Sure, winter months can be tough on energy, motivation, and morale… But they’re also the perfect time to spark healthy habits and bring your team closer together!
If you’re looking for a creative employee wellness challenge to kick off the year, this guide has you covered.
From movement and mindfulness to community and connection, these winter wellness challenges are designed to boost wellbeing during the colder months—while building a stronger team culture.
Whether you’re planning a New Year challenge, anticipating a spring wellness challenge to bridge the seasons, or looking for nutrition challenge ideas, these tips will keep your employees engaged and thriving.
10 winter wellness challenge ideas for your team
1. Winter wellness challenge with the Teamupp app
With our Teamupp app, you can launch an all-in-one wellness challenge using just a smartphone! Our employee wellness platform is designed to engage hybrid and remote teams through different health and environmental challenges.
Points are earned through quizzes, step challenges, creative photo or video challenges, and self-logged activities. Our team dashboards fuel friendly competition, while every milestone translates into real-world impact that you choose (e.g., donations to NGOs).
How it works:
- Employees engage in daily challenges (steps, photos, videos, quizzes, etc.)
- Points are earned through activity logs, and everybody can see how their colleagues are doing
- Team dashboards create friendly competition and give the HR teams very useful data
- You can create custom challenges depending on events and times of the year (Christmas challenges, New Year challenges, Pink October, Earth Day, etc.)
Why it works: Employees use their own phone, easy to set up, fully gamified, and inclusive for all locations.
Cost: $
Best for: Remote teams, wellness focused companies, high-impact HR initiatives
Pro tip: Run it as a “New Year, New Energy” kick-off and tie the impact to a good cause!
2. Cold weather movement challenge
Winter’s cold, no doubt about it. So help your team stay active despite shorter days and chilly temps.
Create a goal like 10,000 steps/day, 30 minutes of movement, or a weekly walk-and-talk (even on video calls). Use wearables, your internal Slack, or Teamupp’s tracking features to record activity and daily movements.
To make it even more engaging and fun, you could offer optional prizes like warm socks or branded beanies to increase motivation.
Here are a few New Year’s challenge ideas to beat the cold:
- 10,000 steps/day challenge
- Walk-and-talk meetings (even remote!)
- Log enough steps to virtually “walk” from your office to the North Pole
- “Move for 30 minutes” daily goal
Cost: Free or a few cents if using our app (or $10–$30 if gifting pedometers or socks)
Best for: Physical wellness, remote engagement, fighting seasonal depression
3. Screen-free winter mornings
Challenge your employees to avoid screens during the first hour of their day for one or two weeks. This practice is great in winter times as it reduces digital fatigue, improves sleep quality, and increases morning focus.
A perfect time to enjoy a cup of hot drink, watch the sunrise, read a few pages of a book, or simply start the day with a calm, screen-free mindset. Encourage employees to journal, stretch, or meditate instead—anything that grounds them before the digital noise begins.
Provide daily journal prompts or mindfulness activities as alternatives to scrolling.
Why: Helps with seasonal depression, reduces stress, improves focus, and supports mental clarity
How to do it:
- Offer journal prompts or mindfulness alternatives
Cost: Free
Best for: Mental wellness, back-to-work resets, mindfulness practices, and seasonal fatigue and lack of motivation.
4. Winter meal prep challenge
Support nutrition and creativity with a fun weekly meal prep challenge.
Ask team members to prepare three balanced meals per week and share photos, recipes, or hacks. Create optional themes like “Meatless Monday,” “zero-waste meal,” or “comfort food reimagined.”
Perfect for anyone seeking nutrition challenge ideas after the holidays, it’s also a great time to highlight the importance of eating fresh, seasonal vegetables like leeks, pumpkin, or butternut squash.”
How it works:
- Encourage employees to prep 3 balanced meals/week
- Share photos, tips, and recipes in a shared channel
- Offer optional themes: plant-based, budget-friendly, zero-waste, seasonal vegetables only
Cost: Free (or $25–50 if offering grocery gift cards)
Best for: Nutrition, community-building, lack of energy
Interested in organizing a winter challenge?
