Jump into Fun with a Leap Day Party
Leap Year only comes around every four years so why not make the most of it. This year start a Leap Year tradition that can play out for years to come. Treat Leap Day like a Snow Day. After all, it is sort of like a gift of a day that has been given to us. Whether you’re single, a couple, or part of a family, take advantage of the extra time. For starters, treat the day like a holiday. If you can, take the day off of work or school or simply leave the office early.For Singles:Treat yourself to a day of pampering. Go out to a day spa alone or with friends and have the works done. If you don’t have the resources, turn your home into a spa. Light candles, soak in the tub, give yourself a facial, and curl up with a good book.Take off on a day of adventure and pretend to be a tourist in your own hometown. Go places you usually just pass by. Pretend you are on a special vacation that you are only allowed to take once every four years.
Call up four friends and spend four hours playing cards, watching old movies or exercising.
For Couples:
Start a special tradition on each leap year, to have one spouse be king/queen for the day. Each Leap Year the honor changes. Start with a Crown or Tiara and let the royal pronouncements begin.
Invite another couple over for a day of fun and games. Get out the old Monopoly board, Twister and other fun games. Order in pizza and relax.
For Families:
Make it a party day. For kids and parents alike, the daily routine can sometimes become monotonous. Stave off the winter-time blues by throwing a Leap Year bash. Plan it for just the family or invite other friends and families to join you.
Select a slogan/theme to wrap your celebration around.
The following list will start you off.
• Leaping into Spring
• Stealing a Leap
• Takin’ Advantage of the Day
Use your slogan throughout your party on banners, personalized napkins, personalized glassware or stadium cups as well as personalized favors such as frames, bubbles and photo albums. These cheerful reminders of a fantastic event will bring back memories long after the last hurrah has been heard.
Decorate your event to coordinate with your slogan/theme. The frog is a natural tie to Leap Year celebrations. Our friend the frog brings with it the color green. Starting with green add a second and/or third color to complete your color theme. We recommend yellow and blue. Use these three colors to decorate the table, walls, doors, and ceilings.
Add a jovial 3-D Hanging Frog to your decor.
Next, add balloons, balloons and more balloons. Decorating with balloons is an easy and affordable way to transform a room into a magical partyland. Create towering balloon archways, glorious balloon columns and funfilled balloon garlands. Weave the three colors together (green, yellow and blue) to work with your color theme. If you are low on time and air, inflate a few dozen balloons and dangle them from the ceiling (upside-down) using curling ribbon. It’s a simple way to create with balloons without the use of helium.
If you haven’t decorated with gossamer, you’re missing the lily pad. Use gossamer streamers to create curtains in doorways, tent-like ceilings and swags around the windows. Large sections of gossamer can be used to create your leap year pond, marsh, and bank.
Don’t underestimate the importance of your head table. Decorate the table with brightly colored table skirting, confetti, metallic shred, green candles, and toy frogs.
Every party needs a game or activity to get the crowd going. Start with some Leap Year trivia. Famous events that happened on a leap year, name of the individual who came up with the leap year idea and celebrities with a leap year birthday are all fun ideas. Or, ask your guests to write down what else they wished they could do only once every four years and share it with the other guests. Give out awards for the most unique answers. Hang a large piece of flat paper on the wall and ask guests to write their predictions for what may happen in the next four years. Roll up the paper at the end of the party and save it for the next leap year. Or, using the large paper, make a number of lists/comments of what happened during the last 100 years only on every leap year. Ask guests to identify what leap year each set of comments relates to.
For added fun, set up your party in fours. Table of fours, four layer cake, four course meal, four candles on the cake, a friendly game of quarters or serve food that can easily be “quartered.”
Remember to have plenty of film on hand. These Leap Year Celebrations don’t come around too often!
If you have the time, plan special activities for your party that coincide with Leap Year. If you live in a warm climate, plan an outdoor “summer” leap year Olympics. Create events that include jumping like obstacle courses around the house for track, leaping into the pool for swimming, leaping and twirling for gymnastics. Be sure to have plenty of awards on hand to present to the winners. Make sure you have at least one award for each contestant. For those of us in cooler climates, have a winter leap year Olympics. Keep with the leaping theme. Create snow mounds to jump, ski or sled over. Create a special ice skating event with or without skates danced to music. It isn’t important what you do, but more important that everyone participate and have fun.
Keep the food tied to the events by starting the day with the breakfast of champions Wheaties and serving plenty of carbohydrates for the Olympic athletes.
If you’re more the political type, set up a leap year election. Let the entire family cast their votes and predictions for the upcoming election. Decorate in red, white, and blue. Serve only red, white, and blue foods. Save your predictions and award prizes in November. This will result in the need for a second party in November to present prizes. Of course, one party that leads naturally to another is the best kind!
If you don’t have the time or energy to go all out this year, start small. Plan a special dinner with a simple frog theme. Set up a few decorations and cut everything in the meal in fourths. Treat the day as a found day to re-proclaim your love for yourself, your family and your friends.
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