As mentioned in our previous post, we recently found ourselves with a Saturday night free of plans, a group of girls and a crummy weather day and decided to get creative with our Girl's Night In. Though we keep calling it a "Girl's Night In" because for us, it was, these ideas + plans for how to spend a night in are equally as enjoyed with any group of people. We'll outline some ideas below for what to do when you find yourself with a desire for fun but not the same desire to leave the house.
Let's Get Started With the Essentials
For any good day/night in you'll need the following:
- Stretchy Clothes
- Naturally, we opted for sweat pants and leggings/big t-shirt vibe
- Good Company
- Try to surround yourself with your down-for-anything, good-energy-always, heart-to-heart best friends
- Comfort Food
- Personally, after a rainy day in the city eating dim sum, we decided to continue the trend of warm, Asian cuisine with hibachi + sushi takeout
- Something Refreshing
- Pick your poison here - we had an assorted collection of wines + extracurriculars to choose from and it certainly added to the fun + looseness of the evening
Ideas for the Evening
A non-exhaustive list of how you might find yourself spending the evening with ideas tailored toward mid-20's fun. We recommend having somewhat of a game plan but leaving the night structurally free enough to adapt to the mood + ebbs and flows of energy levels throughout the evening. Consider what may or may not need advanced planning:
1. Niche Power Point Presentations
Arguably one of the most fun things that we've ever done as a friend group. The idea is simple, each person puts together a presentation on something extremely niche for the group's entertainment and then takes turns presenting. You can do this one with or without advanced preparation. Because our boat plans for the day were rained out, we had not been able to plan ahead for our power points and instead set a timer and gave everyone a set amount of time to work on their presentations and then took turns presenting to one another afterwards. It ended up being the highlight of everyone's day and truly resulted in some of the hardest laughs we've felt in awhile - could not recommend this more. The ideas for topics are endless for this and a simple search on TikTok will be sure to get your creative juices flowing but for starters, our group presented on:
- "How to Dress For Your Undertones"
- "What I Would Do with My Life if Money Wasn't a Factor"
- "Predicting My Friends' Futures & The Scandals That Will Get Them Cancelled"
- "How Our Exes Would Die In a Zombie Apocalypse"
2. Karaoke
When in doubt, sing it out (or something like that). A little liquid courage certainly helps to warm up those vocal chords but with modern technology making it all-too-easy to look up karaoke renditions of your favorite songs on YouTube, it would be a missed opportunity not to belt it out with friends. No advanced planning needed.
3. Play a Game
OK nothing revolutionary here but sometimes playing a game can elicit the most fun imaginable. As an added bonus, no advanced planning is needed unless you don't own any games in which case you can still likely get away with this day of with a quick stop at your local Target or Walmart. Some favorite games to play of ours for bonding + having a heartfelt laugh are:
- Telestrations
- Exploding Kittens
- Googly Eyes
- the Game of Life
- Apples to Apples / Cards Against Humanity
- Incohearant
- Codenames
4. Tinder or Omegle Projection
What better way to bond with your friends than over other peoples' weirdness. Again, modern technology makes it all too easy to screencast your phone or hook up your laptop to project a single friend's tinder matches for Love-Island-style-inspired-group-voting on their next romantic interest. Likewise, taking a trip down memory lane to get collectively traumatized from an Omegle experience is more fun than it sounds and lends itself well when there aren't any single friends in the group. No advanced planning needed.
5. Cameo Exchange
This one will take some, but not much advanced planning. Align on a budget with your friends and set a date that you'll need the videos by and then use Secret Santa style selection of gifting to dictate who each friend will be buying a Cameo for. For those that don't know, Cameo is a platform where you can buy video messages from your favorite D+ List celebrities and reality tv stars via simple instructions. It can result in some of the silliest and most memorable messages. We bought a $15 video message for a friend from their favorite Love Island contestant last year to troll them when they didn't win their fantasy football league and it's still one of our favorite memories together.
6. They're Perfect in Every Way But...
A simple conversation topic that we came across from the Impossible to Say podcast and have been enjoying playing ever since. The concept is simple - come up with outlandish or niche potential deal breakers and present it to your friends with a dilemma: "They're Perfect in Every Way but..... *insert red flag here*" (for example, they're perfect in every way but they can only ever stand up while they're eating). This then opens up the conversation to discuss whether this would be a deal breaker (absolutely NOT), a red flag, or a green flag/full send. It becomes incredibly interesting to see what deal breakers and green flags are for your friends and it easily provokes deep discussion (in the same example, one could argue that if they're truly perfect then this is surely a flaw you could move past, while another might argue that this would include EVERY time they eat - every restaurant, at your wedding, on airplanes and would get real old, real quickly). No advanced planning needed.
7. They're a 6 But They...
Extremely similar to the above, we actually first came across this conversation game from the aforementioned podcast's Facebook group. Though the concept is similar, it's slightly different. Present a dating stipulation to your group and an according number of attraction on a scale from 1 to 10 (for example, they're a 5 but they always hold open doors for you) and discuss what this would alter their attraction scale to (in the same example, someone might argue that this kicks them up to a 7). It can go either way - a low scale number plus a seemingly positive stipulation or a high scale number plus a seemingly negative stipulation. It's a great way to pick your friends' brains and engage in stimulating conversation. No advanced planning needed.
