The Ultimate Mardi Gras Cocktail Party

Mardi Gras Party Recipes and Ideas

The ultimate Mardi Gras cocktail party requires the ultimate selection of Mardi Gras cocktails and appetizers, served in an environment totally decked out in the ultimate Mardi Gras theme. Purple, green and gold are traditional background colors for this carnival of carnivals. However, Mardi Gras cocktail recipes tempt pallets with bourbon, rum and fruit juice, while popular appetizers are made with spicy, New Orleans essence.

Festive Mardi Gras Cocktail Party Recipes

Hurricane

Classic Mardi Gras Hurricanes are made with 1 part rum (equal portions of dark and light), 2 parts fruit juice (orange, pineapple and passion preferred), a dash of grenadine syrup and a hint of fresh lime juice in a cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker with ice, squeeze fresh lime juice over the top, add the rest of the ingredients and shake thoroughly. Pour hurricane cocktail into festive Fat Tuesday tableware cocktail glasses, garnished with an orange slice and topped with a cherry to serve.

Tiger Paw

Mix equal parts Southern Comfort, pineapple juice and raspberry wine over a shaker filled with ice. Strain cocktail into a martini glass garnished with fruit and serve on personalized Mardi Gras coasters.

New Orleans Hand Grenade

Mix equal parts gin, grain alcohol, melon liquor, rum and vodka over ice. Add water and sugar to taste and stir well. Guests drinking these powerful cocktails are likely to enjoy wearing festive Mardi Gras glitter masks, and lots of Mardi Gras beads, celebrating the true spirit of Mardi Gras well into the evening.

Easy Crabmeat Spread

 Combine 6 ounces of flaky crabmeat (fresh or canned) with 8 ounces of soft cream cheese and ¼ Cup salsa. Heat mixture in microwave for 1 to 2 minutes, until warm, but not hot. Serve with an assortment of crackers.

Golden Triangles

 12 sheets frozen phyllo dough

½ cup melted butter

Cajun Pork Filling

Apricot Dipping Sauce (optional)

Lightly brush one sheet of phyllo dough with some melted butter. Place another sheet on top of first sheet and brush with butter. Cover remaining phyllo dough and set aside. Cut buttered phyllo dough into six equal, horizontal strips. Place 1 tablespoon Cajun pork filling approximately 1 inch from end of strip. Fold one corner over, diagonally, lining it up with edge of strip to create triangle. Continue folding up the strip, until phyllo dough has many layers and is a single triangle appetizer. Repeat for remaining strips. Use rest of phyllo dough to make many more appetizers. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for approximately 10 minutes, until golden brown. Serve with Apricot Dipping Sauce if desired.

Cajun Pork Filling

Thoroughly cook 8 ounces ground pork in a medium skillet. Add 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning and cook for another minute. Stir in ½ Cup soft cream cheese, 1/3 Cup grated carrot and a few dashes hot pepper sauce to taste. Mix well.

Apricot Dipping Sauce

Combine ½ Cup apricot preserves and 1 Tablespoon hoisin sauce in a 1-Cup glass measuring cup. Stir in 1 Tablespoon thinly sliced green onion and ½ teaspoon finely grated orange peel. Microwave on high for approximately 1 minute, until bubbly and warm.

Ideas for Your Awards Night Party Theme

Celebrate with a Red Carpet Party Theme

You’re already planning for your college mixer, school prom, adult cocktail party, corporate event, or kids birthday. We’re here to open the brainstorm with a few themes and supplies to get those creative juices flowing.

Awards Party Themes Take Center Stage

Note these dates on your social calendar and build your next theme party around a Bollywood party or Hollywood theme party.

• Zee Cine Awards- Sunday, February 5
• The Grammys- Sunday, February 12
• The Oscars (Academy Awards 2012)- Sunday, February 26
• Academy of Country Music- Sunday, April 1
• Cannes Film Festival- May 16- 27
• MTV Movie Awards- Sunday, June 3
• Tony Awards- Sunday, June 10
• MTV Video Music Awards- Sunday, September 9

Movie Theme Parties

Pop popcorn and snuggle in with the fam for movie night or dream big and snuggle up to a Marilyn Monroe party.

