksgiving Potluck
Most workers are off on Thanksgiving, and many are away from the office for a large portion of the week. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate Thanksgiving with your team before everyone leaves the office. A potluck-style party before everyone leaves can be a great way to get everyone in the Thanksgiving spirit. This is pretty easy to set up. All you really need to do is have people sign up to bring specific foods to the party - this will ensure that you don’t end up with ten different pies and nothing else! Ideally, you want to make sure that at least some of the dishes cater to team members who may have dietary restrictions or allergies. A Thanksgiving potluck is a great team building activity because it gets your team to possibly try new dishes they may not have had before, and it also allows the entire team to get to know each other by eating foods that come from their own personal holiday traditions.
A Thanksgiving potluck won’t work exactly the same for a virtual or partially virtual team, but something that can be fun is giving each of your virtual team members a small stipend to purchase holiday food, and then getting together on a Zoom call so everyone can show off what they bought or made. It might be fun to kick off the potluck with some Thanksgiving trivia questions that gets everyone in the mood and ready to celebrate.
3. Halloween Online Office Olympics
If you have a remote team, or even a team where some members are in the office and some members are working from home, it can be much harder to think of fall party ideas. If your goal is to plan something super fun while putting in as little work as possible, then something like our Virtual Halloween Party is a great place to start! This event is very similar to our regular office competition game, Online Office Olympics, except all of the questions have a fun Halloween-y twist. It is sure to get your team in the Halloween spirit, and the best part is that there’s not much more you have to do to get it started other than select a date and time. For extra spooky fun, we suggest encouraging your team to wear their costumes during the event - because even remote teams have a lot of fun seeing how each other dress up for Halloween!
4. Halloween Trivia
Regardless of whether your team is working remotely, in the office, or hybrid, a Halloween Trivia Party is a high-energy team building event that’s easy to set up, and lots of fun. Your team is likely to learn something new about Halloween traditions, horror movie fun facts, or candy statistics, all while bonding with their teammates and getting excited for the upcoming holiday. To get you started, we’ve created this list of Halloween trivia questions, and we’re sure that you’ll stumble across a spooky fun fact you didn’t know!
If you’d rather somebody else do all the planning and hosting of the event for you, then check out our Halloween-themed Virtual Trivia Night. All that you and your team need to do is pick a day and time you’d like to play, and then show up. This is an especially great option if your team is mostly remote, and you aren’t feeling confident with the technical logistics of running a Trivia Night virtually. We are happy to make sure that everything runs smoothly!
5. Fall Movie Night
Sometimes, what your team really needs as we begin the final quarter of the year is a little time to relax and unwind. A great way to accomplish this is with a Fall Movie Night! There are lots of fun fall movies that your team is sure to enjoy. If your team is down for something a little scary, a horror movie might be a fun option, but even if some of your team members aren’t into that idea, there are many Fall movies like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown or Hocus Pocus, that aren’t scary.
If you're hosting the event in your office, we would recommend picking up some snacks and drinks that your team can enjoy while they relax and watch the movie. Alternatively, if you are hosting this event remotely, all you need to do is use a service like Netflix Party, and your whole team will be able to enjoy watching the same movie together, virtually.
6. Oktoberfest
If your team wants to celebrate the Fall without doing anything spooky or scary, having an Oktoberfest celebration might be a great idea! If your team is interested in doing an after hours get together, many cities and towns have local Oktoberfest celebrations where your team can enjoy beer, German snacks, and live music. If you want to host something during the workday that’s a bit more low key, then it’s pretty easy to set up an Oktoberfest party on your own. All you need to do is buy a few beverages like beer or cider, and find some German music to play while your team hangs out and celebrates the fall.
7. Sherlock Murder Mystery
If your team is looking for an activity that’s a little darker and more intense, but not necessarily scary or even explicitly Halloween-themed, then a Sherlock Holmes Murder Mystery event might be the perfect fit. This event is great for teams where some, or all of your participants are remote, since the activity takes place entirely online. You and your team will be given clues, and you’ll have to work together as detectives to solve the case and catch the murderer. This event is great for teams that are looking for something they can really sink their teeth into - solving the mystery before time runs out can be pretty tricky, and it’s not for the faint of heart!
