Posts Tagged ‘Hawaiian fancy dress party’

Hawaiian World Cup final party

Monday, June 28th, 2010

bat & ball setWith the final game of the 2010 FIFA world cup rapidly approaching, many people will be making plans to watch it down the pub or in front of the telly with a few mates. Another alternative is to do it in style by throwing your own Hawaiian World Cup final party and inviting your friends and neighbours to watch the game in your back garden.

A television is obviously a must, the larger the better, and you can hook this up in the garden using an extension cable. Consider setting up a small gazebo or marquee to shield the screen from the sun or any unpredictable rain.

Get your guests in the mood by setting up a few tropical decorations for your Hawaiian themed fancy dress party, such as inflatable palm trees and parrots. Throw in a beach ball to the mix, in case your guests fancy a kickabout during halftime.

If you want to serve food before or after the game, treat your friends to a Hawaiian style barbecue in the summer sun. Traditional Hawaiian culinary fare includes a meat or fish main course, a scoop of rice and a salad.

The fancy dress itself is of course integral to your Hawaiian themed world cup party. Send out invitations specifying garish Hawaiian shirts, shorts and grass skirts. As a finishing touch, greet your guests with flower garlands at the door.

No one can predict the final score of the world cup final, but you can ensure it sticks in your guests’ memory by throwing a Hawaiian themed party they’ll never forget.

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Top tips for a successful Hawaiian fancy dress party

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

garlandHolding a Hawaiian fancy dress party is a perfect way to entertain your friends, and with summer fast approaching now is a perfect time to start planning your very own tropical paradise. This week we take a look at ways in which you can make your Hawaiian themed party a resounding success.

Pick an appropriate party soundtrack – Selecting music with links to Hawaii can enhance the atmosphere of the occasion and help your guests really get into the aloha spirit. Ideas include Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii soundtrack album, and traditional Hawaiian music featuring lots of steel guitar and ukulele.

Serve Hawaiian food – With the good weather finally making an appearance, a traditional Hawaiian barbecue is an ideal way to feed your party guests. The ‘plate lunch’ is at the centre of Hawaiian culinary efforts, and usually combines a mixture of rice and pasta salad with beef, chicken, pork or fish.

Plan some Hawaiian party games – Grab some hula hoops for your Hawaiian fancy dress party and see who can keep going the longest. Limbo dancing is also popularly linked to the Hawaiian islands, though it actually originates from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. But hey, we won’t tell if you don’t.

Decorate with Hawaiian props – Inflatable palm trees, sharks and parrots are great cost effective ways to liven things up at your Hawaiian party. Tikki decorations and cut outs can also add an extra touch of authenticity to the event.

Hand out flower garlands – Presenting guests with flower leis or garlands has long been a Hawaiian tradition and is a sign of friendship and respect. It’s also something your guests can keep as a memento of a great night.

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Turn up the Hawaiian party rhythms

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

hawaiian party hatWhat’s a Hawaiian party without music? This week we take a look at the tropical island sounds which you can use to add an extra touch of traditional ambience to your Hawaiian themed party.

Hawaiian music is diverse, and has had a larger influence on popular culture around the world than one might expect. Steel guitar, in which the instrument is played on the lap using a metal slide, was invented in Hawaii and is now common in many genres of music such as folk, country and blues. The ukulele is also very popular in Hawaiian culture. If you’re musically minded you might consider picking up one of these to impress guests at your Hawaiian fancy dress party.

Alternatively you could check out some of the following genres and artists for ideas for your party soundtrack.

Folk – Hawaiian folk music usually involves a particular style of chanting, and is designed to accompany traditional hula dancing. Grab yourself a compilation CD and convince your guests to don grass skirts for a hula dance off.

Jawaiian – A hybrid blend of traditional Hawaiian music and Jamaican reggae which became popular on the islands in the nineties. Reggae music and the Rastafarian movement are influential in modern Hawaiian culture.

Rock & Roll – Elvis loved Hawaii, and its influence is clear in many of his songs, such as Hawaiian Wedding Song and blue beyond the reef. Elvis also made several movies set in Hawaii- Girls Girls Girls, Blue Hawaii and Paradise Hawaiian Style- and the soundtrack CD’s to these could be a great addition to your Hawaiian fancy dress party.

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Add a Hawaiian touch to your fancy dress party

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

flipflopIt’s the little things that can make or break a party, and with that in mind we present our top tips for holding your own Hawaiian themed fancy dress luau.

1 – Serve cocktails to your guests in coconut shaped cups. If you really want to push the boat out you could even try using real coconuts.

2 – If the climate in your home isn’t suitable for actual palm trees, try decorating with inflatable and cut out palms. Further recreate the tropical ambience of the sun-kissed islands of Hawaii by adding some indigenous wildlife, such as inflatable dolphins, sharks and parrots.

