Want something fun to do in July other than celebrate the fourth? Choose one or many of these unique reasons to celebrate all throughout the month of July! There are tons of fun holidays, days of the year, and movie releases that would make the perfect excuse to do something fun!
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July Party Ideas
When I think of July, I immediately think of July 4th. Fireworks, stars and stripes, and the red, white, and blue. But there are so many other fun occasions that happen in July that so often get overlooked like hello shark week and Harry Potter’s birthday!
And like I say every month, you can always just have people over without a reason. The weather is beautiful, people like being together in the summer, and it’s always great to be with people you enjoy. But if you want a reason, here are 31!
Pick one or a couple that fit your group and your schedule and let the rest be there for next year or when you need a fun I’m bored activity with kids (or yourself).
Grab our july fun bundle!
I’ve put together a huge 120+ page bundle of resources in my shop that you can use throughout July to celebrate all of these days. The bundle includes printable versions of recipes, games, and kids activities to use throughout the month with these themed days!
July 1 – Second Half of the Year Day
I put this on the list because I know I personally could use a reset day after the year I’ve had. Invite friends over and cheer each other on as you get something done you’ve been putting off or do a second half of the year goal setting day (or make new bingo cards). It’s just a great chance to start the year anew, in the middle of the year!
July 2 – World UFO Day
Get out of this world with a fun space party or space day! Make homemade moon pies, watch a space themed movie like E.T., or play games like Space Invaders. There’s another space themed day later in July, so you could absolutely use July as your space exploration day!
July 3 – Stay Out of the Sun Day
An excuse to stay inside? Say no more!
Pick one (or ten) of these fun indoor activities (like this indoor scavenger hunt) or and make it an indoor day only. Or if you do want to get outside (because that’s always a good idea), you could make a competition of it to see who can stay in the shade the longest, even as the sun changes places in the sky!
July 4 – Independence Day
Use any of these 4th of July party ideas, play a little 4th of July bingo, and make some of these delicious red, white, and blue desserts (I personally love this flag cake) to celebrate the biggest summer holiday!
July 5 – National Hawaii Day
Plan a trip to Hawaii! Not in the cards? Then invite people over for a luau and little taste of Hawaii instead. Make pineapple bread, homemade pina coladas, and play all sorts of water games you might play in Hawaii!
Want to get out of the house? Meet friends for dinner at Hawaiian Bros or another restaurant with delicious Hawaiian food. Or go to the library and pick out books or movies set in Hawaii for a fun Hawaiian themed day!
July 6 – Fried Chicken Day
When was the last time you grabbed a bucket of fried chicken and met friends at the park for a picnic? Or for an outdoor concert? This is the perfect chance and bonus, you don’t have to cook dinner!
Want to cook dinner? Try your hand at making homemade fried chicken and invite friends to bring their own classic Southern sides like mashed potatoes, baked mac and cheese, and cornbread to go with it!
July 7 – Day of Rock N Roll
Have a dance party with your favorite rock ‘n’ roll songs! Or invite friends over for a game night and play only musical party games like our favorite Hitster or Lyrically Correct!
Meet up with friends for a local concert or karaoke or even music bingo, ideally the rock ‘n’ roll variation!
July 8 – Be a Kid Again Day
This may be my favorite day out of all of July! This is an excuse to be a kid again, whatever that means to you.
Play your favorite board games for kids, have a field day with friends, have a movie night with all of your favorites from when you were a kid.
Or be a kid and shirk all of your responsibilities for the day and let everyone else avoid theirs too. Read, eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or mac and cheese, and don’t worry about things for a day. We will definitely be doing this on in my house!
July 9 – Fashion Day & Five Star Weekend Release
Okay so I put two different days because I thought it might be fun to combine the two. It’s National Fashion Day so the perfect time to get dressed up or go to a thrift store and do some sort of fun fashion challenge.
It’s also the day the Five Star Weekend TV show with Jennifer Garner comes out that I’m super excited about. It’s all about the friends you’ve made over your life so why not invite friends over in their best (or most comfortable) fashion and celebrate both together.
