Seven 2025 Winter Wellness Challenges For Employees

As winter settles in, employees may experience a dip in energy and mood due to colder weather, shorter days, and burnout from holiday-related stress. This season often reinforces unhealthy habits, such as overindulging in comfort foods, skipping workouts, doomscrolling, and impulsive spending. To counter these tendencies, introduce winter wellness challenges that support employees’ physical, mental, and financial well-being all season long.

Winter Wellness Challenges

Winter doesn’t have to be the season of slumps and stressors; with the right activities, it can serve as an opportunity to slow down and prioritize growth, purpose, and connection. These winter wellness challenges are designed to boost mindfulness, encourage healthy habits, and foster a sense of community for better health.

Random Acts Of Kindness Challenge

A Random Acts Of Kindness Challenge amplifies the spirit of giving during the holiday season and extends that altruistic energy into the new year. This challenge fosters a sense of purpose, deepens connections, and improves mental health by reinforcing the idea that small, generous acts can have a ripple effect within communities.

How It Works

Encourage employees to perform acts of kindness and document them on a shared digital platform. While the goal is to inspire genuine, intrinsic acts of kindness, logging these moments cultivates a collective sense of goodwill across the organization. It can also make employees feel part of a larger effort to spread positivity throughout the workplace (and beyond), motivating others to get involved. 

To boost participation, set a company-wide goal, such as completing 100 acts of kindness in a month. Once the organization reaches this goal, celebrate with activities that give back to the community, like providing paid time off to volunteer or making charitable donations in employees’ names. By framing kindness as a shared experience, this challenge uplifts individuals and reinforces a sense of community and teamwork.

Winter Well-Being Bingo Challenge

During winter months, well-being tends to take a back seat as employees manage lower energy levels, isolation, and burnout. A Winter Well-Being Bingo Challenge encourages them to prioritize activities that support their physical, mental, and emotional health. This challenge makes wellness feel enjoyable and achievable through accessible, engaging tasks.

How It Works

Design a bingo card with well-being-focused activities for employees to complete over the winter season. They can participate individually or in teams, marking off activities as they go. Encourage employees to share weekly updates or photos of completed tasks in a team chat to build excitement and cultivate community.

Provide rewards for those who complete a row, column, or the entire bingo card and vary their value. For example, recognize an employee in a meeting for finishing a row, distribute company-branded water bottles for completing a column, and provide wearable devices or healthy meal subscriptions for filling the entire card.

Winter Well-Being Bingo Activities

• Take a 15-minute walk outside 
• Finish a book 
• Try a new winter recipe using seasonal ingredients 
• Meditate for five minutes every morning 
• Send a thoughtful message or card to a colleague 
• Volunteer for a local charity or community event 
• Try a new indoor workout 
• Drink at least eight glasses of water in one day 
• Take a screen-free evening to relax 
• Do deep breathing exercises for five minutes 
• Call a friend or family member you haven’t spoken to in a while 
• Digitally detox for a day (no social media or screens) 
• Declutter or organize a small space in your home 
• Go to bed 30 minutes earlier than usual 
• Write down three things you’re grateful for each day

Winter Seasonal Cooking Challenge

Comfort food cravings peak in the winter, but these foods (while delicious) may lack nutritional value. A Winter Cooking Challenge encourages employees to make healthier choices by exploring creative recipes featuring seasonal ingredients—without sacrificing flavor or enjoyment. This challenge supports nutritious eating and fosters a sense of community through shared recipes and meals.

How It Works

Each week, highlight a seasonal ingredient (e.g., squash, kale, citrus) and challenge employees to create a healthy recipe featuring it. Employees can cook at home; share their creations in the office or on a company-wide digital platform; and provide a brief recipe description to distribute to others. To keep the momentum going and offer additional support, host periodic cooking demonstrations covering techniques for cooking the weekly ingredients or ideas for meal prep.

