• 30 games
  • Checked October 2026

St Patrick's Day Party Games

Gold coin, rainbow, shamrock and green games for a party at home or at work, none with alcohol.

St Patrick's Day Party Games

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  1. Drop a Coin Into the Sunken Glass1. Stand a small glass on the bottom of a bucket and fill the bucket with water to a hand's width from the top.2. Each player in turn holds a coin just above the water, over where the glass seems to be, and lets it go.3. A coin that lands in the glass scores a point, and few do.4. Each player gets five drops. Set the bucket on a towel.Players: 2 to 20. You need: a bucket of water, a small glass, a towel and five coins.
  2. Coins Into the Pot From Three Lines1. Stand a pot on the floor and mark three lines with tape, two, three and four steps away.2. Each player gets six coins and may throw from any line.3. A coin that stays in the pot scores one point from the near line, two from the middle and three from the far one.4. Add up the six throws. A coin that bounces out scores nothing, so decide before the first throw whether a folded dish towel goes in the pot.Players: 2 to 20. You need: a pot, tape and six plastic or cardboard coins for each player.
  3. Green Things Memory Tray1. Put fifteen green things on a tray and cover it with a cloth: a lime, a leaf, a pencil, a sock, a button, a toy frog.2. Uncover the tray for thirty seconds while everyone looks without touching.3. Cover it again. Players have two minutes to write down all that they remember.4. Because everything is green, the color is no help in telling things apart. The longest correct list wins.Players: 2 to 20. You need: a tray, a cloth, fifteen green things, paper and pencils.

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Gold coin games 6

  • Coins Into the Pot From Three Lines 1. Stand a pot on the floor and mark three lines with tape, two, three and four steps away. 2. Each player gets six coins and may throw from any line. 3. A coin that stays in the pot scores one point from the near line, two from the middle and three from the far one. 4. Add up the six throws. A coin that bounces out scores nothing, so decide before the first throw whether a folded dish towel goes in the pot. Players: 2 to 20. You need: a pot, tape and six plastic or cardboard coins for each player.
  • Drop a Coin Into the Sunken Glass 1. Stand a small glass on the bottom of a bucket and fill the bucket with water to a hand's width from the top. 2. Each player in turn holds a coin just above the water, over where the glass seems to be, and lets it go. 3. A coin that lands in the glass scores a point, and few do. 4. Each player gets five drops. Set the bucket on a towel. Players: 2 to 20. You need: a bucket of water, a small glass, a towel and five coins.
  • The Oldest Coin on the Tray 1. The host puts twenty coins of one kind on a tray, heads up, and writes down the oldest year among them without saying it. 2. Each guest has twenty seconds at the tray, hands behind their back, to find the oldest coin by reading the dates. 3. Guests write down the year they think is the oldest. 4. Read out the answers. Everyone with the right year scores a point. Then turn every coin over and hunt for the newest. Players: 2 to 20. You need: a tray, twenty coins, paper and pencils.
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Gold coin games, continued

  • Thirty Coins Are Hidden: Hunt Until the Count Is Right 1. Before the party, hide exactly thirty gold coins around one room, and write the number on a card by the door. Paper or plastic coins work as well as real ones. 2. Guests hunt in pairs and drop what they find into a pot in the middle of the room. 3. The host counts the pot aloud every few minutes, so that everyone knows how many are still out. 4. The pair that brings in the thirtieth coin wins, however few it found before that. Players: 4 to 20. You need: thirty coins and a pot.
  • Three Pots, Lift and Rank 1. Fill three small pots or tins with different numbers of coins and cover each with a cloth. 2. Each guest lifts the three, one at a time, without shaking them or looking in. 3. Guests write down the pots in order, from the fewest coins to the most, and a guess at the number in the heaviest. 4. Uncover and count. A right order scores two points, and the closest number scores one. Players: 2 to 20. You need: three pots, three cloths, a pile of coins, paper and pencils.
  • You Split the Pot, I Choose 1. Players pair up, and each pair gets a heap of about forty mixed coins. 2. One player has ten seconds to split the heap into two piles that look equal, by eye and without counting. 3. The other player picks the pile they think holds more coins. 4. Count both piles. The chooser scores a point for picking the bigger pile, and the splitter scores if the piles are equal or the chooser took the smaller one. Swap jobs and play five rounds. Players: 2 to 20. You need: about forty mixed coins for each pair.

