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Spectacular Patriotic Holiday Gathering

Many of us consider the Memorial Day holiday the start of summer. A Memorial Day party is a festive way to start the season! The flags, the parades, the food! Ah, the pleasure of a long Memorial Day weekend and a Monday respite. All these things remind me of those great patriotic holidays like Memorial Day, Flag Day, Labor Day and of course the 4^th of July. Why not celebrate America with some great patriotic party decorations, hang some banners and flags, set a table filled with red, white and blue paper goods and centerpieces and then kick back, relax, have a few friends and family over and enjoy some time outside?

For a complete list of ideas for your patriotic theme, including balloons, centerpieces, decorations, wearables and more, see our Patriotic Party Goods.

Patriotic Party Invitations

There are many ways to have festive patriotic invitations. Have them professionally done or buy them. Find cute invitations with the American flag on the front. Or, have your patriotic invitation personalized by Party411's Creations for You. 

My favorite way to do patriotic invitations is to create them myself. The only rule is that there really are no rules. Find red, white, and blue everything! Search your house for scraps of colored construction paper, blue hair ribbon, white sequins from an old dress or costume, bandanas, and of course that red pom pom from an old sweater. Make each guest a different (one-of-a-kind collage) invitation. If you have children that can handle glue and scissors, that's even better! Let the kids put their own twist on the invitations, and make it a family affair.

You can even take some Elmer's glue (the runny kind because the glue stick isn't messy enough), and just drip and zigzag it across the front of plain white invitations. Then "invite" your kids (and even some of their friends) to help shake some red, white, and blue glitter all over the front of the card! Voila! Instant fireworks!

Host and hostess must wear adorable patriotic hats and vests.

Memorial Day Party Decorations

Although we are all very patriotic we don’t all have our homes festooned with red, white and blue.  To quickly set the scene for your Memorial Day, July 4^th, Labor Day or Flag Day party use a scene setter.  These 50’ x 4’ rolls are a quick and inexpensive way to set the mood.  You can use bright stars, patriotic stripes, or fireworks!  Add a couple of 5’ American Flags a Liberty Bell, or a 5’ Statue of Liberty and all of a sudden you have decorated a lot of space and created a great patriotic backdrop to set the tone for your party. 

The American flag is usually a customary decoration, but there is no reason you can't spice things up a bit. Remember that patriotism is about freedom and fun! You can decorate with the usual red, white, and blue crepe paper and patriotic streamers and even a personalized banner or two.  Plastic plates, plasticware, napkins, and tablecloths are also pretty much expected, but get creative! Remember those who've served America and dedicated their lives to making the United States a place of freedom. Patriotic balloons are almost a must, too.

A great entrance to any event starts when people walk up to your door to find a metallic flag door cover. Over the doorway, or in your windows, you may want to put some flag bunting to set the mood. This bunting is also great on dais tables. If you really want to make your home a centerpiece for the flag you might want to consider a lighted patriotic flag.

Try Patriotic Decorama or our Spirit of America for 25 package. They're jam-packed with everything for a patriotic party!

Add a classic look to your table, with everything from plates and napkins to cutlery, invitations and streamers.  America Forever is a great design.   Another design we like is Old Glory.

For a complete list of ideas for your patriotic theme, including balloons, centerpieces, decorations, wearables and more, see Patriotic Party Decorating411.

Centerpieces - Think of everything that reminds you of America. For me it is Coca-Cola, baseball, Uncle Sam's top hat, apple pie, Barbie, and a multitude of other things. Place each icon in the center of it's own table (if you have kids, you might have to bargain with them to use their toys), and tie some bright helium filled balloons to it.

If you want all of your centerpieces to be somewhat uniform, you can fill balloons with sand, and then tie red, white, and blue star shaped mylar balloons to the weighted balloons. A patriotic hurricane candle is great for you dinner table or for your outdoor tables when the sun goes down. For those of you that simply don't have the time to put centerpieces together another option is the American spirit centerpiece.

Try plants with red, white, and blue flowers, and tie bandanas around the pots. You can stick pinwheels inside as well as other patriotic icons such as the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell.

Seating Cards - If you are using different symbols of America as centerpieces, you can glue items that represent the symbols on each seating card. For example, you can glue a Barbie shoe to represent that table, a baseball gumball to represent the table of this country's favorite American pastime, and a bottlecap to represent one of America's favorite beverages.

Another idea for seating cards is mini paper flags. Put the name of each guest on the front or back. Or, you can take Polaroid pictures of your guests as they enter, decorate the pictures with stars and stripes, and use them as seating cards.

Finishing Touches.  String up some flag lights to provide some appropriate light.  Have a patriotic food tent available to cover food that sits out.  You want to feed your guests not the flies!  A string or two of patriotic garland is a unique touch.  We’ve used a USA Cake as a focal point of the buffet table with great success.

Patriotic Menu

Hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, anything barbecued /grilled, Cole slaw, fruit salad, etc. For dessert you can have apple pie, and cake.

What about decorating your cake to resemble a flag, or use cookie cutters to make star, flag, and Statue of Liberty cookies.

Activities

Start off by decorating your guests to get them in the mood to celebrate.  There are plenty of options including a patriotic kit for 25, blinking flag beads, and patriotic sequin top hats.  Or if you are feeling silly put on a skimmer hat.

Kids get a kick out of glowing light sticks. Hand them out and they'll amuse themselves. Kids also love blinking flag beads or red, white and blue beads.

"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. Watching a parade is hard work, so give the adults an American Flag folding fan.

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.

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.

Party Favors

You might want to consider a personalized water bottle. It's a fabulous way to keep your guests cool and give them a favor they'll use again and again. 

Another sure fire hit is personalized candy bar wrapper. We’ve added some new ones this year we think you’ll like. 

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