NKD’s Virtual Christmas Party and Development Day
The most wonderful time of the year is soon upon us, but in a global pandemic who will we be allowed to rock around the Christmas tree with?
Christmas is an exciting time for us all, as we spend time with our families and friends feasting turkey, spuds, sprouts and of course pigs in blankets! But we all know this year is very different, and we aren’t able to carry out our usual festivities.
But what did this mean for NKD’s Christmas Development Day and party?
In our previous Christmas Development Days (where we focus on our personal development and team building) and parties, we’ve hired gorgeous festive venues, from country mansions, to cosy pubs, but this year we knew we had to keep everyone safe so the right thing to do was to have a virtual Christmas.
We (me and the NKD Development team) knew it was important we carried on our festive traditions. It’s been a hard year for everyone, we felt that to keep the morale of the team strong that we had to organise something which allowed us to be in each other’s company and to have fun together and celebrate the years’ achievements!
Development Day and Reflection
We kicked the day off the at nine in the morning, tucking into a lovely breakfast box which was sent to our homes the day before.
We ensured we had all our cameras turned on for the day so we can see each other and really connect. One of our NKD Festive traditions is to spend the day doing charity work, from bucket collecting, to working in a charity shop, to working in teams to go out and buy items for homeless charities, children’s hospitals and women’s shelters. Of course, this would be different this year too. The NKD Kind Team (who organise our CSR activities) took us through four different charities we would be supporting this year: The Trussell Trust, The Welbeloved Club, Solace and The Connection. There were 4 presentations of the charities we were supporting which showed what the money would do for the charities, each of which have been seriously impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, so knowing we were making a difference was really heart-warming.
After a quick tea break, it was time for our reflections on the year. We did this as a way to reflect on just how much we’ve achieved despite the circumstances. The NKD team were split-up into teams of 6, each team would cover three months of the year and create a 10-15-minute presentation showing our highlights. We had an hour to create the presentations in our teams, it was challenging but fun. Overall, I found this part of the day very cathartic as it showed us how resilient our team is and how hard everyone had worked throughout the year.
What’s Christmas without a Wreath!
There’s a first time for everything… yes you read that right! The NKD team virtually made a wreath!
A professional florist joined us via Zoom for a tailor-made masterclass for the team. We had all the equipment we needed sent to our homes, from moss, to eucalyptus, to beautiful copper ribbons (and maybe a snail or two sneaked in too!)
The lovely florist took us through the process step-by-step, each of the team had a chance to add their own little twist to it too. We had Christmas songs playing in the background and it felt so festive!
I really enjoyed this part as I found it as a bonding session between the whole team, we saw each other’s wreaths being made from scratch to something amazing. Here’s some of my favourites:
Virtual Christmas Party: NKD Awards and The Panto Special
You know what they always say? Leave the best until last. The NKD family was provided with a gorgeous Christmas Dinner with a bottle of bubbly on the house! This part of the day was my highlight because the whole team spruced up and put on their best Christmas outfits (yes! We all got dressed up for our virtual Christmas party – not a pair of tracksuit bottoms in sight!) and jumped back on camera.
We were put into different break-out rooms for the starters, main course and dessert. This gave us all a chance to mingle and have a chat with one another… a massive Zoom call with 10 different conversations happening at once would not be music to our ears!
After dinner with the NKD team we went on to another family tradition…The NKD Awards! These awards are given team members for some of the funniest moments and memories in year. Hosted by our very own Jorge and Mark S, these guys for me brought the laughter to everyone, even tears at some point!
To end this phenomenal evening, we had a tailored made Christmas panto where the leadership team and myself dressed up as heroes, villains and henchmen to perform a virtual Christmas act for the team, we also had lovely cocktails delivered to us for this part of the evening.
Seeing everyone on the screen laughing together and having a great time really made me think to myself that whatever the circumstance we always manage to pull something off to make the NKD Christmas experience special.
If you can get your team together virtually this year – do it! If you’re stuck for ideas, feel free to hit the connect button below!
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
If you enjoyed this blog, read more from Derek here.