Rainbow games 6

  • A New Sentence for R, O, Y, G, B, I, V 1. The colors named for a rainbow run red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and people remember the order with a sentence whose words start with those seven letters. 2. Each player or pair has three minutes to write a new sentence of seven words that begin with R, O, Y, G, B, I and V, in that order. 3. It must make sense, more or less, and be about tonight's party. 4. Read them aloud. The table votes, and nobody may vote for their own. Players: 2 to 16. You need: paper and pencils.
  • Around the Rainbow: Name a Thing of the Next Color 1. Sit in a circle. The first player names something red, such as a fire truck. 2. The next player has three seconds to name something orange, the next something yellow, and on through green, blue, indigo and violet, then back to red. 3. Nothing may be named twice in the game. 4. A player who stalls, repeats or misses the color drops out. The last two players duel on indigo and violet alone. Players: 4 to 15. You need: nothing.
  • Cross the Room on the Colors in Order 1. Scatter sheets of colored paper across the floor, three or four of each rainbow color, and tape them down. 2. A player crosses the room stepping only on paper, and only in rainbow order: red, then orange, then yellow, and so on. After violet comes red again. 3. Time each crossing. A foot on the floor or on the wrong color adds five seconds. 4. The fastest crossing wins. Move a few sheets between players so that nobody learns the route. Players: 2 to 15. You need: colored paper, tape and a timer.
  • Roll a Streamer to the Pot 1. Stand a pot at the far end of a hallway or a long room. 2. Each player kneels at the start with a roll of paper streamer, holds the loose end and rolls the roll along the floor toward the pot. 3. The roll must stop by itself. Measure from where it stops to the pot. 4. The closest roll wins. A roll that hits the pot is out, because nobody ever quite reaches the end of the rainbow. Players: 2 to 15. You need: a pot, a tape measure and a roll of paper streamer for each player.
  • Seven Runners Build the Rainbow 1. For each team, put seven things in the seven colors of the rainbow in a jumbled pile at the far end of the room: socks, cups, ribbons, sheets of paper. 2. The first runner fetches the red one and lays it at the team's start line. 3. The next runner fetches orange, and so on in rainbow order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. 4. A runner who brings the wrong color takes it back. The first team with all seven in a row wins. Players: 4 to 21. You need: seven things in the seven colors for each team.
  • Six Ribbons Shown, Name the Missing Color 1. The host has seven ribbons, or strips of paper, in the seven rainbow colors. 2. Out of sight, the host takes one away and lays the other six on the table in a jumbled row. 3. The first player to call the missing color wins the round. A wrong call freezes that player until the next round. 4. Play again with two missing, then three. The host shuffles the row every time. Players: 3 to 15. You need: seven ribbons or paper strips in the rainbow colors.

Shamrock games 6

  • A Bag in Every Leaf 1. Mark a large shamrock on the floor with tape or chalk: three leaves, each big enough for a dinner plate, and a stem. 2. Each player throws three beanbags from four steps away. 3. One bag in each of the three leaves is a full shamrock and scores five points. Otherwise, score one for each leaf that holds a bag. 4. A bag on the stem scores nothing but earns one extra throw. Players: 2 to 20. You need: tape or chalk and three beanbags.
  • Find the Four-Leaf Clover, Then Hide It Again 1. Before the party, cut a few dozen paper shamrocks with three leaves and exactly one with four, and tape them up around the room as decoration. 2. Tell guests there is one four-leaf clover among them, and let the evening go on. 3. Whoever spots it says nothing, takes it down when nobody is looking and tapes it up somewhere new. 4. When the host rings a spoon on a glass, the last guest to have moved it wins, and proves it by pointing to where it is now. Players: 4 to 30. You need: paper shamrocks, one of them with four leaves, and tape.
  • Find the Other Two Leaves 1. Cut paper shamrocks into their three leaves. On the leaves of each one, write three things that belong together: knife, fork, spoon, or morning, noon, night. 2. Shuffle the leaves and hand one to each guest at the door. 3. Guests go around the room to find the two people who complete their set. 4. The first three to stand together with a whole shamrock win. Every trio stays together for the next game. Players: 6 to 30. You need: paper shamrocks cut into leaves, and a pen.
  • Shamrock Stickers on the Sly 1. Give every guest ten small shamrock stickers at the door. 2. The aim is to stick all ten on other guests, one at a time, without being noticed: on a sleeve, a shoulder, the back of a jacket. Clothes only. 3. A guest who catches someone in the act hands that person one of their own stickers to place. 4. The first guest to get rid of all ten wins. At the end of the night, the guest wearing the most gets a round of applause. Players: 6 to 30. You need: ten shamrock stickers for each guest.
  • Tear a Shamrock Behind Your Back 1. Give every player a sheet of green paper. 2. Players hold the sheet behind their back and have one minute to tear it into a shamrock: three leaves and a stem. No looking. 3. Lay the results on the table without names. 4. Everyone votes for the best shamrock and for the strangest. A fourth leaf torn by accident counts as luck and wins a tie. Players: 3 to 20. You need: a sheet of green paper for each player.
  • Three Leaves, Three Things in Common 1. Give each group of three a paper shamrock and a pen. 2. In four minutes, the three must find three things that all of them share and that cannot be seen: a food none of them will eat, a town all have visited, a job all have done. 3. Write one on each leaf, with no names. 4. The host collects the shamrocks and reads them out, and the other groups guess which trio each one belongs to. Players: 6 to 30. You need: a paper shamrock and a pen for each group of three.

