If you are looking for fun 50th birthday party ideas, throwing a Mardi Gras party can be a great time. If the 50-year-old you’re throwing the party for is fun-loving, one of the best 50th birthday party ideas is to have a Mardi Gras-themed event. Here are ideas and details on how to throw a Mardi Gras birthday party.
invitations
Nothing is more exciting than receiving a package of candy in the mail. Make a large batch of pecan pralines, print out a recipe card, and add the invitation information to the back. Send the treats to your guests and you’re sure to get a good turnout.
Buy or make your own Mardi Gras masks using colored construction paper, sequins, feathers, and elastic string. Attach party information to the back of the mask with instructions to show up in costume!
Buy Mardi Gras beads in bulk and send two or three strands to each guest with an attached card with the party information written on it. This will be a setup for a party game later!
Print images of Bourbon Street or a Mardi Gras parade on cardstock. Include party information on the back.
decorations
Mardi Gras beads are extremely versatile. They can not only be used as part of a festive costume, but can also be used for decoration. Hang the beads from anywhere you can, from ceiling fans, to tables, to your guests’ necks!
Don’t forget that the official colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold. Purple represents justice, green represents faith, and gold represents power. Incorporate these colors anywhere possible from plates, napkins, tablecloths, and cutlery. Buy cheap feather boas and hang them on the wall. Find realistic or chocolate doubloons and scatter them throughout the party area.
Try to find the street signs of New Orleans. You can make them by searching for images online and printing them out. If you want larger decorations, take the images to a print shop and make poster-sized images of jazz musicians, the infamous New Orleans balconies, or a grand Mardi Gras parade scene.
An amazing welcome to your guests will be recreating your own version of a Mardi Gras parade float at the party entrance. Be sure to check the weather if you plan to put the float outside.
food
If you’ve ever been to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, you know that the best local food is crayfish. Get a big pot and boil your own crabs or shrimp. Add the potatoes, corn and andouille sausage. Go traditional New Orleans by tossing your boil on a large picnic table, seat your guests around the table, and eat.
You can’t go wrong with the family-style large bowls of Cajun-style spicy red beans and rice, Jambalaya and Gumbo.
Serve hurricanes in glasses at least 24 oz. or traditional “patio” glasses, usually 17 inches tall and 25 oz. Add festivity by using light up straws, ice cubes and glasses.
Games
No Mardi Gras party is complete without festive games. Host a southern cooking competition. The best tasting food will win a prize and help feed your guests.
With all the crawfish boiled, seat your guests for a timed eating contest. Boning bodies and sucking heads included.
Mardi Gras instills the desire to dress up in an extravagant costume. Organize a parade when your guests arrive. And later in the evening to crown the king and queen.
Have your guests put on five strands of beads each. The object of the game is to kill all accounts by any means. Make deals with each other, scam people with their own, however you can get the most accounts at the end of the night, give the prize to the winner.
Enjoy your night with some Dixieland Jazz playing in the background.
Pie
A Mardi Gras party is not complete with the traditional King Cake. Originally, rich plantation owners hid precious jewels inside the cake. In the mid-1900s, it became a tradition to hide a small plastic baby as a symbol of Holy Day, inside the cake. Each guest will take a piece of the cake and whoever finds the baby becomes the king or queen of the night and is tasked with hosting next year’s party.
Make strings of colored beads by baking small cupcakes 24 at a time, decorating them with colored icing, and arranging them on the plate in the shape of a string of beads.
Try carving a mask shape out of a rectangular cake and using edible decorations to create a festive masterpiece.