Kidnap the Magic: A Main Street, USA Memorial Day

I felt conflicted about this one at first. I am well aware that a significant portion of my regular readership is Canadian (Hi, Cory!), and there's not really anything here for people outside the United States. But then I thought, what the heck, it's not like anyone comments on the themed party ideas anyway. If I'm honest, I have to admit that posting them at all is pure self-indulgent self-congratulation on my part, the equivalent of standing on a table and waving my arms and shouting “I found a thing that's like another thing!” but with more and fancier words.

Anyway, it's been a while.

So tomorrow is Memorial Day in the U.S. It kind of snuck up on us, didn't it? Or maybe it's just me. If you have some kind of shindig arranged for your day off, now might be a little late to change those plans. But if you're reading this in the morning, you do technically have the entire rest of the day to tweak your decisions! Furthermore, Memorial Day marks the start of the American cultural summer season, which features patriotic holidays at regular intervals. One “U-S-A!” day is pretty much like another when it comes to party decorations and whatnot—you could apply these ideas to the Fourth of July or Labor Day or even Flag Day.*

So say you're a Disneyland fan who wants to host a Memorial Day or other patriotic holiday get-together, and as is your wont, you wish to mix a little theme park in there. Obviously you're going to go with some Main Street, USA flavor. Within the berm, Main Street and American patriotism are practically synonymous. (Although the thesaurus does list “Frontierland” under Related Words.)

This is no coincidence—unironic patriotism pretty much took its current form during the time period represented by Main Street—the last period, maybe, when Americans were still isolated and innocent enough that they could be loudly patriotic without implied belligerence or smugness toward any other countries? I don't want this to get heavy, though, so let's just say that Main Street's brand of wholesome, matter-of-fact national pride is what most people are usually going for with these holidays. In short, this sort of theming for this sort of party is perfectly natural, and if your guests don't already know you're gaga for Disneyland, this won't necessarily be what tips them off. (This may or may not be what you're hoping for.)

Decorations

You want your party space to look patriotic, but also old-fashioned—so avoid tacky, tinsely, obviously synthetic decorations in favor of cloth—especially cotton or linen—and paper. Flags, banners, and buntings are both appropriate and easy to get ahold of.

Also think about your tablecloths. Any decent-sized fabric store will have by-the-yard cottons with seasonal print designs, and now's the time to look for deep discounts on the patriotic ones. Again, go for old-fashioned imagery. Here are a few great examples, all taken from the JoAnn website:

Or if you want to go even simpler, consider plain red and white stripes, a pattern which evokes not only the American flag, but also that Main Street mainstay, Coke Corner. (Plus you can re-use it at Christmas time!)

Your tableware is another possible source of theming. You probably don't want to roll out your good dishes for a backyard barbecue, but the thing is, you don't have to. Art Nouveau design sensibilities never really went entirely out of fashion when it comes to things like eating utensils and ice cream dishes, and even cheap forks and spoons often have that little telltale floral flourish in the handle. You might be surprised at how well-suited the items already in your drawers and cupboards are to this sort of thing.

Other decorations might be a bit trickier. Main Street is one of the most thematically consistent parts of the park, but aside from the rah-rah-America stuff, it's hard to pin down specific things that could be replicated in a party setting. Gibson Girl prints, maybe, although those might be pretty weird in the context of a patriotic holiday. Most of Main Street's distinctive theming is in the architecture and other big, permanent fixtures—not things that can be readily scaled down for a temporary event.

What you can do is use period-appropriate design elements for things like invitations, signs directing guests to your location, and name cards at the tables. Any decent font website will have plenty of Art Nouveau style lettering, as well as those little decorative floral accents associated with them. Look up vintage advertisements and posters and use them as inspiration. The website Mickey Avenue can point you at some of the actual typefaces used on Main Street signage, if you want to get that specific.

Food

You're in good shape here. The Main Street eateries tend to specialize in dishes that work really well for gatherings and cookouts—sandwiches (including burgers), tossed salads, fried chicken, pasta, etc. Choose the ones that best suit your resources, guest list, and personal tastes. Add a few bottles of Coke and root beer and a carton of vanilla ice cream, and you're basically good to go.

Music

This is where you really get to have fun. Everyone expects to hear Sousa marches for Memorial Day and related holidays, and they certainly possess much of the Main Street vibe, but there's so much more you can throw into the mix! Ragtime, barbershop, very early jazz, light orchestra...and, delight of delights, many of the actual performers who have appeared in Main Street in the past present, such as Rod Miller, the Dapper Dans, and the Firehouse Five Plus Two, have released albums. It's hard to find the physical CDs for sale nowadays, but you can easily find downloadable versions floating around the Internet. For that matter, most of the actual music loops that have been used on Main Street between 1971 (when the whole “area music” phenomenon apparently started) and now are pretty readily available.

Just don't forget about the Sousa marches. Gotta have those.

Other

If you're into sewing or costumery at all, you might try dressing in period costume (and inviting your guests to do the same). It's pretty easy to find patterns for 1900s-1910s fashion in your local fabric store. Better yet, The Music Man—which might as well be called “Main Street, USA: The Play/Movie”**—is very popular for high school theatre productions, and the major pattern manufacturers have risen to meet the demand.

Fireworks! This is definitely more of a July 4^th thing than a Memorial Day thing, but boy is it ever a July 4^th thing. As well as being a Main Street thing! So if fireworks are legal in your area and you are prepared to take all necessary safety precautions—and only then—by all means, set off some bottle rockets to the strains of the “patriotic finale” from the old Fantasy in the Sky show.

Aaaaand...that about wraps up my thoughts on the matter. I apologize for the shortness of this post; I've been short on both time and inspiration this week. Next week, I hope to have something much, much better.

See you then!

* This is assuming anyone even celebrates Flag Day. I don't, because I can't figure out what the point is beyond “Yay flag!”, which—trust me—is something Americans don't need a special day for. Seriously, have you been here?

** In case you're wondering, the play came out in 1957—Disneyland beat Meredith Wilson to the punch.