Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day and Awards Show Ragers to Remember
ith the holidays and New Year’s Eve in the rearview mirror, you may be ready to settle in for a long winters nap. Don’t hang up your party hat just yet— Hollywood, the NFL and St. Valentine are throwing great party themes your way. From the red carpet to the red zone, we’ll help you get through the big chill, one party at a time.
SUPER BOWL
On Sunday, February 6, sports fans and friends of sports fans will unite to observe football’s national holiday. There’s never a better excuse to get together, yell at the T.V. and eat everything that isn’t nailed down. At Plum Party, we think the only way to do a Super Sunday bash is to project a casual, come-as-you-are vibe. Think easy prep, easy clean up, and an atmosphere that makes guests feel like they’re watching the game from their own favorite chairs, only better!
The Game Plan
Choose invitations with as much selling power as a first TV time-out commercial. We love our 3-D Spitfire Girl football invitations, or cards that tempt guests through their tummies—pizza and BBQ-themed invitations are good bets. Kick off the festivities with a no-sports-knowledge-required betting grid, so even the clueless can get involved. Anything’s interesting when you’ve got money riding on it!
While we like to provide a little something for everyone, the big game is the main event—make sure viewing conditions are ideal. If your 27-incher just doesn’t cut it, splurge and rent a big screen TV. If your couches don’t offer ample seating, stack some comfy cushions on the floor or rent folding chairs and set them up in movie theater-style rows.
If your crowd has more than a few members who don’t know a touchdown from an interception, treat them to a Foot Ball in an adjoining room. Hire spa technicians to give foot massages and pedicures and screen football crowd-pleasers like Rudy, Wildcats and Remember the Titans. Trust us: true sports fans may appreciate keeping all of the unrelated gab confined to the luxury box.
Looks Like Team Spirit
Deck your living room out to rival the stands in Jacksonville. Bring in the team colors with banners, Fun Fringe and Creative Crepe. If you’re crowd is pretty neutral, can’t-miss colors include bold reds, oranges and yellows (the international colors of food that is bad for us—why else would all of those fast food restaurants share the same color palette?). Line every surface with an Astroturf runner and scatter football and beer trivia coasters on top.
The Food Court
For a couch potato spread that would make Homer Simpson drool, serve chips & dips, nachos & salsa, six-foot subs, ribs and pizza cafeteria-style. We’ve got the trays, sandwich baskets and no-fuss squeeze bottles to make it authentic. Use football-shaped cookie cutters to make mini PB&Js. The kicker? A hot dog bar with homemade chili and all the fixin’s. Have tons of plasticware and napkins (in our diner-style dispenser) on hand—the goal is to get through the clean-up without having to do a single dish. Keep football-shaped serving dishes filled with popcorn and candy dispensers with chocolate footballs close to the couch for mindless mid-quarter munching.
When guests ask, “What can I bring?,” tell them to pick up a sixer of their favorite beer. Present it on ice in colorful metal basins with our handy ‘etch it’ cups, so guests can keep tabs on their brewskis.
Are you ready for some football? (We think so.)
Valentine’s Day
Whether you love Valentine’s Day or love to hate it, we’ve got entertaining ideas that will win your amour. Now back away from the Whitman’s sampler and check out our tips for a V-day so very un-Hallmark-y that you just might like it.
If You’ve Been Kissed By Cupid
Invite a mix of sweethearts and singles to your love nest for cocktails. Float a sexy Moroccan vibe with rose petals sprinkled in the driveway and a torrent of red bubble glass votives and beaded candleholders to cast alluring shadows. If you’re hosting a sit-down dinner, romance each guest with an ‘Art of Kissing’ book at each place setting. Red hot gummy bears in red flared bowls make lovely lovey dovey centerpieces. Our sophisticated glass spin-the-bottle toy keeps things interesting.
If You Think Cupid’s Stupid...
Opt for a “Crazy in Love” theme and have guests dress as notoriously bad couples, famous stalkers…you get the idea. Or, host an Ex-orcism. Use our little black book invitations to celebrate your friends’ freedom from those losers. Have everyone bring pictures of their most dastardly exes and let the ex-games begin! When guests arrive, give them each a conversation heart cookie on which to write an embarrassing tidbit of ex-trivia, from “He didn’t kiss a girl until junior year of college” to “She snores like a linebacker with a deviated septum.” Have guests guess which juicy morsel goes with which ex. Accessorize with Scandle Candles, naughty tattoos and Virgin/Slut soap. Check out our “Break-Up” theme party for more ideas.
If you’re a V-day cynic, well then, do you fondue? Serve a bubbling blend of Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses with veggies and cubes of crusty bread—it’s your “Cheesy Valentine’s Day” spread! Pair the fondue with your favorite garlicky, saucy side dishes…anything that it’s impossible to look sexy while eating. Chocolate and gummy shot glasses take the soiree to a whole new level. Line up bottles of your favorite spirits and label them “Love Potions Numbers 1-8,” and you may make some love connections yet.
Awards Show
The glitz. The glamour. The stuff she must have been smoking when she agreed to wear that dress! It’s awards show season—the Super Bowl of fashion, the Olympics of egos, the paparazzi prom—and we can’t get enough of it. Year after year, we gossip, we air kiss, we live vicariously, while at the same time, tearing it all to shreds. Trusts us, dah-lings, we’ve got the secret to awards show night bashes that would have A-listers clamoring for invitations.