Film Festival Theme Party Decorations

Whisk your intellectual crowd into a sophisticated night of wine, International party supplies, and the sultry, Abhi Mujhe Mein Kahin or organize France party supplies throughout the banquet facility of your Cannes Film Festival event.

Country Music Party Theme

Celebrate country music in our cowboy party store. Show them city slickers that your tableware party supplies don’t have to be fancy because a Dirt Road Anthem surrounded by NASCAR party supplies is the party theme to remember. Invite military families to your event and open the welcome home theme party with We Take Care of Our Own.

City Theme Party Decorations

Go downtown and dance away at a sweaty, city theme party. Continuously play music videos and movies on wide screen TVs. Promote fresh, theme party faces like pop’s Asher Monroe,

soul’s Adele,

or Bollywood’s Vidya Balan.

Political Theme Party Supplies

Want to shake it up? Times are changing. Make a statement with your theme party supplies and political rally decorations. Anjulie will turn heads and so will Occupy party supplies or national debt party supplies peppered throughout your theme party decorations.

College Theme Parties

There’s time to coordinate a frat party, toga party, or birthday with the MTV awards night. Just add a few props, cocktail accessories, and rock star party supplies to go.

Corporate Theme Parties

Let music loosen up the execs. Invite Taylor Swift to your private concert or just watch her perform at the Grammys along with Coldplay.

Give guests a few elephant hats and decorate with baby elephant standees, safari decorations, and other mascot costumes to get in the spirit of Coldplay’s Paradise video. Paul McCartney will be honored at this year’s Grammys. Celebrate the successes of yesterday, while your company presses ahead into 2012. These retro theme party supply or Wizard of Oz party stores can help you emphasize both achievements and goals.

Funny Theme Parties

Laugh it up with clips of Billy Crystal going Off the Grid for the Academy.

Dress up as your favorite nominee. Send party invitations and decorate with party favors, party tableware, and party decorations (such as Money Ball baseball party supplies) that revolve around your picks. Give awards night male statuettes or awards night female statuettes to the most creative or funny, theme party costumes.

Awards party themes spice up winter dull drums and celebrate successes. Host your own Academy, Grammy, MTV, Bollywood, or Hollywood theme party!

Thanksgiving Activities, Games, and Prizes

Thanksgiving Party Entertainment Ideas 

Before you know it, turkey day will be here and you might be the one in charge of entertaining friends and family on this beloved American holiday. Luckily, there are plenty of fun activities, games and prizes that can keep your guests entertained long after a big Thanksgiving dinner.  Plan to donate some of your time to benefit others, too!

Thanksgiving Theater Games

Do you have aspiring child actors in the family? Not only will the dramatic love creating their own stick puppets, but they’ll also relish coming up with a Thanksgiving play. Use the puppets as a learning tool about what happened on the first Thanksgiving when the pilgrims arrived in America. Even adults can get in on the fun and can take turns presenting their puppets to show the children what they know about the first Thanksgiving.

Free Thanksgiving Games

Adults and children will get a kick out of playing Thanksgiving charades, but keep things interesting and go beyond the usual Thanksgiving symbols like turkey, pilgrims and Native Americans. Have each person in the group come up with five things they are thankful for and write each on a separate slip of paper. Put all the papers in a bowl, mix them up, and have players take turns acting out whatever they pull out of the bowl. As a bonus, see if anyone can guess who was thankful for that particular thing.

Deliver holiday gifts.

Turkey Pins

Nothing says Thanksgiving quite like a turkey. Imagine a craft your guests can make and keep for Thanksgiving celebrations for years to come. Combine foam, feathers and googly eyes to create miniature turkey pins. Have extra glue, glitter, and sequins around for those who wish to add a little sparkle to their turkeys. For personalized turkey pins, cut out pictures you have of your guests and paste their faces on the pins.

Reflections

This activity will get adults and children thinking about what they are most thankful for. After a delicious Thanksgiving meal, have each person say why they are thankful for the person to their right. Then, have everyone around the table name something they are specifically thankful for in the current year. Make it a Thanksgiving tradition and have someone serve as the designated “record keeper.” Each year, pull out the record of what everyone has been thankful for and enjoy reminiscing about Thanksgivings from past years.

Thanksgiving Football Fun

Not everyone wants to watch football all afternoon on Thanksgiving weekend, so make sure your guests have plenty of opportunities to participate in football-themed activities and games. Besides playing traditional touch-football in the yard, family and friends will get a kick out of a flick football game. This is a game that can be played inside if the fall air has gotten too chilly for a full-sized game outdoors.