The star of the show is a food and home influencer so make sure you serve up some of the most beautiful things like million dollar deviled eggs, balsamic bruschetta, and strawberry mojito mocktails to keep things like the book.
July 10 – Teddy Bear Picnic
Is there any more whimsical of a day than Teddy Bear Picnic Day? I can’t think of a more fun reason to invite friends over to your house or meet them for a picnic somewhere. Don’t forget the teddy bears, picnic scavenger hunt, and bear paw cookies!
Don’t want to have an actual picnic? Head to Build a Bear to make teddy bears or to the library to grab all sorts of bear books to read! You could even do some of these fun reading activities with your books.
July 11 – National Swimming Pool Day & Free Slurpee Day
Grab free Slurpees at 7-11 then head to the pool for a pool day with lots of swimming pool games and fun!
Or if you want to skip 7-11, you could always invite people over to hang out in your backyard in mini pools and make your very own watermelon slushies that are kind of like slurpees! Or have an outdoor movie night where people sit in kiddie pools with pillows and blankets!
July 12 – Simplicity Day
The further down this list I get the more I realize how much I love a bunch of days this month. Simplicity Day celebrates the philosophies of Thoreau so take the day off of all your mental clutter and just enjoy the simple things.
Go on a walk, sit in nature, do a digital detox, declutter a space in your house. Or even better, meet up with friends at someone’s house and declutter a space together then go to the next person’s house and do the same thing – kind of like a progressive declutter date!
Or just go outside without a schedule, without any requirements (send the kids on a nature hunt), and embrace the simple things in life. I love it so much.
July 13 – Embrace Your Geekness Day
Another day I’d never heard of but that I’m all in on. I just saw an Instagram post about why women love fandoms so much (spoiler – it’s because there are no responsibilities or agendas tied to fandoms) and go in on them.
Today is all about geeking out about all of your favorite things. Invite the book club over for a super specific dinner party (like the entire meal made out of this ACOTAR cookbook), meet up with friends for a movie or TV marathon, dress up and do something ridiculous.
If you need some ways to geek out, I have a few. Geeky stuff is my favorite.
Or just spend the day celebrating the things you love most whether it’s Taylor Swift lyrics, playing card games, or collecting Pokemon cards. And don’t let anyone tell you you’re ridiculous because it’s literally embrace your geekness day!
July 14 – Cow Appreciation Day (Chick-Fil-A)
This one is for all those Chick-Fil-A fans! Dress yourself and your family up like a cow and get free Chick-Fil-A.
Or meet friends and their kids at your local Chick-Fil-A for a super simple playdate where the kids run around and you actually get to yap!
Don’t want to get dressed up like a cow? Make homemade chick-fil-a nuggets and peppermint milkshakes at home instead, they’re just as good!
July 15 – National Gummi Worm Day
Did someone say dirt cake? I mean that’s what gummi worms mean to me. So invite friends over and let everyone make and decorate their very own dirt cake or even dirt cups if you want to do it with kids.
Or skip the cake and meet friends at the movies and bring gummi worms to share. There are a bunch of great movies coming out in July, just choose the one that fits you best!
July 16 – Cherry Day
Do an Off-Campus watch party with your girlfriends for a little cherry pie karaoke. Serve up cherry cake, cherry cheesecake dip, and cherry cheesecake cookies.
Or have a cherry Top Chef night where everyone has to bring a delicious summer dish that features cherry and choose favorites! Or do a local tour of your city to see if you can find the best cherry drink or dessert.
Or if you really want to go simple, grab cherry limeades at Sonic and sit outside playing games while you enjoy your drinks!
July 17 – The Odyssey Release Day
Movie night with your adult friends or a date night! This one’s not for the kids so leave them at home and enjoy an adult movie night.
If you want something else to celebrate on July 17th, it’s also world emoji day. A fun Christmas emoji game battle would be fun and just call it a Christmas in July day!
July 18 – Sour Candy Day
Go on a sour candy scavenger hunt around your town to see who can find the most unique sour candy! Or get a bunch of your favorites and make a candy salad for an at-home movie night!
