Mardi Gras Theme Party Ideas To Bring Bourbon Street To Your Home

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When you think of a Mardi Gras party, you think of music, dancing, colorful decorations and costumes, great food, and fun times. This is a theme in which you will never be lacking for ideas. You'll probably have a harder time paring down to the essentials with a few fun extras!

So, if you happen to have a friend or a loved one who has a birthday, on or near Mardi Gras, and you've decided to capitalize on the Mardi Gras theme, we've got some ideas to help you create a G-rated version of this fun celebration.


MARDI GRAS THEME PARTY INVITATIONS

CD INVITATION - To help get your guests into the Mardi Gas mood, prepare a CD of Dixieland jazz and write the party details on the CD. Be sure to tell guests to wear their best Mardi Gras costumes. Either put the CD in a CD mailer and mail to guests or hand-deliver.

MARDI GRAS MASK INVITATION - Create a colorful mask, decorate with sequins, glitter, and feathers. On reverse side put party details. Either pop the masks into envelopes and mail or hand-deliver.

MARDI GRAS POSTCARDS - Write party details on the back of colorful Mardi Gas postcards and mail to guests.

MARDI GRAS BEAD INVITATIONS - Cut 8 1/2" x 11" colorful card stock into 4 pieces. Type or handwrite in calligraphy the party details. Laminate and attach to some Mardi Gras beads. Put into a padded envelope and mail or hand-deliver.


MARDI GRAS THEME PARTY COSTUMES

Half the fun of having a Mardi Gras theme party, is getting decked out in a fun, colorful costume. When you think of a Mardi Gras party, you think of wearing lots of colorful beads, wild hats, colorful masks, and dramatic costumes.

Encourage your guests to comply and to camouflage their identities so guessing who is behind that crazy hat or make-up can be one of the party activities.

Have extra masks, in case someone forgets to wear one. As guests arrive, give them each some Mardi Gras beads.

If you're looking for some fun Mardi Gras Costume Ideas, here's several options. If you didn't find quite what you're looking for, here's another batch of Mardi Gras Costume Ideas for you to consider.


MARDI GRAS THEME PARTY DECORATIONS

The traditional must-have colors for a Mardi Gras theme party are purple, gold, and green. Here are a few ideas that willhelp you turn your home into a tamer version of Bourbon Street.

Start by greeting your guests in Mardi Gras style with a vibrant archway for everyone to walk through as they enter your home. The above showcases a few options that would make for a grand entrance.

MARDI GRAS DECORATIONS FOR WALLS & DOORWAYS

• For decorating magic, nothing beats gossamer's versatility. Use it for backdrops, accent columns, walls, windows, floors, and ceilings.

• Another decoration option that works similar to gossamer for the walls would be to use Mardi Gras patterned paper to instantly transform blah white walls into a party room that exudes Bourbon Street.

• Make it fun to walk through your doorways by hanging theme decorations to make that boring doorway come to life--Mardi Gras style!

• Hang colorful fabrics on the walls.

• Put large Mardi Gras masks on the walls.

• Make signs to hang on walls that say "French Quarter", "Bourbon Street", "Jackson Square", etc.

• Bring your walls to life and transform your party room into Bourbon Street with fun wall cut-outs and decor.

MARDI GRAS DECORATIONS FOR CEILING & PARTY ROOM

• Place balloons and curling ribbons in Mardi Gras party colors throughout party room.

• Twist streamers in party colors throughout party room.

• Pile up Mardi Gras beads on various surfaces to add color.

• Light up the room with colorful Christmas lights. Use enough so you can see, but not so many that you remove the ambiance.

• Intertwine white Christmas lights in plants.

• Hang Mardi Gras foil swirls from ceilings.

• Wrap Mardi Gras garland around bannisters, doorways, windows, tables, etc.

• Place colorful flowers in colorful vases and display throughout party room.

• Have plenty of fun hats and noisemakers to hand out to your guests.

• Play jazz and Dixieland music in the background.

MARDI GRAS DECORATIONS FOR TABLE

• Use tablecloths in party colors with contrasting overlays and brightly colored dishes.

• Sprinkle colorful confetti on top of the tablecloths.

• Place lots of colorful Mardi Gras party coins on tabletops.

• Decorate tables with balloon bouquets made inside of court jester hats.

• Hang brightly colored paper lights around the room to add ambiance and bring bourbon Street home.

• Place small tables that seat 4 around party room, cover with tablecloths, and add 3-5 candles on a glass tray.

• Use beaded bracelets as napkin rings.

MARDI GRAS DECORATIONS FOR PHOTO-OPS

• To create a fun photo-op that your guests will love posing for, be sure to select any combination of a striking archway, standees, or super large masks.

• If you plan on crowning a king and queen of Mardi Gras, be sure to have crowns, scepters, and royal purple robes. If you aren't going to have a crowning ceremony, these items would be great to create a photo-op area or just use for decorations.

PRINTABLE GAMES - Here's a great site for some fun print and play adult party games that would be a perfect party game add-on!