Donate prizes and knick-knacks.

Thanksgiving Prizes- Don’t send them home empty-handed

Who had the best pumpkin pie this year? Who won charades? Did grandpa correctly predict the scores of the Thanksgiving Day football games? Don’t let anyone go home empty handed! A good host will find plenty of reasons to award prizes to each guest at their Thanksgiving party. Personalized items to commemorate the day always make for a special prize, as well as goodie bags. Fill orange and brown gift bags with candy and tie with Thanksgiving-themed ribbon.

Give Back to Those in Need

After giving thanks for all the fun you had playing games and working on activities together, donate your favors, toiletries, and nick knacks to Operation Christmas Child or another charitable organization.  Spread Thanksgiving love and well being to others!

Wow Your Guests! Maya Kalman’s Theme Party Tips

Maya Kalman’s Theme Party Favorites

She’s a theme party go-getter. Just read expert party planner, Maya Kalman’s ideas on the Swanky Planner and you’ll see why Manhattan’s award-winning Swank Productions puts the pep into plain.

When Kalman plans theme parties, she considers how guests view each event and she aims to impress.

“We never do the same event twice. Even if a client enjoys the look of a past theme, we change it up for new events.”

Kalman particularly enjoys Alice in Wonderland parties. “We’ve planned fundraisers, Bar Mitzvahs, and even the launching of a tea company with inspiration from the Mad Hatter theme.”

Moroccan, Arabian Nights, and Egyptian theme parties are also very popular. “We attack design from a different perspective. We consider all the things you might need for the theme party and then creatively find new twists on those items.”

Turn Party Essentials into Theme Motifs

Kalman suggests theme party planners “consider the wow factor and the experience of guests.  Shindigz offers so many great products to help you do that.”

With the Alice in Wonderland theme, you might need place cards. Add names to the backs of playing cards. If you want an ice bucket on the table, turn a top hat upside down and fashion it into an ice bucket. Think creatively with the staples.

Super-size or Minimize Theme Party Supplies
“Another trick we love is to make items really, really huge. We’ve used Shindigz cardboard cutouts to wow guests at entrances. You can do the same. We also like products that are really, really small, like a set of miniature teacups.” A tea cupcakes mold set could even be fun for presenting home-baked muffins during a morning meeting. “Whatever gets guests talking is successful.”

Play with your Theme Party or Consider the Help of a Planner
The opportunities are endless when creating memorable theme parties. Explore your options to dress up the ordinary.   “Remember the wow factor,” encourages Maya Kalman and “your theme party will create lasting memories!”  Tell us your favorite party themes and successful uses for props and products.

Corporate Invite-Only Parties Need Not Be Boring!

Corporate invite-only parties are a perfect way to entice other businesses to use your services at conventions or local soirees, but they don’t have to be boring! The best way you can persuade another company to use your services is to choose a party theme to jazz things up. Your employees and attendees will feel relaxed and enjoy themselves while mingling for business. I’ve included several corporate event ideas that will have business eating out of the palm of your hand.

Fifties Party
Start your event with a catered dinner for guests to enjoy. When guests are finished, they will follow the 50s drive-in sign into the next room which has been transformed into their very own sock hop!

• Decorate with rock around the clock decorations.
• Set up a photo booth with a fun personalized 50s stand in for guests to take silly pictures in.
• Hire roller-skating servers to serve root beer floats to guests that look just like the root beer float candles on the tables.
• Send guests away with personalized fifties mint tins and 50’s milk chocolate lollipops that have your business information on printed on them.

Poker Party
Host a poker party so your guests feel like they’re really in Vegas! Whether you choose a formal dinner, a buffet, or cocktails to be served to your guests, I’ll bet they have a blast!

• Set up a jackpot theme kit that has everything you need all rolled into one!
• Place casino cutouts around the room that will point you guests to their desired poker party activities.
• Give guests fabulous party favors that they can take home and remember the evening (and your business information) like create-a-sticker square clear shot glasses or personalized poker chips.

You can create the perfect theme party that fits your company’s style, genre, or product type. When you have fun & get creative, your business guests will be so pleased to mix business with a little pleasure!