Party Planning 101: How To Host the Ultimate Fourth of July Bash

In most households, the big holidays are Christmas, New Year’s, and Easter … in mine it’s the Fourth of July. This year we ordered American flag bunting for our front porch. When my husband opened the box, you would’ve thought it was Christmas morning! Needless, to say we love our red, white, and blue themed recipes, decorations and fireworks!

Here are some ideas on how to step-up your Fourth party:

The Dessert

Let’s start with the most important thing to any—the dessert! I’m a fan of classics and I have always loved the simple look of the flag pie. This particular one from She Knows uses just strawberries but if you added some blueberries and bananas in there you’d have your red, white AND blue.

These Firecracker Cakelettes are genius! Pop Rocks in cake … yes, please! You could do this for any holiday, altering the cake colors of course, but the Pop Rocks for the Fourth are just great!

If these past days are any indicator we’re going to have a hot day on our hands, so these Patriotic Pops from HGTV will be perfect! This recipe uses strawberries, coconut, and blueberries—but again, I imagine just about any combo would be equally refreshing.

The Décor

Simple is sometimes better and I love the simplicity of just scattering around the little mini-American flag that you can find at the Dollar Store. You can line your walkway with them, plug them into your potted plants, use in your centerpieces, even in food … in my opinion you can’t have too many!

Adding touches of red, white and blue to your tablescape with  linen, plates, silverware, candles, and so on. It’s an easy and cost-effective way to carry the theme throughout your whole party.

The Food

I am a recipe-follower, not so much a recipe-creator, so I am constantly blown away by people who can just take a bunch of ingredients and come up with amazing stuff. This Red, White, and Blue Salad is one of them! It includes a whole bunch of yummy—strawberries, pecans, feta and more! I love feta, but I REALLY love goat cheese so I might swap out those two, but other than that, this recipe is definitely pinned to my Recipe board!

Peach BBQ Wings … do I really need to say anything else? I think not! This awesome recipe from Add a Pinch is making my mouth water!

To cap off this tantalizing recipe roundup, Aloha Burger Sliders. I know, I know…you’re now hungry! These sliders have BACON, pineapple, and brown sugar BBQ sauce…and BACON!

And that’s a wrap folks!!! Enjoy the Fourth this year, here’s to hoping you have a four day weekend! Be safe and eat lots!

  • Photos: BigStock