Celebration Time
Heartfelt Valentine’s Day ideas.
by Event staff at Party Poopers


TWEENS & TEENS News February 2007

Letting the special people in your life know you care can be fun, and Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to express your heartfelt sentiments. Following are some fabulous yet cost-effective ways to show your affection— and to put your family members and friends in celebration mode.

FOR YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS
•Promise coupons: Cut out fun shapes from oak tag or other sturdy paper to craft coupons with themed slogans, such as “Valid for One Hug,” “Breakfast in Bed,” “Lunch with Grandma,” “Spend Time with Your Sibling for the Entire Day.”

•Picture frames: Get creative and make your own frames using items from around your house or your local craft store. In the frame, fit a favorite picture of yourself— or of you and the recipient together!

•Goodie baskets: Collect baked goods and other items that your family member enjoys, including chocolate, homemade brownies and muffins, scented candles, pictures, stickers and other keepsakes. Compile the goodies in a festive basket.

FOR YOUR BEST FRIENDS
•T-shirts: Get together with your best friend and make T-shirts for one another. Use rhinestones, glitter, fabric paint and other materials to adorn the shirts.

•Secret Valentine’s gift: In the spirit of secret Santa, put all your friends’ names in a hat and let everyone pick one name. Each friend should then find a great gift to suit his or her designated Valentine. Put a limit on spending, and everyone gets to give and receive a simple yet personal purchased or handmade gift.

•Broken heart charm: These charms are readily available at accessory shops and jewelry stores. Give one half to your best friend and keep the other one for yourself. Charms can be worn on bracelets, necklaces, keychains and more.

•BFF bag: Go to a dollar store or craft store to buy or sew a handbag. Inside, tuck lip gloss, necklace candies, Sweet Hearts, Bling stickers (for iPods and cell phones) and other festive items.

FOR YOUR SECRET CRUSH
•Secret cupid: Secretly slip someone a card, either by leaving it in a personal locker, slipping it in a textbook or asking a friend to pass it along.
•Mix CD: List your favorite songs or songs that remind you of your secret crush. Then make a dedicated CD for your Valentine filled with the selected songs.
•Glitter and bling: When in doubt, give jewelry.
•Key to my heart: Buy a heart and key charm, and affix the charm to a keychain. Give the gift to someone you cherish.

FOR PARTY TIME
How to host this year’s hottest Valentine’s Day party.

Creative Invitations
•Make a CD and send it to your friends, telling them about the party.
•Fill cellophane bags with fun confetti. Write the details about the party on note cards and place a card in each bag. Hand the bags out at school or drop them off at friends’ houses.
•Go to a scrapbooking store for more invitation ideas.

Treats and Decorations
•Find heart ice cube trays at Costco, Kmart or a specialty store. Fill each empty space with your favorite fruit drink. During the party, empty the colored heart-shaped cubes in pitchers filled with a clear soft drink or seltzer water. Choose a few drink mix flavors to give party-goers beverage options.
•Melt chocolate to supply chocolate fondue for dipping fruit, cookies and marshmallows.
•Blow up heart-shaped balloons and place them around the party room.
•Get Valentine’s poppers and streamers to further adorn the room.
•Replace regular light bulbs with pink or red bulbs.

Games
•Name That Tune, Love Song Edition: Get your friends to guess the names of love songs while party-goers take turns humming them. The person who names the right tune gets to take the next turn. Or, play only the first few seconds of a love song and see who can guess it. This is also a great kick-off for a few rounds of karaoke.
•Hershey Kiss Scavenger Hunt. Buy Kisses in different colored foil. Before the party, have a family member hide the chocolates. When you’re ready to play the game, put your friends into teams to go on the hunt! Each color represents a different number of points, such as ten points for silver foil, 20 points for gold foil, 50 points for pink foil. Add up the points to see which team wins.
•Couple Musical Chairs: Play musical chairs but let the guys be the chair by kneeling on one knee. Girls are the players, and when the music stops each girl must find a knee to plop on. The last gal with a guy (“chair”) wins! Swap roles for round two.
•Throwing the Smile: Everyone sits in a circle. One person makes a crazy smile, wipes the smile off his face and throws it at someone. That person has to catch the grimace, make a personal smile, wipe it off and throw the smile to another person at whom he or she looks. Whoever laughs during the game is out. The person who doesn’t burst into laughter wins!

Entertainment
•DJ or person in charge of playing the iPods or music
•Psychic
•Magician
•Cupid
•Aromatherapy— have a station for party-goers to create personal potpourri or lip gloss
•Candle or soap making
•Karaoke machine
•Photo booth
•Impersonators— look-a-likes of famous heartthrobs

Party Poopers has been partying in New York City since 1991. In that time, the entertainment company has developed a unique brand of partying. Starting out as a kids’ party company, Party Poopers has gradually expanded into a full-service party planning organization, offering all types of parties including birthdays, sweet 16s, intimate adult dinners, funky anniversaries, corporate functions, family picnics, gala fundraisers and every other special event imaginable.