Throw the Best, Most memorable St. Patricks Day Party Ever!

St. Patricks Day party ideas

Everyone becomes Irish on March 17th, as this lively, fun Irish St Patrick's Day holiday is one of the most celebrated days in the party calendar, regardless of whether you have any Irish in you or not!

For over 1,000 years, the Irish have celebrated the life of the good St Patrick, who is their Irish patron saint, as he is credited with bringing Christianity to the Ireland shores back in the day, and even accredited for by driving around evil snakes!

St Patrick’s Day on March 17th observes the day Patrick died, and this memorable day is now celebrated as a holiday all over the world. The infamous green shamrock is symbolic of the Holy Trinity and directly closely associated with St Patrick’s Day.

And so eating, drinking, dancing, socialising, and partying is what’s on the menu for a classic traditional Irish St Patrick Day’s party, complete with a shamrock!

So, to help you raise a glass to the patron saint of Eire and to get you in the perfect party mood, we’ve come up with some great St. Patrick’s Day party ideas which will make you extremely popular with your friends and family (and that'll make them go green with envy). Your St Patrick's Day celebrations will hopefully earn you some luck of the Irish, especially if you can’t find a leprechaun, a four-leaf clover, a shamrock, or any corned beef or delicious Irish soda bread!

St Patrick Day Party Decorations

No St Patrick’s Day party, Irish or not, can go ahead without decorations (or corned beef and cabbage!). You’ve got so much fun with die-cut shamrocks to more classic table decorations, hanging home decorations, and St Patrick’s Day banners. So, to really get your St Patrick's Day going, you’ll need some incredibly festive decorations, delicious Irish recipes, and fun. But no party can start without a proper invite – what about a shamrock or a clover-shaped one in green and edged with cream and gold to get all your guests into the party -mode? You can make your own invitations and decorations to get you in a sweet mood. St Patrick’s Day parties must have the best party centerpieces, banners, bunting, candles, garlands of flowers, and flags should all have a bit of the Irish magic – lots of green and a pot o gold, which you can add to the table decor. And endless cut-outs of clovers, shamrocks, rainbows, leprechauns, gold coins are just for starters. Vast bunches of green, cream, gold balloons, shamrock confetti, green tableware, white and green pom-poms can be placed strategically around your rooms.

St Patricks Day Costumes

Lots of people love to get personalised t-shirts printed, so they’re not just in fancy-dress but a St Patrick’s day memory of the excellent pub crawl or party they attended! What about having a fancy-dress competition with fabulous prizes for the winners – as long as it’s more than a potato or a pint of beer or Guinness! Give your guests plenty of time to prepare in advance so, when you send out your party invitation, state clearly that their Irish fancy dress is part of a competition. It’ll be a pretty boring party if everyone just wears green clothes, so perhaps make some suggestions as to what they can come dressed as – leprechauns and shamrocks are always extremely popular. But, it’s also an opportunity for those who love to dress up in glamourous dresses and sweet sparkly tops as the colours of gold and green are fabulous party colours regardless of the Irish party theme and help to make the evening more memorable. Green make-up, nails, the hair even are going to be part of the Irish costume get-up! Guinness logo t-shirts are probably going to be part of the guest list, too, so don’t be surprised or disappointed… And what about rolling out a green carpet – instead of a red one, so that when your guests arrive, they’ll enter on the themed carpet and can be seen by everyone else strutting their stuff in their best Irish kit – including kilts (no peeping). You could even have a photo booth – or just someone with a camera taking pictures as people arrive in their sweet costumes so you can pin up the right photos for the judges to look at and decide on the winner!

Irish Stew & Corned Beef and Cabbage

The best Irish feasts wouldn’t be quite right without traditional Irish grub and could include corned beef and cabbage, soda bread and classic Irish stews (the secret ingredient is chocolate), mashed potatoes with cheese, Irish apple cake, colcannon (creamy mash and kale), a beef and Guinness pie, potato, cheese and leek soup, soda bread pudding, potato and parsnip mash, Irish coffee cake, winter squash and lentil stew (don’t forget the cheese) – need we go on…? You can find traditional Irish recipes and other party food ideas information online, so for delicious traditional Irish food, have a look. You see – not every dish and recipe you like has to be green!

Potato Dishes Will Be Needed

And, don’t forget, the Irish love a good potato recipe - so think potato dip, sweet potatoes, cream, cheese (even cheddar) potatoes, bacon, mashed potatoes, even corned beef pie - whatever potato recipes you like - any food with potatoes is going to be popular, as well as easy to make. It's the same with bread - and we're not just talking about any bread recipe - the Irish love having bread as an accessory to their food - Irish soda bread is the order of the day to dip those delicious Irish stews’ juices in. So, serve up the perfect Irish dish (don't forget the bread - Irish soda bread) for everyone to enjoy – just don’t forget the sweet cake as they’re always popular for those with a sweet tooth, and especially if there's cream involved. Desserts are also popular at any party, but at your event, cheesecakes, chocolate cakes, jelly, and ice cream – literally, anything that has cream in is going to clinch it!

Drink To The Luck of the Irish

Drinks. Well, the Irish do love a drink, so you’re spoilt for choice, so now’s the time to use your imagination. Okay – so, you’re not so keen on the thick, dark brown Guinness (or potatoes, for that matter).  But, there are plenty of other drinks which can go down just as quickly on the day and yet can still keep to the good old Irish theme and which will still make you famous. What about Irish whiskey, rum, or vodka cocktails? Green jello shots? You can have great fun making up good ideas about which drink to serve – it doesn’t just have to be beer. Again, look online for further information about which dish, traditional food, or drink which goes down well at this popular party time.

St Patrick's Day Games

There’s nothing like a lot of traditional party game ideas with an Irish theme to get you all in a good mood. Good old St Patrick’s Day bingo, scavenger hunts, lucky dips, quizzes, and dance-offs (ever heard of the Irish jig?) are just some of the games you can play. Poker with gold coins instead of real money? Charades? Whodunnit?

St Patrick’s Day Party Music

Whether you have your party in the evening or as a day party, no good celebration will be complete without an Irish themed music playlist. The Irish love music with a jig, so make sure you have some beats with a bit of a rhythm. No, you can’t get away without playing some of Ireland’s homegrown bands – U2, Boyzone, Van Morrison… The Dubliners’ song ‘Molly Malone’ is the party anthem, and no good St Patrick’s party can miss out on this number one! Thin Lizzy, The Pogues, The Cranberries, The Chieftains, and of course Sinead O’Connor are a handful of pure Irish for you to add to your Irish music playlist for you to either sing to, chat to, or dance the night away. With these fantastic Irish bands for starters, your party will be the one St Patrick’s Day party everyone remembers fondly. There’s nothing the Irish love more than ending the evening with a good old sing-song, and there’s plenty of well-known Gaelic songs you can find to get everyone blasting out to get the evening to finish on a good note! So, for a great St Patrick’s Day party which won’t be forgotten in a hurry, start planning your event of the year now… s.