Wear-the-green games 6

  • Green Paper Suit in Five Minutes 1. Split into teams of three or four. Each team gets a roll of green crepe paper, a sheet of gold paper and tape. 2. One teammate is the model. In five minutes, the others dress the model over their clothes: a hat, a bow tie, a belt with a gold buckle, whatever the paper allows. 3. The models walk one lap of the room. 4. The host judges on style, and on how much of the suit is left after the lap. Players: 6 to 24. You need: green crepe paper, gold paper and tape for each team.
  • The Greenest Guest: Three Ribbons by Ballot 1. On the invitation, ask guests to wear something green. 2. At the party, each guest counts the green things they have on, clothes and accessories only, and the highest count takes the first ribbon. 3. Everyone then votes on paper for two more ribbons: the best last-minute green and the green nobody else thought of. 4. The host reads the results and tapes a paper ribbon to each winner's sleeve. A guest in no green at all is handed a paper shamrock to wear. Players: 4 to 30. You need: paper, pencils, tape and three paper ribbons.
  • Mix the Host's Green From Blue and Yellow 1. Before the party, the host stirs blue and yellow food coloring into a glass of water and stands the glass on white paper. 2. Each team gets a glass of clear water, blue and yellow coloring and a spoon. 3. Teams add coloring a drop at a time to match the host's green. A drop cannot be taken back. 4. After four minutes, line the glasses up beside the host's. The players vote, and no team may vote for its own glass. Nobody drinks the water. Players: 4 to 20. You need: glasses of water, blue and yellow food coloring, spoons and white paper.
  • Say Green and Lose a Coin 1. Give every guest three paper or plastic gold coins at the door. 2. For the first hour, nobody may say the word green. 3. A guest who hears someone say it may claim one of that person's coins on the spot. Leading people into saying it is the whole game: what color is your shirt? 4. When the hour is up, the guest holding the most coins wins. The coins are counters. Nobody buys one or stakes anything. Players: 6 to 30. You need: three paper or plastic coins for each guest.
  • Seven Greens in Order 1. Collect seven paint sample cards or scraps of paper, from the palest green to the darkest, and number them on the back in that order. 2. Shuffle them and hand them to a team. 3. The team has one minute to lay them in a row from lightest to darkest, without looking at the backs. 4. Turn them over. Score one point for each card in its right place, then pass the set to the next team. Players: 2 to 20. You need: seven green paint sample cards or scraps of paper, numbered on the back.
  • Seventeen Pieces for the Seventeenth 1. St Patrick's Day falls on March 17, so each team gets a sheet of green card, a pencil and scissors. 2. In three minutes, cut the card into exactly seventeen pieces, of any shape. 3. Shuffle the pieces and swap them with another team. 4. The first team to rebuild the other team's sheet wins. A team that cuts seventeen thin strips finds out how unkind that was when the same is done to it. Players: 4 to 20. You need: a sheet of green card, a pencil and scissors for each team.