Host a healthy potluck at the end of the challenge and encourage employees to bring their favorite dishes to share with the team. Include a “Best Dish” contest for an element of friendly competition, where colleagues vote for their favorite recipes. Consider awarding a prize to the winner, such as a kitchen gadget or a gift card to a local health-focused restaurant.

Smart Spending Challenge

Many employees may be preparing for—or recovering from—the holiday season’s extra spending. A Smart Spending Challenge helps employees build sustainable financial habits by focusing on mindful, intentional spending. By identifying needs versus wants and setting achievable goals, employees can develop healthier budgeting practices that improve financial wellness.

How It Works

Start the challenge by encouraging employees to set a clear financial goal, such as saving a specific amount, reducing discretionary spending, or sticking to a weekly budget. Provide a worksheet or digital template to guide them in identifying their current spending habits and areas for improvement.

Each week, participants will complete specific tasks to gradually build mindfulness around their spending. Tasks include tracking all expenses, setting spending limits, and practicing delayed purchasing decisions. Encourage employees to log their progress using budgeting apps or a shared, customizable spreadsheet provided by the company.

At the end of the challenge, reward those who achieve their financial goals with gift cards or access to financial resources (e.g., one-on-one consultations).

Hygge Haven Challenge

The shorter, colder days of winter can leave employees feeling drained and unmotivated. Inspired by the Danish concept of “hygge” (a cozy quality that fosters well-being and contentment), a Hygge Haven Challenge focuses on warmth, comfort, and connection during chilly months. This challenge invites employees to embrace the season by creating snug spaces for peace, relaxation, and mindfulness.

How It Works

Designate a wellness room or corner of the office as a “Hygge Haven” featuring soft lighting, plush chairs, blankets, and soothing scents like lavender or cinnamon. Challenge employees to take breaks in this space to read, journal, or meditate. For remote workers, provide a stipend to help them create a similar hygge-inspired space at home. Taking small, screen-free breaks in a designated area can help employees recharge, reduce stress, and improve focus. 

Consider hosting a hygge photo contest where employees share pictures of their cozy desk setups or at-home spaces. Offer prizes such as gift cards to local coffee shops or hygge-inspired items like candles or blankets.

Winter Digital Detox Challenge

In the winter, it’s tempting to cozy up indoors and stay glued to screens. A Winter Digital Detox Challenge helps employees disconnect from their devices, promoting a healthier balance between screen time and real-world engagement. This challenge focuses on tracking digital consumption, reducing screen time week over week, and setting achievable goals to foster healthier digital habits during winter months.

How It Works

To kick off the challenge, have employees track their screen time using built-in tools on their devices (e.g., “Screen Time” on iPhones, “Digital Wellbeing” on Androids). This creates awareness around current screen usage patterns and helps employees identify areas for improvement. 

Set a goal for participants to reduce their non-work-related screen time by a specific percentage (e.g., 20% less than the previous month) or stay within a set limit (e.g., one hour per day). Encourage employees to take screen-free breaks during the workday, like a ten-minute walk or stretching session, and provide activity suggestions for their free time to limit unnecessary scrolling. 

Create a raffle at the end of the challenge for participants who successfully met their goals, offering experiential rewards like concert tickets or event passes to help them disconnect from their devices and engage with the real world.

Snowflake Step Challenge

Colder weather tends to promote sedentary habits, making it the perfect time to introduce a Snowflake Step Challenge to keep employees moving. Whether it’s a brisk walk outside or taking the stairs at the office, the goal is to increase step counts week over week, embrace the benefits of low-impact movement, and make fitness a part of daily routines.

How It Works

Have employees track their average daily steps for a week using a pedometer or smartphone app to establish a baseline. Encourage employees to set individual daily step count goals (e.g., 10,000 steps) or increase their count by 10% each week. For example, if their baseline is 5,000 steps a day, they’ll aim for 5,500 steps the next week.  

Participants can take on the challenge individually or form teams for some friendly competition. Teams will compete to see who logs the most steps over the course of the month, with regular updates shared via a digital platform or leaderboard. 

Offer fitness incentives for employees who meet their goals, such as gift cards to activewear stores or extra break time for movement.