Zoom with style, originality and flavour

With the autumn weather and shorter days making us all want to be indoors a bit more, the down side to this is the reduction (if not loss) of our outdoor socially distanced but still social meetings.  

Of course there is no such thing as bad weather only incorrect clothing, but we suspect that zoom may see a rise in social use again as we come into autumn and certainly through winter and no longer feel happy to sit in a friend’s garden shivering!

We know that socialising through zoom, teams, what’s app or messenger is not as natural as face to face and we all at Hay Hampers feel a little bit concerned about going back to this method of socialising an keeping it fresh and interesting so we thought we would look into some of the ideas out there to make it more fun and see if there was anything we missed in lockdown last time. 

Here is our list of the ten most fun things to do during digital interactions. 

1. Classic quiz format – bring 10 questions each was clearly the winning method. We particularly enjoyed the visual rounds of locations, chocolate bars, logos, spot the teddy in the house tour and many more. 

2. Board Games – nearly all games were adaptable – Pictionary, five second rule, scattergories, trivial pursuits, boggle, Articulate where all favourites with our team. 

3. Other games – scavenger hunt, consequences, how well do you know each other, word association game

4. TV show formats – some we enjoyed included taskmaster, pointless, horse racing event, play your cards right, the generation game

5. Making something together – particularly recipe following and cooking or skill sharing like learn how to make a corn dolly, learn how to knit a scarf, cocktail making or follow instructions to create a particular drawing can be fun to see what everyone comes out with.

6. Themed dress up – for example ‘at sea’, holiday, Harry Potter, something blue, wedding dresses, an extra dimension is everyone to bring a music suggestion too for the soundtrack

7. Show and Tell –particularly with a theme such as baby photos, weirdest holiday souvenir, the thing in the house that most reminds you of each other, the best book you ever read, the worst thing you have ever made and kept, your most treasured childhood memento.

8. ‘Go’ somewhere or see something together – ie. Book an online tour of a zoo or a magician, all play the same concert on you tube, do the same online work out together, have a disco night at a club. 

9. Involve small children – you can upload illustrations to google drive and then read them a bedtime story each night. 

10. Eat and drink together – whether it is a dinner party, wine tasting or a coffee morning. Plan ahead and all enjoy the same food as if you were truly sitting opposite each other. 

Here at Hay Hampers we have helped many businesses and private customers with number 10 in our list since the beginning of the pandemic. We loved getting requests to send all the members of a team or all the members of a family the same hamper to be enjoyed together – albeit alone and digitally.

We love how food can bring us together even when we are apart. 

Hampers we have found popular for this use have been our breakfast hamper, our elevenses tea and coffee with biscuits hampers, birthday cake hampers, celebratory Prosecco and Champagne gifts for special anniversaries, weddings and christening, our afternoon cream tea hamper and our cheese and wine hampers. 

We have had such wonderful feedback from corporate sales that the hampers truly have brought helped employees and customers feel appreciated, valued and still part of a team while working from home.

And we are honoured to be involved in many private celebrations of all sorts, where this has been the solution to gathering in bigger numbers than the rules have allowed, during important and significant occasions in people lives. 

With Macmilian coffee morning on 25th September, please also remember our chari-tea hamper. 

Our customer services staff and corporate account managers are always here to support you with purchases of this kind.