St Patrick’s Day brings with it a slew of shenanigans. There’s plenty to enjoy about this annual occasion, especially if you host a well-planned party.
The celebrations have changed through the years. Originally, it was a way for the Irish to celebrate their country’s patron saint. Immigration then opened the floodgates, and now everybody worldwide uses the fateful day to honor all things Irish. Of course, few countries know immigration like the US, so it’s here where many of the revelries shine particularly bright!
If you want to host a party yourself to mark the event, then there are some things you should think about first. Though St Patrick’s Day will soon be celebrated on March 17th, the tips in this article can help you for this year’s celebrations and hopefully for subsequent years, too, if you’re reading this later. Anyway, let’s get started!
Make Invitations Authentic
The party doesn’t have to start when people arrive and begin having a nice time. You can promote the spirit of the occasion as soon as you send out invitations.
Greenvelope helpfully explains sayings for St Patrick’s day which you can feature on the invitations. They can be touching, traditional, and even funny, allowing you to perfectly set the tone of your celebrations. There are also suggestions on themed invitations, allowing you to create something authentic to what you’re celebrating. It all shows your commitment to the proceedings and your attention to detail!
St Patrick’s Day sayings also create an air of authenticity. It’ll give your party an extra tinge of credibility and show that you’ve understood the assignment rather than just gathering people to get drunk. Some people will have a choice of parties to attend on the big day, so if your invitations can stand out a little bit more, it may give you the extra leverage you need to boost attendance numbers.
Procure the Right Goods
St Patrick’s Day involves consuming very particular things. You can likely guess what some of them are already.
Some people turn their minds to drinking first, but as a host, you have a duty of care for your guests. Consequently, it’s a good idea to think about food first. For example, there are traditional Irish soda breads you could try to whip up! Keep experimenting and trying different things. Good food may help people hold their drink, keep themselves safe, and keep the party going longer.
So, what about the drinks? For these celebrations, you’ll want to be serving the following:
- Stouts
- Guinness
- Irish coffee
- Whiskey
You could even dye some of your drinks green if it’s safe. Green beer is popular for this, with food coloring used to achieve that effect. That said, it’s important to use your discretion. Coloring stout green requires too much food coloring and can dye your mouth. So, be sensible and do your research if you’re going down that route!
Region-Specific Traditions
St Patrick’s Day is celebrated far and wide, and rightly so! However, because of this, many people have their own take on how the day should go down.
For example, Chicago dyes their river green and organizes a parade through the city, celebrating in their own unique fashion. While you perhaps can’t compete with that scale, it could be a good idea to honor these types of celebrations if you’re in the area. Perhaps your party can be located nearby with a view of all these events or take place after you and your guests participate.
Nobody really likes reading at a party. That said, if you’re welcoming party guests from outside your area, it may be worth putting something together to bring them up to speed on the more local traditions unfolding. That way, your party can be more organically fit into their schedule if they have other plans alongside your party. Coincidentally, this brings us rather nicely along to our next point…
Set Healthy Expectations
People tend to drop in and out of St Patrick’s Day parties. As previously mentioned, celebrations are going on everywhere, and some of your attendees may have multiple places to be.
So, have that expectation in mind, and arrange things in such a way that people can come and go as they need to. If you have many party games that demand X number of attendees partaking, perhaps fine-tune them a bit to accommodate any number of people.
Nobody should be guilt-tripped into staying longer than they want to, either. St Patrick’s Day is about all things Irish, and as much as you might honor that as best you can, your party can’t possibly represent all things Irish to every person in attendance. Some people will stick around for the long haul, but plenty may not as well. Once you alleviate yourself of that unnecessary pressure, you can better focus on providing a good time for everybody you’re lucky enough to share some time with.