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FAMILYISEVERYTHING
A 7-step guide to hosting a virtual family get-together during the lockdown
Elevate your milestone parties at home with these ideas
With strict self-isolation orders from the authorities and an invisible enemy, celebrating a milestone, such as a birthday or an anniversary, requires one to think out of the box. But a nationwide lockdown doesn't mean we can't have a little fun. After all, once you’ve planned, all you have to do is find a striking corner in your house to serve as the backdrop and get dressed from the waist up. To make things even simpler, we give you a few recommendations on how to add that extra dash of excitement to an upcoming celebration ahead.
Host a virtual gig
Our regular trips to the nearby family restaurant—dimly-lit, with great food and good music, courtesy live bands—may have been muted in quarantine, but there’s always a way to recreate a similar experience at home. Amp up your virtual get-together by inviting a band or a singer-songwriter on board. You can bring home fantastic high-energy music with Soulmate, the blues-rock band from Shillong; or sing along with our favourite singer-songwriter, Ankur Tewari. If you’re looking for something which leans towards the acoustic zone, go for Goa-based urban ecologist-musician, Ditty. Priced somewhere between Rs 10,000 to 60,000, hiring an artist for your virtual party not only sets the mood right but also helps support independent musicians, who are at home during the pandemic.
Create breakout rooms on Zoom
If you haven’t noticed this excellent feature on Zoom yet, breakout rooms allow you to split a video call into up to 50 separate groups. So, when you’re hosting a grand family celebration, your guests will be able to move around these rooms freely and feel like they’re at an actual house party. With this, they can socialise with multiple people in smaller virtual gatherings as the celebration progresses. Once everyone has mingled with most other people, feel free to dissolve the rooms and invite them all to join everyone—like on a regular Zoom call—for virtual drinks, friendly banter or maybe an engaging activity.
Pro tip: To give your guests the liberty to switch rooms themselves, make them the co-hosts of your call.
Organise a friendly bake-off
In the time of Coronavirus, our Instagram feeds have witnessed a major shift too—among many other trends, extravagant spreads of gourmet food have made way to versions of homemade banana bread and ice-creams. To best capture the spirit, why not organise a friendly bake-off with your long-distance family members? Decide on a few ingredients that are pantry staples for most households, and kick off the virtual battle. Since you can’t exchange dishes for an official tasting, the judgement could be based on technique, thought and what the final product looks like. Let your baker friend or relative hand all of you out the ingredients in advance.
Try online karaoke
Missing the days when Sunday get-togethers meant some wine and karaoke with your folks? Relive those moments when you host a milestone celebration this time. Consider Smule, an app that allows you to sing and dance to your favourite music, all in the company of your guests. Sing with an artist, invite your friends to join in, and do much more on this social singing platform. Alternatively, if it’s a small crowd that you’re hosting, ask each of the participants to play a backing track at their home and sing along.
Plan a birthday housie
Unlike your standard game of housie, this one takes an interesting turn. Along with numbers, make tickets that have words written on them—each of them related to the one whose birthday you’re set to celebrate. Send pictures of them to every participant.
To start, ask a question. For example, “What’s Sam’s favourite movie?” If a participant has the word Clueless written on their ticket, and they believe it’s the correct answer, they scratch it off. The same goes on for the rest of the game. Once a person calls a prize, you cross-check their answers with the numbers written alongside each of their scratched-off words, as well as beside each of your questions.
Host a kid-friendly party
If you’re playing host to a party for your child, invite a magician online who will entertain your tiny guests; or opt for a PG-rated comedian who will crack them up. You can also consider planning a Netflix Party for the young ones, where they watch Brian Regan’s Nunchucks and Flamethrowers (for children aged seven and above). As per the official description, he “takes relatable family humour to new heights as he talks board games…” in his one-hour special. In case your crowd is more creative and artsy, bookmark an easy-to-follow and engaging craft activity from 5-Minute Crafts PLAY on YouTube, and invite your guests to participate. Make sure you let them know the material they need in advance. Additionally, some colourful Zoom backdrops would only add to the excitement of living out your party theme.
Get a virtual party planner
If all this looks like a lot of work to do by yourself, get a little help from party planners like The Drama Queen and Colour Pop Decor, who organise everything from virtual movie nights to wine tastings for adults as well as theme parties and an online scavenger hunt for the kids.
Also read:
How to host a virtual dinner with friends