Table games 6

  • A Limerick From a Shared First Line 1. A limerick has five lines. Lines one, two and five are longer and rhyme with each other, and the shorter lines three and four rhyme with each other. 2. The host gives every team the same first line, such as There once was a pot full of gold. 3. Teams have five minutes to write the other four lines. Keep it about the party and not about a person. 4. One member of each team reads theirs aloud, and the table votes by applause. Players: 3 to 20. You need: paper and pencils.
  • Bingo With Coins for Markers 1. Give every guest a printed bingo card and a handful of coins or gold paper circles. 2. The caller reads each call aloud and gives players a moment to look. 3. Players cover each called square with a coin. 4. The first full line wins. The winner reads the covered squares back, lifting the coins one by one, before the line counts. Players: 2 to 30. You need: printed bingo cards and coins or gold paper circles.
  • Draw the Green Saying 1. Write sayings and names that have the word green in them on slips: green thumb, green light, green with envy, greenhouse, evergreen, the grass is always greener. 2. Split into two teams. A player takes a slip and has one minute to draw it for their own team, with no letters and no talking. 3. If the team says the exact words, it scores a point. If not, the other team gets one guess. 4. Draw with a green marker, which is no help at all. Players: 4 to 20. You need: slips, paper and a green marker.
  • Green Things Memory Tray 1. Put fifteen green things on a tray and cover it with a cloth: a lime, a leaf, a pencil, a sock, a button, a toy frog. 2. Uncover the tray for thirty seconds while everyone looks without touching. 3. Cover it again. Players have two minutes to write down all that they remember. 4. Because everything is green, the color is no help in telling things apart. The longest correct list wins. Players: 2 to 20. You need: a tray, a cloth, fifteen green things, paper and pencils.
  • Tongue Twisters, Three Times Fast 1. Write these on cards: Seven shiny shamrocks shimmer. Green glass gleams, gold glass glows. Lucky Lena likes little ladders. Rory's rainbow really rarely rains. 2. A player draws a card and says the line three times, fast. 3. The others are the judges, and any stumble ends the turn. 4. Three clean runs score a point. For a final, the leaders say all four in a row. Players: 2 to 20. You need: four cards and a pen.
  • Trivia by Table, Answers on a Paper Shamrock 1. Give each table a pencil and a paper shamrock for every round. 2. The host reads three questions a round, and the table writes one answer on each leaf. 3. Tables swap shamrocks to be marked as the host reads the answers. 4. A shamrock with three right answers earns a bonus point, which makes four. Play five rounds. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a list of questions, paper shamrocks and pencils.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions for a St Patrick's Day party of adults at home or at work. The wording and the player counts are ours. No game involves alcohol, eating, pinching or an accent. Coins are counters and nothing is staked. Nothing is said about Ireland or its history beyond the date of the day. The date (March 17), the five-line pattern of a limerick, the three leaves of a shamrock, the four-leaf clover and the seven colors named for a rainbow were checked on 10 October 2026 against English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the name): Saint_Patrick%27s_Day, Limerick_(poetry), Shamrock, Four-leaf_clover, ROYGBIV. Licence: own work

How it works

These St Patrick's Day party games are built on four things the day is dressed in: gold coins, rainbows, shamrocks and the color green. A fifth set is played at the table with paper and pencils.

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An order for the party

1. At the door: Say Green and Lose a Coin, then Find the Other Two Leaves. 2. Once everyone is in: Coins Into the Pot From Three Lines. 3. In teams: Green Paper Suit in Five Minutes. 4. At the table: A Limerick From a Shared First Line. 5. All evening: Find the Four-Leaf Clover, Then Hide It Again.

Seventeen, seven and three

The day is March 17, a rainbow is usually given seven colors and a shamrock has three leaves. Several games here are built on those numbers.

  • Use plastic or cardboard coins for anything thrown, and keep real coins for the tray and the bucket.

Questions and answers

What games can you play at a St Patrick's Day party for adults?

Start with a coin game and a team game: Coins Into the Pot From Three Lines, Seven Runners Build the Rainbow and Green Paper Suit in Five Minutes. For a seated crowd, write limericks or play Green Things Memory Tray.

What St Patrick's Day games work at the office?

14 of the 30 are played sitting down, such as Draw the Green Saying, Seven Greens in Order and Trivia by Table, Answers on a Paper Shamrock. Seated shows them all.

Are these Irish party games?

They are games on the symbols of St Patrick's Day: gold, rainbows, shamrocks and green. The list does not claim that any of them is traditional in Ireland, and none uses an accent or a joke about Irish people.

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