Whether you’ve got tickets or not, love sport or hate it, the world’s most prestigious athletic event will soon be underway and impossible to avoid. Hey, any excuse for a summer party – so here are our top party ideas with a sporty, medal-winning twist.
Keeping the cost down
Keep food simple – large bowls of pasta salad, punch for the adults (lemonade makes the alcohol go further).
Lots of supermarkets will be offering special deals to celebrate the event – and look out money saving vouchers or discounts only available online. Check out money savings sites such as MoneySupermarket where you can search for supermarket discounts and vouchers as well traditional savings products.
Going for gold cook off
Get everyone to bring a dish, as well as something to drink.
As guests arrive give them each 3 cardboard discs painted gold, silver and bronze or make some out of salt dough (the kids can prepare these) and get everyone to rate their 3 favourite dishes in descending order by placing a disc by the dish. The person who prepared the dish that gets the most gold ‘medals’ wins.
Summer games punch
In ancient Greece athletes were advised to drink wine as part of their training and who are we to argue.
Punch recipe: Cut a white or yellow fleshed melon into small cubes (removing the seeds and rind) – or use a baller. Spread the melon on a tray and freeze. Mix a 75cl bottle of white wine with a litre bottle of good quality lemonade and add the frozen fruit just before serving
Decorations
Send out invitations designed to look like event tickets.
Hula hoops in blue, yellow, black, green and red can be temporarily joined together with tape and displayed to give your event a real London Games feel.
Follow the theme through with the same colours for serviettes, paper plates, cups and bunting.
Stick gold chocolate coins on strips of ribbon and hang in trees or bushes for younger guests to find.
Food
You can even follow the colour theme through in your food.Try our new take on traditional Greek salad which includes dried figs – also a firm favourite with the athletes of ancient Greece.
Main event salad ingredients
- Blue – we racked our brains over this one and decided the best thing was to use a blue bowl.
- Yellow – instead of white feta cheese use tangy cheddar cut into cubes.
- Black – black olives (pitted).
- Red – chopped red pepper. Mix broadly equal quantities of the above ingredients to make the desired amount.
- Green – cucumber as fresh as you can get it and cut into cubes with the skin on.
How to make Make a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice. Dress the salad and decorate with thin slices of dried figs and a few toasted almond flakes.
Make your own medals to give out
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Get the kids involved in making their own medals out of salt dough.
Click here for full instructions
Games
Keep the children happy with mini versions of medal winning events (but with minimum risk to windows).
Get adults to take it in turns to sit on the judging panel and score participants. If you want to look very professional make up cards from 1 to 6 for them to hold up.
- Squishy javelin throwing – sponge ‘noodles’ are actually swimming aids. These colourful long tubes of sponge tuck under your arms to keep you afloat. But use them as javelins and be prepared to award prizes for where they land as well as how far they go. They can be bought cheaply online.
- Shot putt – but with a beach ball. Award points for most unusual throwing style as well as distance.
- Synchronised landing swimming – organise children into teams of 2 or 3. Get them to make up their own synchronised swimming routines. The challenge is they have to perform on dry land. Use any catchy pop song as background music. Best with slightly older children.
And have fun!
