Holiday Team Culture: Inclusive Ways to Celebrate With Your Student Employees

It’s the holiday season! When celebrating with your coworkers this year, don’t forget to include your student employees. They are just as valuable as the rest of your team, even if they work fewer hours. When cultivating your holiday team culture this year, ensure that you include inclusive activities that they can join and celebrate with you. A large portion of student employees won’t be able to drink if you plan activities revolving around alcohol.

There are also student employees who don’t celebrate major holidays like Christmas or Hanukkah. You still want these employees to have fun and feel valued this season! There are plenty of inclusive ways to celebrate with your student employees this holiday season! Try sharing your holiday joy by planning these fun themed activities.

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Holiday Potluck

One of the best and most inclusive ways to celebrate the holiday season with your student employees is to host a holiday potluck. All employees, regardless of age, can join in on a potluck and bring delicious food to share while also casually chatting with the team and bonding in a way that communication during regular work projects doesn’t allow for. Now, you have the opportunity to learn more about everyone’s background and culture based on the food they choose to make and bring to the potluck.

Encourage everyone to bring a dish that is meaningful to them so that they can all share their favorite foods, and don’t be scared to try new foods! You never know when you’re going to find your new favorite meal this holiday season, thanks to your cultured student employees. Diversity and inclusion are incredibly important, especially during a time of the year focused on spreading joy and kindness. These different foods give everyone a chance. This gives everyone an opportunity to cook and share their favorite foods from their cultures with their coworkers and team.

Surprise Gift Exchange

While a surprise gift exchange is often dubbed “Secret Santa,” you don’t have to use that name if it doesn’t include some of your student employees, but you can still plan an activity that holds the same sentiment. Use an online name picker or organizer, or you can do it old school and pick names out of a hat! You can also make this type of activity optional for student employees who don’t have the money or want to celebrate, but you can find and set a budget that will make them comfortable. Set the budget for the gift exchange low or ask for suggestions, even if anonymous. You don’t want to make someone feel awkward by not being able to afford a gift for someone. Gifts don’t have to be big and expensive to be meaningful; it’s always special to see someone cares.

A secret gift exchange also allows coworkers to get closer as they find out about their interests or what would make them happy this year. You can also suggest that your student employees go the practical route this year. A cozy blanket and fuzzy socks are always great for staying warm throughout the cold winter months! However, it’s imperative that these gifts are appropriate for colleagues. Don’t buy and give something you would be embarrassed to receive.

Cookie Baking and Decorating

Another fun event for all, especially your student employees, is baking and decorating cookies together. While baking them might not be feasible, some teams might have the option! Even remote teams can enjoy something like this and bake together all virtually. Doing something relaxing like this can help take the edge off and let students destress amidst finals and the craziness that the holiday season tends to bring with it.

If you just want to skip to the decorating, you can find kits that provide many different shapes and colors so that no one is forced to decorate something specifically for one holiday. Include winter designs such as snowflakes and snowmen, and bring frostings of every color of the rainbow to let your student employees’ imaginations shine!

Not only is this fun for everyone while you’re working together, but your students have something they can bring back to their friends and families to enjoy together during the holiday season.

There are plenty of fun and inclusive ways to celebrate the holidays with your student employees, but at the end of the day, it’s important that you don’t force the holiday spirit onto anyone. While some of your coworkers might like to go all out, you have to remember that some people don’t celebrate at all for a multitude of reasons. Even as you try to be as inclusive as possible, some student employees might not want to participate. While it’s unfortunate, just make sure that they still see how much you appreciate them.

Here is to you and your student employees this year. Have a great time this holiday season!