Bring the feel of the islands to your luau party with decorations.
A luau theme brings images of Hawaii to your party. Say "aloha" to your guests with decorations that set a beach-like mood. Decorations can be purchased or found in attics, garage sales or in the closets of your friends and neighbors. You may be surprised how many people have straw hats that aren't being used. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Outdoors
1. Welcome guests with tiki torches lining outdoor walkways and patios. For a more decorative look, accent the torches with tropical flowers like hibiscus.
2. Use a child's wading pool as an outdoor decoration. Fill with ice and use it as a cooler for beverages. An alternative use would be to fill a small wading pool with sand and place children's sand buckets, shovels, and seashells on the sand.
3. Add wind chimes or paper lanterns to accent outdoor decorations.
Indoor Decorations
4. Have a basket of leis by the door where guests arrive. If possible, greet each guest in a grass skirt and give out the leis with a personal "aloha."
5. Hang a bamboo curtain in a doorway, or have blue streamers cascade from the top of the doorframe to emulate a waterfall.
6. Make good use of palm tree decorations on the floors, walls and tables. You can purchase inflatable palm trees or cardboard cutouts. Small things, like palm tree drink mixers, also add to the party theme.
7. Decorate walls and side tables with tribal masks, oars, shells, straw hats and grass skirts. Ask friends and neighbors to dig through closets and basements for items to decorate your luau.
Table Settings
8. Cover serving tables with green tablecloths and raffia table skirts. Scatter sand dollars or luau-themed confetti on the tables.
9. Use pineapples as table centerpieces. Poke small umbrellas like those found in tropical drinks in the pineapples to make them look more festive. Alternative table centerpieces could be bowls of tropical fruit adorned with hibiscus flowers or palm fronds covered with mangos or other tropical fruit.
10. Write names of guests on sand dollars and use as place settings.
11. Use tropical colors when choosing place mats. Consider mango yellow, tropical pink or ocean blue.
Tags: friends neighbors, guests with, palm tree, sand dollars, straw hats