INVITATIONS:
Get some regular sized chocolate bars. Carefully remove the liable. If there is not a foil wrapper on it, wrap it neatly in aluminum foil. Take Gold or yellow construction paper, and cut it to size so it will wrap around the chocolate bar. Write your party invitation with green and purple pens or markers and wrap the paper around the bar with the information on the inside. On the outside of the label, write the guests name, and the words, "Laissez les bon temps rouler," which means, "let the good times roll." Either pass it out to your guests, or put the bars in envelopes and mail them.
DECORATIONS:
Traditional colors of Mardi Gras are green, purple and gold, so you'll want to include as many of these colors as possible. Hang holiday lights around the room, if you can find a set in a single color. Green is usually easy to come by around Christmas. Use purple and gold streamers, and try to find your table cloths and table settings in the traditional colors.
Make banners on some scrap material depicting jesters or crawfish. Hang them around the room.
Get some cardboard and cut out the shapes of the theater masks, tragedy and comedy. Cut out the facial features (some smiling, some frowning). Coat them with craft glue and lay them in a foil tray filled with gold glitter. Hang them around the room.
Get green, gold or purple Christmas ball ornaments. Tack a string or clothes line across a wall. Hang the ornaments on the string so that they are right next to each other, touching. This garland will look like a giant string of popular Mardi Gras beads.
Make a centerpiece by putting floral foam in a bowl or basket, and stuffing the mouthpiece of noisemakers into it, so that they all stand up like a noisemaker bouquet. The kids can take them to toot during the celebration.
Get some New Orleans brass band music, or zydeco (Cajun country music), to have playing when your guests arrive.
ACTIVITIES:
Upon entering your party, direct your guests to a craft table where they can make their own Mardi Gras masks. You can purchase pre-made plastic, cardboard or foam mask shapes, and have out an assortment of decorating materials: craft glue, beads, markers (paints will take too long to dry), fabric scraps, and, of course, a big bag of assorted colored craft feathers. They can then wear their masks for the party.
Play "pass the baby." This is a game like "hot potato," only using the traditional Mardi Gras baby, which stems from the celebrations religious roots. Play music (Mardi Gras music recordings are not hard to come by), and have the children pass around the baby. Whoever is holding the baby when the music stops is out. Keep going until one winner emerges. You may wish to "crown" this person with a paper crown and make them king or queen of the Mardi Gras ball.
Have a "Treasure Hunt" game. Before your guests arrive, hide a large quantity of Mardi Gras beads and "doubloons," which are silver or gold coins imprinted with parade krewe logos. For under $20, you can obtain hundreds of beads and doubloons from party stores or Mardi Gras supply web sites. Let the kids go on a hunt to find as many as they can. They can them wear them and play with them for the rest of the party.
"Doubloon Toss" is a game for kids to play with their doubloons once they find them. Get several empty cans in various sizes (tuna, vegetable, coffee). Clean them out, cover them with bright construction paper, and write a number on the front of them. This number will be the points for getting the doubloon in this can, so make the larger targets worth less, and the smaller targets worth more. Set the cans on the floor in a cluster. Children have to stand back and take turns tossing all their doubloons into the cans. Whenever they get one into a can, they add up the points. Whoever gets the most points wins.
REFRESHMENTS
Go for the traditional Louisiana fare-- gumbo, jambalaya, or steamed craw fish! If your friends are not sea food enthusiasts, try making a chicken gumbo, or pork jambalaya with bits of ham and rib meat. Don't forget the dirty beans and rice.
Make colorful punches out of fruit juices, ginger ale and sherbets for your guests.
No Mardi Gras is complete without a traditional "king cake." This delectable pastry cake is decorated with icing and sprinkled with colored green, yellow and purple sugars. If you don't want to make a king cake, make a regular cake and sprinkle the white frosting with pixie stick sugars. Or, line up cup cakes, each sprinkled with a different color sugar, on a tray.
GOODY BAGS
Inside a bag or pouch, place some chocolate doubloons, pixie sticks (green, yellow and purple), a plastic jester hat or crown pin, little jester or mask toys or key chains.
