How many of you celebrate Mardi Gras? I’ve never been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but I know it’s HUGE with millions of people coming from all over to participate in.
Mardi Gras is on Tuesday February 21st this year – coming up soon! If you don’t typically celebrate Mardi Gras, this would be a really great opportunity to teach your kids about a fun holiday that is celebrated not only in New Orleans, but all over the world as well. Kids always love a reason to have an extra special dinner with colorful decorations!
Mardi Gras (which means Fat Tuesday in French) marks the end of carnival season and the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras consists of masquerade balls, parades and parties to celebrate one last day of feasting before the season of fasting begins (Lent) – where people typically give up something of luxury for the weeks leading up to Easter.
The traditional colors of Mardi Gras are green (faith), purple (justice) and gold (power). Some of the Mardi Gras traditions include parades with people on floats throwing various trinkets to the parade watchers with the most popular being beads and doubloons (coins). Colorful masks are worn by both the people on the parade floats as well as the on-lookers.
Here are some ideas to help your family celebrate Mardi Gras this year:
1. Decorate masks.
2. Serve a traditional New Orleans style dinner.
3. Bake a king cake (or cupcakes).
4. Decorate the dinner table with Mardi Gras colors and symbols.
5. Listen to music typical of New Orleans such as zydeco, jazz & blues.
Kids will LOVE decorating masks; just give them some supplies and let them go to work. They can be decorating their masks while you’re getting dinner ready. Use things such as feathers, sequins, pom poms, pipe cleaners, ribbon, and plastic jewels to embellish your masks. I wanted to keep everything in the traditional Mardi Gras colors – purple, green and yellow, which were easy to find at either Dollar Tree or Michaels. Adults can join in the fun too, of course…I had a great time making my masks! 
Red beans & rice, gumbo and jambalaya are typical New Orleans style foods to serve during Mardi Gras celebrations. Here is a recipe for New Orleans-style Red Beans and Rice that was featured in the Spring issue of Yum For Kids magazine where Paula of Frog Prince Paperie shared her father’s authentic family recipe.
Photo courtesy of Frog Prince Paperie
For a traditional chicken and sausage jamabalaya recipe, this Quick Jambalaya from Martha Stewart is perfect and only takes about 60 minutes to prepare.
Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart
For weeks before Mardi Gras, parties are being held with the traditional king cake being served. King cake is a braided coffee cake covered with icing and purple, green and gold sugar. A small plastic baby is baked inside the cake and whoever finds it has to bring the king cake to the next celebration.
Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart
I personally am scared of yeast, so I didn’t attempt to make the traditional king cake…instead I went for cupcakes decorated with purple, green and yellow frosting and dressed up with free Mardi Gras printables from The TomKat Studio (one of the guest speakers at the SNAP! Conference).
In keeping with tradition, I baked a baby into one of the cupcakes and thought it would be fun to see who chose the winning cupcake. Of course the kids wanted to eat ALL the cupcakes to see who had the baby!
To decorate the dinner table, I started with a simple white tablecloth and then added some things to make it festive using the traditional Mardi Gras colors.
The centerpiece was created by placing some twigs I had previously painted white in a tall vase. Then I filled the vase with little green balls, adding some coins and beads hanging from the branches. Matching ribbon was tied around the center of the vase.
To add some color to the white tablecloth, I used a paper punch to cut out a bunch of fleur-de-lis shapes from purple, green and yellow cardstock and scattered them around the table.
For the place settings, I started with a shiny purple piece of scrapbook paper I spotted at WalMart. Then I added the contrasting yellow paper plates and utensils wrapped in a green and white polka dot napkin. The napkin was secured with a yellow ribbon and embellished with more Mardi Gras party circles from The TomKat Studio.
To dress up the plastic cups, I again added some yellow ribbon and another party circle from The TomKat Studio. A purple and white striped straw is always more fun to drink out of, right??!!
New Orleans has a rich musical history. Play music that features the different styles of music made famous in Louisiana like zydeco, jazz, and blues while the kids are decorating their masks. Or have it playing softly in the background during dinner.
My kids are now really excited for their special Mardi Gras dinner coming up next week. They’re probably most looking forward to the cupcakes again to see who gets the baby this time!
Are any of you planning your own Mardi Gras celebrations this year? What are some of your favorite traditions? I’d love to hear about them!
What a lovely celebration! Thank you for the mention.
Thanks Paula! Your article and party was darling! Thanks for the recipes!