12 Virtual Activities to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day With Your Team
St. Patrick’s day is one of the most beloved holidays of the year. It is a cultural and religious holiday celebrated on March 17th, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is a day the world gets to honor Irish heritage, and is a wonderful time for people to come together and celebrate this fun and festive occasion by wearing lots of green, participating in parades, and celebrating the best of Irish traditions.
In Ireland, St. Patrick's day is a public holiday, and it is also celebrated with parades and festivals in cities and towns across the country splashed in green. The color green is associated with St. Patrick's day because it is the color of the shamrock. According to Irish legend, St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the Irish people, and it has been associated with Irish culture and identity ever since. Green is also the color of the Emerald Isle, a nickname for Ireland due to its lush, green landscape.
We want to help you celebrate a wonderful St. Patrick's holiday with your team regardless of where you are with some fun virtual team building activities. Whether it’s a virtual pub crawl or a festive team game, we hope our list of 12 virtual games and activities will help make your St. Patrick's day celebrations extra special this year!
1. Irish Scavenger Hunt
2. St. Patrick’s Day Trivia
3. Luck of the Irish
4. St. Patrick's Day Paint Night
5. Irish Knees Up
6. Leprechaun Chase
7. Virtual Irish Pub Crawl
8. St. Patrick's Day Bingo
9. Fairy Tale Match-Up
10. Craic Contest
11. Irish Idiom Challenge
12. Quotes from Famous Irish People
1. Irish Virtual Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are a fun virtual team building activity that will get your team engaged and enjoying some friendly competition. A St. Patrick's day scavenger hunt is an even more fun way of celebrating the holiday!
To play an Irish virtual scavenger hunt with your team, start by preparing a list of Irish-themed items for your team to find. Select objects that are traditionally associated with Irish culture, such as shamrocks, leprechaun hats, Guinness t-shirts, or Irish folklore books. Next, divide your team into groups of 2 to 4 people per group, and give them each a different list of items to find. Set a time limit for the scavenger hunt. The goal is to be the first team that finds all the items on the list. To keep track of progress, have each group take pictures of each item as they check them off their list.
When time is up, have each group share their pictures with the entire team in either the virtual conference room or through a messaging platform. The group with the most items found on their list wins the scavenger hunt. To make this Irish virtual scavenger hunt more challenging, include Irish riddles in the list of clues, such as questions on why you want to find four-leaf clovers, and where is the best place to find gold.
2. St. Patrick’s Day Trivia
Trivia is a great way to celebrate St. Patrick's day because the games can be tailored to a specific theme that helps everybody on your team learn more about the holiday in a fun and engaging way. Trivia is also an excellent team building activity for building morale and creating positive team dynamics.
To play St. Patrick's day trivia, gather your team together virtually and create a list of questions about the history, culture, and traditions of the holiday. These questions should be a mixture of multiple choice, true or false, and open-ended questions that keep everybody on their toes. For help getting started with putting together a list of questions use this list of St. Patrick's day trivia questions.
Go around the virtual conference room and have each person take turns answering the questions. The winner is the person who gets the most answers correct. To make the game extra challenging add a time limit and award bonus points for the fastest answer.
3. Luck of the Irish
Take the fun of a virtual scavenger hunt and mix it with the excitement of a challenge course to create an entertaining Luck of the Irish game. The goal of this virtual game is for teams to complete St. Patrick's day challenges.
This game is best played as a group challenge, so start by dividing up your team into groups of 3 to 4 people. Then assign each group a list of tasks or challenges they must complete in a certain amount of time. These tasks can be anything from finding the luckiest shamrock in their house, to writing a limerick or haiku about St. Patrick's day, to designing a virtual St. Patrick’s day costume. The team that has the most completed tasks at the end of the game, wins.
This is a great team building activity for St. Patrick's day because it not only encourages collaboration and creative thinking, but it also celebrates the spirit of the holiday in a fun and lighthearted way.
4. St. Patrick's Day Paint Night
A virtual paint night is a fun and creative way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with your team, even if you're not able to gather in person. Paint nights help bring out the inner artist in all of us, and for St. Patrick's day it's especially easy to get creative and make art because this holiday is associated with so many bold and beautiful colors.
