Much of the world is practicing social distancing and many of us haven’t seen our friends or family in person for multiple weeks. For me personally, it’s been truly hard not to eat out at a restaurant, or eat with friends, whether out at a restaurant or in our home.
I thought it’d be helpful to give a rundown of how you could host a virtual dinner party and make things fun during these dark times!
The Essentials of a Virtual Dinner Party
Before you even start “inviting” anyone, you have to nail down these four basics (and don’t worry, I’ll go into detail on each one):
Table of Contents
- How will you connect? (Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, Houseparty, etc)?
- How will you decorate your dining table/dining area?
- What are you and your guests going to cook, eat and drink?
- Will you play any activities? If so, which ones?
What Communication Tool Will Your Virtual Dinner Party Rely On?
Now, this is probably the single most important component of your virtual dinner party. You need to determine what tool everyone has access to and which will provide the best experience for you all.
- Zoom: I personally like Zoom because it provides extremely clear video and audio. I have the pro account which lets you host an event for as long as you want. You can also play pictionary using the whiteboard mode, when you share your screen, which is fun. Their free plan, however, only lets you create a 40-minute meeting. You can also use fun virtual backgrounds – there are lots to choose from like this from Canva and this from West Elm.
- Google Hangouts: Google hangouts is pretty versatile and is free. I like it because I can access it from my laptop. It’s not quite as good as Zoom, from an audio or video perspective, but it’s an excellent and free option.
- Facetime: I think this is a really good option if everyone has an iPad, an Apple TV or Mac computer/laptop. It’s not a great option if you can only use your phone because of the tiny screen.
- Skype: Skype is pretty solid and reminds me a lot of Google hangouts. It’s a great option and it’s easy to force everyone to sign up for an account if they do not have one.
- Houseparty: Ehh, I think this is one of the weaker communication tools. The games you can play are really fun but its video and audio quality are horrendous.
Virtual Dinner Party Decoration Tips
Normally, decorating for a dinner party for me means cleaning the heck out of our small apartment, buying fresh flowers and lighting a candle or two. Now, I think this you should definitely still do the above, but you may want to consider doing the additional things to make your dinner party feel super special.
- Consider buying a fresh bouquet of flowers from a local florist and getting them delivered.
- Play jazz music or something equally classy.
- Break out your fancy cutlery and plates.
- Get your cloth napkins and table runners out.
- Sick of eating in the living room? Consider eating on your patio, laying a blanket out on the floor, or eating in your fancy dining room that never gets used.
- Buy a really fancy candle or diffusers.
- Got fairy lights? Why not hang them up.
You can get ideas of what to buy in my Amazon store.
What to Eat and Drink During Your Virtual Dinner
I would recommend making fairly easy meals and drinks that anyone can make. Yes, maybe you and another couple friend are great chefs, but what about your friends who don’t even know what julienning means?
These recommendations will work for any cooking ability:
Delicious meals:
- Cauliflower hash (if you eat meat, it’s so delicious with chopped bacon and sausage)
- Avocado pesto with zucchini noodles
- Kitchen sink cauliflower rice (literally works with ANY additional veggies or meats)
- Creamy vegan lentil curry
- Healthy fudge brownies (make a few hours ahead of time)
Tasty, easy drinks:
- Watermelon mint juice (four ingredients, one of which is ice)
- Raspberry mint spritzer (non-alcoholic)
- Grapefruit margarita (freaking foolproof)
Fun Games and Activities to Play Virtually
There are a surprising amount of fun activities that you can easily do virtually. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how fun virtual pictionary is. Here’s a roundup of ideas that should suit most people:
- Pictionary 🙂 Ensure everyone has a link to a pictionary generator and take turns drawing terrible virtual pictures.
- Watch a movie together. You can use an app like Netflix party which will synchronize your video and it also has a group chat function.
- Pub quiz. Simply assign someone to create fun trivia questions and go!
- Online multiplayer games. Most consoles will have games that allow you to play with others.
- Monopoly. Yep, you can play monopoly online but you do need to create an account.
I hope this guide to virtual dinner parties is, and will prove, useful to you and your loved ones! I know times are tough but we will prevail and normalcy will be back again. Until then, stay safe and well, my friends.
Honestly yours,
Alice
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