Turn your party into a Polynesian paradise with a luau theme. You guests will enjoy being transported to a tropical isle where they can sip fruit smoothies and learn to hula dance. Luau parties don't have to be expensive. Give basic foods and games an easy tropical style for a party that will be fun, refreshing and relaxing. Does this Spark an idea?
Decorations
Welcome your party guests with a surfboard at the door. Use a folded-up ironing board and cover it with fabric or a blanket, or cut a surfboard shape out of a large appliance box. Cover the tables with green paper and cut fringes on the overhang to look like a grass skirt. Decorate with streamers and balloons in bright, tropical colors. Use large pieces of cardboard or posterboard to cut out and paint palm trees to place around the room. Scatter seashells and tropical-colored candies on the tables. Give each guest a lei and a grass skirt to wear (available at craft stores or party supply stores). Have Hawaiian music or ocean sounds playing in the background.
Food
Serve refreshing fruit smoothies with umbrella drink decorations on top. Have fruit salad, or put small pieces of fruit on skewers. For a main course there are a variety of options. Have Hawaiian pizza with pineapple topping. Cook shell-shaped pasta and serve with different sauces. Fish sticks are also a popular choice with children. You can also make tuna sandwiches and cut them out with a fish-shaped cookie cutter.
Activities
Once everyone has on a grass skirt, it will only be a matter of time before someone starts doing the hula. Teach your guests hula by dancing along to an instructional DVD, or you can invite a local instructor and have a group lesson. For a low-cost option, have a few hula hoops on hand so guests can practice their hip-swinging.
If you don't give out leis as guests arrive, have them make their own using fabric flowers and fishing line. Thread the line through the center of the flowers with a needle and tie the two ends together. Another craft activity is sand painting. Provide paper, pencils, white glue and a variety of colored sand (available at craft stores). The guests outline a tropical scene on the paper, fill in the outlines with a thin layer of glue, and then pour the sand onto the glue.
Set up a relay race with a tropical flair. Divide the guests into two teams. For each team have two beach pails, each with a bundle of luau clothes: hat, sunglasses, grass skirt, lei and flip-flops. Set the pails a dozen yards away from the teams. Each person on the team has to run to the pail, put on the clothes, run back to the team, take off the clothes and give them to the next person. The next person puts on the clothes, runs to and from the pail and repeats with the next team member. The first team to complete the race wins.
Tags: grass skirt, available craft, available craft stores, craft stores, fruit smoothies, Have Hawaiian, next person