Patriotic Theme Party

Patriotic parties are just fun, fun, fun! The decorations are classic (red, white and blue) and the food is delicious (apple pie anyone?)
 
Maybe your having a patriotic party for the 4th of July, or you want to have a patriotic cookout for Memorial Day. Whatever your reason to celebrate the USA, rest assured it will be the best party in four score and seven years!

Patriotic theme Party Invitations
Start the party with a fun personalized patriotic party invitation; there are plenty of great red, white and blue invite designs. You can add extra fun to the invite by sprinkling some patriotic confetti in the envelope!
 
If you make your own invitation, go with a red, white and blue motif of course! Use fun wording to get everyone excited for a great party. Here are a few fun ways to start off your invite - 
  • Join Dave and Jane for a "Star-Spangled" Celebration
  • Hip Hip Hooray for the Red, White and Blue, we are throwing a party to celebrate you!
  • We're have a party on the 4th of July, with BBQ and fireworks to light up the sky!
  • The flag is flown, the sparks will fly! Join us for a party this 4th of July!
  • We hold this truth to be self-evident... that a party is more fun with y'all there! Please join us for a patriotic party!
If your plan is to potluck, be sure to indicate this on the invitation. Don't forget to let people know if they need to bring bathing suits if there will be swimming!
 
patriotic Decorations and Party Supplies
With just a few well placed patriotic party supplies, you can make your party incredibly festive. Start with a personalized patriotic banner in the front yard to great all your guests. A great multi-purpose decoration is flag bunting. It is great on railings, fences, windows, doorways... almost anywhere! And you can reuse it year after year for Memorial Day and the 4th of July!

Inside you can continue with the red, white and blue decorations. Hang up some patriotic garland for easy and fun decorations for the whole room! We also love patriotic swirl danglers for any larger area that needs a fun touch. Try them behind the buffet or across the patio door.
 
If you party is outside, here are a few great ways to decorate your deck or patio - 

patriotic Table Decorations and Menu
Keep the food simple but good. Hot dogs, hamburgers, lemonade and apple pie. All that tasty cookout food. You can give everything fun patriotic names:
  • Star Spangled Spinach and Artichoke Dip
  • Parade Potato Salad
  • Boston Iced Tea
  • Firecracker Fries (fries dusted with Cajun seasoning)
  • Betsy Ross Burgers (red tomato, white onions and blue cheese)
  • George's Cherry Tree Pie
It's a creative and fun way to tie in the theme!
 
Serve everything buffet style on patriotic paper goods. You can add a red, white and blue table skirt for some fun color if you want your table to pop.

Table decorations should be simple. Fill balloons with sand, and then tie red, white, and blue latex balloon bouquets to the weighted balloons or even these cute patriotic balloon weights. For simple table decorations, sprinkle patriotic confetti and set out a few votive (or citronella) candles.

A fun idea for place cards or seating cards are small flags. Attach a tag to each flag with a guest's name written on it.
 
A pitcher of ices tea and a pitcher of lemonade on each table is a nice touch. Think about serving one specialty drink to your guests.  Here is one we like -
Patriotic Margarita
  1. Puree slightly thawed frozen strawberries.
  2. For each drink, blend 2 tablespoons each of strawberry puree, dark rum, coconut milk, pineapple juice, fresh lime juice, and 1/2 cup crushed ice in a blender until smooth.
  3. Pour 2 to 4 tablespoons HPNOTIQ (vodka-based blue liquor) into a glass, and top with 2 to 4 tablespoons of the strawberry mixture.
The different sugar levels will keep the layers separate!
Another layered drink that is sure to please is the Fourth of July Cocktail from Guy Fieri, which is a vibrantly colored red, white and blue drink that gets it's patriotic colors from cranberry juice, watermelon schnapps, and blue curacao.

patriotic theme party games and Activities
Adults will be busy socializing, but it is a good idea to have a few thing planned for the kids. Set up a few activities to keep the kid's busy.

"Pin the Hat on Uncle Sam" - Give each child a small paper top hat to decorate as Uncle Sam's hat. Then blindfold each child, and have him try to stick the hat on Uncle Sam. The child who comes closest to putting the hat in the right place wins a prize. Prizes may also be awarded for the "most creative," "most colorful," etc. hats.

Have all of the kids make top hats that will fit them, and have a decorating contest (awarding a different prize to all kids- "most colorful", "most elaborate", most creative", etc.). Then have a parade around the neighborhood (wearing the new hats) to a famous march. Don't forget the universal bike parade where kids use crepe paper and the like to decorate their bikes to show off in the neighborhood.

Another decorating contest that you can have for the kids is a "decorate your own placemat" contest. This adds to the overall decoration, as well as giving the kids something to do to keep them busy.

Want something fun for all ages? Have your own baseball game! Divide guests into teams and play ball! Or you can have an entire Olympiad! The games don't have to be traditional ones either. You can have cookie eating contests and fun relay races or other crazy games.

Kids get a kick out of glowing light sticks. Hand them out and they'll amuse themselves. Check out Patriotic Party Games for more ideas!

patriotic theme Party Favors
You might want to consider a personalized water bottle label. It's a fabulous way to keep your guests cool and pull through the theme. Another sure fire hit is a personalized candy bar wrapper.

For the kids you can put together a small goody bag. Here are a few ideas:
Have a wonderful patriotic theme party!