Red Carpet 101
Make Joan and Melissa proud with a superstar red carpet welcome. Tempt guests to step their perfectly manicured toesies out of their limos with movie camera invitations or, if it suits your artistic vision, party details scrawled on yellow movie film in a tin canister. Set up a red carpet (ours is plastic…shh…don’t tell), complete with a glamourpuss star bar chock full of sunglasses, feather boas, beauty marks, cigarette holders and baseball-sized baubles, so guests can accessorize on the spot. Snap Polaroids of pals mugging and give an award for “Best Picture.”
Wolfgang Puck has been trying to put some meat on those scrawny celebrity bones post-awards-show for years. Fire up a bunch of his frozen pizzas and serve on our exclusive ‘Hollywood Glam’ platter for bona fide star bites. Throw in some caviar and champagne if you’re going for big budget blockbuster, or opt for nachos and soft drinks, if your funds are more of the ‘indie’ variety. Keep gold star containers piled high with chocolate film rolls and tickets. If you serve a surprise second course of buttered popcorn in retro plastic popcorn containers and boxes of movie candy piled on trays (our set features nine classic faves), we guarantee your guests will like you. They’ll really, really like you.
PlumParty's holiday calendar: one
month of easy ideas for hosting, guesting, giving, relaxing and enjoying.
thursday, december 1 - we've got spirit
So what if your neighbors have had their holiday decorations
up since Halloween and you still haven't gotten around to hauling out
your winter coats from under-bed storage. Just a few quick touches will
transform your space into an elegant and welcoming bastion of holiday
spirit. Snag a festive dazzler to hang on the front door-our hot holiday
felt wreath makes a hip statement. Display red
tin buckets filled with clementines or walnuts in their shells. Group
votive and pillar candles atop
silver lacquer coasters. Consider
your halls decked.
Saturday, december 3 - greetings,
salutations and shout-outs
If you plan on sending holiday cards or party invitations, this is the
weekend to do it. Post offices are slammed and social calendars book up
faster than Uncle Mel downs a cup of eggnog, so the earlier the better.
Save stamps and time by sending holiday cards only to faraway friends
and relatives. Invite the others to a holiday shindig where you can spread
the good cheer in person. Our "happy"
card covers all of the season's bases and our "la
flame" and "jingle, jingle" invitations set a lively
tone for holiday gatherings.
wednesday, december 7 - wish list, hold
the mayo
Get your holiday shopping done on your lunch break. Without ever leaving
your desk. No fighting over parking spaces, no waiting in line - online
shopping makes it easier than ever to snag the perfect gift for every
name on your list. From splurges to stocking
stuffers, some of Plum
Party's top picks:
sunday, december 11 - kitchen claus
One little afternoon in the kitchen nets gifts for the masses. Making
a large batch of edible treats is affordable way to spread holiday love
to a large group of people (co-workers, neighbors, fellow Lost fan club-members).
Simply separate the goodies into cool containers and they're ready to
give. Try star-shaped sugar cookies with blue sprinkles in gray
takeout containers, peppermint
bark in clear favor boxes,
or glass bottles of infused olive oil presented in felt
snowman wine bags.
wednesday, december 14 - wrap-sody chez
you
Invite pals over for present-wrapping
and pizza. Have each guest bring one roll of wrapping paper and a spool
of ribbon. Stock up on creative
crepe, fun fringe and
gift boxes, bags
and tags. Make sure to
have plenty of tape and scissors on hand. Crank up the holiday tunes and
get wrapping!
thursday, december 22 - winter solstice
shindig
Because everyone throws parties on Saturday nights and on New
Year's Eve, plus the shortest day of the year also means the longest
night! Mix it up with a Winter Wonderland cocktail fete on the Winter
Solstice. Primp your pad in silver and white-silver
lanterns, silver star garlands
and white feather boas. Serve
champagne cocktails and white cranberry cosmos in disposable
plastic flutes and martini glasses.
Tempt guests with ice cream "snowballs" rolled in sprinkles,
nuts and silver balls.
monday, december 26 - moo shu holidays
Stay in bed until 4pm and order Chinese delivery.
thursday, december 29 - in de-stress
Organize a spa night to de-stress from holiday mayhem and catch up with
the girls. Go for a yoga class, or, better yet, massages or pedis, and
then re-fuel at your place over edamame, a simple seared tuna salad and
green tea. Pass out "Positive
Energy" drink spots to keep the good vibes flowing.
saturday, december 31 - new year's eve
Host an intimate dinner for 6 before you hit the party circuit. Create
beaded charms with guests' initials
- napkin holders, place
cards and favors all
rolled into one. White poinsettias in pails
and mirrored balls make striking
centerpieces. Serve a simple, stick-to-your-ribs supper of caprese
salad, sauteed broccoli rabe and spaghetti and meatballs to help get you
through a night of champagne toasts.
sunday, january 1 - see december 26
New year, new you. Not yet. Why fight crowds at the gym? It'll still be
there tomorrow. Happy 2006!
Listen up, lazy Halloween costume offenders: this year, there will be no drawing
black makeup rings around one’s eyes and calling oneself a raccoon. There
will be no toting a telephone in an effort to pass oneself off as a telemarketer.
There will be no carrying around a beer and saying “I’m a college
student.” And there will certainly be no cutting-eye-holes-in-sheets malarkey.
Not on our watch.