3 – Get your guests dancing to some traditional island music. You can buy CD’s with Hawaiian themed music on, or if you’re musically gifted you could always make your own!

4 – Play some Hawaiian themed party games, such as limbo dancing or whack the piñata.

5 – Hand out homemade flower leis as you greet your guests at the door. You can quite easily make your own with just a needle and thread, and either real flowers or artificial ones made from crate paper or even origami paper. The giving of flower garlands is considered a sign of affection and friendship in Hawaii.

6 – Bring along a few hula hoops and find out which of your guests has the best island rhythm. If indoors, be sure to remove any breakables from the room beforehand!

7 – Serve traditional Hawaiian food, such as rice with barbecued meat or fish. For desert, try banana or coconut cake.

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Have a Hawaiian themed flash mob

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

palmtreesAs the snow returns to Britain for another spell of travel chaos, we could all do with a little something to lift our spirits. If you want to bring a bit of tropical paradise to your own town or city, you could always try organising a Hawaiian themed flash mob party.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of the flash mob, the premise is quite simple but the results are often quite startling: a group of strangers converge at a predetermined location at a specific time to simultaneously carry out a particular random behaviour, before parting as spontaneously as they had gathered. Previous examples have included a crowd of several hundred being frozen in time in New York’s grand central station, a worldwide pillow fight and a silent disco involving thousands of people at London’s Victoria underground station. These can all be viewed on YouTube.

When organising your Hawaiian flash mob party, social media networks such as Facebook and Myspace are powerful tools, simply specify the time and place and then spread the word. Encourage people to wear unseasonal Hawaiian themed outfits, such as Hawaiian shirts, grass skirts, shorts and flower garlands. Take along a ghetto blaster primed with island music to get the party started and before long you could have a full blown Hawaiian fancy dress street party on your hands!

You could also ask people to bring Hawaiian themed party supplies and games along, such as inflatable palm trees, parrots and sharks, and even a limbo bar!

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Essential accessories for your Hawaiian themed party

Monday, January 25th, 2010

garlandWhen you think of Hawaiian fancy dress, the first thing that comes to mind is probably colourful garlands, or leis. ‘Lei’ is the traditional Hawaiian word for a wreath or garland, and the most popular form of lei is a chain of flowers worn around the neck, often used to greet visitors to the islands. However, a lei can take many different forms, and could consist of a series of shells draped over the shoulders, plastic beads, or virtually anything else you can link together and wear.

A perfect accompaniment to any Hawaiian themed fancy dress costume, garlands and leis are a colourful and easily customisable way of standing out at the party. If you’re the host you could even stock up beforehand and greet each one of your guests at the door with a traditional Hawaiian kiss as you present them with their lei. The presentation of a lei or garland has long been a symbol of affection for a friend or visitor, and is a perfect way to introduce partygoers to your Hawaiian fancy dress soiree.

As far as materials go, a lei can be made out of pretty much anything imaginable. You could either buy or make your own, out of fresh or plastic flowers, seashells, nuts, beads, coloured paper decorations, feathers or whatever you have close to hand. If you do choose to make your own, all you need to do is take some sturdy cotton and a needle and carefully thread through the centre of each item on the lei.

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Mele Kalikimaka – Happy Hawaiian Christmas

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

grassskirtIf you fancy doing something a little different this festive season, why not throw a Hawaiian fancy dress Christmas party?

You can start by swapping the Christmas tree for an inflatable or cardboard cut-out palm tree, unless your budget stretches to the real thing. There’s no need to desert the norm entirely though – Hawaiian fancy dress can be combined with more traditional Xmas costumes, such as Santa Clause and his elves wearing aloha shirts and flower garlands, or a grass-skirted angel wearing a coconut bra.

Get in the island mood by breaking out some tropically festive cocktails and keep some tinnies cold in a palm tree table top cooler. And what would a Hawaiian themed party be without a few Hawaiian party supplies, including some novelty inflatables scattered around the room, such as a shark, a parrot, or an oversized banana?

The piece de resistance of any Christmas party though, Hawaiian themed or otherwise, is of course the food. Tantalise your guests’ tastebuds by laying on a fabulous luau of tropically themed festive foods. A succulent joint of ham or gammon garnished with mouth-watering pineapple makes a splendid alternative to the traditional Christmas turkey, and instead of mince pies, consider serving a tropical fruit salad.

If you or your guests are musically minded, you could try to add a little extra ambience to your Hawaiian themed fancy dress Christmas party by banging out a few festive tunes on a steel strung guitar or a ukulele. Whatever you do, make sure you have a very merry aloha Christmas!

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