I really, really miss human contact. Parties… casual get togethers… even just having ONE friend over for a cocktail! Everything is cancelled and it has definitely been hard social distancing / isolating on my own. That being said, remote parties have been a bright spot. Some of my friends and I have gotten together for Zoom happy hours and brunches and book clubs… and my family is doing a trivia night tonight. Thank god for video chat!
Today I thought I’d round up a few fun party ideas that you and your friends/family members can do to stay connected and have some fun! You can have a surprisingly good time online!
Virtual Party Ideas!
I will say that one thing I’ve learned is to keep these gatherings on the smaller side. Except maybe for birthday parties because birthday parties need to be big! In my opinion, more than five people total gets too chaotic. For me, four is the sweet spot! I will also confess that I kind of love that Zoom calls and meetups can have an easy start and end time. I need my beauty sleep, after all!
Host a virtual Birthday Party
I have not been to a Zoom birthday party yet (why aren’t any of my friends celebrating their birthdays right now, I just want to sing happy birthday into my computer!!!) but am hoping to be invited to one. The birthday boy or girl will definitely need to have a half birthday party to make things right IRL when this is all over, but for now, Zoom is a nice stand in.
Book Club
A friend of mine organized a Zoom book club for Open Book and it was one of the most fun things I did via video chat. I would again, recommend keeping the group smaller so that everyone can talk… and to send questions ahead of time so that you are a little bit organized.
Virtual Office Happy Hour
I do not work in an office or have coworkers, BUT if you do, this would be such a fun thing to organize. In a world of zoom meetings and calls, why not schedule something fun! If you’re the boss and want to give your employees a little treat, send Drizzly codes to your team members so that they can have their drinks on you!
Cocktail Making
There are so many amazing cocktail recipes out there, and it’s fun to make them together. Pick something that everyone wants to make (a negroni? The perfect dirty martini?) and make it together on camera!
Trivia Night or Game Night
I am doing this with a few of my family members tomorrow night and I am SO excited as I always love trivia. I do worry that it will be easier to cheat, though. So I will let you know how it goes. We’re setting up google hangouts and then using JackBox.TV!
Brunch
A few weekends ago a few of my girlfriends and I had the most fun little brunch – it was one of my favorite virtual events so far! We all ordered in food and made our favorite coffee + brunch cocktails. It was alllllmost as fun as the real thing.
Beauty Night
I love the idea of having a face mask night with your girlfriends. Everyone opens a bottle of wine and puts on their favorite face mask and dials into the video chat. But you need a “statement mask” that will look good on camera! My most favorite zoom friendly face masks (aka will look a little bit crazy bc why not!?) include this one which will make you look like the tin man, the blue tansy mask, or this ultra dark charcoal mask!
Host a Netflix party!
I think this is probably best done with reality TV shows so that people can chime in and comment without taking away from the plot! (Too Hot To Handle could be perfect for this, LOL.) Or, you could all watch a movie and then zoom/Facetime together afterward to discuss!
Virtual Dinner Party
I love the idea of cooking something with your friends. You could all make the same recipe and follow the steps together. You could do this with cocktails or dessert as well. If you want to be really fancy, send a paperless post invite, too…
Play an online game!
A lot of my friends love the Houseparty App. I will be honest, I haven’t tried it! But it sounds really cool, you can play games and do all sorts of other fun things.
Learn a Tiktok Dance.
Okay I’ve gotten a little addicted to TikTok (I’m bad at it but my handle is @graceatwood5). Why not put the Zoom up on your TV and have a virtual dance party!? I am going to try to convince a few of my girlfriends to do this while we are stuck at home!
Do a painting or arts & craft project.
I love the idea of all painting the same thing via video call… and seeing how it turns out. Or (if you have the luxury of a washer/dryer which most NY’ers don’t, lol) try out tie-dye. Or sew masks! The options are endless with this one, and I love the idea of making something and spending time together with your friends and family!
Have you had a virtual party yet!? Tell me how it went!!!! Would love to hear your ideas.
These are so fun! A book club would be a great way to motivate me to actually pick up my books and read! ❤️✨
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
You should do one!
I’m hosting two virtual parties for my co-teacher today! We normally have a Zoom lunch with our kindergarten students on Wednesday, so I asked the families to help their kids make some birthday cards and signs when they come into the Zoom! Also having a surprise party tonight with colleagues. She thinks it’s our regular planning time 🙂
Aw I love that!!!
