25 Classic and Creative Spirit Week Ideas for Work

Imagine this: you wear an elaborate dragon costume to work as part of a costume day. You run into someone from another department wearing a knight costume, and you start up a conversation about your accidentally coordinating outfits. In a few weeks, you have a new best friend. 

That’s the power of spirit week at your company — it can foster real relationships and boost morale!

Looking to kickstart your own spirit week? One challenge with this is coming up with five days’ worth of fun. To help your HR team with the planning, discover 25 creative ways to amplify your next spirit week. 

What Is Spirit Week? 

Spirit week is a series of activities at an organization with the overall goal of enhancing morale and promoting a sense of community within an organization Typically organized by the HR department, it can be scheduled to coincide with significant company milestones or simply as a means to inject some fun into the routine.

Tips for a Great Spirit Week

Establishing a fun week doesn’t have to be arduous with these suggestions: 

• Know your team. Spend some time before spirit week getting to know the passions and interests of those on your teams.  This enables you to select activities that they’ll love!
• Plan. Try to lay out exactly how each day will go about two weeks beforehand. Doing so can help your spirit week succeed and reduce your HR team’s stress.  
• Delegate. Each activity doesn’t have to be solely HR’s responsibility. Instead, consider asking team leaders to manage a day. Doing this also helps involve more people — which can boost inclusion and morale. 
• Get feedback. After the week is over, consider sending out a survey or holding interviews. These conversations can help you see what your team members want from spirit week in the future. 

25 Spirit Week Ideas for Work

Knowing where to start is often the most challenging part. Here are some suggestions to help you plan any type of team spirit activities: 

Health and Wellness Day

Employee wellness is becoming increasingly crucial for companies. In fact, 93% of workers consider their wellbeing at work to be equally important to their salary, according to a recent Gympass survey. Consider incorporating a focus on wellness into spirit week. You might do it by: 

• Offering healthy food each day in the break room (or via gift cards for remote workers)
• Holding meditation classes once a day
• Hosting an employee 5K run or walk at lunch
• Inviting counselors to lead workshops on mental health
• Teaching focused breathing techniques 

Community Service Day

Offering your team members a chance to volunteer empowers and helps boost happiness: four out of five of employees say that participating in charitable activities supports their wellbeing. Supporting thi desire can also help you stand out as an employer, since more than a third of companies rarely give their employees volunteering time.

Creating a community service day might look like: 

• Holding a fundraiser for women’s shelters in the area
• Organizing a clean-up of a local park or beach
• Volunteering in a homeless shelter or a food bank
• Encouraging each individual to provide service to someone in their neighborhood 

Cultural Exchange

More than 76% of employees and job seekers consider a diverse workforce to be an important factor when evaluating companies. To showcase your organization’s diversity, consider a cultural exchange. This is a chance to highlight the differences that make everyone unique. This day could include: 

• Inviting everyone to bring food from their families or culture
• Encouraging people to dress in attire that represents their heritage
• Lunch-and-learns about different holidays celebrated in various countries and religions
• Holding panels where individuals can learn more about different regions

Superhero Day

Having fun at work has a positive impact on employee engagement. Embrace that by inviting everyone to dress as their favorite superhero. You might have everyone show off their outfits during a costume parade — around the office or over Zoom. 

Throwback Thursday

Help your team members by facilitating personal connections with a Throwback Thursday. Here, individuals dress as themselves from a different phase of life. It might be their iconic childhood look or a t-shirt from their alma mater. Consider having each member of a team introduce their outfits during a meeting that day. 

An activity like this helps everyone get to know each other better, which can boost morale: Ninety-nine percent of workers say their relationships at work are important for their overall wellbeing, according to Gympass research.

Costume Contest

Competition can spur creativity — and help team members grow closer. A friendly way to incorporate this element is to hold a costume contest. Everyone can dress however they like and vote for their favorites. Consider adding a variety of categories, so there can be many winners. 

For remote workplaces, try holding the contest over your communication platform. Employees can submit photos of their entries, and you can post them for everyone. Reactions to the images could count as votes. 

Pajama Day

Relaxing at work can help improve productivity. To help your team feel that way, consider a pajama day. Everyone can come into the office dressed in their comfiest clothes. For remote workers, encourage them to get involved too. You can even layer on a meditation seminar to help your staff capture the restorative power of sleep.

Office Olympics

Combine the benefits of fun and competition with a day of Office Olympics. This tournament involves using office supplies in team games. Some of the activities could include: 

• Rolling chair races
• Rubber band archery
• Pencil javelin

For remote or hybrid team members, add a virtual element. That might be a round of Olympics trivia or a typing contest. 

Department Swap Day

People naturally itch to learn more skills: 89% of workers say that professional development in their field is important to keeping them engaged at work. Channel that desire into a productive and fun spirit week day: department swap day. 

For this activity, employees will shadow someone else from a different team and see what they do. For example, an accountant might learn about HR or a marketing writer could follow a sales rep for a day. This experiment helps individuals learn more about other people at their company. It can foster an understanding of everyone’s work. 

