A Hawaiian luau or tropical party can be great fun for a birthday or just to bring some sunshine into your life during the long, gray months of winter.
Hawaiian parties can be for any age since you can adjust what you do for different age groups.
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Hawaiian Luau Grass Skirts
For our Hawaiian luau, we made our own “grass” skirts.
We cut them from plastic tablecloths and taped them around our waists.
We taped some artificial flowers around the tops of the skirts to make them look nicer.
You could buy grass skirts, but that would be a lot more expensive.
If you have your guests make their own grass skirts then they can be customized to fit their sizes.
How to Make Grass Skirts
Step 1: Measure & Cut Tablecloth
Measure the person’s waist, and cut a piece out of a green plastic tablecloth that will fit around their waist with a couple inches of overlap.
Step 2: Cut Elastic & Glue
To make the waist sturdier, you can cut a piece of thicker elastic to put in the inside of the waist of the grass skirt.
Glue the elastic to the inside of the skirt.
Step 3: Glue on Flowers
Hot glue flowers onto the outside of the waist of the skirt. This will make it look nicer.
Step 4: Attach End of Tablecloth
Attach the two ends of your tablecloth to make the waist.
You can hot glue the ends together at the waist to make a slip on skirt.
Or, you can attach adhesive Velcro to make the skirt Velcro instead of having to slip it on.
Hawaiian Luau Leis
Besides the grass skirts, we also made our own leis out of old fake flowers. We also had a Hawaiian door curtain that we got at a garage sale for $1.00. We were able to cut it apart and used the pieces for our leis.
If you just have the flowers, you will need to get some thin elastic and drinking straws cut into segments. You will also need some large needles to thread everything with.
Have your guests design and create their own leis to make them more personalized.
How to Make Leis
Step 1: Measure & Cut Elastic
Depending on how big you want the lei to be, you will need to measure a piece of thin elastic and cut it.
Tie a knot at one end to keep the flowers and straws from falling off while you are stringing it.
Step 2: Add flowers & Straws
Using a thick needle, thread the needle through the flowers and straw pieces.
Alternate between threading on fake flowers and pieces of straws.
Nicer artificial flowers will make your leis look more realistic, but you can really use any fake flowers that you want.
Step 3: Tie the Final Knot
After you have filled your lei with flowers and pieces of straws to separate the flowers, tie the two ends of the elastic into a knot.
Hawaiian Luau Decorations
For decorations, you can get some inflatable palm trees, a scenic backdrop, or make your own decorations out of cardboard.
You can also look at garage sales and resale shops for any cheap Hawaiian decor items such as candles, fabrics, knickknacks, and signs.
Hawaiian Luau Food
Hawaiian luaus are big in Hawaii, so barbecue pork would be great for food.
Check out our easy Crock Pot barbecue pork recipe!
You can also serve pineapple since they grow pineapples in Hawaii.
Mini umbrellas would look great in drinks
Hawaiian Luau Hula Dancing
What would a Hawaiian luau be without learning how to hula?
A real easy hula to learn is the “Hukilau.”
You can get a DVD with a demonstration or learn it from a YouTube video.
You may also want to play Hawaiian music during the party.
If you know someone who owns a ukulele and can play it, that would also be fun to have.
Hawaiian Luau Craft
Another activity that we did at our party was for everyone to make a cardboard license plate with their first name on it written in Hawaiian.
You can use cardboard that is painted white or white cardstock for a thinner license plate.
Hawaii’s license plate has a rainbow on it, so you could draw or paint that on it first before writing your name.
There are several online sites that translate names into their Hawaiian version.
This makes a fun remembrance to take home.
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What ideas do you have for a Hawaiian luau party?
Comment down below your ideas!
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Si può giocare pure con l hula hoop
Play limbo. I’ve found that all ages enjoy this game.