How to motivate pals to put a little extra effort into their costumes? Host
a Halloween party with an awards show theme and a Transylvanian twist. Welcome
to the “The Spookies”, a costume awards ceremony that’s equal
parts V.I.P. and R.I.P., blood-red carpet and all. [browse
our halloween costume category]
Hype Your Haunt
Choose halloween
invitations in a de rigeur creepy motif; classic bats, witches and black
cats always get the job done. Our owl
eyes box invitations add a heightened air of Fright Night foreboding. Use
your invitations to announce the Spookies, to motivate guests to get creative
(mention prizes!) and to list your Spookies categories (Best Celebrity Impersonator,
Best Costume Made from Stuff that Was Lying Around the House, Best Guy in a
Dress, Best Costume Made Entirely of Tin Foil). If there’s not enough
room on the invitation itself, include a printed insert with Spookies categories.
The Red Carpet Massacre
Set up a haunted halloween awards pre-show
red carpet scene in the front yard or entryway to welcome Spookies “nominees”.
Unfurl our plastic red carpet and bedeck it with lifelike
black crows and tombstones. Go all out with a large
cardboard coffin with the lid slightly ajar to reveal a bloody appendage.
Use a metallic paint pen to scrawl on the coffin in large block letters, “Guest
Who Arrived without a Costume, R.I.P.” Snap Polaroid pictures of each
guest’s grand entrance and tack them to a corkboard.
Stiff Competition
Once your halloween guests have arrived, give them some time to mingle and check
each other out before voting. Display the corkboard with the pictures and spook
it up with a mummy garland and fake dripping blood. Set the scene for prime
costume-judging conditions: candlelight from creepy
candelabras, mist and horror movie sound effects. Position gargoyle,
ghost and mummy decorations throughout the room. Use our Gothtini
martini set to make eyeball martinis. Garnish supercold gin and vermouth
with radishes that have been peeled (leave thin ribbons of skin to look like
blood vessels) and stuffed with pimento olives. Give guests something simple
to munch on like roasted pumpkin seeds and crudite arranged on a platter to
look like a skeleton with dip for brains. Create Spookies ballots on the computer
and present them on a table with a collection of syringe and bat pens. Collect
all of the ballots and tally the votes in private. Be sure to record any funny
comments or honorable mentions for the ceremony.
The PlumParty Guide to Summer Grillfests, Well Done
Q: What’s the best way to entertain friends, relatives and neighbors all summer long without stress, high heels or turning on the oven?
A: The BBQ, of course! The perfect barbeque has something for everyone and practically throws itself. Choose your venue: backyard, rooftop, poolside or beach, and spark up the barbie (has there ever been a smell more intoxicating than smoking charcoal?!). With a little easy prep, a trusted pal on the grill, games for the kids and plenty of beer for everyone else, you’re free to linger over your margarita until the last rib bone has been sucked clean.
Q: How do I get guests fired up?
A: It’s all in the invitation. Opt for flip-flops invitations to float a casual come-as-you-are vibe, ideal for pool parties and seaside fetes. Our BBQ coaster invitations make guests thirsty for good friends, good eats and a frosty brew or two. For serious carnivores, you can’t lick our barbeque box invitations. Each features a barbeque illustration on the outside and opens to reveal a 3D animal figurine on a checkered tablecloth…saucy!
However you choose to rally hungry troops, indicate on the invitation whether they should bring anything in particular. Since barbeques often begin in the afternoon and last well into the evening, you want to make sure your guests are comfortable and prepared for the day’s activities. For example, “Bring a bathing suit, sweatshirt and lots of wet-naps!”
Q: How do I set the mood for grilling and chilling?
A: From seashells to palm trees and from hula girls to Uncle Sam, anything goes at a summer barbeque. Map out your space in your mind and determine where you envision guests eating, sitting and playing. String up Mexican celebration banners or lantern light strings around the perimeter of your deck or patio. Use striped beach mats to create different seating areas on the lawn. Treat each area as a little vignette, decorating it with conch shells and sand-filled pails with beach umbrella candles.
Q: How do I up the ante on the standard burgers & dogs menu?
A: Remember, there’s a reason that menu is so standard — everyone loves it! Instead of overhauling family faves, we recommend refining them with gourmet touches that make the menu exciting but not totally unrecognizable. We’re talking lamb burgers with mint pesto, salmon burgers, spiced black bean burgers or sirloin burgers made with Peter Luger’s sauce. Try tofu dogs and chicken sausages on sprouted wheat buns. Serve in unfussy plastic sandwich baskets or with our summer stripes paper goods. Boil ribs in vinegar and spices, marinate, grill and heap onto colorful graphic platters.
On the side, serve corn on the cob, veggie kabobs, coleslaw, relish and sauerkraut. Don’t forget ketchup and mustard in our retro-kitsch squeeze bottles. For dessert: a self-serve buffet of waffle cones, several gallons of ice cream, caramel sauce, hot fudge and sprinkles. Or, host an old school pie contest, blue ribbons and all. Have guests bake or buy (and try to pass off as homemade) their best-loved varieties and reward the baker whose pie is gobbled up first.
Q: Are there any special touches that will take my BBQ from ground chuck to finger-lickin’ flame-broiled fun?
A: Help pals get in the summer groove as soon as they arrive—pass out pairs of zany shades, from cat’s eye to heart-shaped to Risky Business styles. Stock up on beach balls and water guns for impromptu tossing and squirting. Have plenty of beach towels on hand for swimmers, sun worshippers and squirt victims. Our Tepper Jackson styles double as decor with their splashy, vibrant patterns. If you have access to a backgammon board, ping-pong table, croquet set and volleyball net, include them in your BBQ tableau and let guests choose their own adventures.
