St. Valentine’s Family Party
Posted by: Rebecca on: February 2, 2010
Let’s start off A YEAR OF CREATIVE PARTYING with something just in time for Valentine’s Day.
THEME: Valentine’s Day, homemade valentines
INVITATIONS: Get together all kinds of craft supplies–colored paper, doilies, old cards and magazines, glue, scissors, glitter, fancy trims, lace, fabric, crayons, markers, paint, silk flowers, stickers, etc.–and create your own line of valentine cards. Inside, put a rhyming message, something like:
“Roses are red; rain clouds are gray;
Come join the family for Valentine’s Day.”
Give the time and place, and ask each family unit to bring their favorite Valentine’s Day dessert. You might also ask them to dress in red, white or pink. If this event is part of a family reunion, you may also wish to include other information.
MATERIALS FOR ACTIVITIES: A slip of paper with each person’s name on it; hat or box to draw names from; materials to make valentines–colored construction paper, paper doilies, glue or paste, scissors, tape, valentine stickers, crayons or colored markers, pens or pencils, glitter, trims, old cards and magazines, etc.; a decorated valentine box; prizes, if desired–such as a small box of chocolates or small stuffed animal; materials for other game(s) desired; piano, keyboard or guitar and music to well-known love songs; riddle placecards, if desired.
FOOD: Each family unit will bring a dessert, so there should be plenty of food. You should provide a red or pink punch (how about “Raspberry Lemonade” or some other Party Punch), and maybe some strawberry cheesecake ice cream, if desired. You could also have candy dishes of nuts and candy hearts set around the house.
DECORATIONS: You can do as much as you want with the traditional valentine colors of red, white and pink. There are the usual streamers and balloons, as well as purchased decorations. A nice touch would be some floral arrangements, whether fresh or silk, set atop doilies. You could craft a heart-shaped wreath for the door with a shaped coat-hanger, covered with fabric and lace. Or buy a heart-shaped grapevine wreath and decorate with lace, ribbon, silk or dried flowers, white baby’s breath or statice, and perhaps a little Cupid. Cover long tables with a lace cloth over a plain red one. Cover round tables with a tablecloth in red, pink or white, topped with a small square of contrasting fabric or lace. Set out pleasant potpourri in baskets or bowls of an appropriate color.
Dian Thomas, in her book Today’s Tips for Easy Living (Holladay, UT: The Dian Thomas Company, p. 79), gives a fun idea for a centerpiece which could also be used as a prize for the best valentine, if you wish to award prizes. To make a “Sweet Valentine Bouquet,” you will need: a clean flowerpot or empty can, red paint or valentine wrapping paper, glue, eyelet lace to go around top and bottom of can, 2 dozen flower-shaped cookies with holes in the center, 1 to 2 dozen large heart-shaped red gumdrops, 1 to 2 dozen bamboo skewers, red ribbon, green asparagus fern (available at florist’s shop), and 2 3″-thick pieces of styrofoam to fit in the can.
Paint the can or flowerpot red or cover with the wrapping paper. Glue eyelet trim around top and bottom of can. Glue the styrofoam to inside bottom of can. (It also works to fill the can half full of marbles or jelly beans.) To make flowers, push a skewer through the center of one of the gumdrops, through the center of a cookie and then another gumdrop. Push cookie and gumdrops together on end of skewer. Insert other end of skewer into styrofoam inside pot or can. Tie a red bow under the cookie “flower.” Repeat to make as many edible “flowers” as desired. Cut the skewers so flowers will be different heights. Add the fern to contrast with your bouquet. (This idea can be used for other occasions by changing color of can, gumdrops and ribbon.)
BLOW-BY-BLOW: As the relatives arrive, greet them warmly, and set their desserts on a buffet. They visit until all are present. At this point, everyone draws a name from a hat or box. (If a person draws his own name, he must draw again.) The name drawn is the one for whom the person will make a special valentine. This name should be kept secret until the valentines are handed out.
Now, everyone sits down at a table or tables covered with supplies for crafting their valentines. The only rule is that the valentine have the person’s name on it and some short message. The message may be funny or serious, poetic or prosaic. All that counts is creativity and uniqueness. When the valentines are finished, they are placed in the special Valentine Box.
At this point, another game is played. (Depending on your group, you may wish to separate adults and children for two different activities suited to their ages, or you may have everyone join in an active game.) You can modify just about any favorite game to fit the valentine theme. For instance, Quick-Draw Relay can use words like “lovebirds,” “rose” and “kisses” for the artists to convey. (One activity that teens and adults might enjoy is to have everyone sit in a circle. Each person is given a paper and pencil and asked to write his name at the top of the paper. Then, on a signal, everyone passes his paper to the right. They are then given one to two minutes to write what they like most about the person whose name is on the paper, before they must pass it on again, folded down to cover what they wrote. This is continued until the papers have completed the circle. Then each person may unfold and read what everyone likes about him or her.)
