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A LUAU PARTY
The holidays are over and now all we’re left with is winter—cold, dreary, gray, cooped-up winter. What’s a mom to do? Well, a little hula can do wonders for the spirits, so a tropical-themed luau party might be just what the doctor ordered to cure your family’s winter ennui. A fun idea for adults and children, a winter luau makes a great family, birthday or just-because party. Here’s how to easily pull it together.
THE INVITATIONS
To save money, send an e-mail invitation. Most e-mail invitation sites don’t charge for their services and offer a wide variety of themes to match your party.
Alternatively, if you prefer hard-copy invites, you can easily make them on your home computer with the help of tropical clip art.
THE DECORATIONS
If budget is a consideration, you can always ask your local party store and/or grocery store whether they have any old decorations, such as grass skirts, tiki poles or lanterns, that they would be willing to give you for free. Often major stores have old decorations that they would be happy to donate to your party, especially for a traditional summer party in the middle of winter. You don’t ask, you don’t get!
Another inexpensive way to decorate is to make tissue paper flowers that you can scatter across your party tables and area, as well as tissue paper tropical birds.
Make paper lanterns and hang them from your ceiling with fish wire.
Ask your guests to be a walking decoration of sorts by attending in fun tropical attire—
the wilder, the better!
Give a lei to each guest as he or she enters the party. Make your own using string and tissue paper flowers or go all the way with real, tropical flowers.
Paint a Hawaiian tropical scene on an old sheet and hang it on the wall. It’s also a great place to take pictures of your guests.
Other decorating ideas include: grass skirting for your tables, a big “Aloha” sign to welcome your guests (you can either make it or buy one) and blow-up palm tree balloons.
Dress up the drinks with traditional cocktail umbrellas.
Play Hawaiian music. Calling Don Ho!
THE GAMES
Limbo and hula-hoop contests set the tone and are always good for laughs.
Teach people to hula—have grass skirts available to make it authentic.
Play “Pass the Pineapple.” Purchase a pineapple and have your guests pass it around to music. When the music stops, the person holding the pineapple wins a prize.
Have a relay contest with a twist. Fill a suitcase or a big tote bag with clothes that both a man and woman would wear on a vacation. The relay consists of running to the bag, getting dressed in the outfit, running back with the bag, taking the costume off, and then the next person must put on the costume and run with the suitcase to the other side.
Go “Coconut Bowling.” Use a coconut as a bowling ball to knock over three pineapple pins.
Play “Pin the Monkey on the Palm Tree.”
Break open a tropical piñata. Kids can take the candy home as a favor.
THE CRAFTS
Provide each guest with an index card that has his or her name spelled in traditional Hawaiian. The kids can make name tags or bracelets with their traditional Hawaiian names.
Make leis.
Do face painting. Tropical palm trees or fruits are fun.
Decorate sand dollars with glitter and glue.
THE MENU
Set up a “Snack Shack,” a cute storefront for guests to scoop up snacks at their leisure, including:
Fruit salad—try to include some tropical fruits in the mix, like pineapple
Veggies with a ranch dip
Crackers and cheese
Chips and dip
Pass or place:
Hawaiian meatballs
Hawaiian pizza
Fish-shaped sandwiches
Goldfish crackers
Pineapple boats
For dessert:
Fruit skewers with chocolate and other sweet sauces for dipping.
Cakes in ice cream cones. You can have the kids frost and decorate them with tropical flowers made from sugared candies.
For beverages:
Hawaiian Punch—add in cherries with an umbrella for extra flair
Shirley Temples
Juice
Milkshakes
Tropical fruit smoothies
THE PARTY FAVORS
Send the kids home with a sand pail filled with candy, bubbles, tropical stickers and a fish notepad.
You could also give your guests hula-hoops or inflatable beach balls.
THANK-YOU NOTES
Be sure to include a picture or two from the party in your thank-you notes.
Lisa Kothari is the founder and president of Peppers and Pollywogs (www.peppersandpollywogs.com),
a kids’ party-planning company that provides parents with ideas, entertainers and interesting web-based tools (customized rhymes and cards for your invitations!) to make kids’ party planning easy. She has recently written and published Dear Peppers and Pollywogs… What Parents Want to Know About Planning Their Kids’ Parties, which is available at www.amazon.com and www.peppersandpollywogs.com.
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