16 St. Patrick’s Day Party Ideas That Are Exciting And Fun
Are you one of the 70 million people across the world who have Irish ancestry?
If so, you probably grew up with all kinds of incredible St. Patrick’s Day traditions. As an adult, you might be wondering what you can do to spread the joy and share a part of your culture with your loved ones. With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, you should plan a party that will make all of the kids and adults in your life thrilled to attend.
Are you searching for some inspiration so you can plan a celebration that no one will forget? Read on to discover 16 brilliant St. Patrick’s Day party ideas that will show everyone what the luck of the Irish is all about.
Preparing for Your St. Patrick’s Day Party
Planning an entire party from start to finish can seem overwhelming at first. This is why it’s helpful to break down your responsibilities into smaller chores that are more manageable. From festive party food to decorations and beyond, these tips will help you cover the basics.
1. Whip Up an Irish Feast
To drive the holiday theme home, you’ll need to create an epic spread of classic St. Patrick’s Day party food. If any of your guests haven’t celebrated a proper Saint Patrick’s Day before, then you’ll rock their taste buds with dishes like corned beef and cabbage, Irish stew, Irish soda bread, colcannon, and shepherd’s pie. The Irish know how to make hearty comfort foods that can satisfy a large crowd.
Preparing an Irish feast by yourself might be challenging, so don’t be afraid to ask some loved ones to help you out by bringing a designated dish. You could even get in touch with local Irish restaurants to explore their catering options. It’s always nice to celebrate holidays by supporting small businesses.
2. Serve Delicious Shamrock Shakes
Another reason why tons of people get excited for March to come around each year is that restaurants release their limited-time shamrock shakes. As it turns out, Irish people love to indulge in minty treats like jelly. Plus, mint is also green! Serving shamrock shakes will help you and your guests celebrate traditional Irish flavors while staying true to the green theme.
If you’ve never made your own shamrock shakes before, all you need is vanilla ice cream, milk peppermint extract, green food coloring, and your favorite toppings, such as whipped cream, sprinkles, chocolate sauce, and cherries. You can use this simple shamrock shake recipe as a base to create a mouthwatering milkshake that everyone can enjoy. If you’re serving adults, you can make a boozy version by adding some Bailey’s Irish Cream.
3. Set Up St. Patrick’s Day Party Decorations
The best way that you can bring your party to life is by setting up some whimsical St. Patrick’s Day decorations. Decorating should be simple since you only need to focus on anything that’s related to clovers, leprechauns, and rainbows. You can tie everything together by maintaining a green, gold, and rainbow color theme.
Cute leprechaun figures, clover banners, and rainbow streamers are just a few ways that you can add zest to the party space. You could also set out cheeky signs with common St. Patrick’s Day phrases like “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” or “Feeling Lucky.” Your tables could even have dazzling centerpieces like clover bouquets and leprechaun hats.
4. Set the Tone With an Irish Party Playlist
Every great party needs a playlist that matches the theme and gets everyone in a festive spirit. When your guests walk into your St. Patrick’s Day party and hear some of the catchiest songs about Ireland, they’ll feel like they’ve been transported there in an instant. Party playlists are a good way to keep the energy up and they take pressure off of your guests. That way, they won’t always feel obligated to fill the occasional awkward silence.
So many talented musicians have created odes to this beautiful country and its people, so it’s worth taking some time to research Irish music. If you want to take the stress out of curating your own party playlist, then you’ll be relieved to know that many different streaming platforms have a bunch of Irish playlists to choose from. All you need to do is connect your speakers and get the tunes blasting.
5. Send Out St. Patrick’s Day Party Invitations
Before you can get your St. Patrick’s Day party going, you’ll need to curate your guest list and send out St Paddy’s Day invitations. Your invitation should be short but sweet so that everyone can see the most important details at first glance. Whether you print or share yours online, taking the time to choose a fun design and customize your card will make everyone smile when they receive your invitation.
To make your party feel as festive as possible, you should consider including a dress code in your invitations. Wearing green is the obvious choice, but guests could also come dressed in gold or rainbow colors as well. If you’re lucky, some of your guests will take the dress code to heart and arrive in a full leprechaun outfit or another silly costume.
