Picnic in the park

Picnic in the park

Get your friends to bring their own picnic to the local park. If you are lucky there will be free concerts in the park - some towns have bands in the park bandstand every week. You can enjoy the music even more if you are in good company. And if the bandmaster knows you are celebrating a special event such as your birthday, he or she might even dedicate a piece to you.

Walk on the hills

Again, if your friends bring their own picnics, you could enjoy a walk in the country.  You can’t guarantee the weather, but at the right time of year, the weather could be gorgeous.  If you divide into two groups, one group could start at each end of a longer walk (boys going one way, girls another?), with the picnic when you rendezvous in the middle. At the end of the walk, you can get back home in the cars left by the other group.

If you have enough wit and charm, in return for lunch and a couple of drinks, you may be able to persuade someone who is knowledgeable about the area to accompany you and give you a commentary on the scenery and other things you see.

Educating Rita

Some Universities host public lectures at the end of which they provide light refreshments.  If you go as a group, you can enjoy the lecture, talk about it afterwards, and have a free drink.  This was one of the tricks that Kath Kelly, an English teacher from Bristol used, after making a bet with friends that she could pass a whole year spending no more than £1 per day.  She also went to book launches and other events where food was provided.

Food, beer and friends

 Working party

This isn’t exactly free, but it could save you money.  Get your mates to help you with a d-i-y project in return for some hearty food and a few beers.  See our Working party ideas page.

You might even be able to make money.  Have you thought of spending a day or two with your mates picking fruit or vegetables for a local fruitgrower, and using the proceeds at the end of the day for a pub meal?  My cousins used regularly to act as beaters on a local country estate, and a good meal at the end of the day was part of the package.

Homemade red wine

Grow your own

It takes a bit more preparation, but if you keep a few hens and grow vegetables, you can prepare a whole meal from your own garden.  And for drinks, how about home brewed wine or beer or elderflower champagne?

If you live in the country, there’s a sporting chance you know someone who helps control the local pigeon or rabbit population, and if you are prepared to pluck, gut and prepare your own bird or beast, will happily drop one off on your doorstep.

Again, it’s not for the squeamish, but Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall has shown on TV how it is possible to produce a meal from roadkill.  However, a word of warning.  Don’t try running down a rabbit or pheasant yourself.   You could end up on the wrong side of the road, and if you end up with a strike, the repair bill for your car could exceed any saving you make from the kill.  You might also only injure the bird or animal, which would be inhumane.

Your ideas

If you have managed to put on a low cost party, let us know, so we can share your idea.

Decorations

Colour themed table

If you are thinking of holding a party with a colour theme, you may want to think about using coloured decorations, coloured table linen and accessories, and including the colour theme in temporary drapes and in posters. You may be able to carry some colours through with coloured lights, for instance by using coloured light bulbs.

Food 

The theme can be carried through to the food, although it may be rather dull if all of the food you serve is the same colour.  Food generally looks more appetising if there is a variety of colours on the plate. That’s why restaurants often serve food with a garnish such as a little lettuce and a tomato wedge.  The red/green combination brightens the plate.  So even if you go for a predominant colour in your food, it will usually be a good idea to use some other colours to provide a contrast.

To serve with coffee at the end of the meal, you could put a plate of Smarties or M&Ms on the table.  They include most of the colours you are likely to use in a theme party.

Dress

You don’t need to carry the colour theme through to the clothes your guests are wearing, but you could let them know that you are adopting a colour theme and invite your guests to wear clothing that goes with the theme.

pink partywear

Colour competition

If you think that your friends would enjoy it, you could try a colour competition. For instance, you could ask your friends to come with one item in the colour you are using as a theme. Give a prize to the best or wackiest implementation of this request. Here are some suggestions for a pink theme:

Simple ideas:

• Pink blouse or shirt
• Pink scarf
• Pink tie
• Pink underwear

Wackier ideas

• Pink streak in hair
• One pink eyebrow
• One pink shoelace
• One pink varnished fingernail

If you try this, post the best suggestions on this website.  For even more fun, you could try a two colour combination such as red and green, or brown and blue.

A Burns Night Party with Bagpipes

Burns night - 25th January

Robert Burns, Scotland’s most famous and celebrated poet, was born on 25th January 1759.  That night, or a night near it, is now the time used to celebrate his life and work.  There is a well established ritual that makes Burns night one of the most enjoyable of formal dinners.

Menu

The centrepiece of the dinner is haggis, the famous Scottish dish often portrayed as a living beast, but in fact an economical concoction made from oatmeal and parts of the sheep not usually served in other ways, all bound up in a sheep’s gut.  Macsween’s is the best known manufacturer.

Starter:

• Cullen skink
• Scottish smoked salmon
• Cock-a-leekie soup
• Scotch broth

Main:

The cutting of the haggis

• Haggis with neeps (known in the south of England as swede) and tatties

Dessert:

• Tipsy Laird (sherry trifle)
• Atholl brose pudding (whipped cream flavoured with whisky and honey and containing lightly toasted oatmeal)
• Cranachan (a very similar whisky, honey and oatmeal cream served with raspberries)
• Cheese with oatcakes

Drinks:

• Whisky aperitifs such as Atholl brose (if not being served for dessert)
• Claret with the meal (there is a strong historical relationship between Scotland and France), or Scottish ale
• Single malt whisky with coffee

Ceremony

The meal should be preceded by the Selkirk Grace, composed by Rabbie Burns:

Some hae meat and cannot eat.
Some cannot eat that want it:
But we hae meat and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.

