Planning a Luau
 

Create a tropical escape right at home by planning an easy, fun and budget-friendly luau. Make It Low-Cost

Ask your guests to contribute a food item to the buffet and bring their favorite luau-themed party supplies. This will get your guests involved in the theme — and ease up the party-planning duties and costs on you. Get Friends More Involved

Tell your guests to dress in Hawaiian or tropical clothing. After all, many people have a Hawaiian shirt in the closet or some wildly-colored shorts stuffed in their dresser. Offer a prize for the guest with the most elaborately decorated flip flops. Food A menu with one or more of the following luau-themed foods will play up the party’s theme. Get recipes by clicking on the titles below.

Hawaiian Isle Dip
Easy Mango Slaw
Barbecued Pork Spareribs
Hawaiian-Style Drumsticks
Lemon Yogurt Pineapple Skewers
Drinks Having a full bar can be expensive. With the Hawaiian theme, all you need to do is provide one specialty drink for everyone to enjoy. Make the drink’s base in advance and serve some of it in a punch bowl or pitcher for those who would like an alcohol-free beverage. Some island favorites include:

Maitai
Pina Colada
Daiquiri
Or for a new twist, try the Wacky Waikiki Shake. Make sure you have plenty of tiny parasols, brightly colored straws and mini fruit kabobs for garnishing drink glasses. Front-Yard Decor Announce the theme of your party the moment the guests arrive: Place inflatable palm trees or flamingos in your front yard, drape parrot or luau lights over your bushes, and line the walkway to your front door with pineapples.

To welcome your guests, give them each a lei. And as they step into your party area, make sure a great variety of Hawaiian music is playing in the background. Backyard Decor Carry the fun theme through to the backyard by lining walkways with tiki torches and peppering your garden with tropical silk flowers or plastic fish. Attach grass hula skirts to your buffet tables using double-sided tape along the edges. Put your child’s wading pool to use by filling it with ice and loading it with drinks. Make Your Own Lei Add an activity area to the party, such as a lei-making table. You can use silk flowers purchased in the craft aisle. Provide guests with a long sewing needle and about 36 inches of dental floss. Thread the floss through the needle, gently pierce the center of each flower and carefully push the flower to the end of the floss; continue threading the flowers until the lei is complete.

You can also make head wreaths with shorter pieces of floss. Go one step further with your beautiful flowers and hot-glue them onto hair clips for women. Luau Games A luau is a really good occasion to play fun games. Your night could include:

Hula Charades: Instead of acting out the charade, you have to dance the charade using your hands to convey the message.
Crack the Coconut: Hand your guests a coconut, a hammer and a screwdriver and see who can crack the coconut in half the fastest. It’s a lot of fun, but it's messy, so you’ll want to play it outside.
Limbo: A Hawaiian luau favorite. Grab a broomstick and see how low your guests can go.
Prizes for the winners of these games can be cans of macadamia nuts or coupons for Hawaiian pizza at your favorite pizza parlor.