8 Ways to Make Holiday Celebrations Inclusive This Year

If you’re planning holiday celebrations for your workplace, remember this: Make them inclusive.

Many employees look forward to celebrating the holiday season with their colleagues, friends and leaders in some way.

But most of your employees come from different backgrounds, experiences, beliefs and lifestyles. So multiple cultural and religious traditions occur near the end of the year.

Focusing on one and ignoring the others may alienate some workers and cause hard feelings.

And that’s something every HR pro wants to avoid.

Inclusive Company Celebrations

You can use this and every holiday season to shine a spotlight on your company’s ongoing efforts to maintain inclusion efforts.

“Traditional holiday celebrations just don’t cut it in the modern workplace,” says Steve Sonnenberg, co-founder and CEO of Awardco and one of our HRMorning Contributing Experts. “By creating a custom celebration for your people, you’ll ensure that everyone can feel recognized, appreciated and supported.”

Bottom line: You want to avoid the one-size-fits-all kind of atmosphere and celebration. For instance, if you put up a Christmas tree, some people may take offense that their religious and cultural symbols aren’t displayed and celebrated. Or if you light the menorah, others may feel left out. In fact, if you focus singularly on a religious element, you could alienate a lot of people.

So how do you throw an inclusive holiday party at the workplace?

Here’s help:

1. Focus on Gratitude

Let’s start with this idea from Sonnenberg: An Employee Gratitude Week is a week dedicated to showing employees appreciation and recognition. This can come in many forms: after-work dinners, activities in the office, virtual games for remote employees, prize giveaways, raffles, etc. What you do is important, but how you make employees feel is even more important.

Here are some strategies for planning and implementing the specifics of your custom holiday program:

• Communicate and get excited. Communicate your event early and often so everyone understands what will happen. Post information around the office. Send personal invitations. Send regular emails. Send updates on your internal communication apps.
• Survey employees. To plan employee-centered activities, you need to understand what employees want. Send out a survey asking employees which traditions they love, the rewards they prefer, the local activities they’d enjoy, etc. This feedback can provide the baseline for your plans.
• Form a planning committee. Don’t try to do everything yourself. A planning committee, made up of a diverse group of employees who are committed to improving company culture, can help make planning, communicating, and implementing the event much easier. Use the committee to brainstorm ideas and share responsibilities.
• Set a budget that’s right for you and your company’s situation.

“The holiday season is the perfect time to spread a little gratitude and appreciation to employees,” says Sonnenberg. “Instead of relying on traditional holidays that may leave people feeling left out or unnoticed, design your own Gratitude Week to fully include everyone.”

2. Pick a Date That Isn’t Religious

Pick a day for your celebration that isn’t a major religious holiday/celebration. Maybe even consider holding a party in early January to celebrate the new year.

You can also hold an end-of-year party to celebrate all the company’s accomplishments throughout the year. Focusing on the company as a whole and what has been accomplished brings people together.

3. Don’t Call It a Holiday Party

Calling your get-together a “holiday party” connotes Christmas to many people. It’s best to call it something totally different: End-of-year party, New Year celebration, XYZ’s Employee Celebration, Winter Gala, etc.

The key is you want the focus to be on the company and its employees, not a holiday.

4. Pick the Right Location

The location of your party is extremely important.

If it’s at the office, you know it’s accessible to everyone who works there. But what about the people who work off-site and out of state? Will you fly them in and put them up in a hotel or will you hold smaller remote soirees?

If you hold it at a facility other than your office, the same questions need to be asked.

To be inclusive, everyone must have the opportunity to be involved.

5. Hang Inclusive Decorations

For decorations, think of a winter theme, like snowflakes and icicles, or a New Year theme, like balloons, streamers and confetti.

You can also go the way of employee appreciation decorations with ribbons, trophies, red carpet, etc.

6. Hold a Potluck Event

Encourage employees to bring their favorite food from their culture to share with everyone. Have them include a write-up on its ingredients and significance in their culture. They might even be willing to exchange recipes.

Most people enjoy trying new foods and learning about cultural traditions.

Alternatively, have it catered with a variety of menu options to appease the crowd.

7. Provide Inclusive Beverages

Think long and hard before including alcohol at your event.

If you decide you are going to serve alcohol, consider having a mocktail bar, too, suggests Cheri Garcia, founder & recruiter at Cornbread Hustle, a staffing agency for second chances.

Why? It’s more inclusive.

“One in six Americans suffers from alcohol use disorder. If you have 100 employees at a party, six may be suffering in silence,” said Garcia. “[Mocktails] give people the opportunity to have a pretty drink in their hand, and they don’t have to resort to water or [soda].”

For more guidance on alcohol at holiday — or any — parties, check out: Mitigate Risks at Company Holiday Parties: 9 Best Practices for HR.

8. Plan Fun Activities

Forget Secret Santa gift exchanges. Set up a winter-themed photo booth or organize a trivia game or scavenger hunt tailored to the company.

There are lots of ways for companies to inclusively celebrate the holidays with their employees. You just have to think out of the Christmas box.