Before the haggis is served, it is traditionally brought into the room with all the pomp surrounding the arrival of the most important guest.

On the signal given by the President, the procession is led in by a piper playing the Scottish bagpipes (with the guests clapping to the music), followed by the chef carrying in the steaming hot haggis, with the Orator walking behind.

The haggis is placed with flourish and decorum on a table in full view of the guests, and the Orator recites the Address to the Haggis, ceremonially cutting into the haggis during the appropriate verse.

At the end of the recital, the Orator raises the haggis to the assembled guests, and a toast to the haggis is made.

The haggis is carried in a procession led by the piper back to the kitchen for serving with further applause from the guests.

The end of the meal is marked with speeches and toasts to The Immortal Memory (of Robert Burns);

• a Toast to the Lasses;
• and a response from one of the lasses.

Robert Burns was notoriously fond of the lasses, and the toast to the lasses and the response usually contain lighthearted banter about the foibles of men and women and their fondness, despite this, for the opposite sex.

The President introduces each of the speakers.

Entertainments may either precede the speeches or follow them, or both.

Burns songs can be sung as an interlude, and dancing can be arranged after the meal (for those still able to stand).

The evening normally concludes with the singing of Auld Lang Syne.

Address to a haggis

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm :
Weel are ye wordy o’a grace
As lang’s my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready sleight,*

(* This is normally the point at which the haggis is cut open.)

Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin’, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an’ strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
Bethankit! hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad make her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as wither’d rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash;
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll mak it whissle;
An’ legs an’ arms, an’ heads will sned,
Like taps o’ thrissle.

Ye Pow’rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer
Gie her a haggis!

Short cuts

If you are organising a Burns supper at home you will be fortunate if you are able to arrange all of the elements, but you could substitute recorded music for the piper, and you may be able to find recorded recitals of Robert Burns’ Address to the haggis.

The toast to the lasses and the response are better if they are tailored to your own audience.

You can find examples on the web which might act as inspiration and if you are apprehensive about making a speech, you will find Presentation Magazine of assistance.

Too late for Burns night?

Robert Burns died on 21 July 1796, so if you are too late to hold a Burns night supper in January or February, why not celebrate instead the anniversary of Rabbie Burns’ death?

Your Burns Night Party

How did your party go?  Do you have any other ideas?  Please leave your feedback in the ideas box below.

Want to be different?  Have you thought about inviting your friends for brunch?  You won’t need to spend as much on booze, and you can all have a great time, summer or winter.

So that you can have time to talk, you’ll want to do as much preparation beforehand as you can. Click to read more…

A 21st birthday party in full swing

What’s special about the 21st?

A person’s 21st birthday used to be one of the most important.  It marked “coming of age” when it was possible to vote and to get married without parental consent.  Symbolically, this was marked by presenting the “keys to the door” and some 21st birthday cards still use the key symbol.

21st Birthday Party themes

“Retro” themes are really popular.  You could celebrate using a theme of the birth year.  Click to read more…

We have been asking what is the best party that you have ever been to and why. Click to read more…

Beach parties are great fun parties.

Party on the beach

It can be great fun to have a party on the beach, but organising it can be prone to problems. You may be able to get away with a barbeque on the beach for 12 people, but if you want to do anything a bit more organised, and if you want to use music, you should contact the local authority for permission. Click to read more…

We have had a request by email from Christine for some Kids party games.

We have been able to compile a number of popular favourite party games, but if you know of any others that would be suitable for kids please leave your ideas in the box below. Click to read more…

It is always a bit of a tough one to know what to give for a christening. This is the problem that Reece has got coming up. Do you have any ideas?

Here are a few ideas that we have come up with but we need a few more..

• Complete set of Peter Rabbit Books Click to read more…
  

So what do you get for a special 40th birthday gift? Here are a few ideas

For him

Kelly Kettle

Men love playing with fire. It is the reason why ment tend only to do the cooking when there is a barbeque. A great way of playing with fire is to get a kelly kettle. This is a kettle with a real fire contained inside it. You simply add in some newspaper and a few twigs and you have a fire going in no time. And because it is so self contained you can use it on the beach.

Smokey Joe Portable Barbeque

This is the present that my wife bought me for my 40th birthday. Click to read more…

Time to start planning for the big day and the big party to see the next phase of your life in with a swing.

Here are a few ideas…
1959 Party
A great theme for the year you (or your partner) were born. You could have a rock and roll party playing songs from 1959. This could include Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry. Click to read more…

The wedding is one of those special days that should only come along once in a lifetime. So how do you make it really stand out and how do you make the wedding reception shine.

Here are a few ideas

1. Hire a castle.

A castle can be an amazing backdrop for a wedding. It is steeped in history and tradition and can make a great backdrop for a wedding. It will make the wedding pictures really stand out. Click to read more…

Kate has sent in the following request. Do any of our readers have any ideas?

My brother is bringing his new girlfriend home to england from america both early 30’s

I would like to make the welcome home special - any ideas? Click to read more…

Does anyone have any hen night ideas?

We did a quick brain storm in the office and came up with the following list, but it is a bit limited.

Please add your ideas to the ideas box and we will see if we can add them.

Where to go

Birthday time has come round again. What do you buy for the man who has everything?

Do you have any gift ideas for a man?

If you have any ideas, or if you come across any ideas during the course of your web search, please leave them in the ideas box.