Keep the party going this year by celebrating St. Partick's Day at home with these tips!

St. Patrick’s Day celebrations were suddenly stifled as the coronavirus pandemic has shut down businesses and canceled parades, marathons, and beer-centric events all over the country. But just because we can’t go out and paint the town green doesn’t mean we can’t still have one heck of a good time celebrating the luck of Irish this year. Here are a few ways to keep the party going on at home and crank the celebrations up!

Make Green or Irish Food

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Look through your fridge and pantry, we're sure there's a ton that can be done to make some really fun green food for St. Patrick’s Day. Green food coloring goes a long way for this one! You can turn eggs, pancakes, mashed potatoes, pasta, pudding green with just a little bit of food coloring. Or go traditional with a full Irish meal.

Get Crafty With It

This might sound slightly corny, but a little creativity goes a long way. Crafting is not only fun and relaxing, but it also encourages us to let our guard down and just enjoy making something.

Have a bunch of old ads, newspapers, or magazines? Add scissors and glue and you have an afternoon of collaging. Search through magazines for pictures and bits of larger pictures you can abstractly piece together to make a larger piece.

If you have little ones, you can design a trap to catch a leprechaun. Kiddos can use whatever you have on hand to make the traps; old boxes, glitter, paper toilet paper tubes, paper, cereal boxes, egg cartons, soda bottles, etc.

A more basic craft is to make a paper garland, preferably green and white. If you don’t have green paper, let the kids color green Irish-inspired designs on the paper, then cut into strips and make the paperchain. Liven this one up by making it a race, or a competition to see who can make the longest. When this one is done it can be used as a game, perhaps a limbo prop, or simply hung up as a decoration to liven up the room.

Make St. Patrick’s Day cards wishing friends and family good luck, happy thoughts, a silly joke, a thoughtful quote, a nice picture, a riddle, etc. Take it a step further if you have envelopes and stamps on hand, and send the cards to friends and family—a great way to send unexpected cheer to those who might really need it right now.

Play St. Patrick's Day-Themed Games

This can be done around your house, yard, apartment, a single room, whatever area you choose. Put a scavenger hunt together, or play Hot Potato, Pin the Clover on the Leprechaun, leprechaun tag, freeze tag, coin toss, and more. 

Dance Party 

Have a dance party featuring Irish musicians. Stream your favorite songs and let your freak flag fly! Dance the night away to some bagpipes or Celtic music, dance an Irish jig, maybe learn the hornpipe. There's plenty of hit music by famous Irish folk—U2, Hozier, The Cranberries, Sinead O’Conner, Ed Sheeran, Van Morrison, Bono, Christina Aguilera, Niall Horan, Macklemore, and Enya are just a few of the great musicians who hail from or have roots on the Emerald Isle.

Watch an Irish Movie

You can celebrate the day by popping up some tasty popcorn and settling down for a day of binge-watching. Irish films are all over the place and there are some really good ones to choose from, including:

Who can forget Far and Away with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman? It may be from 1992, but it's still a great story.

The Departed is a story of an undercover cop who takes on the Irish mob, and stars Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Leap Year is a rom-com starring Amy Adams as a woman who heads to Ireland to propose to her boyfriend on Leap Day, as under Irish tradition he cannot say no to a proposal on February 29.

The Secret of Kells is a 2009 award-winning animated fantasy film.

If horror is more your thing, there are always the Leprechaun movies.

Drink (Duh!)

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St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday known for its libations, so kick back, grab a nice cold brew, a tasty crisp martini, or that chilled glass of rosé, and just enjoy a drink. It's okay to have a good time, take the opportunity to give yourself a break, read a good book, reconnect with your partner and kiddos, and just celebrate being alive.

Share your ideas for how to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at home this year in the comments.