Or meet friends at the movies and everyone bring a different sour candy to enjoy while you watch.
July 19 – National Ice Cream Day
There are so many fun ways to celebrate National Ice Cream Day! Setup an ice cream sundae bar and have friends come over for ice cream and casual conversation.
Or meet up for ice cream somewhere! Or you could do an ice cream crawl around your city to try and find the very best or most unique flavors. Or make your own homemade ice cream (this no churn birthday cake ice cream is delish) or ice cream treat like one of these:
July 20 – Friends Day
If there is a better day to get together with friends, I haven’t seen it yet. You can take this one of three ways – meet up with friends to do literally anything. Or go somewhere new with the goal of meeting new friends! You could even just put out an open invitation to your neighborhood or community and see how many new friends you can make!
Or if you’re not up for meeting up with friends, you could do a FRIENDS show marathon. Pick your favorite episodes, eat some Friends themed food, and spend the day with those friends instead.
Or if you’re not a FRIENDS fan, you could spend the day with any other fictional friends. Choose one of the books on your book bingo card, watch your favorite movie or TV show again, or choose something all about friendships to do.
July 21 – National Junk Food day
This is your excuse to eat whatever you want all day long. Invite family or friends over and tell them they have to bring some sort of nostalgic junk food and see who can come up with the best things – make sure to give out prizes!
Or make it a yes day and let kids eat what they want.
July 22 – Be a Good teammate Day
Grab some friends and meet for a little outdoor volleyball, soccer, or softball game. Or you could even go old school and meet for kickball or wiffle ball – the important part is getting a group together to play team sports!
Host a minute to win it night where you play the games in teams of people. Or a game night where you choose some game night games that are cooperative and people are working in teams instead of on their own!
Go to an escape room where you have to work together to escape. Or you could even grab one of these escape room board games and do it at home!
July 23 – Sprinkle Day
Just like with ice cream day, you can celebrate this one any way you want that involves sprinkles!
Make sprinkle cookies (or chocolate sprinkle cookies) or the viral dot cakes. Or anything with sprinkles. I know my kids absolutely love fairy bread that’s covered with sprinkles!
Or take it a totally different way and sprinkle some sweet surprises into your friends lives. Make treats and drop them off with these cute sprinkled with love gift tags! If you need great ideas for treats that travel and share well, these are our favorites with sprinkles:
July 24 – Self Care Day
This one is all about you. Take the entire day to take care of yourself in ways that you enjoy. Get a massage or pedicure, take a long bubble bath (these are great books to read while you soak), go for a long run or walk, or even just try out somewhere new for dinner so you don’t have to cook.
All of these things can be done with friends too. Self-care is even better when you get to catch up friends while you do it! You could even host a spa party where you all make and do your own self-care items!
July 25 – Christmas in July
You could technically celebrate Christmas in July anytime during the month but doing it exactly five months before Christmas Day would be fun!
Do anything you might do during the Christmas holiday and do it with your favorite people! If you need ideas, we have so many Christmas party games, gift exchange games, and Christmas party ideas I can’t even list them all here but here are a few of our favorites that would be fun to do in July:
- Christmas saran wrap game – fill it with summer themed prizes!
- The Floor Christmas game – one of our most popular Christmas games ever!
- Christmas Jeopardy – you could even use our PowerPoint version and do this outside on a big inflatable movie screen!
- Christmas bingo – summer prizes would be perfect!
Another fun idea would be to do a gingerbread house building contest but have everyone make summer mansions instead of traditional gingerbread houses. Imagine the gingerbread pools people could create!
July 26 – Shark Week
Have a shark party while you watch some of the Shark Week programming. Or just use shark week as an excuse to do all sorts of shark themed activities and eat shark themed food like shark jello cups or shark attack drinks!
Or you could just go ocean themed and invite people over for an under the sea day filled with making ocean sensory bins, playing sharks and minnows, and enjoying a little mermaid punch!
Or if you want the food to be the activity, give everyone the materials to make this beach cake and see who comes up with the best design with prizes like gummy sharks and shark onesies as prizes!
