If you're sheltering in place, it's easy to miss normal life — especially if it means missing out on IRL celebrations.
While it's hard not to see friends and family in person, you can still find ways to make virtual celebrations creative and memorable. Here are 13 things to try:
1. Call people in individual time slots.
2. Use Zoom backgrounds to your advantage.
Now you can create a virtual dinner party at home with our downloadable Zoom backgrounds. Order delivery, crank up our Spotify playlist, put up the virtual background, and you’ll be dining out at home in no time! Download and learn more here: https://t.co/uXJ1dE8XL7
If you have a bar or restaurant you couldn't wait to celebrate your birthday or graduation in, it can feel sad to have to do it in your living room. But customizing your background can at least lighten things up, especially if you pick said place as your background. You can even do a virtual bar crawl to all your favorite spots by switching backgrounds every hour.
3. Or do the same with filters.
my boss turned herself into a potato on our Microsoft teams meeting and can’t figure out how to turn the setting off, so she was just stuck like this the entire meeting
No matter what video platform you're using, there are a ton of filters available for use — some practical, some wacky, some (like the potato) now infamous. At the very least, filters can break the ice in a great way. Here's a quick explainer on how to find and use them.
4. Add a PowerPoint to the mix.
Last night my friends threw a PowerPoint party on Zoom where everyone had to prepare a 3 minute lecture; the theme was “quarantine & slowly going insane” I went 6 minutes over time, but I won best presentation for the fourth time in a row
Zoom and Google Hangouts are great for screen sharing. And you can definitely use either one to your advantage, whether that's creating a PowerPoint in honor of someone's birthday or nuptials, or challenging everyone to contribute one slide to it — and then presenting to the group.
5. Show and tell.
ˢʰʰʰʰ... 𝕚𝕥’𝕤 𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕨𝕥𝕚𝕞𝕖 🎥🍿 i moved my theater to the beach and i really like how cozy it came out ♡ #acnh #animalcrossing
If a whole presentation feels too involved, ask everyone to quickly share something small — their favorite TikTok or Spotify playlist, the most random object in the room they're in, the best show they've seen lately, or their proudest Animal Crossing accomplishment.
6. Dance it out!
7. Attend a virtual brunch (or fancy dinner).
got my birthday brunch after all, even if all it involved was my friends in the neighborhood picking up tacos from the same place around the same time and going home to eat them on a zoom call ✨
Even if you can't toast in person, you can at least see one another while you sip mimosas. You can get creative with ordering from the same spot, cooking similar things, or simply sharing a meal on camera as you would in real life.
8. Watch your favorite fun movie or show together.
9. Organize a lineup of performances.
10. Karaoke to your heart's content.
11. Take an online class together.
When you miss your friends/workout buddies so you Group FaceTime and do an online class together 😂 #EAT @DCGStrength
Bring your friends to a virtual paint class, cooking class, workout class, improv class — the options are pretty endless!
12. Host a game tournament.
13. Find the virtual event you want to go to, and make your friends come with.
