• Include real or prop replicas of good luck symbols in the table décor: four-leaf clovers, rabbits' feet, horseshoes, lucky pennies.
• Lay calendar pages out on table and cover with clear plastic.
• Stand large decorative wall calendars on the buffet table, or use them in centerpieces, mixed with flowers, greens, and justifyover, slightly mangled New Year's Eve décor (for a humorous touch).
• For Rose Bowl parties, drape garlands of roses on the tables and/or use a rose vase arrangement as a centerpiece. Add football-theme items to your décor.
• Write each guest's name on a small note pad, and use the pads with pencils as place cards. The pad should be used for writing resolutions.
• Take instant photos of guests as they arrive, and set the photos on the table to designate seating assignments.
• Decorate small cardboard frames with Lucky Charms cereal as a favor.

Back to the top

Chinese New Year

• Write table numbers on small slips of paper and stuff them into fortune cookies for seating assignments.
• Print place cards on bright red paper with gold lettering.
• Cover table in red, black, and gold - satins, silks, brocades, and paper.
• Use standing folding screens and bamboo curtains to create a backdrop for your buffet or serving table.
• Use black lacquer trays, mirrored trays, and bamboo-handled trays to display and serve appetizers.
• Display a set of Chinese checkers as a buffet table centerpiece.
• Pour tea from ornately decorated teapots into small cups.
• Knot bright red napkins around decorative chopsticks.
• Spray-paint takeout cartons with black or red lacquer or shiny gold, and fill with poppy flowers and Chinese greens for centerpieces. Set the arrangements on mirror tiles and surround with votive candles in red glass holders.
• Use embroidered satin runners on buffet or dinner tables.

Back to the top

Valentine's Day

• Use anything red, red-and-white, pink, or heart-shaped: bowls, baskets, boxes, tins, plates, or vases.
• Invert bright red straw hats, line with white tissue or cellophane, and use as decorative containers or napkin/utensil holders on the buffet table.
• Use red plastic heart-shaped cookie cutters for napkin holders.
• Use small heart-shaped plastic frames for place cards.
• Cover buffet and dining tables with white linens or sheets, then top with lace tablecloths, runners, doilies, red satin ribbon streamers, and beautiful recycled Valentine's greetings. Laminate greeting cards in groupings to place under serving containers or centerpieces.
• Cover chairs with white pillowcases and tie with red ribbons or lace. Run less-than-sparkling-white linens through your washer with a package of red fabric dye.
• Serve small amounts of salad, snack food, or dessert in plastic champagne glasses (not flutes) trimmed with lace and red bows.
• Decorate any party favors or prizes with Valentine candy messages.

Back to the top

Mardi Gras

• Use Mardi Gras colors of gold, green, and purple in décor and linens.
• Include brightly colored balloons, streamers, and confetti in table arrangements.
• Set up miniature New Orleans-style lampposts for extraordinary table décor.
• Arrange faux jewels, ornate crowns, jeweled scepters, fancy capes, masks, and other colorful fabrics or papers to jazz up the table décor.
• Include inflatable or miniature musical instruments as part of your table décor, along with spray-painted and glittered foamcore musical symbols.
• Wrap trinket necklaces and bracelets around napkins as festive holders.
• Use half masks, trimmed with feathers, jewels, ribbons, and lace as place cards/favors.
• Place a small treasure chest filled with foil-covered chocolate coins on each table.

Back to the top

St. Patrick's Day

• At casual galas, use green-and-white paper and plastic linens and serving utensils.
• Lavishly decorate the party room with the customary green shamrock, Irish-motif decorations, and green-and-white balloons, both helium and air-filled.
• Use shamrock plants as decorative arrangements and centerpieces.
• Incorporate heather and moss into all floral arrangements.
• Cover walls with travel posters and brochures promoting Ireland and all things Irish.
• Use books on Ireland as decorative accents.
• Cover the buffet table with colorful sheet music or album covers featuring Irish songs or artists; overlay with clear plastic.
• Line large wicker or woven baskets with moss and fill them with fresh potatoes, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and onions.
• Bring out the antique lace, Irish crystal, and china for more formal dinners.
• Paint guests' names on small stones and trim them with green satin ribbons to use as place cards.
• Paint table numbers on rocks for seating arrangements.
• Add an O or Mc before each surname on nametags or place cards.
• Tie napkins around toy Irish pipes and set them by plates for guests to play with and then take home.
• Scrub potatoes and carve an indentation in each potato to fit a candle.

