A Pirate Purim Party

Hi Everyone! I’m so excited for purim! It is my favorite holiday. I remember as a kid rushing around with my mom to get all the fun items for our family mishloach manot. My mom always came up with a poem, theme, or found a cute container. All these years later I’m still doing the same thing.

Every year I try to figure out what my kids will be interested in. Over the years we’ve done Pinkalicious, Dr. Seuss, dogs, and the list goes on and on. This year my kids decided they wanted to be Jake and the Never Land Pirates. I figured that would be easy. Get them all pirate costumes and we’ll do some sort of treasure hunt. As I started to plan I decided to take it one step further. The Usdan Family became the Shushan Pirates!

We’ve had so much planning and decorating. The kids helped me design a treasure map and goblets and find all the items for our treasure box, while I’ve been doing all the behind the scenes. Purim day we will drop off the treasure maps in their bottles to all our friends and they will use it to come to our house to pick up their treasure. I filled the treasure box with lots of gold coins and gold bars and of course triangle shaped Hamantashen.

Over the past two weeks I started to envision my seudah table. I wanted it to be a little more glam than kid like. I decided to look for items around my house that reminded me of pirates. I started with candles and wine bottles. Every night  I’ve been melting candles over my wine bottles to see how they would look. I also designed custom labels for my bottles so they would be in the spirit of purim. A little secret, all you need is some elmer’s glue, water, and a paint brush to stick the labels on! I even saved my jelly jars! I  just put in a votive candle and tied rope around the jar  to give my table a rustic feel. Finally, I went to a few of my favorite stores Michaels, Target, and Home Goods to give my table texture and dimension with jems and nametags.

Here are a few tips for your Purim party:

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1. Always come up with an idea your kids can help with! They love it  and you’ll love it. They really look at things with a different eye.
2. Try to start with stuff you have. This time I started with my Shabbos white modern table cloths, but bought runners and turned them horizontal for a different feel and texture to my table. Make sure when you do purchase something you’ll use it again.
3.Inspiration boards. Cut out pictures from magazines, pull images from online, or make a pinterest board to help you create a clear idea of what you want your table to look like in your mind.
4. Sketch. I know not everyone is an artist, but it helps if you get it down on paper. It can be as simple as  boxes on a paper that say center piece here, candles here, etc  When I work I’m very abstract, but I do try to get something down so I have a direction. As you can see from this table my center piece were very organic. Don’t be scared of using different materials.
5. Have FUN. I know we’re all busy, but if a table is too big of a project  take on small DIY projects. It’ll start to get easier.
Next year you try to make your own center pieces from things around home! I’m sure they’ll come out great.