Even on the summer solstice, the sun goes down eventually. Take the edge off of putting another precious summer day to bed with creative favors. Bottle your own barbeque sauce, slap a bow on that bad boy and call it a day. Glue plastic ants to gingham takeout containers and fill with just-baked cookies, brownies or berry cobbler. Fill colorful bags, like our Mexican or floral mesh ones, with shell leis, ladybug lipgloss and ice cream stickers. Or, when in doubt, fill colorful beach pails with salt water taffy and call it a USDA Grade-A day!
Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day and Awards Show Ragers to Remember
ith the holidays and New Year’s Eve in the rearview mirror, you may be ready to settle in for a long winters nap. Don’t hang up your party hat just yet— Hollywood, the NFL and St. Valentine are throwing great party themes your way. From the red carpet to the red zone, we’ll help you get through the big chill, one party at a time.
SUPER BOWL
On Sunday, February 6, sports fans and friends of sports fans will unite to observe football’s national holiday. There’s never a better excuse to get together, yell at the T.V. and eat everything that isn’t nailed down. At Plum Party, we think the only way to do a Super Sunday bash is to project a casual, come-as-you-are vibe. Think easy prep, easy clean up, and an atmosphere that makes guests feel like they’re watching the game from their own favorite chairs, only better!
The Game Plan
Choose invitations with as much selling power as a first TV time-out commercial. We love our 3-D Spitfire Girl football invitations, or cards that tempt guests through their tummies—pizza and BBQ-themed invitations are good bets. Kick off the festivities with a no-sports-knowledge-required betting grid, so even the clueless can get involved. Anything’s interesting when you’ve got money riding on it!
While we like to provide a little something for everyone, the big game is the main event—make sure viewing conditions are ideal. If your 27-incher just doesn’t cut it, splurge and rent a big screen TV. If your couches don’t offer ample seating, stack some comfy cushions on the floor or rent folding chairs and set them up in movie theater-style rows.
If your crowd has more than a few members who don’t know a touchdown from an interception, treat them to a Foot Ball in an adjoining room. Hire spa technicians to give foot massages and pedicures and screen football crowd-pleasers like Rudy, Wildcats and Remember the Titans. Trust us: true sports fans may appreciate keeping all of the unrelated gab confined to the luxury box.
Looks Like Team Spirit
Deck your living room out to rival the stands in Jacksonville. Bring in the team colors with banners, Fun Fringe and Creative Crepe. If you’re crowd is pretty neutral, can’t-miss colors include bold reds, oranges and yellows (the international colors of food that is bad for us—why else would all of those fast food restaurants share the same color palette?). Line every surface with an Astroturf runner and scatter football and beer trivia coasters on top.
The Food Court
For a couch potato spread that would make Homer Simpson drool, serve chips & dips, nachos & salsa, six-foot subs, ribs and pizza cafeteria-style. We’ve got the trays, sandwich baskets and no-fuss squeeze bottles to make it authentic. Use football-shaped cookie cutters to make mini PB&Js. The kicker? A hot dog bar with homemade chili and all the fixin’s. Have tons of plasticware and napkins (in our diner-style dispenser) on hand—the goal is to get through the clean-up without having to do a single dish. Keep football-shaped serving dishes filled with popcorn and candy dispensers with chocolate footballs close to the couch for mindless mid-quarter munching.
When guests ask, “What can I bring?,” tell them to pick up a sixer of their favorite beer. Present it on ice in colorful metal basins with our handy ‘etch it’ cups, so guests can keep tabs on their brewskis.
Are you ready for some football? (We think so.)
Valentine’s Day
Whether you love Valentine’s Day or love to hate it, we’ve got entertaining ideas that will win your amour. Now back away from the Whitman’s sampler and check out our tips for a V-day so very un-Hallmark-y that you just might like it.
If You’ve Been Kissed By Cupid
Invite a mix of sweethearts and singles to your love nest for cocktails. Float a sexy Moroccan vibe with rose petals sprinkled in the driveway and a torrent of red bubble glass votives and beaded candleholders to cast alluring shadows. If you’re hosting a sit-down dinner, romance each guest with an ‘Art of Kissing’ book at each place setting. Red hot gummy bears in red flared bowls make lovely lovey dovey centerpieces. Our sophisticated glass spin-the-bottle toy keeps things interesting.
If You Think Cupid’s Stupid...
Opt for a “Crazy in Love” theme and have guests dress as notoriously bad couples, famous stalkers…you get the idea. Or, host an Ex-orcism. Use our little black book invitations to celebrate your friends’ freedom from those losers. Have everyone bring pictures of their most dastardly exes and let the ex-games begin! When guests arrive, give them each a conversation heart cookie on which to write an embarrassing tidbit of ex-trivia, from “He didn’t kiss a girl until junior year of college” to “She snores like a linebacker with a deviated septum.” Have guests guess which juicy morsel goes with which ex. Accessorize with Scandle Candles, naughty tattoos and Virgin/Slut soap. Check out our “Break-Up” theme party for more ideas.
If you’re a V-day cynic, well then, do you fondue? Serve a bubbling blend of Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses with veggies and cubes of crusty bread—it’s your “Cheesy Valentine’s Day” spread! Pair the fondue with your favorite garlicky, saucy side dishes…anything that it’s impossible to look sexy while eating. Chocolate and gummy shot glasses take the soiree to a whole new level. Line up bottles of your favorite spirits and label them “Love Potions Numbers 1-8,” and you may make some love connections yet.
