While St. Patrick’s Day is primarily associated with parades and lots of drinking, homeowners associations can also take advantage of this special day to bring their community together. How? By playing some fun St. Patrick’s Day games, of course.
Fun St. Patrick’s Day Games to Plan for Your HOA
Playing games is a great way to foster a sense of camaraderie and community in any homeowners association. St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect time to organize these games, as there are many themed ones residents can enjoy. While most of these games are designed for kids, adults can also tap into their childlike qualities and join in on the fun.
Here are the best St. Patrick’s Day games you can organize for your HOA community:
1. Gold Coin Toss
The Gold Coin Toss is a simple enough game that only requires two things: decorative pots and lots of gold chocolate coins. The idea here is to build a nice pot of gold, and whoever has the most gold in their pot wins. Kids and adults alike can toss gold coins from a distance and try to land them inside the pots.
You can divide participants into teams, with each member receiving about 10 gold coins to toss into their team’s pot. You can even have levels of difficulty, where the distance between the pots and the members increases with each passing round.
2. Lucky Scavenger Hunt
St. Patrick’s Day is the most appropriate time for kids and adults to try out their luck with a scavenger hunt. To organize this event, come up with a list of items you want to hide around the neighborhood. Then, print out this list and give a copy to each participant.
Make sure to hide the items ahead of time so that no one gets a hint as to where they are located. The person who finds the most items on the list wins. The best part about this game is that you can hide any items you want. Though, in line with the theme, it’s a good idea to go for things like toy shamrocks, leprechaun hats, and things that are green.
3. The Great Gold Hunt
If a scavenger hunt is too much to handle, why not go with a gold hunt instead? The mechanics of this game are similar to an Easter egg hunt, where participants look for eggs scattered around the community. But, instead of eggs, you can hide gold coins instead.
Make sure to hide enough gold coins so that everyone gets a shot at finding one, but not too much that it drags on the game for too long. Give each participant a decorative pot to collect their gold coins in. Then, the person who finds the most gold coins by the end of the game wins.
4. Who’s Hiding the Coin?
To play this game, participants sit or stand in a circle. One player is chosen to be the leprechaun and has to either close their eyes or exit the room temporarily. Then, the leader gives a single gold coin to one of the remaining players in the circle. That player has to hide the coin in their back. Everyone else puts their hands to their backs as well to give the illusion of hiding a gold coin.
Then, the leprechaun opens their eyes or returns to the room and tries to guess who is hiding the gold coin. This game is fun and is sure to produce a lot of laughter, especially among kids.
5. St. Patrick’s Day Word Search
With the threat of COVID-19 still scaring a lot of people, some members of HOA communities might not feel comfortable attending a large gathering. In that case, your HOA can organize St. Patrick’s Day virtual games instead.
A themed word search works both virtually and in person. For virtual word searches, everyone can hop in on a Zoom call and the organizer can send the link to the word search. Participants then try to find all the words on the list, and the first person to do so wins. For in-person word searches, you can print them out and hand one to each person. Make sure to have markers or highlighters at the ready, too.
6. Toss the Hat on the Leprechaun
Similar to “Pin the Tail on the Donkey,” “Toss the Hat on the Leprechaun” finds kids and adults alike trying to complete the leprechaun’s outfit. To play this game, you will need a leprechaun’s hat (or any substitute, really). Then, someone acts as the leprechaun and stands a good distance away from players. Players then take turns to try and toss the hat so that it squarely lands on the leprechaun’s head. This is not only fun and laugh-inducing but also helps kids with hand-eye coordination.
7. Luck of the Draw
This game relies purely on luck. To play it, you will need a small pull-string bag. Fill the bag with cutout shamrocks, but on one of them, write a lucky number. Alternatively, the lucky shamrock could be a different color than the rest. Then, everyone takes turns pulling one shamrock from the pile. Whoever pulls out the lucky shamrock wins a prize.
8. St. Patrick’s Day Bingo
Another one of the St. Patrick’s Day games you can play virtually is bingo. While numbers are the norm in traditional bingo, a St. Patrick’s Day bingo game would use themed symbols instead. You can make your own bingo cards with symbols like shamrocks, leprechauns, and gold coins, or you can find ready-to-use ones online instead.
The game works just like regular bingo where you call out each symbol and participants cross them out. Once they get a straight line, they yell out “Bingo!” and win the game.
9. Keep Wearing Green
Finally, “Keep Wearing Green” mixes the tradition of wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day with a race-against-time kind of game. To play this game, everyone stands in a circle wearing green. Then, you hand a white shirt to a random player.
The objective of the game is to have everyone keep wearing green. Each player has to put on the white shirt (over their existing shirt, of course) and take it off. Then, they pass the white shirt to the next person, who then has to do the same thing. Whoever has the white shirt on when the time runs out (or when the music stops) is out of the game. Keep playing the game until one person remains.
Have a Great St. Patrick’s Day Together
Playing St. Patrick’s Day games is an effective way to have residents in your community bond over an activity. Games are especially great for communities that have a large population of kids. But, that doesn’t mean adults can’t play these games, too. In fact, you should encourage adults to participate in the games as well. This way, everyone can have a good time together.
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