After the second activity, everyone gathers together and you (the hostess) hand out the valentines ceremoniously from the decorated box. The recipients may try to guess whom their valentines are from. You may award prizes for prettiest, most creative, funniest, etc., if desired.
When everyone has read his valentine, it’s time for the dessert. To find their places at the table(s), the guests must solve riddles written on the placecards. (If you are having a more casual dessert and not sitting down at tables, just skip this activity.) A sample riddle might read something like this:
“Roses are red; my hair is, too.
Dad’s on my left; to my right is Aunt Sue.”
After delicious dessert and delightful conversation, the musician in the family sits down at the piano or with the guitar and accompanies a sing-along of well-known love songs, old and new, to top off the evening.
Variations and Comments: Of course, this party can be adapted for teens, singles, or couples by adding some more games and maybe some dancing.
One activity the children might enjoy while the adults are doing something else is to work together making a “candygram” for the oldest relative. Give them a piece of posterboard, a marker, some tape and a number of different candy bars. They collaborate and write a message including the names of the candy bars, taping the candy to the poster at the appropriate places. Then they make their presentation.
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Pioneer Party
Posted by: Rebecca on: January 25, 2010
THEME: Our pioneer heritage
INVITATIONS: Cut construction paper into shapes of covered wagons and write the messages on them. Or, if you are hand-delivering the invitations, make miniature covered wagons from matchboxes, wire, tissue and cardboard. Write the message on slips of paper which you fold up and place inside the wagon. Ask guests to dress in pioneer garb, if possible. This party could work for teens, young adults, adults, or families.
MATERIALS FOR ACTIVITIES: At least two homemade “covered wagons” or handcarts (made from children’s red wagons or packing crates); guitar or harmonica player; copies of the lyrics to some old songs, such as “Oh, Susanna,” “Old Folks at Home,” “The Old Chisolm Trail,” “Home on the Range,” “All is Well,” etc.; meadow with campfire area; logs for the fire; folding chairs; props and script for the melodrama.
FOOD: At this party, you can choose to serve a full chuckwagon dinner or just some simple refreshments. For the dinner, try to make it as authentic as possible. For the main dish, try Wild Game Chili or Venison Stew. If game meat doesn’t sit well with your group, use conventional beef. Cook the dish at home but keep it warm over the campfire. You could also try foil-pack dinners, cooked right in the coals. To accompany the meal, serve Pioneer Crackers or baking powder biscuits. Top off with Bachelor’s Pudding, mincemeat pie or homemade taffy. Drink herb tea, or water from canteens.
If you’re just rustling up some light refreshments, you won’t need so much authenticity. In addition to the desserts mentioned above, you could have everyone roast marshmallows for s’mores or just by themselves. If you prefer a saltier snack, beef jerky and fried pork rinds are possibilities.
DECORATIONS: Only those that Nature provides are needed, but some outdoor lighting to supplement the campfire might be nice.
BLOW-BY-BLOW: As guests arrive, you, the host, take them around and introduce them to the others, using quaint and rustic speech. Then divide them into teams, one for each “prairie schooner” or handcart. Lining up at a starting line, the guests run a relay where the team members must push or pull their team’s vehicle to a finish line and back, until all the team members have completed the “trek.” The first team to do this wins the honor of being called “The Trailblazers.” 
If you are serving dinner, then the guests now gather around the campfire and partake. If not, pass out the lyrics to the old songs, and the guitarist or harmonica-player accompanies a sing-along. Next, it is time for some Charades, using only pioneer words and names. The last activity of the night is a pioneer melodrama. You draft certain guests to play the starring roles, and the rest will act the important part of audience, complete with participation–heckling, cheering, booing, hissing and the like. The participant who will be the narrator takes a moment to look over the script, while you prepare the other players with costumes and props. When all is ready, the narrator begins and the actors and actresses follow his cues, improvising and ad libbing as inspiration strikes.
When the drama concludes, the guests settle down before the fire again to eat dessert (or other refreshments) before heading home.
Variations and Comments: You may wish to use some alternative activities, such as dancing the “Virginia Reel,” or playing old-fashioned games like Musical Chairs or Wink. Another idea is to have the handcart teams take their vehicles on an obstacle course through the woods, where Indians (well-placed helpers) ambush them. Time each team with a stopwatch, and give a prize of beef jerky to the team with the best time. Or, eliminate the competitive element and take everyone on a trek fraught with dangers and difficulties, ending by “circling the wagons” around the campfire. You could also interject a bit of real history to educate your guests a little! There are loads of possibilities.
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