Awards Show
The glitz. The glamour. The stuff she must have been smoking when she agreed to wear that dress! It’s awards show season—the Super Bowl of fashion, the Olympics of egos, the paparazzi prom—and we can’t get enough of it. Year after year, we gossip, we air kiss, we live vicariously, while at the same time, tearing it all to shreds. Trusts us, dah-lings, we’ve got the secret to awards show night bashes that would have A-listers clamoring for invitations.
Red Carpet 101
Make Joan and Melissa proud with a superstar red carpet welcome. Tempt guests to step their perfectly manicured toesies out of their limos with movie camera invitations or, if it suits your artistic vision, party details scrawled on yellow movie film in a tin canister. Set up a red carpet (ours is plastic…shh…don’t tell), complete with a glamourpuss star bar chock full of sunglasses, feather boas, beauty marks, cigarette holders and baseball-sized baubles, so guests can accessorize on the spot. Snap Polaroids of pals mugging and give an award for “Best Picture.”
Wolfgang Puck has been trying to put some meat on those scrawny celebrity bones post-awards-show for years. Fire up a bunch of his frozen pizzas and serve on our exclusive ‘Hollywood Glam’ platter for bona fide star bites. Throw in some caviar and champagne if you’re going for big budget blockbuster, or opt for nachos and soft drinks, if your funds are more of the ‘indie’ variety. Keep gold star containers piled high with chocolate film rolls and tickets. If you serve a surprise second course of buttered popcorn in retro plastic popcorn containers and boxes of movie candy piled on trays (our set features nine classic faves), we guarantee your guests will like you. They’ll really, really like you.
We’ve got a host of holiday entertaining ideas guaranteed to bring the fun right to your doorstep. We’ll help you lure friends, family and neighbors with good eats, good gifts and good spirits (both the kind you drink and the warm, fuzzy holiday kind). First, choose the type of party that best suits your schedule, family and personality. Is it a cozy afternoon get-together, a rocking cocktail party or an unforgettable holiday dinner? Next, remember the Plum Party Yule rule — mix and match our suggestions with your own traditions to make Holiday 2004 your very own. Cheers to holly jolly holidays!
Snow Day
Remember the thrill of a snow day – waking up to find school’s been cancelled, then spending hours baking cookies, playing in the snow and sipping cocoa by the fire? (If you grew up in California, just trust us). Recreate the wintry wonder of a snow day by throwing a daytime shindig. From Thanksgiving straight through New Year’s, friends’ calendars book up quickly with after-dark commitments, so they’ll welcome a Snow Day as an easy, low-pressure alternative.
A Snow Day lends itself to tons of our fave seasonal activities. Make it a tree-trimming party and have guests make ornaments, or a gift-wrapping party and have guests bring gifts to wrap together. You provide the eye-catching garlands and creative gift-wrapping materials, from splashy paper to fun fringe. Afterwards, bring the gang together to build the ultimate gingerbread house with our ‘Home Sweet Home Gingerbread House Kit.’
If it’s pink-cheeked, see-your-breath exhilaration you crave, go caroling or usher everyone into the backyard for a snowman-building contest (please note: this will not work if you still live in California). Pass out snowman kits and unexpected accessories like trendy hats and scarves. Or, simply use your Snow Day to gather in the living room for a low-key afternoon of football and board games.
Keep your Snow Day spread simple and hearty. Warm up with chili served in bread bowls, followed by apple slices dipped in melted caramel. Create a Hot Sips bar with several kinds of cider, coffee and hot chocolate – we recommend Jacques Torres’s Wicked Hot Chocolate – and serve with bowls of fluffy marshmallows, cinnamon sticks, candy canes and peppermint schnapps. Sweeten the deal with snowballs (roll scoops of ice cream in nuts, coconut or crushed candy canes and set in the freezer). Send guests home with felt holiday bags filled with chocolate snowmen and packets of cocoa. They’ll be humming ‘Let It Snow’ along with every weather forecast this side of April.
Liquid Cheer
Live it up and drink it in — the cocktail party is a fun, festive and totally manageable way to get people together. You don’t have to limit your guest list or worry about your in-laws judging your cooking skills.
Host a traditional cocktail party before dinner, or make it a Midnight Madness party and have guests arrive at 10 for nightcaps and dessert (a fun idea for New Year’s Eve). Just make sure to include a start and end time on the invitation, plus an idea of what you’ll be serving (“Join us for light bites and stiff drinks”), so guests can plan their evenings accordingly. Set a spirited tone with our ‘Jingle Jingle, Come to Mingle’ coaster invitations. Or, bring the flirts out to play by tucking a spring of mistletoe and a small tin of breath mints into each envelope.
Since you’re simply serving cocktails – no fancy table settings required – the focus is on your napkins and barware. Pour drinks into plastic or acrylic martini glasses — everyone looks more sophisticated holding a drink by a long, graceful stem. Try peppermint martinis garnished with candy canes. Dress martini or wine glasses for the occasion with jeweled or beaded wine charms. Chill wine or bubbly in a festive champagne bucket. Mix polka-dotted and striped cocktail napkins in bright colors for a mod look or opt for napkins with a boozy word or phrase like ‘O come all ye thirsty’, ‘Alcoholics Unanimous’ or ‘Lush’.
After guests have had a drink or two, it’s time to get loose. Ditch the civilized stemware in favor of gummi shot glasses. Spin fun tunes from the Jackson 5 or Jessica Simpson Christmas albums or ‘Now That’s What I Call Christmas’. Tantalize guests with a holiday candy bar brimming with peppermint bark, red & white striped lollipops, candy canes and old-fashioned ribbon candy served on metallic trays and in dishes that spell out the word ‘Joy’.
