Holiday party ideas for small teams (under 20 people)

The best holiday party for a team under 20 is one where everyone fits at one table or in one room: a private dinner, a cooking class, a weekday lunch somewhere good, or an activity like bowling followed by food. Plan on roughly $30 to $150 per person depending on the format (our guidance, below), and let the whole team vote between two or three options. A small group can book later than a big one, but in December, three to five weeks ahead is still the safe range for anything with a private space.

Smaller and simpler is normal. In Challenger, Gray & Christmas's 2024 holiday party survey of 173 HR and business leaders, 64% of companies planned a celebration and 17% said they were spending less on it than the year before.

What changes when the team is small

A party for 12 people works differently from one for 80. Three things are worth knowing before you pick.

Every absence shows. At 80 people, three no-shows go unnoticed. At 10, they're a third of the conversation. Pick the date by poll before you pick the venue, and favor a weekday during or right after work hours so parents and commuters can come.

You're one conversation, or a few. People talking in a group tend to split once there are more than about four of them, according to observational research published in Human Nature in 1995. At 15 people you'll naturally have three or four clusters, so a format that mixes people up (a class, a game, rotating seats between courses) keeps one end of the table from never meeting the other.

Minimums are easier and harder. A small group usually avoids a full private-room buyout, but a food and beverage minimum set for 25 can make a 10-person dinner expensive. Ask for a semi-private area or the chef's table instead.

Ten ideas, with costs and lead times

Per-person ranges are our guidance for a mid-size US city in December, including a modest drink allowance; big metros run higher. Lead times are ours too, and assume a December date.

Idea	Best size	Per person (guidance)	Book ahead (guidance)
Private or semi-private dinner	6 to 20	$60 to $150	3 to 5 weeks
Long weekday lunch, family style	6 to 20	$30 to $60	2 to 3 weeks
Group cooking class	8 to 16	$75 to $150	4 to 6 weeks
Bowling, duckpin or bocce lanes with food	6 to 20	$35 to $70	3 to 4 weeks
Escape room, then drinks or dinner	4 to 16 (split rooms)	$35 to $60, plus food	2 to 4 weeks
Wreath, ceramics or candle workshop	6 to 15	$50 to $100	3 to 5 weeks
Hosted tasting (chocolate, tea, cheese or wine)	6 to 16	$45 to $90	3 to 4 weeks
Holiday lights walk or market, then hot drinks	Any	$10 to $30	1 week
Catered afternoon in the office with a game	Any	$25 to $45	1 to 2 weeks
Afternoon off and a movie matinee	6 to 20	$20 to $40, plus snacks	1 to 2 weeks

A few notes on the ones that need them:

The private dinner is the default for a reason: it's easy, it's warm, and people can hear each other. Ask for a set or family-style menu so you aren't collecting 14 entree orders, and seat people so teams that rarely work together sit side by side. Our team dinner guide covers the booking call.

A cooking class suits small teams better than large ones, because most classes cap around 16 to 24 and split you into stations of three or four. Tell the school about allergies at booking, since ingredients are ordered ahead.

Lanes and escape rooms give quieter people something to do with their hands while they talk. For an escape room, book two rooms side by side rather than squeezing 12 people into one built for 8.

The lights walk is the cheapest idea on the list and one of the most relaxed. Pick a route under a mile, end somewhere warm with a table reserved, and have a plan for bad weather.

The office afternoon works when the budget is tight or the team is partly remote. Bring in real food (not the usual sandwich platter), close laptops at a set time, and run one short game that doesn't require performing in front of colleagues.

A sample budget

Say you have 12 people and $75 a head, so $900 in total. A family-style lunch on a Thursday might come to $45 per person for food and $12 for one drink each, which is $684. Add tax (assume 8%, so about $55) and a 20% service charge or tip on the food and drink (about $137), and you're at roughly $876, just inside budget. If the restaurant adds an automatic service charge for groups, don't tip on top of it without checking what it covers.

The same $900 at dinner, with a fuller bar, would likely run over. That trade-off is the main reason small teams choose lunch: same restaurant, same food, fewer evening conflicts, lower bill. The team outing budget guide has ranges for other formats.

Small-team decisions to settle early

Partners or not. Inviting partners can double the headcount and change the tone. Either answer is fine; say which in the invite.

The remote teammate. If one or two people are remote, decide now whether you'll fly them in, send them a meal on the same day, or move the party to a format that works for everyone. A laptop at the end of the table rarely works.

Gifts. If you add a gift swap, set a price range and make sitting out easy. The team gift exchange guide has formats and an announcement you can copy.

The name. "Holiday party" or "year-end party" works for a team that doesn't all celebrate the same thing. Keep it optional, and treat a religious reason for skipping the same as any other reason.

Who pays at the table. One company card, held by one person, settled before dessert. Say in the invite what's covered.

If you want the full planning sequence, from date poll to final headcount, the holiday party planning guide has a six-week timeline. For a team under 20, you can usually compress it to four.

Where TeamOutings fits

In TeamOutings you can put two or three party ideas in an activity poll, then run a second poll on dates, and close each one when you have enough votes. Create the outing with the place, time and cost per person, and the team answers Yes, No or Maybe with an optional note while you watch the headcount. You can show a capacity, such as the number of seats at the chef's table, though it isn't enforced. Each outing has a chat for "is this walking distance?" questions and a shared album for photos afterward.

TeamOutings doesn't send reminders or collect dietary needs, so the follow-up message and the private allergy question are still yours to handle.