Fun Drinking Games for St. Patrick's Day

If you've having a St. Patrick's Day party with a group of other adults, drinking games are the most fun and entertaining games you can play. Mixed drinks work best if you want to avoid a hangover after playing drinking games. To keep in the spirit of the season, make cocktails that are green in color. You can find plenty of recipes online for green St. Patrick's Day mixed drinks. You can mix the drinks up ahead of time or place the recipe cards out so your party guests can make their own.

Green Beer Pong

In advance of your St. Patrick's Day party, find a ping pong table and some paddles. Get some green ping pong balls, as well. Mix a pitcher of beer with some green food coloring. Get 20 green 12 or 16 ounce plastic cups, 10 for each team. If you like, you can decorate the cups with pictures of shamrocks, leprechauns or piece of gold. Place 10 cups in a triangle with the rims touching on each side of the ping pong table. Have a cup of water on the side of the table to wash the balls. Fill the cups with the green beer. Each team must try to make the ball fly into the cups of the opposing team. When they succeed, the opposing team must take a drink from their cups. When cups are emptied, the team should remove them from the table and regroup the remainder of the cups. If you'd like to play this game by the book, you can find detailed rules on the BeerPong.com website.

St. Patrick's Day Trivia Game

If you want a really cheap and easy drinking game for your party, this is a great one to play. Print out a free St. Patrick's Day trivia quiz online and make a note of the correct answers. Call out the questions and potential answers and ask the party guests to choose the right answer. Every time someone gets an answer wrong, he or she must take a drink.

Irish Poker

At the start of this drinking game, each player gets four cards, laid face down on the table. He also gets a glass of green beer or a green cocktail drink. Whoever is to the left of the dealer must guess whether he will turn over a red or black card. Players can also guess the suit of the card or the number of the card. If the player guesses right, he can order the other players to take a drink. If he's wrong, he must take a drink himself. Continue going around the room counter clockwise to give all the party guests a chance to play.

Shot Potato

This St. Patrick's Day drinking game is a variation on "Hot Potato." Give each party guest some green Jello shots, and seat everyone in a circle. Put an Irish drinking song on in the background and get a raw potato from the fridge. Have one person control the music, turning it off at random. Then give the potato to one of the players to pass around. When the music stops, the person left holding the potato has to take a drink.

Movie Game

Pick a really bad or funny movie with a St. Patrick's Day or Irish theme, such as movie from the Leprechaun horror movie series. Everyone must take a drink each time the Leprechaun appears, each time he kills somebody, each time he says the word "gold" or he uses his magic powers. You can tailor the rules of this drinking game to the specific movie you're watching. For example, if you know that the movie is filled with bad language, the partygoers can take a drink every time a character swears. If any character has a stock phrase he repeats frequently, take a drink every time he says it. The rules should be complex enough to provide plenty of opportunities to drink, but simple enough so the party guests can still follow them, even when they start feeling tipsy.

When playing drinking games at a St. Patrick's Day party, make sure to drink responsibly and appoint a designated driver.

For more ideas on this topic, read St. Patrick's Day Party Ideas.