8. Fall Picnic
Depending on where you live, and how cold the weather is by mid-fall, an outdoor Fall picnic can be a great option. Getting out of the office can be a fun change of pace for your team, and everyone tends to feel better after spending some time in the fresh air. Fall can also be a particularly beautiful season, and your team will enjoy getting to see the changing leaves and lovely fall foliage.
This event is easy to plan and virtually free - all you need to do is find a date and time that works for everyone, and a nice picnic spot preferably in a park close to lots of trees! You can either have your team bring their own lunches or supply some picnic-type foods, such as sandwiches. I do recommend bringing some lawn games along, since they’re a fun way to spice up a picnic. And of course, don’t forget the picnic blankets and bug spray!
9. Baking Contest
As the winter Holidays approach, members of your team may be eager to try out new cookie, pie, or muffin recipes. Whether some on the team are looking to share a generational favorite recipe with coworkers, or try out a new baked good recipe before they serve it to their Thanksgiving guests, everyone is sure to enjoy a good old fashioned baking contest. You’ll get to sample tons of new desserts, and your team will enjoy showing off their skills in the kitchen. This is such a great way for the team members to see the more personal sides of their co-workers. To make the event even more fun, appoint a few judges to award first, second, and third places to the recipes they like best, and perhaps you can even give a holiday prize to the winner.
10. Volunteer Day
Fall is the perfect time to give back to your community by setting up a volunteer day for your team. Volunteering as a group is a great team building activity because it builds empathy in us, allows us to have fun while doing good for the community, and allows team members to see each other in a more positive light.
As we move into the hectic holiday schedule, your team will appreciate the chance to slow down, reflect on what’s important to them, while at the same time making a difference in the lives of others. Your team can physically volunteer in-person, by doing things like cleaning local parks or helping out with a food bank. Or they can run a collection drive and donate everything collectively that they as a team were able to collect. There are even great options for remote teams to volunteer remotely and find great ideas for great causes.
11. Carving Pumpkins
If you have a more crafty team, carving pumpkins can be the perfect fall activity. If they’re interested in an after hours work activity, going to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins with your colleagues can be lots of fun, and a great way to involve the whole family. If you’re looking for an activity that can be done during work hours, you may need to have your team bring in their own pumpkins, or otherwise supply them with some pumpkins that they can choose from. Pumpkin carving kits are inexpensive to purchase, so buy them in big enough quantities to hand out to your team. Don’t forget that it’s a good idea to lay down some newspapers in order to keep the pumpkin carvings from making too much of a mess. And of course, having festive drinks like hot apple cider is bound to make this even more fun!
If your team is remote, you can set up a Virtual Pumpkin Carving party - all you have to do is pick a date and time, and then have the entire team carve out pumpkins together over video conferencing tools like Zoom. Once everyone is done creating their pumpkin, your team can show off their amazing masterpieces!
12. Visit an Apple Orchard
Depending on where your team is located, visiting an Apple Orchard can be a great fall team building activity - not only do you get to soak in the fresh air and sunshine, but your team will also end up with lots of delicious apples they can take home after the visit! Make sure to pick out some sweet apple recipes that your team can test out at home.
Many apple orchards also have other fall events, such as pumpkin patches, corn mazes, or haunted houses, which makes this an even better option for your team. If you’d like, you can make visiting an apple orchard a full day affair, and your team is sure to love the opportunity to pick up some fresh apples!
Conclusion
Fall is the perfect time to get in some fun team building events for your team - they have surely been working hard, and every team deserves something fun every once in a while! Whether you are trying to sneak in a fun Fall event before Halloween, or have something more focused around Thanksgiving, I’m sure you’ll find something from this list of ideas that your team will enjoy. One thing for sure is that teams, whether working remotely or in-person, appreciate a way to get into the Harvest spirit.
Happy Fall!