Back to the top

Easter

• Use bright and light colors for linens and all decorative items.
• Decorate baskets of all sizes and descriptions to use as food containers and as decorations.
• Cover the buffet table with Astroturf/imitation grass.
• Elevate some areas with boxes and bowls.
• Fill tiny baskets (they come in all colors) with decorative grass and jellybeans to use as place cards. Print the guests' names on small tags and tie the tags to the basket handles.
• Decorate colorful plastic come-apart eggs and fill them with tiny toys or candy to use as place favors. Guests' names and table numbers can be imprinted on these with special pens.
• Decorate each table in a different spring color, and assign seats with correspondingly colored eggs.
• If seating space is limited, serve lunch or brunch in individual baskets.
• Mix stuffed, ceramic, cloth, or wooden animals into decorative arrangements on buffet or dining tables.
• Decorate Leggs hosiery eggs and fill them with treats and trinkets for prizes or party favors.
• Tuck dyed and decorated hard-boiled eggs into table decorations and serving areas.
• Spray-paint baskets in bright or soft colors and fill them with fresh or silk flowers and plants for table centerpieces.
• String soft Easter candies on fishing wire and drape them around the edges of the buffet table and across chair backs.
• Tie pastel napkins around small bunches of spring flowers and set at each place.
• Hot-glue small stuffed or toy bunnies, duckies, or chickies to ponytail holders to use as napkin holders.
• Stencil or hand-paint a tulip design onto plain colored napkins for a festive and fresh look.

Back to the top

Cinco de Mayo

• Use brilliantly colored paper flowers on all tables and serving areas. Wrap the flowers around napkins for colorful napkin holders.
• Add balloons and streamers for a festive fiesta touch.
• Create centerpieces out of small cacti, dried chili peppers in bunches or garlands, and desert flowers.
• Arrange souvenir-type carnival booths for snacks and beverages.
• Set up "make-your-own" grazing stations. This works well with chips and salsa and with tacos, burritos, and enchiladas.
• Display beautiful cookbooks, along with such Mexican props as corn grinders, dried peppers, and ornate sombreros, on top of brightly colored serape clothes.

Back to the top

Mother's Day

• Tuck small bunches of silk or fresh flowers into tea pots, or make dainty miniature arrangements in tea cups to use for individual table favors or place cards.
• Cover tables with lace or crochet tablecloths; use ribbons and streamers for runners.
• Set tea-bag sachets at each place.
• Use fancy silver tea service on the buffet table.
• Set delicately framed photos of Mom on the buffet and dining tables to be admired and adored.
• Hang antique embroidered cloths or large doilies over chair backs.
• Line all tray and serving platters with fancy paper doilies.
• Tie lovely satin ribbons around napkins and tuck in a single flower.
• Serve sandwiches and sweets on a rolling tea cart.
• Use antique tea tins as attractive and unique containers and décor accents.
• Use small china creamers as individual teapots for children at the party.

Back to the top

Super Bowl

• Set up a concession stand to dispense gourmet game goodies.
• Cover the buffet table with Astroturf, and serve foods in football helmets or in bowls nestled into shoulder pads.
• For large crowds, have servers pass snacks from vendors' (hang-around-the-neck) trays.
• Set up a miniature goalpost at the end of the buffet table and use it to hang napkins.
• Decorate tables with sports magazines, pom-poms, streamers, or football memorabilia.
• Fashion place cards and/or seating assignments to resemble game tickets.
• Create napkins to duplicate the "penalty" flags used by referees.
• Cover chair backs with sports jerseys, using referee's striped shirts for guest(s) of honor or hosts.
• Attach football trading cards to ponytail holders for use as napkin holders.
• Use quarterback's football holder for seating charts or menus.
• Arrange bunches of fall flowers in a plastic face guard and trim with team-color ribbons, streamers, balloons, and pom-poms.