If your party is on New Year’s Eve, go for over the top glam with silver lanterns, feather boas and chocolate cigars. An hour before the ball drops, ramp up the excitement with snazzy tooters, noisemakers, hats & tiaras. If you’re Jewish, why not host a cocktail party on Christmas, so your Jewish pals have an alternative to Chinese takeout. Call it a Matzo Ball – snag a few of our inflatable matzo balls to bat around, serve blue martinis and send guests home with Star of David soaps.
Gather Round
There’s nothing more heart-warming and unifying than a holiday dinner. Bring friends and family together around a table to languish over a home-cooked meal and glasses of wine, and into the wee hours with mugs of steaming coffee. Buck the traditional red and green overload, and choose your table settings to complement your personal style. Think rich, think inviting, think sparkle. We love layering gold or silver elements to create a look that is sumptuous, festive and adaptable for an elegant Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah or New Year’s dinner.
Start with beaded placemats or a metallic runner. Add shimmer with Lucite ball napkin rings and silver crackers at each place setting. In lieu of flowers, group mirrored balls, silver pillar candles and chandelier crystals as centerpieces. Or, pile rustic metal pails high with metallic ornaments or candy canes. Add a playful touch with Santa or snowman pushtoys as place card holders/favors. Adapt the look for Hanukkah with a generous dose of blue fun fringe, Hanukkah crackers and scattered dreidels. We also adore our chalkboard place cards; they work for any occasion and wipe off for easy reuse.
Even if you don’t have a fireplace, you can create the illusion of a glowing hearth with countless candles in varying shapes and sizes. Try beaded candleholders, colored glass votives and gold tapers.
As for the meal, scour cookbooks and websites for recipes that can be prepped in advance. That way, you can spend more time with your guests and less time in the kitchen. Or, make it a group effort and ask each guest to prepare a secret family holiday recipe. If you don’t have a dishwasher, or just hate doing dishes, check out our selection of paper and plastic plates and utensils. They’re convenient and stylish, and let you focus on eating, drinking and being merry!
Peace on Earth and Good Gifts to Friends
For your hyper-caffeinated office grab bag pick: Striped Thermos
For your hard-partying upstairs neighbor: Coal Bubblegum (left anonymously on his mat, of course
Halloween’s got something for everyone. Tricksters revel in the thrill of the big scare and the mystery of masquerade, while Treatsters just live for the candy. At Plum Party, we get everyone involved, balancing frights and delights to create creep-tastic Halloween haunts. Whether you’re hosting a family fright night for 40 or a sophisticated last supper for six, we’ll show you how to spook the masks off of guests and win the freakiest house on the block award. Trick or treat? We’ll take both.
SCARE WITH FLAIR: Decorate your Haunted Mansion
Greet guests with a chilly “Vvvvelcome.” Transform your front yard into a haunted graveyard with black crows, RIP tombstones, ghosts and spider webs. Indoors, set the stage with hair-raising garlands. Skulls & bones, bats ready to swoop or shrunken heads dangling from above keep will keep guests thrillingly on edge. Decorate around one freaky focal point, like a life-sized coffin or glowing skeleton and accessorize with spiders, bats and dripping blood. Use creative lighting to cast cryptic shadows. Try some sleek Halloween tapers for a sexy vibe or campy candy corn candles for a playful one. Go for all out eerie atmosphere with a mist maker or a black light shining on glowing tape or paint.
MONSTER'S BALL: Invitations, Favors & Stuff to Do
Spark Halloween spirit with eye-catching spiders and bat invitations, strike a nostalgic chord with our old-fashioned Party Partners offerings, or dare to scare with our 3-D invitations featuring ominous pairs of owl eyes.
Be sure to note on the invitations if you’ll be hosting a costume contest. The promise of prizes will inspire even the most indifferent guests to take their costumes to the next level. Have some easy one-two step costumes on hand for bah-humbuggers who dare come as they are. An assortment of masks, hats, glasses and feather boas make it simple to do-it-yourself upon arrival. Fierce costume competitors guarantee a host of photo-ops, so have a handful of disposable Halloween cameras on hand.
Other Halloween hits include bobbing for apples, pumpkin carving challenges and channeling Great Aunt Matilda on the Ouija board. Get the party going with a spooky soundtrack; spin a CD of haunted house sounds, or opt for upbeat tracks like Thriller, Monster Mash and It’s a Dead Man’s Party.
Send guests home with a little piece of your ghoulish get-together. We recommend Halloween crackers, tombstone candles, skeleton keychains and witch pushtoys.
GHOULISH GRUB
Eat up, my pretties, from a buffet overflowing with festive goodies. Use servingware that doubles as décor. Amass an assortment of skull trays, ghost and jack-o-lantern cups, and decoupage Halloween buckets. Present a brain-shaped Jello mold in a skull bowl atop a bony pedestal and serve punch from a witch’s cauldron. A little imagination makes everyday foods spooky. Use place cards to present spaghetti marinara as “Bloody Intestines,” Buffalo wings as “Bat Wings” and dried cranberries and cherries as “Scabs.” Create “Eyeballs” by frosting donut holes with white icing and using red and blue food coloring for the bloodshot irises. Round out the menu with pumpkin seeds, sandwiches shaped by Halloween cookie cutters, and caramel apples. Wash it all down with ‘I Vant to Suck Your’ Bloody Marys served with bone stirrers.
Don’t forget the candy! Set up an indoor candy bar and pass out cool loot bags for do-it-yourself trick-or-treating. Let guests go to town, gobbling all of the candy they can grab.
