Lockdown Party Night Ideas! Lets have them people!

[Ihaveyourback]

I am not going down without a fight! If we have to do lockdown we are going to do it well so god help me.

During the last lockdown I could not summon the energy for any kind of fun night, I was way to stressed, depressed and exhausted. I could not sleep and was booking shopping slots at 3am etc - we all were. I remember distinctly feeling very envious of those that managed to pull of fun party nights at home on Saturday evenings - and would love your ideas of what I can do with teen dc? I have decided that the next three weeks are going to be party central here with or without my SAD and MH compression.

This lockdown needs planned fun to keep everyone cheerful, daily exercise is a must and this lockdown is going to be even better than the last. I am afraid with the dark nights, it could get very bleak so I intend to counter that with fairy lights, non alcoholic cocktails week nights and some fun and partying on Friday and Saturday evenings!

Thank you for any ideas that worked well last time that can be converted into the winter months please.

YABU

Apologies for the shocking number of typos, using phone!

Netflix of course.......kind of goes without saying

Having a posh 3 course dinner cooked by the fam for my birthday Saturday night....everyone getting dressed up etc.

Christmas decs going up last weekend in November.

We did a Come Dine with Me week in last lockdown....hysterical and all got quite heated

Dare I say the return of the zoom quizzes!

Get the kids involved with cooking - a Come Dine with Me variety of evenings where one cooks and plans entertainment for the evening.

Lots of bracing long walks, by water if possible. Food in the slow cooker so when y out get home you can tuck in to lovely food with minimal effort then snuggle down for the night.

Zoom evenings with friends families - possibly quiz nights if that’s your thing.

We did some quite a few Skype chats / online escape rooms. We also do a weekly quiz with friends as well.
Obviously FaceTime chats with drink were a given.

Maybe not the zoom quizzes but definitely try and 'book' a few mates for a night in together. Everyone cracks open the wine and has the same 80s music channel on in the background. Works for me and my mates because we are still sitting around talking with the occasional I LOVE THIS TUNE and no toilet ques so it was like pub nights. Obvs not every night.

We played cards with ds1 and his partner

It didnt go that well...but thats mainly because the partner is a bit crap with the suits

But it was still fun

YANBU Op! Too many people reading the title and jumping to the wrong conclusion...

I started a thread at the beginning of October outlining my plans to make my house extra homely this year by having winter decorations from 1st November, little did I know then..

I've got snuggly red throws, denim blue cushions with some fluffy white ones plus a couple of blue denim pouffes which are great for putting your feet up.
I've got lots of white fairy lights and am making use of all the scented candles and tealight holders I've amassed over the years. I've found some winter themed pot pourri that I've put in a clear square vase.
I've got some stems of fake red berries and some dried Sea holly in a metalic ombre vase, it's feeling cosy.

I was going to put our tree up on the 1st December but we've decided to do it a few days earlier on the last weekend in November instead.

I'm going to make sure that we have a naughty dinner at the weekend, probably something cheap and cheerful like macaroni cheese and garlic bread or a proper pudding like apple crumble and custard. The idea is that everyone gets to choose something they love for each part of the meal.

We have been watching Benidorm on Netflix which has been surprisingly therapeutic...

Dd has got a Nintendo Switch but we've also dragged out the Wii and the GameCube which has been enjoyable. Also planning on getting Monopoly out at some point and we have a 500 piece jigsaw out that we're all doing a bit of every now and again.
I'm also thinking of leaving the chess board set up with a pad of paper saying which colour moved where last.

I was also having a text conversation with my lovely next door neighbour whilst we were waiting for Boris to get his arse in gear on Saturday, which has given us the idea to carry it over to watching a TV show or film at the same time and commenting on it!

There is no right or wrong way to get through this bu get through it we will!!!

*but

I can't understand why it is 81% YABU?! I think having some fun party ideas ready to go is a great plan! Me and DP are using this lockdown as a good excuse to loose some weight, I was pg/ had a newborn during the first one so not the best time for starting C25k 😂

We had Skype darts competitions and will do again. Not much help if you don’t play darts though

Our local church put up a chalkboard so people can leave messages for the community. Can you do something similar with family/neighbours?
For walks maybe see if neighbours will partake in a Christmas window decoration game to cheer up the winter lockdown

We did come dine with me (twice 😳), set up a family band, 'family band' is now family shorthand for 'stuff 16 year olds hate' 😂. Tried fancy recipes, made pizza and lots of cake, and we bbq'd.

Dh and ds watched football over zoom with the grandparents.

This time round there are plans for marshmallows and toast over the open fire, DD wants to sand and paint her bureau desk and there will be a lot more school! And hoping Ds gets back to guitar playing, he was really improving but can't be bothered when there's other stuff going on.

We have been watching Benidorm on Netflix which has been surprisingly therapeutic

Thats what dh wants to do

Do the tiktoc videos etc. great craic to look back at now, just sorry we didn't do a few more of them. Just set your selves a challenge of 1 a week and see how it goes.

@DynamoKev Can you explain why you think the OP is being unreasonable to try and arrange some fun nights for her household during lockdown? Are you really saying she she endure it in misery with no attempt at fun?

@DynamoKev

Why? Is she not allowed to ask for help in planning fun family nights since they wont be able to anything else?

The hard of reading are getting the wrong end of the stick. Op means a stay at home party with her household.

I bet some of the YABU votes are from people who only read the thread title and not what Op said. They are assuming she means she's going to party before lockdown starts.

Zoom quizzes, date nights (basically ate tea without the telly on lol), planned our daily walk to take in different routes and had an eye spy list (we like birdwatching so had a list of certain birds to see on our walk)... lots of baking, garden tidy/plan next years garden, themed film nights with popcorn... I can’t think of any more right now but if I do I’ll let you know!

@DynamoKev

YABU

Can you elaborate on why you think the OP is being unreasonable? Did you actually read the post?

Great idea for a thread!

@Ferrari458

I bet some of the YABU votes are from people who only read the thread title and not what Op said. They are assuming she means she's going to party before lockdown starts.

Thats my bet

Though to be fair i was looking at a thread the other day and posters seemed very annoyed that the OP had goals she was trying to attain while in lockdown...sooooooo

We will be having many games nights, we try to alternate between the switch and Mahjong/cards.

Movie nights with a nice cheese board, pate and bread plus snacks for the DC.

During the last lockdown we let the DC pick a country and tried to make an inspired three course meal.

Card games, we have dobble, next day deliver with Amazon, it's like snap but more fun.
Olympics night, plan some easy games that you make from normal household things. The floor is lava tig if your house allows. Make your own pizza night. Hide and seek. Fancy dress dinner, person with the most boring costume washes up.