I love fancy dress and I’ve been to numerous parties, from a dress-as-you-please night to a full blown masquerade event with acrobats, fire-eaters, gourmet catering and a full blown cast of actors expertly entertaining us throughout the event. All have been superb fun, but we have a couple of friends who hold a family fancy dress party every year and pull out all the stops. We’ve just attended this year’s gathering and the theme was the USA. We had a fantastic Saturday night. Fancy dress, food, games and drinks were all based on America’s finest. I love country and western, so this was the perfect opportunity for donning the cowboy boots, check top and cowgirl skirt. My partner plays the guitar and is never one to miss an opportunity to show off a few musical skills, so he put his cowboy hat on and took his guitar along to finish off his outfit!!
We were greeted at the door by our host dressed as Mark Twain and our hostess suitably attired as the statue of liberty. Mark Twain is the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens who was an American author who wrote the classic ‘The adventures of Huckleberry Finn’. Huckleberry Finn is the tale of a boy called Huck set on the Mississippi. It’s a tale of the adventures of a young boy learning about life’s lessons.
The statue of liberty was given to America in 1886. It stands in New York Harbour on Liberty Island. Our hostess looked the part in a long green wrap and the familiar headdress. She carried the torch and held it up high as she greeted us at the door.
Drinks:
Cocktails were the first port of call and an Oscar nominee and her stalker handed us an Americano cocktail. Campari, sweet vermouth and soda water; the Americano was Bond 007’s drink in Casino Royale and I loved it.
Food:
An American themed fancy dress party gave our hostess a superb range of dishes to choose from. She chose a classic American thanksgiving dinner. The food was delicious. It was served buffet style and included turkey, redcurrant jelly and an assortment of veggies. Dessert was pecan pie served with a spoilt-for-choice assortment of home-made ice creams. I don’t know whether these were traditional USA fare, but they were gorgeous. We finished off the meal with plenty of American coffee and tea.
Games:
Quizzes on America’s famous people and landmarks included the San-Francisco Bridge, Lincoln memorial and Will Smith! We split into two teams to play charades based on American Oscar winning films. We covered everything from ‘A street car named Desire’ to ‘Slum dog millionaire’ so this gave every age-group a chance to guess the answer. This was a great way to lead into dinner – the team who finished first was first in line for the food!! There’s nothing like a room full of hungry people to get the teamwork buzzing. Of course I have to say that I was on the winning team!!
To round off the evening we had a competition for the best fancy dress outfit and the most original fancy dress outfit. The best outfit award went to a rather young George Washington! and the most original fancy dress outfit went to a Grand Heritage Mississippi Gambler
Family parties are slowly creeping back in fashion and I’m not surprised. Family and friends enjoyed themselves immensely. Fancy dress, games, good food and drink are winning combinations. We all had fun and can’t wait for next year’s do!
For the best in American fancy dress costumes and accessories check out
80s Fancy Dress