5. Financial wellness bingo
A winter spin on budgeting and planning for the new year!
Help your employees start the year with better financial habits through a custom bingo card.
Include challenges like “created a monthly budget,” “brought lunch from home,” or “unsubscribed from 5 promo emails.” Offer a prize to the first few who complete a line or fill the whole card.
How it works:
- Create a bingo card with squares like “unsubscribed from 5 promo emails” or “packed lunch 3 days this week”
- First to complete a line wins
Cost: Free (or offer small prizes)
Best for: Financial health, self-awareness
6. Cozy book club or podcast swap
Combat winter burnout by inviting employees to slow down and connect through shared media.
Choose a podcast episode or short book excerpt each week, then host a 30-minute optional group discussion. You can use Slack channels, WhatsApp groups, breakout rooms, or simple polls to gather input and feedback.
How to organize:
- Pick 1-2 options (book or episode) per week
- Host 30-min optional Friday chats
- Use Slack/Teams/WhatsApp to gather thoughts
Cost: Free (or $10–20 per person for books)
Best for: Mental wellness, social connection
7. Winter gratitude wall
Foster positive thinking with a shared gratitude space—digital or physical.
Ask employees to post something they’re grateful for daily or weekly, and highlight top contributions in internal comments. Gratitude practices have been shown to improve mood, collaboration, and engagement.
How to do it:
- Share one thing you’re grateful for each day/week
- Highlight contributions in the newsletter or on a dashboard
Cost: Free
Best for: Emotional resilience, positive culture, inspiring quotes to fight seasonal depression
8. Give-back challenge
Turn winter into a season of generosity with a challenge focused on acts of kindness. Encourage teams to donate winter clothes, volunteer with a local shelter, or run a virtual fundraiser for a cause they care about.
Track collective impact through a shared dashboard or app.
Ideas include:
- Donate clothes, food, or time
- Run a virtual fundraiser
- Write letters to seniors or local shelters
Cost: Flexible
Best for: Community impact, values-driven teams, team cohesion
9. Hydration & herbal tea challenge
Hydration is often neglected in colder weather—this challenge keeps it front of mind.
Ask teammates to track their daily water or herbal tea intake for two weeks. Offer branded mugs, tea kits, or shoutouts as rewards.
Challenge format:
- Track daily water or herbal tea intake
- Offer mugs or tea samplers as prizes
Cost: Free to $15/person
Best for: Daily health habits
10. Daily mindfulness minute
Start each winter workday with a 60-second mindfulness break.
Share a short breathing exercise or mini guided meditation clip with your team. You can use tools like Insight Timer or Headspace, or simply rotate responsibilities among team members.
How it works:
- Play a 60-sec guided breathing or meditation clip each morning
- Share links via email or Slack
- Log attendance or reflections
Cost: Free (use apps like Headspace, Insight Timer)
Best for: Mental clarity, team focus
Top 3 wellness ideas for January
1. Back-to-work reset week
Ease your team into the new year with a gentle and restorative start. The first week back after the holidays can feel overwhelming, so reframe it as a reset period focused on well-being and productivity.
How to organize it:
- Keep mornings meeting-free to reduce pressure and allow time for reflection or planning.
- Offer daily wellness breaks, such as 15-minute yoga or guided meditation sessions (live or recorded).
- Share simple gratitude journaling prompts in Slack or your internal newsletter, like: “What are you looking forward to this year?” or “Who made your 2024 special?”
This idea works well for hybrid or remote teams and promotes balance, clarity, and intention — right when it’s needed most.
Cost: Free to $200 (depending on yoga/meditation instructors)
Best for: Mental wellness, soft reboarding, stress prevention
2. Photo-a-day wellness challenge
Start the year with a visual team-building activity that’s light, fun, and creative. Each day in January (or for 2 weeks), invite employees to post a photo based on a wellness-related prompt.