6. Make Sure Your Guests Can Bring Home a Bit of Treasure
If you want to gain the reputation of being the best host, then you should consider putting together a little goodie bag that your guests can take home once the party is over. You could settle on one nice item or a few little treats to impress your guests. It’s always thoughtful to include at least one item that they can keep for many years to come so that they never forget how awesome your St. Patrick’s Day party was.
Anyone who loves to bake may want to prepare little rainbow trifles in mason jars to stay on the St. Patrick’s Day theme. If you take the time to paint each mason jar in an elegant way, then your guests will be able to hang onto them and reuse them as decor. They’ll be delighted once they dig a spoon into their dessert and see the explosion of rainbow colors.
St. Patrick’s Day Arts and Crafts
Lots of St. Patrick’s Day events are all about laughing and being rowdy with friends. However, it’s hard to keep this energy up for hours without any breaks. You should set out supplies for some charming St. Patrick’s Day crafts when everyone would like some downtime.
7. Design Your Own Photo Frames
Your guests will also appreciate having the opportunity to do a St. Patrick’s Day craft while they enjoy everyone else’s company. One unique craft that lets people get as clever as they want involves designing photo frames. You can set out lots of nice tools like glitter, little letter blocks, stickers, foam decorations, and more.
Are you wondering what photo your guests will put in those frames? If so, setting up a goofy photoshoot area is always the answer. Your guests can put on hats and long beards while they pose in front of a rainbow backdrop. It’s best to use an instant film camera so guests can have access to their pictures and place them inside of their frames right away.
8. Craft St. Patrick’s Day Magnets
Another option for St. Patrick’s Day arts and crafts involves festive magnets that guests can bring home later. The final results will look impressive, and the best news is that assembling them is a cinch. You’ll need to have some disc magnets and an array of craft supplies that will allow everyone to turn their St. Patrick’s Day visions to life.
Whether you’re all working with felt, popsicle sticks, or more, keep in mind that you’ll need to use a hot glue gun to secure the design onto the disc magnet. This tool can be dangerous in little hands, so be sure to take over this step for any kids who are working on the craft. Everyone will be grateful that they can display their unique art on their fridges once they return home.
9. Create Lovely St. Patrick’s Day Cards
What’s more relaxing than spending some time coloring and writing kind messages to loved ones? You should print out a variety of blank St. Patrick’s Day cards that your guests can choose from so they’ll be able to start working on their masterpieces. Be sure to also set out plenty of markers, crayons, and stickers so everyone can make their cards burst with color.
This is a wonderful activity that can entertain everyone for at least 30 minutes. Once they’re finished, they can exchange cards with the party guests or take them home to share with any other special people in their lives later.
St. Patrick’s Day Party Games
Every party host should have several game options prepared for their guests to keep everyone engaged. While you can create an outline of how you think the party schedule should go, try to stay flexible. You should start playing any of these games when the timing feels natural during your party.
10. Plan a Gold Coin Treasure Hunt
According to Irish mythology, leprechauns are known to love gold and you can bet that one of those creatures is nearby if you spot any treasure lying around. This is why a big element of St. Patrick’s Day is eating chocolate coins with a golden wrapper. Whether you want to laugh with competitive friends or give kids a dose of magic, you can plan a thrilling gold coin treasure hunt during your festivities.
You should give each guest a pot that they can use to collect their gold coins and bring home when the party is over. Everyone will rush around and get creative to track down as many golden coins as they can. You could even hide a rainbow somewhere and leave behind a big pile of gold coins there as the ultimate prize.
11. Teach Your Guests How to Jig
No St. Patrick’s Day party would feel complete without an Irish jig dancing competition. While there are all kinds of moves you could learn, you can impress your guests by only mastering a few. Irish jigs look more intimidating and intricate than they really are, so you don’t need to worry about looking clumsy.
Your guests will be fascinated to learn how to jig as well and you can spend some time coaching them through those basic moves. Once everyone has the hang of it, you should rile them up by hosting a jig competition. Guests can start jigging to the music and they must stop in place once the music pauses or they’re out. Everyone will be laughing and cheering like never before.
