Winter Holidays Open started out as a small tournament organized by Croatian Debate Society with a goal of providing an international debate experience for debaters from the region. With 32 teams from Slovenia, Romania, Germany, Bosnia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Croatia, the first WHO took place in 2013.

After several years of hard work, participant feedback and help from our Chief Adjudicators Geetha Creffield, Bojana Skrt, Alfred Snider, Aisha Ahmad, Anna England Kerr and Marija Jarnjak, the tournament grew to an event welcoming around 90 teams in Zagreb each year, with debaters and adjudicators from 28 nations –  Australia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova, Mongolia, The Netherlands, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE and USA joining us so far.