Great timing for this post! I’m attending a virtual baby shower this weekend and we are going to get dressed up and grab a drink and watch the quarantined mama to be open our gifts. It’s going to be total chaos with so many people on the call but the “hosts” are going to call out our names and we each get to say something to the mama. I do like the “break out” room feature in zoom where you can pair off and talk for a couple of minutes and then seamlessly rejoin the group. We did one where the person kept making up random parings and we switched every 3 minutes it was wild by different 🙂
Aw I love that, what a cute idea!!!! Have fun!
Perfect ideas, Grace! Although I’m with my boyfriend during this time..I’ve just REALLY missed my best friends and family. We’ve been doing my boyfriend’s yoga classes together on Zoom and just random FaceTimes. My family and I have happy hour on Friday along with our favorite performer from the apres ski bar at the mountain we go to in Vermont. A 7-8 happy hour sometimes lasts till 2AM. So that’s definitely been nice!
Dana | The Champagne Edit
I love those ideas!!
Oh I love all of these.. thank you!
Lisa | lisaautumn.com
you’re welcome!
I’ve done the netflix watching chrome plugin app with friends which was super fun. You aren’t on video but you all watch netflix at the same time (whenever someone pauses, it pauses everyone’s screen) and chat in real time! super fun
I also did a zoom escape room with friends which was super fun! I’m not sure the website my friend bought it from, but it was $10 and they shared their screen while we all had PDFs in an email of the clues/evidence. Highly reccommend
I love these ideas!!!! Need to look into the Netflix plugin!
https://www.netflixparty.com for the netflix chrome extension
https://store.theescapegame.co/collections/teg-unlocked for the virtual escape room
Thank you!!!!
We were invited to a 60th birthday Zoom party and at first it was thinking it was going to be lame but it ended up being such a special event. The birthday girl was so happy! We all went around the Zoom Room and said special sentiments. One user put together a video (a few minutes long) which we all watched and loved!
That is so cute!!!!! Thank you for sharing.
My best friend’s family hosted a Zoom talent show! It was SO fun and preparing gave my husband and I something fun to do on a rainy Saturday. We learned a dance we’d been wanting to learn for years and I picked up my childhood flute!
OMG I LOVE THAT!!! Such a fun idea!
Great fun tips! I’m not big on being on camera (in general) so I am just getting used to it. You gave me some insights on things I can do that make being on camera fun.
It definitely takes some getting used to! My two tips for that are a) in the settings, there’s a “beauty touch up” you can do… and also, supergoop glowscreen! Protects from blue light AND gives you a nice glow/filter!
3 friends and I had a “Chopped” Challenge zoom party–inspired the Food Network show. It was so fun. What we did: Each person pick an ingredient, and we all had to make a meal using those 4 ingredients. We made sure that we had 1 protein, 1 starch, 1 vegetable, and 1 mystery ingredient. It was so cool to see how creative everyone was in putting together the meals. They were all so different. We made sure the ingredients were affordable and available. We had 90 minutes to make the meal. Once we were done, we all sat down (with cocktails) and discussed what we think went well and what we think we would have done differently. It was really fun–and the meals were great. It made cooking fun again–I have been so tired of cooking all the time during quarantine.
oh my god I LOVE this!!! Such a brilliant idea!
My whole calendar is just virtual appointments. Between my kids’ school classes, one on ones with their teachers, my book club (We just read The Operator and had great discussion), my moms group, my biweekly work happy hour and my husbands work calls – it’s a lot but I feel so grateful to be able to connect with people at all. I think I might actually cry when I get to hug someone not in my house but I am so grateful for Zoom, Houseparty and FaceTime!
We have did a Zoom birthday party for one of my son’s friends and everyone made party hats but here in Texas the birthday parade is VERY big. We all drive by the birthday person’s house and honk, decorate our cars and make signs. It’s so fun and the kids love it so much! It’s not virtual but it’s definitely memorable. My kids use the Netflix chrome extension – we found it a little buggy they liked it.
My 50th birthday is coming up and I already have 3 virtual party invitations from family/groups of friends. I have no idea what they will be like but I am sure one of them will be a trivia party after I send the link to my sister! Thank you!
God I miss hugs!!!!!!
And happy (almost birthday!!!!) That is an exciting one. I hope you can still manage to have a great day – hang in there!
My office has been doing a virtual game “night” (really an hour at the end of the work day) occasionally and it had not occurred to me to do this with some friends.
You inspired me to try it and we have our first game night tonight. Thanks!
Oh good! Happy it brought some inspiration – have FUN!
I really liked all your ideas. Thanks for sharing
You’re so welcome – cheers!
Very cool suggestions and you made it sound so fun and exciting. My mom turns 70 soon and we’re considering a virtual birthday party for her..you just gave me a few ideas to consider. Much thanks
Great article! I also had a great time doing a virtual murder mystery event for my latest teambuilding event! I would highly recommend it!