Longer days mean more time to p lay, so take it outside! Melinda and I relish summer's many excuses to get together _ three-day weekends, weddings, graduations, ball games _ and we have tons of ideas for ways to enhance your outdoor celebration. Whether it's a picnic in the park, a barbeque in the backyard or a frolic at the beach, you can keep the living easy with a few simple guidelines. Allow us to summer-ize:
GRILL & CHILL Summer evenings are meant to be spent lingering with friends over cold beers and majestic sunsets, not slaving over a hot stove, so take a vacation from the oven. For your next summer soiree, pre-prepare several salads using fresh farmer's market produce and leave the rest to the grillmaster. Offer everything family or buffet style and roll flatware in napkins with festive ribbon, so guests can easily grab place settings and serve themselves.
SWEET THEMES Warm weather lends itself to a host of party themes, plus it's much more fun to dress up when you don't have to cover your costume with a coat. Try turning a standard summer barbeque into a luau, Mexican fiesta or Yankee Doodle feast. Establish the theme with distinctive invitations and carry it through with every detail, from the serving platters to the favors. Themes are more fun when you run with them, so really go for it with flamingo toothpicks or patriotic paper goods.
SPACE CASE Nature may be your host, but you don't want your guests wandering off into the wild. Make the great outdoors feel as intimate as your living room with a little clever decorating. Use rugs and oversize pillows to create outdoor living areas. Designate ‘activity' areas with bongo drums, croquet or a ping-pong table.
COLOR YOU HAPPY There's no better way to capture summer's joie de vivre than with glorious color. Play with vibrant stripes and bright polka dots. Mix and match eye-catching patterns. Use bright serving pieces and colorful tumblers, and vivid votives and Popsicle torches. Every surface is a canvas for summer spirit.
One of the most important Plum Party commandments – never show up empty-handed. Over the summer, we find ourselves in need of scores of imaginative gifts for our gracious party hosts and beach weekend hostesses. Here are some of our faves:
WE ADMIT IT. We switch to iced coffee mid-April. We wear open-toed shoes in torrential downpours. We pack away our winter coats on the first day with a high of over 45. Each year, we’re guilty of trying to force spring just a leeeeeeeetle too early. But we can’t help it—there’s something so optimistic about the first hint of spring. Longer days mean more time to play, so rouse your pals from their long winter’s naps to celebrate the big thaw. We say, when spring fever hits, let it burn, baby, burn.
GARDEN VARIETY Ring in spring with an exuberant garden affair, or, if your garden access is somewhat limited (meaning limited to your living room overlooking 6th Avenue), bring the outdoors in with a posy party punch-drunk with color. Go daisy crazy with flowers everywhere: on your invitations, on your tables, on your papergoods. For centerpieces, float fragrant gardenias in glass bowls or cluster tea roses in julep cups or wire teapots. Plant our mini topiaries and “Petite Fleur” pails filled with blooms throughout your venue for a lush and lovely greenhouse effect. Our tulip cocktail napkins and rose candles pack your party with flower power. Use oversize butterflies, our ten-planter bed of roses and Spanish-moss-in-a-bag to transform any space into a garden of earthly delights.
If your soiree is outdoors, set up genteel garden party games like croquet and horseshoes. Serve lamb burgers with mint pesto on our scalloped floral platters, accompanied by crisp salads in our sienna nasturtium ramekin dishes. Cap off the meal with hibiscus ice cream. Send guests home with a potted moss or fern or single stem in a handsome bud vase.
OPEN UP AND SAY "OM" Come April and May, we notice that it’s harder to twist our girlfriends’ arms to join us for a sundae-fest or to spend a lazy Saturday watching a Lifetime movie marathon. They’re in the spring shape-up zone, with tunnel vision on bikini season. Just because clothing is covering less surface area doesn’t mean you have to put entertaining on hold. Book a yoga or Pilates instructor to come to your house (or the beach or the park) for a private group session (we love this as a shower idea!).
Create a calming air in your party space with candles rooted in pails of sand. Line tables with earthy elements like our stone table runners and onion grass bundles. Say namaste to the heavenly bodies in your midst with a round of our “Go Goddess” game. Treat guests to a smoothie bar, brimming with fresh fruit, juices, sorbets and frozen yogurt. Use our Bambu veneerware serving pieces to be kind to Mother Earth. Brew frothy chai tea lattes and serve in our cherry blossom thermoses. Favors like personalized yoga mats, yoga decks, healthy cookbooks or bags of homemade granola tied with ribbon make the soothing vibe last.
GREEN DAY If you get your kicks from swinging sticks, spring is your ace-in-the-hole season. For big birthdays, retirement parties or just for the love of the game, organize a “Two for Tee” golf outing or an at-home fete honoring life on the links.
Our golf invitation will bring the club champs out to play. Set up a tavern on the green with our Astroturf runner as the backdrop. Present Back-Nine Burgers, Bogey Hoagies and Sand Trap Trail Mix with our golf papergoods. Sweeten the game with golf bag cookies, chocolate truffle golf balls and cupcakes decorated with green frosting and sugar crystals. Wash it down with green-bottle brews on iron driver coasters. Send guests a-putting with our picks from the pro shop, like our tee time gift bags filled with balls and tees, good luck tokens or golf desk sets.
RAINED OUT? May flowers are a by-product of April you-know-whats—every spring hostess needs a rain contingency plan in her back pocket. Our fave rainy day party saves:
1. Board Game Olympics (with chocolate trophies for the winners)
2. Movie Marathon: Pick a theme and rent anything on-topic. Try rain, for starters (Purple Rain, Singin’ in the Rain, Rain Man, etc.)
