As I pour myself a cup of coffee in the breakroom to warm up, I can’t help but overhear the typical buzz about the office. Sam is still telling his summer vacation adventures stories, and Carol hums Christmas songs—two months early and slightly off key. Yes, the holiday season is just around the corner, but it’s not here quite yet. So, why not embrace the harvest season?
Inspire some warm smiles on chilly mornings with a You’ve Been Boo’ed secret gifting chain. And, while the gifts are making the rounds through the office, everyone can get involved in a desk decorating contest. The office will look Halloween-ready in no time as your coworkers start to adorn their desks with spooky garlands and eerie props. These fall festivities are the perfect way to build excitement for your Halloween office party at the end of the month!
Starting a You’ve Been Boo’ed gifting chain is super simple, and a ton of fun for all involved. Here’s how it works! Start by using an online gift exchange tool and inviting your coworkers to join in. Once everyone who wants to participate has signed up, each person will randomly get a co-worker to shop for. You’ll get to set the exchange date, and if you and your office pals are on a budget, you can even set a dollar amount. What about dietary restrictions, you say? Never fear! You can add those, and other preferences, online once you get started to make sure everyone gets the perfect treat, not trick.
Get Sneaky and Boo Your Co-Workers
In each basket, it would be fun to include a little You’ve Been Boo’ed card as well, to remind everyone to keep the giving spirit floating around even after the treats are gone. Here’s a You’ve Been Boo’ed poem to get your creative juices flowing:
To my friend in the cube next door
Office work can be such a chore!
So I’m sending to you
This big scary BOO
You’re welcome, but don’t ask for more!
Any small gift or a little bucket of treats will do, but making it something personalized to the coworker you are leaving it for will make it extra special. If Rita has colored Post-It notes all over her desk, go find her some Halloween sticky notes, a fun chunky pen, and a few yummy goodies, and toss them into a small decorative witch’s cauldron for effect.
Or for Daniel in accounting, who is never without a coffee in hand, a festive skull tumbler with a caffeinated, pumpkin-flavored treat might do the trick. Thoughtful little gifts like these will get everyone in the office excited to join in the fun of the fall season, and encourage them to participate in all the Halloween office activities to come.
Add a Touch of Scare… if you dare!
Now that the You’ve Been Boo’ed giving chain is in full swing, it’s time to spin a web of festive decor around the office. Initiate a desk decoration contest by passing out numbers to be displayed on each decked-out desk, and setting up a fun voting box in a prominent location—near the bulletin board or next to the water cooler perhaps? See just how creative your fellow worker bees can get as they hang cobwebs on their computer monitors and build graveyards on their desktops—maybe even a skeleton will be posed to assist the bookkeeper with pulling files. The options are as endless as the afterlife.
The day before the main event, i.e. the Halloween office party, pass out a voting slip to everyone in the office so they can write down the number of their favorite desk and add it to the voting box. The first, second, and third place winning desks will be given the recognition they deserve, and some fantastic prizes, to kick off the party. Who wouldn’t want to win a spooky Halloween wreath to welcome Trick-or-Treaters knocking on your front door? Or, maybe the runners up can take home a dangerously delicious-smelling seasonal jar candle.
Ghoulish Gourmet
You’ve been “boo’ed,” now let’s eat some ghoulishly gourmet food. Challenge your office mates to bring their most creatively festive, and delicious, Halloween dishes or desserts. If ideas are needed, having some fabulously freaky cookbooks on hand at your desk will give coworkers an ideal place to draw their appetizing inspirations from.
As the office host, you can put potion and poison labels on everyone’s favorite 2-liter soft drinks, then hand out fun IV drip drink bags for a super creepy interactive beverage station. Hollow out a few small pumpkins to house ranch, hummus, and salsa alongside trays of veggies and bowls of chips. Make sure the conference room or break area has enough table space for all the great potluck contributions your coworkers are bringing, as well as plenty of gruesome decor to carry the fun festivities of the month into the party space.
Everyone is certain to have a blast telling stories of how they were able to slip a You’ve Been Boo’ed gift into a certain someone’s office that never seems to go home, or asking how long it took to assemble the intricate haunted house that surrounds the front desk. Enjoying the delectable fares, we will celebrate the winners of the office decoration contest, and exchange new found recipes for unusual looking goodies—all of which might never have been set into motion if not for an office “ghost” who started to boo!
Looking for some great Halloween gift ideas for your office “boo’ing”? Let the elves help with our Halloween gift guides—and lots of ghastly party ideas on Facebook, Twitter @Elfster, and Instagram @Elfster. Happy haunting!