To do a paint night event start by sending out a list of art materials that participants will need to get for the event beforehand. This could include things like paint, brushes, canvas, paper, colored pencils, or any other materials needed. Keep in mind that the entire team does not have to use the same art materials so you can provide different options.
Next, decide on a St. Patrick's Day-themed art piece that everyone will enjoy. Some good ideas include things like a leprechaun, a pot of gold, a shamrock, or a landscape of the Irish countryside. On paint night, make sure everyone is connected to a video conference room and can see each other.
Begin the paint night event by explaining the theme and making sure everyone has what they need. Then have each person create their own version of the chosen art theme. You can also follow along with an art instructor if you want everyone to paint the same thing, such as any of these videos from Bob Ross' joy of painting series. Encourage your team to have fun and be creative with their paintings.
At the end of the event, have everybody hold up their art pieces and show off their finished projects. This activity is sure to put a smile on their faces. The key to a successful virtual paint night is to keep it fun and relaxed and to encourage everyone to socialize and be creative.
5. Irish Knees Up
Irish Knees Up is a traditional Irish dance that is often performed as a group dance during St. Patrick's day celebrations. To do a virtual version of Irish knees up, you will have each member of your team put on a St. Patrick's day tune while they complete a list of silly dance moves that is sure to amuse and delight your entire team.
To start, create a list of simple Irish dance moves that can all be performed from home, such as “jigging”, “shamrock shuffle”, or “riverdance”. Make sure the list has enough of a selection that everyone has an opportunity to select dances they are either familiar with or are comfortable doing. The dance steps should be relatively simple and remind the team that looking good is not the aim of this activity.
The goal of this dance is for everyone to complete as many dance moves in a designated amount of time as possible. Going through the dances quickly will help and also bring a lot of fun and silliness to the activity. Make sure that every dance can be seen by the entire team in the video conference room. Each person can perform the dances alone or with someone else that they are in the same room with. The most important thing is to have fun! Irish knees up is a lively, energetic dance that is all about having a good time.
6. Leprechaun Chase
Leprechaun Chase is a well known Irish game that will have your team on their toes and having fun. To play a virtual version of this team building game start by dividing your team into smaller groups and giving them a leprechaun to chase. The Leprechauns can be represented by any object you choose such as a stuffed animal, a toy, or a paper cut-out. Each leprechaun will have a list of challenges and obstacles that must be completed in order to catch them.
These challenges can include anything from answering St. Patrick's day trivia questions, to locating virtual St. Patrick's day decorations, or even doing an Irish jig in the video conference room. Each member of the group must work together and use their problem-solving skills to locate the leprechaun.
At the end of the game, the team that completes all of the challenges and catches their leprechaun first wins! This virtual St. Patrick's day game is a great way to get everyone engaged in some friendly competition and having lots of fun.
7. Virtual Irish Pub Crawl
A virtual Irish Pub Crawl is a way for your team to experience the fun and social atmosphere of an Irish pub from the comfort of home. To organize this virtual pub crawl, start by deciding with your team which famous Irish pubs you want to virtually visit. Then on the day of the pub crawl, set up a webcam livestream of each Irish pub on your list in the video conference room and let your team enjoy spending time "visiting" each pub one at a time.
To make this activity more festive, encourage every member of your team to dress up in traditional Irish attire or green clothing that adds to the atmosphere of the pub crawl. If possible, enjoy traditional Irish food and drinks at the same time, by either having it delivered to your team ahead of time, or having them bring their own food and drinks. You can also have Irish games, quizzes, and dances as you visit each pub. Allow plenty of time for your team to socialize and talk to each other just like they would in a physical pub crawl before you move from one pub to the next.
The most important thing is to have fun and enjoy the virtual Irish pub crawl experience with your team. This activity is sure to bring lots of fun and laughter while creating a unique atmosphere for everyone to bond over.
8. St. Patrick's Day Bingo
St. Patrick's day bingo is a fun and festive way to celebrate the holiday. Bingo as a virtual team building activity will bring a lot of joy and happiness to your team. To set up the game, make a list of St. Patrick's day-related words and phrases, such as "shamrock," "leprechaun," "Ireland," "green," etc. and ask your team to print them out on a 5x5 bingo card template.