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Here's an entire page with nothing but Mardi Gras Games and Activities, such as:

• Mardi Gras Pageant
• Magician
• Mime
• Musicians
• Gather The Beads
• Costume Constest
• Mardi Gras Limbo

Although spicy Cajun and Creole food are a must for a Mardi Gras party, you should plan on having some mild dishes for the faint at heart.

SHRIMP COCKTAIL - You can either make individual shrimp cocktails or present one big tray of shrimp. Offer both spicy and mild cocktail sauces.

SHRIMP KABOBS - Serve kabobs warm with wedges of lemon and cocktail sauces.

JAMBALAYA - Traditionally this dish is made in 3 pots. using chicken, spicy Italian sausage, vegetables, and rice.

SEAFOOD GUMBO - As you comb through hundreds of seafood gumbo recipes, you will soon discover this is a labor-intensive dish. It may include shrimp, oysters, crabs, crabmeat, onions, bell peppers, celery tomatoes, okra, rice, spices, and some type of roux, which is either a mixture of peanut oil and white flour or butter and white flour.

CHICKEN GUMBO - For Mardi Gras authenticity, serve a Louisiana-style chicken gumbo.

CRAWFISH - To bring Bourbon Street to your door, be sure to order authentic Louisiana crawfish and seasoning.

MARDI GRAS RICE - This is a great side dish sporting Mardi Gras colors with ingredients of green peas, green peppers and onions, yellow corn, purple cabbage.

BLACK BEAN & RICE - A flavorful dish that brings Mardi Gras colors to the table with ingredients of green zucchini, yellow squash, purple eggplant.

CORNBREAD - Homemade cornbread and honey butter is a must-have item for your Mardi Gras theme party.

SPRITZER - Mix equal parts of peach and mango juices and soda water or ginger ale. Add ice and garnish with a piece of pineapple on a swizzle stick.

COOLER - Mix equal parts of orange, passion fruit, and pineapple juices. Add ice and garnish with wedge of lemon.

SOUTHERN COOLER - Mix equal parts of lemonade, grape juice, and sparkling water. Add ice and garnish with a lemon wedge.

NON-ALCOHOLIC HURRICANE - Combine 2 ounces of passion fruit and 1 ounce of lime juice. Pour over glass filled with ice. Add club soda or lemon-lime beverage like Sprite. Garnish with wedge of lime.


MARDI GRAS THEME PARTY BIRTHDAY CAKES

MARDI GRAS MASK BIRTHDAY CAKE - Make or buy a sheet cake. Create mask patterns out of paper, one happy and one sad. Lay patterns out on top of sheet cake and carve out masks. Using traditional Mardi Gras colors, frost one mask purple and the other green. Make faces golden yellow. You can either frost the masks smooth or pipe out the frostings using a star tip. Place the masks on a foil-lined tray. Embellish foil with gold, purple, green adhesive stars, foil-type curling ribbons, and add a "Happy Birthday" message.

MARDI GRAS THEME PARTY CAKE - Make or buy a sheet cake and frost it white. Lightly airbrush cake purple, green, or golden yellow. Pipe on decorative edge around bottom and top of cake using a contrasting Mardi Gras color. Make a cake topper by covering a piece of Styrofoam in foil wrapping paper. Glue a fun Mardi Gras mask and foil cascade to Styrofoam. Pouf pieces of colored foils like you were going to put them into a gift bag and glue to Styrofoam as a backdrop. Place topper on cake. Decorate sheet cake with strands of beads and colored coins. Add a birthday message.

MARDI GRAS THEME PARTY BIRTHDAY CAKE - Make or buy a sheet cake and frost it white. Add an edible sugar art image of a Mardi Gras theme to make your cake look spectacular.

KING CAKE - The King Cake a Mardi Gras tradition has a trinket or plastic baby hidden inside the dough. The person who gets the "lucky" piece throws the next party. King Cake more closely resembles a sweet bread than a cake. It is decorated in Mardi Gras colors of purple denoting justice, green representing faith, and fold symbolizing power.

To create an easy version of this "cake", buy refrigerated Cinnamon Bun dough, purple, green and golden yellow sprinkles. Prepare dough according to package directions. Insert trinket into baked bread. Drizzle icing over bread, followed by the sprinkles.

For some more fun Mardi Gras cake ideas, check out our visitor-submitted MARDI GRAS CAKE photos and how-to tips.


MARDI GRAS THEME PARTY FAVORS

Favors aren't necessary for an adult birthday party, but if you wish to give your guests a small parting gift, you might consider Mardi Gras beads and/or masks.

MARDI GRAS THEME PARTY IDEAS FOR PARTY SUPPLIES

Here's a wonderful selection of Mardi Gras Party Items that has everything you can imagine and more!

Here's a great selection of Mardi Gras Party Supplies. This company has oodles of options.

Here's some great Mardi Gras birthday party supplies, along with lots of options for favors and decor.

Here's a fantastic assortment of Mardi Gras Costumes & Supplies with lots of exciting options.

Here's another great batch of More Mardi Gras Costumes & Supplies in case you didn't get your fill from the previous link.

Mardi Gras Theme Party Ideas

Do you have some favorite Mardi Gras theme party ideas? Do tell! Please share all your party tips and ideas for invitations, decorations, games, etc.