Decades Day

Another exciting costume theme is a decade day. You could encourage everyone to dress in a style from their favorite decade — like the 60s, 70s, or 80s. This activity can help people learn a little more about each other in a fun and unique way.

Employee Awards Ceremony

Recognizing your workers’ hard work can boost morale and increase retention. So you may consider incorporating it into your spirit week rotation. These awards can be fully serious and provide you with a chance to add more recognition to your company. Or they can be a chance to build relationships and have fun. Both work! 

Types of award to consider include:

• Best at Responding to Emails
• First into the Office
• Most Exciting Zoom Backgrounds
• Photo album award (for whoever has the most pictures on their desk)
• Best Friend of the Coffee Pot
• The Super Fan  (This one goes to someone who’s really into their sports team or favorite TV show)
• The Tech Expert (Award the individual who fixes the WiFi router or the backed-up printer)

Beach Day

Spending time on the beach can lower your stress levels. Since you can’t always work on the beach, you might bring it into the office instead. Consider holding a day where everyone dresses for vacation — Hawaiian shirts included. Then offer a few beach-themed activities like: 

• A crab walk 
• Limbo
• Meditation on beach towels
• A clambake with pina coladas at lunch
• Oceanic bingo

Crazy Hat Day

Another way to encourage fun is to let everyone wear their wildest hat — something worthy of a Kentucky Derby — or something unique that can be worn as a hat. For example, an individual might wear a towel. Though it sounds silly, letting loose at work can ultimately be a way to help people feel welcome at your company. 

Company Barbecue

You could also invite everyone to a barbecue — perfect for a summer’s evening. This Spirit Week idea is also a chance for you to involve employee families. Inviting them helps show you care about their social wellbeing and lives outside of work.

Office Treasure Hunt

Consider trying a scavenger hunt throughout the office — or in people’s virtual workspaces. You might provide everyone with a list of items to find. That sets you up for a show-and-tell where each individual presents what they gathered. This activity works well virtually. Think about objects lots of people have in their homes as you create the list. 

High School Stereotype Day

A unique costume idea is to have everyone dress as their favorite high school stereotype. Maybe they dress as cheerleaders or football players. They might get even more creative and come as the lead in the school play or the math teacher. The goal is to encourage team members to have fun and build relationships with each other. 

Tie-Dye Day

This is a simple one: encourage workers to come in tie-dye. For that day, everyone will match. That can create a sense of visual unity, potentially helping everyone to feel connected to each other. 

Talent Show

It’s likely that your team members are incredibly talented. Consider a talent show to let them show off for a day. The great thing about this idea is it’s so easy to implement no matter what your work environment looks like. It can be done virtually or in person — or both at the same time. 

You might have a serious talent show or a silly one. A joke show can help encourage people to talk to each other and have fun at work. 

Speed Networking

Try having all of your colleagues line up and spend two minutes talking with someone new. Then they switch. That’s speed networking. It’s like speed dating but with coworkers, and it's an activity that definitely helps build relationships. In fact, networking can contribute to someone’s social wellbeing by providing an opportunity to create long-lasting friendships. 

On top of that, networking contributes to the exchange of ideas. New partnerships can blossom as individuals share about their work. Plus workers get to meet people who may help advance their career development. 

Holiday Day

Most people have at least one holiday they love to celebrate. Let them bring that to work for Spirit Week by having individuals dress to represent their favorite holiday. 

This is also an opportunity to spotlight diversity. Some employees could choose holidays that not everyone celebrates. That becomes a natural opportunity for everyone to learn more about other people’s traditions. 

Pet Day

One phenomenon that arose with the growth of virtual work is showcasing pets. Embrace that with a special pet day! On this date, your team members can show everyone their furry friend over a virtual meeting. This can be a way for everyone to connect. If they don’t have a pet, an individual might share a picture of their childhood or dream pet.

Tacky Fashion Day

Embrace something you dislike for tacky fashion day by inviting everyone to dress in one. It might be blue eye shadow or leg warmers — or socks and sandals. Team members have a chance to show off their unique personalities and learn more about each other. 

Company Breakfast

Start the morning with a fresh and healthy breakfast. Having a meal together also sets up a prime opportunity to discuss the importance of eating something before work and how to plan meals for their morning routines. After all, it’s hard to focus on an empty stomach, and that could be impacting the way they perform.   

Mascot Designing Contest

Consider having everyone at the company draw a mascot for the entire company. Other team members can vote bracket-style to pick the winner. Or you might let every department hold their own contest and show off their mascot at company meetings!

Company Colors Day

Nothing says company spirit like dressing in the brand’s color palette. You might give out awards for the best uses of company colors and team spirit. It could even be a contest between departments to encourage everyone to participate. 

Boost Your Company Morale with Employee Wellness

Overall, celebrating Spirit Week is just one strategy to begin developing a strong culture by employee relationships. You can build on that with robust employee wellness programs. These initiatives show your workers that you care about them — which helps them stay motivated, and boosts productivity.

Implementing great wellness programs and perks like Gympass can help your teams build connections. In fact, 67% of Gympass users say they experience better workplace relationships, according to 2024 research. 

Ready to boost your culture with wellness? Talk to a Gympass wellbeing specialist today. 

References

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