4th of July Entertaining Ideas

Who’s ready for the 4th of July??  Are you hosting?

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays.  The entertaining ideas are endless, though I love sticking to some of my basics as it creates such tradition with my kids. My secret goal is for them to always want to spend the holidays with me…

One of their favorite things about the 4th of July is the “Decorate your Bike” station I put together for them.  Is there anything more fun than wrapping your handle bars in crepe paper and adding Bike Wheel Spokes??  After the kids have decorated their bikes, they love to do a bike parade through the neighborhood to show off their fancy rides.

While the kids wait for the fireworks, it’s fun to put together a little treat box to keep them entertained.  Sparklers, Pop-it’s, POP ROCKS Candy , Cracker Jacks, bubbles and sidewalk chalk are fun goodies to include.

Cascade Ice is my new go-to party beverage and makes a refreshing treat for hot block parties and bbq’s.  It’s calorie free, sugar free, gluten free…WIN!  Attach a fun paper straw with Anders Ruff 4th of July printable straw tags and you have a cute bevvy to keep you hydrated.

When serving a large crowd, beverage stations make your life a lot easier.  Fill Beverage Dispensers with a couple signature drinks and let your guests help themselves. For festive 4th of July drinks, I used Cascade Ice’s Wild Berry with frozen strawberries and Cascade Ice’s Coconut with frozen blueberries (and colored it with a couple drops of blue food coloring). For adult bevvy’s, add vodka or sparkling wine to your mix!

I like to combine my drinking glasses, napkins and silverware into one quick grab and go for guests to easily get what they need and still have an extra hand for their food.  You can use paper cups and plastic silverware for large parties, but if you’re having a small gathering, I think it’s nice to have real silverware and cups.

Strawberry Shortcake is my signature 4th of July dessert. Get my recipe HERE!

For a fireworks show treat, serve guests Patriotic Popcorn! I popped microwave popcorn, drizzled chocolate over the top and mixed in snickers candy bars, red, white and blue goldfish, festive sprinkles and M&M’s. These are simple to prepare before guests arrive. I put mine in these cute DIY boxes created by Anders Ruff. You can download yours below for FREE:

andersruff-4th-SnapCracklePopcornBoxes

To capture all the fun of the holiday, I like to provide a photo opp for guests to snap a quick pic. They’re inexpensive to put together using a piece of fabric as your backdrop and silly props you can pick up at the dollar store. I’m obsessed with these Fuji Instax Mini cameras which are similar to an old-school Polaroid camera. We’ve had so much fun using ours this summer. The film can add up, you can’t take 45 selfies, but I did find a pretty good film price on Amazon HERE. Of course an iPhone camera or real camera is great too!!

Watch my 4th of July entertaining segment on New Day Northwest HERE!

Hope you have a fun and safe 4th of July!!

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