Starting and celebrating traditions at work is a very important aspect of employee well-being. It encourages employees to get to know one another better, build camaraderie, and have fun at the same time! Sure, you might have your occasional corporate volunteerism activities where you organize clean-up drives or volunteer at an elderly home for a day. However, these are different from building traditions that are pure celebration and 100% fun.

Here’s an idea, since Halloween is coming up, why not start a Halloween tradition. Halloween isn’t connected with any particular religious practice, and most people love the festivities associated with it anyway, so it’s the best way to insert traditional celebrations into your daily work rotation. After all, it is the second most widely celebrated and largest commercial holiday. The first, of course, is…you guessed it… Christmas.

A fair reminder though: if you do decide to make an event a yearly tradition, make sure that it is not mandatory. Unlike regular work, celebrations are not part of the regular work agenda. It should be voluntary and employers must not put unnecessary pressure on employees to participate.

Plan the activities
If you don’t have an events team in place, you might want to group together and form a cross-functional committee to plan and execute the Halloween activities. The exercise of planning an event will build teamwork, spark creative thinking, and enhance organizational skills. You can ask in-house departments to take turns planning the events out. The rotation will be good for creativity as fresh ideas will be generated for every event. It also gives them a chance to transfer leadership and responsibility and no one team or group will carry the burden of planning work events. Everyone can take turns planning, participating, and just enjoying the celebrations.

Here are some Halloween related activities to get you started:

Costume party
People will always enjoy an excuse to dress up. While you won’t be getting candy for your efforts, a costume party is a fun way to show off employee’s individuality and creativity. You can plan costumes around a theme like famous movie stars, superheroes, villains, music icons, national costumes, the ’80s, Netflix shows, etc. You can also give out awards like the best costume, scariest costume, funniest costume, most creative, etc.

Halloween buffet
Food is always a huge draw in any gathering. Though the event will not be mandatory, people will always come for free food. So, plan a buffet or potluck. You can have Halloween breakfast and serve pumpkin and apple pie with assorted fruits and pumpkin lattes. Or have a Halloween luncheon or dinner with Halloween themed entrees and drinks.

Halloween decoration contest
You can divide employees into groups or even via existing departments and offer a major prize for the best-decorated work area. If teams don’t have specific work areas, they can pick an area to decorate (like a lobby, break room, pantry, etc.) or section off their shared work area per team.

Do you have your own Halloween traditions at work? How do you celebrate? Share your stories with us in the comments. Stay humble, hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp