Spending time with our friends is essential for creating strong, meaningful relationships and giving ourselves time to let loose and forget about the stress of everyday life. There are dozens of different projects and activities that you can try together, even when you’re not actually together, like a virtual happy hour sesh or a scrapbooking project that you pass along to the next person when you’ve finished your addition. If you’re looking for activities to do at your next gathering, we’ve got plenty of ideas, like starting a paint with diamonds kit or hosting a game night. Check out some of our favorite hobbies we’ve started with our friends.
- Start a Book Club
A book club is the perfect way to get your friends together regularly, and there are so many ways to get creative with this kind of group friend night. Typically, you’ll want to agree on a book prior to the first official book club meeting. Then, you can start slowly working your way through the book (i.e., tell everyone to read to a specific chapter by the next meeting) and discussing what you’ve read thus far. Another option to choose is you can space your book club meetings out and give everyone time to finish the book completely before your discussion. To spice up your group sessions, you can add fun twists by asking everyone to come dressed as their favorite character or preparing a meal that somehow ties in with the story itself. If you like the idea of a book club but aren’t sure that everyone will actually read the book, you can host a movie club instead! Ask everyone to watch the same movie one or two days before the meeting and then discuss the plot and maybe even re-watch some of your favorite scenes.
- Have a Potluck Dinner
Nothing brings a group of friends together like some wine and a home-cooked meal. Although eating may not technically be considered a hobby, cooking definitely is. Asking your friends to each participate by making their own dish (no cheating with store-bought grocery items!) is a great way to hone your cooking skills and spend time with friends. You can either encourage your guests to get together in smaller groups beforehand and work on the dishes together or invite a small group of close friends to your home where you can all do your part to cook the meal. Once the food is served, pop open another bottle of wine and settle in for a night of friendship and laughter.
- Paint with Diamonds Project
Collaborating with a friend or two on a fun project can be entertaining and can also give you a great sense of accomplishment when the design is complete. Paint with diamonds is a trendy new kind of art project that makes for awesome finished pieces that you can display in your home or give as a gift. Because the process of placing the small, faceted diamond beads onto the grid outline can take some time, you may want to get your friends together to work on the same project. This is a great way to create a homemade gift for a mutual friend. If you each want your own project to work on and display when complete, try planning a weekly paint with diamonds night when everyone brings their project to someone’s house and you spend time working individually.
- Collage or Scrapbook
Commemorate your friendship and shared experiences by creating your own scrapbooking project. Ask your friends to sort through and select pictures that are important to them—whether they have just photographs of their friends or a combination of friends and family. Then, host a scrapbooking night where everyone brings over materials they would like to use and create your own friendship scrapbook. If you don’t get to see your friends as often as you’d like, you can also do this project by allowing one person at a time to work on the scrapbook before mailing it off (or dropping it off) to the next person in the group.
- Host a Virtual Happy Hour
For the times when you’re missing your friends the most, a virtual happy hour will allow everyone to be together no matter how far apart you really are. Plan a date and time that works for everyone and then use a platform like Zoom or Google Hangouts Meet to get a split-screen video chat view of multiple people. Ask your friends to come prepared with their favorite beverage to make it feel as if you’re all chatting at a bar together. You can make your virtual happy hour even more exciting when you try playing games over Zoom or another video chat platform.
- Start a Collaborative Playlist
This is a cool way to stay in touch with your friends and grow your music collection. Although creating a collaborative playlist doesn’t directly involve hanging out with your friends, it will keep you in contact and create a playlist of music that you can all throw on the next time you get together. Create the playlist and a group chat with your friends (that is, if you don’t already have one). Then, send out a schedule to let everyone know which day/week they are supposed to add a new song to the playlist. If you want to drum up a full playlist quickly, you can do this every day for a week or two. If you’d rather this be an ongoing kind of game for you and your friends, add one song every week to create a killer playlist by the end.
Life Is Better Spent Together
Hanging out with your friends is always a great way to spend the day, but sometimes we become so wrapped up in our own busy lives that it’s difficult to remember to gather together on a regular basis. Picking up a new hobby is a great way to keep yourself occupied and get your friends involved. Try starting a paint with diamonds project or get your friends on board for a book club. If it’s not possible to see all of your friends in person, stay connected through a virtual happy hour and play some fun games at the same time. Get creative with your activities and keep your friends guessing what the next exciting get together holds.