3. Tis The Season: Rent a season of a hit show on DVD and catch up on the buzz
4. Spring Cleaning Swap (have friends bring eBay-bound closet discards to trade…one fashionista’s trash is another fashionista’s treasure)
5. Mudslide Mania: Pass out old sweats and tees and shuffle the gang into the backyard for some good old-fashioned playing in the dirt. Make sure your hose is working first. Mudslide cocktails and sundaes all around!
6. Salsa Lesson: Book a pro to come over and show your party how to turn a rainy day into a steamy fiesta
You showed her you’re resourcefulwhen you rigged a makeshift ladder to sneak out of your second floor bedroom window. You showed her you’re adventurous when your prom date pulled up on a Harley. You showed her you’re independent with a belly button piercing and a platinum dye job. Now it’s time to show her how much you appreciate her with a Mother’s Day celebration that just might make up for your adolescence.
WE ARE FAMILY We love celebrating Mother’s Day with extended family: moms, grandmothers, great- grandmothers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins. Opt for a Breakfast-in-Bed theme and invite the fam to come over clad in jammies. Start with a sunny color palette—our “Funky Diagonals” invitations and papergoods perk up the party faster than a round of grande lattes. Decorate with our “Happy Mother’s Day” candle tins and morning mantra mirror stickers on the hall mirrors. Serve indulgent, devil-may-care-about-carbs fare, like thick-cut challah French toast and pain au chocolat from a local patisserie, on trays lined with the morning paper. Embellish each tray with a honiton glass bud vase outfitted with a vibrant blossom. Send guests home with baskets of homemade muffins (use our heart-shaped muffin pan) and gourmet jam.
MOTHER LOVIN' If your family is small or scattered across the country, you can still go big for Mother’s day. Host a party honoring the moms in your group of friends. Make it a family affair—try a low-key barbeque with a “Mother Knows Best” theme. Leave space on the invitation for each guest to document his or her favorite mom-isms, e.g. Kate’s mom on dating: “If you want to attract a man, just wear stockings and dangly earrings” or Casey’s mom on beauty: “There’s nothing like a good suntan to improve your complexion.” Mix up the submissions and put one at each place setting. Have guests read them aloud for a laugh. Make it a “Mom’s Famous Recipe” potluck—guests bring dishes that best represent their mothers, even if its spaghetti with cut-up hot dogs. Serve everything (how else?) family-style on our Fantasia platters. Instead of writing guest’s names, pen their moms’ names on our round ceramic placecards: “Helen’s Daughter” and “Florence’s Son.” Scatter our “women chocolates” on tables; each bears a retro illustration of a woman with a funny saying that could have come right out of mom’s mouth. Our “Mom” candle tins add nostalgic appeal. For favors, fill our “flower power” gift bags with “Smart Women Make Changes” erasers, “Beauty Comes From Within” mirrors and phone cards with a note that reads, “Call Your Mother.”
MOMS AWAY Sometimes the gals need a break from the people that made them moms in the first place. This Mother’s Day, have the dads take the kids for a few hours and host a Ma Spa. For the invitation, send pal a framed picture of her kids, looking less than angelic, with the words, “Happy Mother’s Day. Get away from it all!” Book a private room at a spa and pre-arrange a pampering circuit—manicures, mini-massages and quickie pedicures. Serve cosmos from our “Cosmopolitan 101” kit with bite-sized burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches. Do it at home (many aestheticians will come to your house) or do-it-yourself (forgo the pros and stock up on pedicure tools, mud masques and scrubs so guests can self-pamper). Decorate the room with our “Diva” signs, a pink moiré tablecover and pink scalloped paper goods. Assemble goody bags with flip-flops, our “Inspire” candles and bubble bath. This idea also works well to shower a Mom-to Be (choose our Diva Mom invitations and papergoods).
OUR CAN'T MISS MOTHER'S DAY GIFTS:
1. Framed side-by-side pictures of you and mom at the same age. Try your prom pictures, sweet sixteen pictures or wedding pictures.
ith the holidays and New Year’s Eve in the rearview mirror, you may be ready to settle in for a long winters nap. Don’t hang up your party hat just yet— Hollywood, the NFL and St. Valentine are throwing great party themes your way. From the red carpet to the red zone, we’ll help you get through the big chill, one party at a time. 
While we like to provide a little something for everyone, the big game is the main event—make sure viewing conditions are ideal. If your 27-incher just doesn’t cut it, splurge and rent a big screen TV. If your couches don’t offer ample seating, stack some comfy cushions on the floor or rent folding chairs and set them up in movie theater-style rows. 
Moroccan vibe with rose petals sprinkled in the driveway and a torrent of red bubble glass votives and beaded candleholders to cast alluring shadows. If you’re hosting a sit-down dinner, romance each guest with an ‘Art of Kissing’ book at each place setting. Red hot gummy bears in red flared bowls make lovely lovey dovey centerpieces. Our sophisticated glass spin-the-bottle toy keeps things interesting. 
Awards Show
for a sundae-fest or to spend a lazy Saturday watching a Lifetime movie marathon. They’re in the spring shape-up zone, with tunnel vision on bikini season. Just because clothing is covering less surface area doesn’t mean you have to put entertaining on hold. Book a yoga or Pilates instructor to come to your house (or the beach or the park) for a private group session (we love this as a shower idea!).
