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Mardi
Gras
Party
Plan by Party Consultant Michelle Hylton
Updated:
02/07/2010
Multiple vendors in party plan.
Mardi
Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday".
Mardi
Gras Carnival season begins on January 6th, the Twelfth Night, Epiphany or Kings
Day and ends on Fat Tuesday.
Mardi
Gras falls on Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of the 40-day
(not counting the 6 Sundays) season
of Lent (or 46 days before Easter).
This
year, Mardi Gras falls on February 16, 2010.
The
colors of Mardi Gras are:
Purple
for Justice
Green
for Faith
Gold
for Power
This
theme can be used year round for:
Birthdays
Bachelor
or Bachelorette Parties
Auctions/Fundraisers
Proms
Family
Reunions
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INVITATION
IDEAS |
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Create A Mask Invite |
Bead Invitation |
Write on a Crown |
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Use these inexpensive
masks and a permanent marker to invite
your guests. |

Attach a printed note to
beads
and hand deliver or place in a colorful envelope. |

Use a black permanent marker and write
your invite on the inside of these crowns, flatten and mail or hand
deliver.
Mardi Gras Paper Crowns Asst. (12 count)
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New Party Ticket Invitation
Give out the Hottest Ticket
in Town for Your Football Party!
You Customize it!
Printed on Authentic Ticket
Stock!

(Click on ticket
to enter store)
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DECORATING
IDEAS |
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Buffet Table Decor |
Room
Decor |
More
Ideas |
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Start
with a rich
purple
table cover and
Mask centerpiece
or this new
Mardi Gras Celebration Centerpiece .
Toss colorful
beads and
doubloons on the table.
Wrap
gold utensils in
Mardi
Gras napkins with purple, gold
and green
curling ribbon.
If your looking to light up the night,
try some fun
light up glasses, straws or ice cubes.
New Party Kits!
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Scene Setters are Hot!
Transform your party room into a New
Orleans party scene. You can add street signs, terraces, borders,
Jazz musicians and more to set the scene for your party!
Don't forget
sticky tack!
Add
garland,
mask swirls,
columns and more to create a grand
entrance.
Balloons
are the most inexpensive way to decorate a room. Use
Mardi Gras colors of gold, green and purple for helium balloons and then
add a few large Mylars pictures below.
Masquerade Star Balloon
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Create your own
Mardi Gras banner for your party
or event.
Hang a
Mardi
Gras Mask Piñata in the party room.
Hang the
four faces of gold or other
masks on the walls of your party room.
The perfect pack for 24 guests with hats,
masks, noisemakers and more for a salute to Mardi Gras
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ADULT ACTIVITIES |
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Costume
Contest
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Mardi Gras Scrabble |
Doubloon Toss |
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On your invitation make
sure to tell your guest to wear a costume. About halfway through the
evening announce the winner.
Now voting can be done by the
hostess/host only, or have guest write in their choice, collect, tally and
announce a winner.
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Select a Mardi Gras term or phrase like
"French Mardi Gras", "Fat Tuesday" or "French Quarters".
Give each guest a piece of paper and pen
and start a timer for 1 minute or whatever amount of time you think
feasible.
Guest must try to make as many words as
they can from the term used.
The guest with the most correct words
win. Be prepared for ties, so have a few prizes handy.
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Create a carnival game where you toss
doubloons into shot glasses. Use plastic
shot glasses and mark them with colored sharpies or paint. Mark three cups
green, two cups purple and one gold, leave four clear. You may have to tape
cups down or fill with a little sand
(or dried rice) to keep from tipping.
Clear is worth 1 pts.
Green is worth 2 pt.
Purple is worth 3 pts.
Gold is worth 5 pts.
Give each player 6 doubloons
(representing January 6th the start of Carnival Season).
You can have two guests play against each
other. Give winners a prize or beads. |
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Bead Game |
Mardi Gras Trivia |
Crown a King & Queen of the Party
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How many beads can you
get? That's the object of most Mardi Gras parade goers.
Create a game for your
guest in which they get beads. The person with the most beads at the end
of the evening wins a prize.
Two options are:
1. Start each guest off
with 6 bead necklaces. While talking to another party guest, you
try to get them to say the word "BEAD". If you succeed you get to
take one of their bead necklaces. You can choose another
Mardi Gras term as well or assign a word to each of the three colors of
Mardi Gras.
2. Use this in
conjunction with trivia questions. Various times throughout the party
shout out a trivia question, whoever gets it right gets a bead necklace. |
Create trivia cards and play
in teams or play rounds with couples until you have a winner.
You can start with simple trivia questions
like:
1. What does Mardi Gras mean?
2. What are the colors of Carnival
Celebrations?
3. What item is found in the Kings Cake?
4. What day starts the Carnival Celebration?
5. What is the name given to the private
clubs that organize Mardi Gras events?
Then start adding harder ones. Here is a link
to some Mardi Gras/Carnival History and terms.
History of Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras Trivia Questions |
This can be a fun crowning ceremony in
which the host and hostess crowns the King & Queen of the party.
Determining who gets this honor can be
done in conjunction with the costume contest, winners of the Trivia
game, the guest who get the cake pieces with the
King's babies in it.
You could also do a simple name drawing
for the ladies and fellows.
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CHILDREN
ACTIVITIES |
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Create
Decorative Mask
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Create
A Carnival Float
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Pass the Baby |
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Using
our metallic color mask, have kids create their own wild Mardi Gras
Mask. They can add glitter, feathers, sequins and more. I
removed the elastic, punched two small holes and attached and hot glued
a thin wooden dowel for a handle.

Start with metallic mask and glue dowel
in place. Let dry. Then set up a crafting table with glitter, feathers,
beads, cording, sequins and craft glue. Let your guest be creative.
Finished
Design is
to the left.
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Save
shoe boxes or ask guest to bring shoe boxes to decorate. Take the
lid off and turn the box upside down to decorate. The lid slips onto side
of the box to create the back of the float. Kids can paint, glue
material or colorful paper strips onto the boxes. Provide lots of craft
supplies like sequins, glitter, ribbons, stickers, etc for them to
decorate with. Let them dry while you play games and eat. Later have
a parade, let the kids hold their floats and parade around the room.
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Like
"Hot Potato", using a
small baby doll that resembles a Kings Cake baby.
(Do not use our King Cake Babies they are
not recommended for children due to their very small size. Use a larger
toy doll for this game.)
Play till there is one player left who is crowned the
KING. Use our
Jeweled
Crown
or
Mardi
Gras Crown.
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Face Painting |
Mardi Gras Coloring |
Piñata
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Set up a station to
face paint on some fabulous
designs for the celebration. |
Click
here for some pictures to download and print in B&W for kids to
color. You can also print color versions for decorations. |
Mardi
Gras Mask Piñata |
More
Links:
Send
a Mardi Gras E-Card

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