8. Hot Seat
Set a timer and take turns asking each person questions to get to know them better - anything is on the table and rapid fire is appreciated. You can really get raw + emotional deep diving into each other's psyche and best of all, no advanced planning needed.
9. Themed Food/Drinks
Choose a theme for the night and have everyone prepare a food or drink that matches the theme. You can get real creative here and it's so fun to see everyone's creativity set free. Some preparation is of course needed for ingredients and supplies but otherwise it's an easy addition to any hang out. The options for themes are endless and a quick Google or TikTok search will surely inspire but some ideas to kick it off are:
- Holiday
- Season
- Countries
- TV Show Inspired
- Cities
- Star Signs
- Drinks Inspired By Each Person
- Celebrity Cocktails
10. Murder Mystery
Murder Mysteries are one of our favorite ways to have fun at home. You can easily purchase a murder mystery kit from most department stores or Amazon or you can find a downloadable version online. Each person chooses their character and comes dressed in costume and then takes turns reading from their script and trying to decide WhoDunIt. This does require a bit more preparation than other items on this list but the pay off is worth it.
11. Jackbox
Jackbox is a virtual gaming company accessible from most digital platforms and which uses jackbox.tv (accessible from most devices) as the controller. There are a range of party packs and games that you can play, like Quiplash and Fakin' It. No advanced preparation besides access to the internet and a digital platform (such as Amazon Fire Stick).
12. Wii / Video Games
On a similar stride as Jackbox, there's nothing that a classic Wii night can't fix (or any gaming platform for that matter). Some favorite games that provokes fun for the whole group is of course the classic sports competition with Wii Sports, Mario Party 8 and "drunk driving" Mario Kart whilst intoxicated. No advanced preparation needed aside from setting up the video game.
13. Paint + Sip
Follow along with a Bob Ross Painting Video or use your own creativity to create masterpieces with your friends. We recently designed an entire 60x80 canvas art work using paint + spackle and it's now the main artwork in our space, which is pretty impressive when you consider that we don't have a lick of artistic talent. Art supplies + setting up your space will need to be planned in advance but can easily be done day of with a last minute trip to your local craft or home supply store.
14. Virtual Cooking Class
You'll likely need to book this one in advance through Airbnb Experiences,, Cuiline, Team Class, Cozy Meal or other online cooking platforms, unless you decide to use YouTube videos as your guide, and even so you'll need to have all ingredients needed on hand but what better way to bond than through food!
15. Drinking / Confession Games
One of the most classic ways to let loose with friends, it goes without saying that bonding through shared experiences while drunk is an easy way to create lasting memories (or the lack thereof). For those that are sober or choose not to drink, most any drinking game can be adapted to share a confession instead of taking a drink/shot and the preparation needed only boils down to the game you're playing and the drinks you're having (if any). Some favorite drinking games to consider:
16. Spa Night
Grab your favorite face mask, ice roller, robe, and candle and settle into your zen with your friends. Bonus points if there's a nearby hot tub or sauna that you can unwind in. Minimal preparation needed aside from ensuring you have whatever spa supplies you plan to use.
17. Coke / Pepsi Challenge
It shouldn't be as much fun as it is but somehow trying to guess the brand of various cola assortments can be a blast. Simply buy a couple of different soda options (we used Pepsi Zero Sugar, Coca Cola, Diet Coke, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi) and try to guess which one is which. It's almost impossible and you'll find that even those that claim to be Pepsi or Coca Cola loyalists may get it wrong). The only preparation needed is to gather post its / something to write with, the soda + cups!
18. Headbands / Heads Up / Charades
All the same concept of rapid-action guessing game. You can play the free version of Heads Up via the app store making this an easy no-prep needed night and a sure way to get the energy up + people off their feet.
19. Trivia Night
There are dozens of ways you can go about this one from Guess-That-Song on YouTube to replaying old Family Feud or Jeopardy episodes and playing along. You can buy or search for different trivia sets that appeal to your group and be amazed at who of your friends know which strange + random facts, or are at least good at guessing.
20. Photo Shoot
While we're not typically big fans of forcing pictures inorganically, we believe there's a certain physiological effect that happens when a group of friends tries to self time pictures together that results in uncontrollable laughter and memories to last longer than they probably should (and of course the pictures to go with them). We personally love to set the camera up on a 10 second self timer that is set to automatically take 10 pictures - guaranteed laughter and chaos. Bonus points for any sort of dressing up or wigs involved.
21. Movie Night
When in doubt, grab a bowl of your favorite popcorn, some blankets and watch a favorite film or rent a new movie you've been dying to see. You can really make a night of it by setting up a projector screen or an outdoor movie set up.
Enjoy your next night/day-in and be sure to tag us in pictures of how you spent your time! Will update with any additional ideas from readers so don't forget to use the contact form or comment with your favorite adult activities for an at-home-outing.