Fourth of July might still look a little different this year but that doesn’t mean that we can’t still celebrate to the best of our abilities. While we can all still fire up our barbeques at home and watch fireworks from a distance, we still want to be able to interact with our friends and family this year. We wish we could all gather at the same house for the usual Fourth of July festivities, but if we can’t there are still some things we can do to celebrate. While it seems like this Fourth of July is going to be easier to navigate than last year’s, there still might be some precautions we have to take.
Knowing this, there are still fun Fourth of July activities that can be done virtually if you still aren’t feeling up for a small in-person gathering. You can still connect with your family members and enjoy a Fourth of July celebration just in a different way. We don’t have to cancel the celebrations even if meeting up might still be out of the question. Just read on to learn how you can throw a great virtual Fourth of July gathering.
Invite all of your virtual guests to create the best Fourth of July outfit for the virtual party. Once all costumes are on, each guest takes a turn modeling their outfit for the rest of the Zoom party members. When everyone has shown their outfits, votes can be counted by the number of claps an outfit receives or each person can vote for an outfit (other than their own) that they liked the most. The person with the most votes wins! You can still show off your Fourth of July garb to all your family and friends and maybe even win a little something with it!
We all love a good Fourth of July picnic and just because we can’t do one in person with all our family and friends doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be one. Organize a picnic basket swap before the Fourth of July and have each family member drop off a picnic basket at a participating member’s house filled with Fourth of July classic foods–burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon. Schedule a time when you will all gather around your computers and enjoy your picnic baskets together. You can all enjoy your picnics together. You may all be enjoying your meal separately, but you’ll truly be together.
Want to impress the family with your knowledge of the Fourth of July and America in general? Then host a round of trivia and charades over Zoom to show off how well you prepared for the celebration or studied in school. You can even take it a step further and play sparkler charades, where you draw out the guesses with the light from a sparkler. You can create teams based on your households and can keep track of which household scores the most points over the course of the game. The charades portion works well for the kids in the households and the trivia element can really get the adults going on how much they really know about the country they live in. Nothing like a little family competition to celebrate the Fourth of July, right?
Zoom has become our friend over the last year, and I’m sure we’ve all had at least one bizarre Zoom party. This Fourth of July, why not add a virtual hot dog design contest to that list of bizarre parties. Each person in their respective homes all start with a hot dog. They then have one minute to find five ingredients that they want to dress their hot dog up with. Then they have one more minute to design the most elaborate of hot dogs. Once time is up, everyone presents their hot dog and a determined judge, maybe grandma or grandpa, will pick the winner. The hot dogs can be judged based on creativity as well as their combination of ingredients. Then everyone can enjoy their Fourth of July creations after judging!
Virtual movie nights have become a staple family event over the course of the pandemic. To celebrate the Fourth of July, you can host a patriotic family movie night that everyone can participate in. Many streaming sites now let you have watch parties where you can watch the same movie at the same time while chatting with those you’re watching with. Plan to watch movies that scream Fourth of July like The Patriot, Captain America, The Sandlot, and even Independence Day. You can simply watch the movies on your computers or set up a makeshift projector to watch each of your favorite Patriotic movies. There are tons of movies that you can watch with the kids and after the fireworks when the kids have gone to bed.
The Fourth of July wouldn’t be complete without watching some fireworks at the end of the night. Aside from the food, they’re pretty much the staple of the whole celebration. Whether there will be fireworks you can watch from the comfort of your backyard or whether you’ll have to stream some online, you can watch fireworks with the family you live with or those you can’t be with over Zoom. There are plenty of companies that will broadcast their firework displays and you can tune into one of those streams to round out the night. Just because we may not be able to be with all the people that we want to this Fourth of July, doesn’t mean that the celebration can’t go on!
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