Have your team members bring their bingo cards to this virtual event and select one person to be the "caller," who will read out the list of words and phrases for the players to match on their bingo cards. As the caller reads, the players will mark the corresponding words or phrases on their bingo cards. The first player to get a "bingo" (five words or phrases in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) wins the game.
St. Patrick's day bingo is great for relationship building and getting to know each other. It also encourages friendly competition and a lot of laughs.
9. Fairy Tale Match-Up
Fairy Tale Match-up is a game where you match pairs of fairy tale characters or items with each other. To make this a St. Patrick's day themed virtual team building activity, divide your team into smaller groups and have each group select an Irish fairy tale of their choice such as “The Children of Lir” or “The Giant’s Causeway".
Once they have a story selected, have each group create a presentation that details the characters of their chosen fairy tale without naming the character. Encourage them to get creative and have fun with their presentations, as the goal is to be as engaging and entertaining as possible. For example, if someone chose “The Children of Lir” as their story, they could assign one of the virtual avatars to represent King Lir, another for his daughter Fionnuala, and so on.
As the groups are giving their presentations, the rest of the teams should take turns guessing which character is being described. At the end of the activity, the group that got the most correct guesses for their presentation wins the game! This virtual activity is great for teams because it allows them to work together while having some fun learning something new about Irish folklore.
10. Craic Contest
"Craic" (pronounced "crack") is a term used in Irish culture to describe good times and fun and is often associated with social and musical activities. For this Craic contest your team will come up with an interesting and fun way of presenting on Irish history or culture, such as traditional Irish music, Gaelic language, famous Irish authors, or interesting facts about Ireland.
Divide your team up into smaller groups and have them work together to create a 3-minute presentation to the rest of the team. Encourage them to be creative and incorporate things like Irish music, art, and literature. The presentations should be fun, engaging, and informative.
At the end of the event once all the presentations are complete, have each team member vote for their favorite presentation and the group that receives the most votes wins the game. A Craic contest is a great way to foster collaboration and creative thinking within your team as everyone learns about Irish culture and history.
11. Irish Idiom Challenge
The Irish Idiom Challenge is a team building activity that tests your team's knowledge of the English language – with a St. Patrick's day twist! This game involves guessing the meanings of Irish idioms or phrases.
To play the Irish idiom challenge, start by putting together a list of Irish idioms and phrases along with their meanings. Make sure the idioms and phrases you select are related to St. Patrick's day, such as “pinch of luck”, or “the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow”. Once you have the list, divide your team into smaller groups of 2 to 3 people. The first group will be given an Irish idiom or phrase and they must guess its meaning. If they are correct, they earn a point. If they are incorrect, the next group takes a turn.
The game continues until all idioms or phrases have been used. The group that guesses the most idioms correctly within a set amount of time (e.g. 5 minutes) is the winner! This activity is a great way to get your team's competitive juices flowing while they bond over their shared love for the English language and St. Patrick's day.
12. Quotes from Famous Irish People
Quotes from Famous Irish People is a fun and informative way to learn more about famous people who call Ireland their home. It's also an excellent opportunity for your team to discuss interesting facts, amusing anecdotes, and inspiring thoughts and words of wisdom from these famous figures.
Start by compiling a list of quotes from famous Irish people, such as James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde, and Eamon de Valera. Each team member is given a quote and they must guess who said it. If they are correct, they earn a point. If they are incorrect, the next person takes a turn. The person with the most correct quotes wins the game.
This virtual activity is a great way to encourage your team to engage in creative and intellectual discussions, as well as learn more about storied Irish culture. It's also a fun way for your team to bond as they share stories about their favorite quotes.
Conclusion
St. Patrick's day is a time to celebrate the history, culture, and people of Ireland, even if you can't be together in person. With these 12 virtual team-building ideas, your team will have plenty of activities to do on St. Patrick's day that are both fun and educational. Celebrating this special day with your virtual team will help foster camaraderie and strengthen relationships as you celebrate this storied holiday together.
Related Articles:
12 Main Types of Team Building Activities and Examples
11 Fun Team Building Activities to Improve Employee Engagement