Back to the top

Kentucky Derby

• Use either authentic or plastic horseshoes, spray-painted gold as decorative accents wherever possible.
• Tie a rolled-up napkin around a horseshoe and place on each dinner plate, or put them all in a large wicker basket on the buffet table.
• Arrange real, paper, plastic, or silk roses in vases on buffet and dining tables.
• Display framed photos, drawings, or paintings of horses.
• Set up the bar to look like a betting cage.
  Fill a new horse's feed bag with snacks or silverware/napkin bundles.

Back to the top

Golf

• Cover the cake or dessert table with Astroturf.
• Mark foods with small flags bearing each dish's name.
• Serve nuts or candies in golf ball boxes, and chips or popcorn in buckets.
• Wrap each guest's utensils in a terry cloth fingertip towel; use golf tees to secure paper napkins around utensils or to trim nametags, place cards, or party favors.
• Spray-paint balls, buckets, clubs, visors, gloves, or trophies to match your décor. Use gold or silver as formal accents.

Back to the top

Tennis:

• Use terry wristbands as napkin rings and score cards as seating or place cards.
• Spread a tennis net over the tablecloth on your buffet table.
• Use ball canisters to hold flowers, and invert the canisters to hold chunky candles.
• Have servers pass appetizers on paper-lined tennis rackets.
• Spray-paint balls, rackets, visors, or trophies to match your décor. Use gold or silver as formal accents.

Back to the top

Over The Hill

• Use black, black, and more black in your décor.
• Drape buffet tables and chair backs with black crepe paper or ribbons.
• Place a paper-mache R.I.P. tombstone as a focal point on the buffet table.
• Incorporate colorful packaging for "mature" products, such as vitamins, liniments, denture supplies, Geritol and Grecian Formula, into table decorations.
• Spray plastic flowers and greens with black paint and use in table centerpieces.
• Place a sturdy tray on a walker to hold lightweight snacks.
• Fold "retired" eyeglasses around black napkins.
• Create silly place cards or seating arrangement items with a pair of false teeth chomped on a marshmallow or a small roll.
• Spread out covers of Mature Living or Senior Lifestyles magazines on the buffet or dining tables, and cover with clear plastic cloth to protect them.
• Display retirement and senior housing brochures on your tables.

Back to the top

New Year's Eve

• Decorate the buffet area and tabletops with traditional balloons, crepe paper streamers, sparkly hats, and horns.
• Add hourglasses, calendars of all sizes, clocks, and "to-do" pads (with lists of resolutions) to your table décor.
• Write guests' names at the tops of small pads entitled "Resolutions." Use these pads as table assignments, place cards, or favors.
• Use inverted glittery top hats as containers for snacks, centerpieces, and party favors.
• Cut out important headlines from the past year (make copies of old newspapers from the library), spread them out on tabletops, and cover with clear plastic.
• Cut apart last year's calendars and make napkin rings out of the names of the months. For large groups (seventy-five or more), have all the napkin rings at each table represent a specific month, and use this gimmick to call guests to the midnight buffet, month by month.
• Serve foods that relate to certain months of the year or to holidays, such as pumpkin dishes for Halloween or strawberries for August. Label each dish with the appropriate month or year.
• If you have a group large enough for twelve tables, make centerpieces representing each month.
• Cut apart a 365-day calendar and use the pages to make napkin rings.
• Include good luck charms, such as fortune cookies, tarot cards, astrology sheets, gold horseshoes, wishbones, rabbits' feet, and so forth into all of your décor.
• Include self-improvement (quit smoking, eat healthy, get organized) books, tapes, and equipment into your décor.

Back to the top