Example prompts:
- “Your healthy lunch”
- “Your walk or view”
- “Your cozy corner”
- “Something that made you smile”
Share these in a Slack channel, a photo gallery, or directly in your gamified CSR and wellness platform (like Teamupp) if it supports multimedia uploads. Add optional likes or comments to create light engagement and celebrate each other’s efforts.
This is a low-barrier, inclusive challenge that works across time zones and requires no equipment or fitness level.
Cost: Free (or optional small prize for most consistent participation)
Best for: Social connection, creativity, community-building
3. “Fresh start” desk declutter day
New year, fresh workspace. Organize a one-hour team-wide decluttering event where employees clean their physical or digital workspaces — together. Encourage them to:
- Tidy up their desk and clear out old papers
- Sort through emails or digital folders
- Unsubscribe from outdated mailing lists
Make it fun: create a shared playlist, offer a checklist, and invite before/after photos. You can even give out mini awards like “Best Desk Transformation” or “Most Ruthless Email Purge.”
This challenge boosts focus, reduces stress, and makes the return to work feel lighter and more intentional.
Cost: Free
Best for: Productivity, mental clarity, January resets
5 steps to organize a successful winter wellness challenge
Keen on creating a winter wellness challenge for your workforce? Here’s how to set it up effectively — with the right tools and strategy.
Step 1: Set clear goals and KPIs
Before you pick the activities, ask yourself:
- What do we want to improve? (Stress levels, engagement, physical activity, etc.)
- How will we measure success? (Participation rate, challenge completions, feedback scores?)
A few examples of goals:
- Encourage movement during colder months: “80% of employees log at least 5,000 steps/day.”
- Reconnect remote teams: “Boost Slack engagement by 30% during the challenge.”
- Promote mental health: “Daily check-ins or mindfulness breaks tracked over 2 weeks.”
Tie your goals to existing CSR or HR objectives for added impact — and so you can report on it at year-end.
Step 2: Choose your tools and platform
Manual tracking in spreadsheets is outdated (and no fun). Use employee wellness software like Teamupp to run your challenge from start to finish.
With Teamupp, you can:
- Set up custom challenges (steps, water intake, gratitude, sleep, etc.)
- Track participation automatically through quizzes, photo uploads, and activity logs
- Create teams or departments to spark friendly competition
- Display progress with real-time dashboards and leaderboards
- Offer digital rewards (badges, donations, points)
- Involve remote and hybrid staff easily — the app is fully mobile-friendly
Step 3: Communicate clearly and early
Start the buzz at least 1 to 2 weeks before launch. Create a short but compelling internal campaign to build anticipation and answer questions. You can include a personal message from leadership to boost visibility and encourage participation.
Use multi-channel communication:
- A launch email or Slack message with visuals and a clear CTA
- Posters or digital signage for office-based teams
- A short video or screenshare tutorial to explain how the app works
- An internal landing page or calendar invite with challenge rules
Step 4: Keep it flexible, inclusive, and fun!
The best challenges are accessible to everyone — regardless of fitness level, schedule, or location. Offer multiple ways to engage so that people feel motivated, not pressured.
Step 5: Track, celebrate, and collect feedback
Keep motivation high by sharing progress updates regularly. Recognition builds momentum — and a little visibility drives healthy competition.
Every other week:
- Share top teams or individuals (via dashboard screenshots, newsletter shoutouts)
- Highlight fun submissions (like best walk photo or most creative lunch)
- Announce prize draws or milestones hit (e.g. “We just collected x $”)
End the challenge with a little virtual or in-house award ceremony or wrap-up message.
Want to simplify the whole process and boost team cohesion this winter?
Let Teamupp handle the logistics so you can focus on engaging your people. From gamified tracking to built-in impact reporting, it’s your winter wellness challenge co-pilot.
Interested in organizing a winter challenge?
