Office Christmas decorating contest: 36 themes, rules and a scorecard
Cubicle, door, desk and department themes, rules you can paste into an email, and a judging scorecard to print. Plus a version for remote teammates.
An office decorating contest gives a team a reason to build something together in the slowest weeks of the year. It works best with one clear format, an equal budget, simple safety rules and several award categories, so the quiet team with the clever idea can win as easily as the loudest one.
How to run an office decorating contest
- Pick the format. Cubicles, doors, desks or whole departments. One format keeps judging fair.
- Set the dates. Announce three weeks out, decorate the week before judging, take everything down by the first week of January.
- Give everyone the same budget. A small, equal cap per team (for example $50), or a zero-budget rule with reused materials only.
- Share the rules early. Post them with the announcement so facilities and safety questions come up before anyone buys tape.
- Pick three judges. Ideally from outside the competing teams: a leader, a facilities lead and one wild card.
- Judge in one walk. A 20-minute judging walk with scorecards, then announce winners at the holiday party.
Contest rules to copy
Paste these into the announcement and change the dates. Check with facilities first: building rules on lights, exits and ceilings come before any theme.
- Decorating opens on the start date and stops at noon on judging day.
- Every team gets the same budget. Reused and borrowed decorations are free.
- LED or battery lights only. No candles or open flames of any kind.
- Keep exits, walkways, sprinklers, fire alarms and extinguishers clear.
- Nothing on ceiling tiles or light fixtures unless facilities approves it.
- No food left out overnight, and no glitter near shared equipment.
- Any winter or holiday tradition is welcome. Keep it work-appropriate.
- Judges don't score their own team. Everything comes down by the posted date.
36 office Christmas decorating themes
Grouped by the space you have. Let each team pick its own theme, or draw them from a hat for a bigger laugh.
Cubicle decorating ideas
Three walls and an entrance give you room for a real scene.
- Gingerbread house: Brown kraft paper walls, white paint-pen icing, candy trim on the roofline.
- Santa's workshop: A toy bench, wrapped boxes and a naughty-or-nice list of this year's projects.
- Winter wonderland: Paper snowflakes, white LED lights and a cotton snow floor.
- Snow globe: Clear plastic sheeting curved over the entrance with a tiny scene inside.
- North Pole post office: A letters-to-Santa mailbox, stamps and a mail sorting station.
- Cozy cabin: A paper fireplace, a plaid blanket, battery candles and a mug of cocoa.
- Candy cane lane: Red and white ribbon stripes on every wall and a candy cane archway.
- Ugly sweater cubicle: Dress the walls in a giant knit pattern made of felt or paper.
- Twelve days of Christmas: Twelve tiny displays, one for each day of the song, numbered.
- Holidays around the world: One corner per tradition, each labeled by the teammate who shared it.
- Office supply Christmas: A binder clip tree, paper clip garland and sticky-note ornaments.
- Recycled Christmas: Everything comes from the recycling bin: boxes, bottle caps, old reports.
Door decorating ideas
One flat surface, seen by everyone who walks past. Wrapping paper and tape do most of the work.
- Giant gift: Wrap the whole door in paper and finish with an oversized bow.
- Fireplace door: Brick paper, a painted fire and a stocking for each person on the team.
- Snowman: White paper, black paper buttons and a real scarf tied around the middle.
- Reindeer: Brown paper, paper-bag antlers and a red pom-pom nose at handle height.
- Advent calendar: Numbered flaps that open to team photos, jokes or this year's wins.
- Nutcracker: A soldier's red coat, gold buttons and a very square jaw.
- Ghosts of projects past: A Christmas Carol theme: the team's past, present and future projects.
- Penguin parade: A line of paper penguins in scarves marching across the door.
- Holiday movie poster: Recreate a classic holiday film poster with the team's faces.
- Window to the North Pole: A paper window frame with Santa's sleigh flying past outside.
- Handprint wreath: A wreath made of green paper handprints, one from every teammate.
- Gingerbread person: One giant cookie with white icing details and gumdrop buttons.
Desk decorating ideas for small spaces
For hot desks, open plans and anyone who wants to join without taking over a wall.
- Monitor tree: A small tabletop tree next to the screen, hung with tiny ornaments.
- Desk village: Three or four tiny houses on cotton snow along the back of the desk.
- Glowing monitor frame: Battery string lights and tinsel around the edge of the monitor.
- Hot cocoa corner: A mug, a jar of marshmallows and a sign that says help yourself.
- Jar snow globe: A mason jar with a tiny tree, fake snow and a bow on the lid.
- Stocking row: Mini stockings clipped along the desk edge, one per teammate.
Department and floor themes
For teams that decorate a whole zone together. Great for a team-vs-team contest.
- Holiday movie set: Each team turns its zone into a scene from a holiday film.
- Our product, holiday edition: Build your product or logo out of decorations.
- Winter main street: Each team decorates a shopfront along the hallway: bakery, toy store, post office.
- Gingerbread village: Every team builds one house, all on one shared street.
- Northern lights: Blue, green and purple LED lighting with paper ribbon waves overhead.
- Tropical Christmas: Flamingos in Santa hats and a palm tree wrapped in lights.
Judging categories and a printable scorecard
Each judge scores every entry from 1 to 5 on six criteria. Add up the totals for the overall winner.
| Criterion | Score |
|---|---|
| Holiday spiritDoes it make you smile the moment you see it? | 1 to 5 |
| CreativityAn idea nobody else had, or a classic done in a new way. | 1 to 5 |
| ThemeIs the theme clear without anyone explaining it? | 1 to 5 |
| CraftsmanshipNeat, finished, sturdy. It still looks good up close. | 1 to 5 |
| ResourcefulnessClever use of office supplies, recycling or a small budget. | 1 to 5 |
| Team effortDid the whole team pitch in, including remote teammates? | 1 to 5 |
| Total | out of 30 |
Give category awards too. One overall winner leaves most teams with nothing. These eight let judges spread the wins:
- Most festive
- Most creative
- Funniest
- Best on a budget
- Best use of office supplies
- Best team effort
- People's choice
- Best remote setup
A virtual decorating contest for remote teams
Remote teammates should compete on equal terms, not watch photos of the office. Four ways to include them:
- Virtual background contest: Everyone designs a holiday background. Judge it on a call in gallery view.
- Home desk or door contest: Remote teammates decorate at home and post a photo by judging day.
- Decorate together on camera: A 60-minute kit workshop where everyone makes the same decoration live.
- Send a decor budget: Give remote people the same budget as office teams, reimbursed with a receipt.
Make the decorations together. A kit ships to every home and a live instructor leads the class. Book about 3 weeks ahead.
Prizes for a decorating contest
- A traveling trophy: a spray-painted gold ornament the winners keep for a year.
- Team lunch on the company, delivered to the office or sent as meal credits.
- Leave an hour early on the last Friday before the break.
- First pick in the office gift exchange.
- A donation to a charity the winning team chooses.
- The best parking spot, or the best meeting room, for January.
- A decorating budget for next year's contest.
- Small gift cards for every winning category, handed out on the spot.
Make judging day part of the party
Announce the winners at the holiday party, then hand the room to a game everyone plays at once. Want someone to run it? A live host runs a virtual holiday party on Zoom, or a game at your office in 17 US cities through in-person events.
Building a whole festive week? Start with Christmas spirit week ideas, add one of the gift exchange games, browse 45 office holiday party ideas or get a free quote for the party itself.