12. Play Leprechaun Stuck in the Mud
Another party game that you can play is the leprechaun version of stuck in the mud. If you haven’t played stuck in the mud before, it’s a version of tag where everyone becomes “it” until one person remains. A few people spread out across the playing field and they have to stand still because they’re stuck in the mud.
Everyone else has to run from one side of the playing field to the other while the people who are stuck in the mud try to reach out and tag them so that they can get stuck in place as well. Leprechauns are notoriously tricky to catch, so your guests will love competing to discover who is the cleverest leprechaun in the group. You should have some leprechaun accessories to award the winner with and you could even take photos so they’ll never forget their achievement.
13. Team Up to Pass Along the Pot of Gold
Once you’re all tired from running around playing leprechaun stuck in the mud, you could do a more relaxed activity that will still get everyone fired up. You’ll need to create two lines of chairs and have the group split into two teams, sit down, and put on blindfolds. The two people who are at the front of their lines will have a big pot of gold coins while everyone else behind them will have empty pots.
The game works by having the people in the front dump their pots behind their heads while the people behind them try to catch as many gold coins as they can without being able to see. This will continue until the last person in line is able to collect the remaining gold coins in their pots. Whichever team can manage to collect as many gold coins as possible wins.
14. Create an Irish Trivia Game
St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect occasion to learn more about Irish culture while having a blast with friends and family. The best part about making your own trivia game is that you can make the questions as simple or challenging as you want depending on the ages of your guests. If any kids are going to attend your party, make sure that there are plenty of questions that they can get correct so they don’t feel left out.
Jeopardy! is a popular trivia game and you can use online tools to create your own St. Patrick’s Day board. Jeopardy! is always exciting since you’ll never know who will win until the final bets are placed. The teams will appreciate being able to choose topics that they feel most confident getting quizzed on.
15. Get Silly With a Lucky or Not Guessing Game
Even if your guests don’t have Irish heritage, they still may have the luck of the Irish on their side this St. Patrick’s Day. If you want to plan a cheeky game that would shock even the trickiest leprechaun out there, you should find a way to test everyone’s luck. There are all kinds of rewards and punishments that you can come up with, but food is always a crowd pleaser.
For example, you can set out a wide variety of foods that are delicious and foods that are nasty, but the catch is that you can’t tell what’s what based on appearances. Guests have to go with their gut instinct and choose the food that they think is right before gathering the courage to take a big bite. Everyone will be sucked into the drama and laugh at anyone who has the misfortune of choosing the wrong food.
16. Draw a Leprechaun Blindfolded
Lots of people can envision a leprechaun in great detail and create a nice picture, but this task can become almost impossible once they put a blindfold on. This is a low-key party activity that you can all do when you want a rest. You also don’t need to invest in any expensive supplies since you only need paper, pencils, and blindfolds.
This activity is already challenging, but you also have the option to raise the stakes higher by setting a time limit on how long everyone can draw. Your guests will burst out laughing once they see their scribbles on the page. You should have a judge choose the winning picture that resembles a leprechaun the most. Make sure they don’t know who created each drawing so that the judging is as fair as possible.
People of All Ages Will Adore These St. Patrick’s Day Party Ideas
St. Patrick’s Day is a celebration filled with rockin’ music, mouthwatering food, refreshing drinks, and even a bit of magic. Whether you’re planning on entertaining adults, kids, or both, these St. Patrick’s Day party ideas will thrill everyone. You may want to turn your party into a tradition once you realize how much fun this holiday truly is.
Greetings Island understands how stressful party planning can be, which is why we’ve curated a phenomenal selection of invitations for every occasion that you can customize with ease. Sending out our invitations is the best way to start your party off on the right foot. Have a look at our invitations so you can choose one that matches your theme perfectly.
Photo Credits: Nataly Hanin, Yan Ming, LightFieldStudios, Sonja Filitz, gpointstudio, colnihko, MaeMu, Jenny Pace on Unsplash
