How to Throw a Mardi Gras Party

Mardi Gras beads are a traditional, fun, and cheap way to liven up your party.  Hand out lots of metallic, colorful beads to everyone.  Children really like this custom.  Beads can also be a reward for best costume, or best food dish that someone has brought.

Or you can have people make their own Mardi Gras bead necklaces at your party.

To make less preparation for you, because you should have fun too, make the Mardi Gras party a potluck.  Assign each guest one or two dishes to bring, and save the specialty items for yourself.  That way you can include special treats, and the guests won't feel too stressed by what to bring.

Potlucks work best if you give people a general idea of what to bring.  You can say something like: Suzy is bring roast beef, and Mary is bringing salad, so why don't you bring a dessert?  That way the guests are guided to a type of dish, but not pressured into an exact item (unless you know that Suzy makes the best chili in the neighborhood, then you should ask Suzy if she will make her world famous chili).  Potlucks are also good because it spreads the costs of the Mardi Gras party around, and no one has to spend a lot of money.

Simple games are fun for a Mardi Gras party.  If you are starting with a group of people that don't know each other very well, begin your games with some kind of name game or introduction game.  This way people will meet each other and feel more comfortable.

After the first game, you can have indoor activities like Nerf darts, bobbing for apples, three legged races (if you have enough room), or board games.  To the right are some terrific resources for party games.

Costumes and colorful masks are one of the biggest parts of Mardi Gras, and during the cold, gray winter season we can all use some color in our lives.

Have a costume contest for your Mardi Gras party and offer a fun reward for people that participate to encourage your friends to get into it more.  Or you can have a game at the party where they have to create a costume from things you have in a bag.  You can always buy Mardi Gras costumes but I think it is a lot more fun to make them yourself.

Just in case you have some friends who don't have time or forget about the costumes, have some extra masks on hand to hand out.