Fourth of July is just around the corner, so light up the onset of summer with a great gathering. Start your plans now so that you can insure your guests will be available as that is always a busy holiday. You can print or buy invitations or save your money for fun party favors and games and make calls or send emails. If you are thinking this will be annual event, as ours is, name your party. We used “Fourth of July Free-For-All” as a joke many years back and it has stuck. Our family tradition is to host a pot luck barbeque. We supply the burgers, dogs and drinks. All of guests bring the rest. Our town parade is usually over by noon and people start arriving around 4. That gives us time to get back to the house and get everything set up and allows our guest to enjoy a cooler time of the day. We never know exactly how many guests we will have, as our kids are infamous for inviting just about anyone they see! They all come home every year for this favorite family tradition and always bring an entourage with them Even with that chaos, we have never run short of food or drink.
Since we make this 4th of July party a family affair, there are a multitude of age groups here and we try to plan fun activities for one and all. We make sure to have enough chairs and tables set out so that the older crowd can relax and be comfortable. There are coolers of soft drinks and water; juice boxes for the little ones and kegs of beer for the adults. We set up a grilling station and there is always someone with a chef hat on making the food to order. We make sure he is well taken care of by volunteering for that job! We bring in toys for the little ones and always plan games and activities for the rest. Finally we always have party favors. Fireworks are illegal in our state, so the favors are always of a “light up” variety. Light up leis, mugs, drink stirrers.. you name it, we have had them. They always add a touch of fun to the gathering. On the years that our town has a fireworks display, we all head to the town center with our light up paraphrenalia to watch the show!
If you would like to read more about our annual Fourth of July gathering and get some great ideas for games and favors, check out Celebration Ideas Online.
Carol is married with four grown children whose family loves to celebrate everything! She works full-time as an account executive. Carol has been active with the kids and all their activities over the years. She served as a PTA President as well as President of numerous school booster clubs and sat on both school advisory boards as well as scholarship selection committees. Her favorite hobby now that the kids are all on their own or off to college is her web site: Celebration Ideas Online. It was started as an album of family celebrations and has since developed into a resource center for anyone looking for celebration ideas. Her site also has good advice on the celebrating the college search and application process, developing Booster Club ideas and making GREAT college care packages. Visit Celebration Ideas Online and start creating your own terrific family celebrations and traditions.