How To Throw The Ultimate Canada Day Party
As Canadians, we have precious few ways to show our national pride. Sure, we can root for the Canadian hockey team at the Winter Olympics every four years, or proudly support local businesses (like ours, of course!), but the one day of the year that’s reliably patriotic is Canada Day. We don’t do it with as much bravado as our neighbours to the south, mind you, but we love Canada Day as a way for friends and communities to come together and celebrate our shared space.
As such, we as Canadians reserve the right every year to throw a great party. Hosting a party can be lots of fun, but it can also be a bit stressful, especially when you’re aiming to impress your guests with your home and décor. At Woodcraft, we can tell you that the best foundation for any party – but especially a party that celebrates Canada – is going to include solid wood furniture made from Canadian craftspeople. Not only does it evoke the old lumberjack image of the Canadian olden days, but it supports local business and local lumber. But solid wood furniture – here are some other ways to throw the ultimate Canada Day Party this July 1st.
Decorations
Of course, red and white are the name of the game here. Whether you go with cross-hatching red and white streamers, red and white trays for hors d’oeuvres or red and white matching towels in the washroom, this added flair really drives home the theme.
Also – and we’re not saying this solely because we work with wood – wood makes a great Canadian décor motif, because, as mentioned, it conveys a sense of the great wild outdoors. If you can find some festive foliage, like maple leaves (they’ll be green in the summer), absolutely use them, to decorate counter tops, tables, drink trays, etc.
Food
We’ve got two beautiful words for you: poutine bar. That’s right, you can offer your guests a bowl of plain fries and then line up all the fixings for them to customize their poutine. Go for the classics, of course – cheese curds and gravy – and then branch out with things like, bacon, green onion, mushrooms, etc. Whatever works with potatoes will work with poutine.
In addition to this very stereotypical offering, July 1st is a great time to break out the BBQ. The weather is hot enough that your guests will want to be outside anyways, and grilling for a crowd takes the headache out of preparing food in the kitchen. It ends up being less messy.
Table Settings
Picture this: on top of a beautiful, handcrafted reclaimed wood kitchen table you’ve placed maple leaves, pine cones, a burlap runner and some red and white candles. If that doesn’t scream “Canadian rustic”, we don’t know what does. For stuff like this, you can’t go wrong with Pinterest, which in this case has a load of great ideas for Canada Day table settings.
Games
To really keep the theme going, you could host your own Canada Day trivia game, with prizes for the winners. Here are 150 questions about Canada – corresponding to last year’s Canada 150 celebrations – that you can use as part of your trivia. As a prize, you could give away red and white candy, chocolate loonies, or even gift certificates to local businesses. Just gather everyone around your wood table and dole out the questions Jeopardy-style, with the first person to buzz in getting a chance to answer.
Canada Day is all about having fun with friends, neighbours and family, so break out the red and white décor, fry up some Quebec style fries, deck your reclaimed wood table out in Canadian settings and keep the games going all night. Here’s to you, Canada!