July 27 – National Sleepy Head Day
If you’ve never heard of National Sleepy Head Day, it’s originally celebrated in Sweden and basically the last person sleeping gets a cold surprise of water (or if you’re really ambitious, dumped into a pool of water). It sounds hilarious but also not something I want to implement in my house because I actually want my kids to sleep as long as possible!
Instead, celebrate National Sleepy Head Day by being an actual sleepy head. Everyone sleeps in as long as possible and once you wake up, have a nice lazy morning with cereal for breakfast, maybe a few cartoons or reading, and just doing nothing at all in the morning (or all day). Embrace being a sleepy head!
July 28 – Soccer Day
World Cup will be over by this point but it doesn’t mean you still can’t celebrate soccer! Invite friends to meet up for a pickup game of soccer or even a game of FIFA at home!
Or just go to the park with your own family and kick the ball around. Or rewatch some of the best moments from the World Cup. There have been SO many fun soccer ideas floating around for World Cup, you could also just pick one of those and enjoy soccer in that way as well. Or play soccer croquet or creative games with balls.
Or choose a soccer themed movie like Bend It Like Beckham or The Big Green and have a soccer themed movie night, outdoor is best!
July 29 – Lasagna Day
Make or eat lasagna. That’s it – that’s all you need to do to enjoy this day. Go to your favorite Italian restaurant and eat all the layers of goodness.
If you want to get more into things, you could make a bunch of lasagnas and freeze some for later (or drop some off to a friend who might need a meal).
Or if you want to get a little more creative, make it a Garfield day instead since he loves lasagna about as much as anyone in the world. Make lasagna together, watch the new Garfield movie (or read comics), and eat the lasagna together. Even better if you make chocolate lasagna for dessert!
July 30 – Spider-man release Day
Technically the new Spider-Man movie comes out July 31st but everyone knows movie actually drop the Thursday before the movie releases (and I had to save July 31st for Harry Potter’s birthday). So make July 30th a Spider-Man day to get excited for the new movie.
Play any of these superhero games, try out some Marvel would you rather questions, or just dress up like your favorite neighborhood spiderman.
Or embrace the spider side of things and make these spider Oreo balls, these spider web pretzels, or even these peanut butter spider cookies!
And of course don’t forget to go see the new movie!
July 31 – Harry Potter’s Birthday
Harry Potter’s birthday is one of the most magical days of the year because well Harry Potter! There are so many fun Harry Potter recipes like butterbeer, pumpkin pasties, and pumpkin juice you could make for a Harry Potter themed night!
Send your kids on a Harry Potter scavenger hunt, meet your friends for a Harry Potter trivia night (with either these Harry Potter trivia questions or this Ultimate Harry Potter trivia game that’s honestly the best Harry Potter trivia game I’ve ever tried).
Oh and of course you can read the books, watch the movies (don’t forget the butterbeer popcorn!), or even listen to the new audiobooks that are fantastic.
Go to Universal Studios if you live close, they always have fun Harry Potter stuff going on. Or just make your own frozen butterbeer at home since we all know that’s the best one!
Or just play one of these Harry Potter games with your family or friends!
Get our fun in july bundle
Want a printable version of this that you can keep to use throughout the month? And printable resources to go with it all in one place?
I’ve put together a huge 120+ page bundle of resources in my shop that you can use throughout July to celebrate all of these days. The bundle includes printable versions of all of these in one easy to download file!
The bundle includes the following printables:
- Indoor scavenger hunt
- 4th of July bingo cards
- Printable pineapple bread recipe
- Music bingo game
- Million dollar deviled eggs recipe
- Bear paw cookies recipe
- Nature scavenger hunt
- Star Wars perler bead templates
- Chick Fil A nugget copycat recipe
- Dirt cake recipe
- Christmas emoji game
- No-churn birthday cake recipe
- Frosted sugar cookie bars recipe
- Christmas saran wrap game
- Shark week activities
- Marvel would you rather questions
- Harry Potter danger words game
- Homemade butterbeer recipe
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