Kidnap the Magic: A Themed Party Masterpost

With a new year comes new calendars...and for many people, the activity of marking off portions of them for holidays and vacations. It is the former that concerns us today.

Under my Kidnap the Magic tag, I have offered several ideas for party themes based on Disneyland attractions, most of them keyed to specific holidays or seasonal events. It's been quite a while, because I ran out of suitably thematic holidays well before I ran out of possible themes. But I still want to fill in those gaps, hence this post: a one-stop shop for all your basic guidelines for planning themed parties based on the Happiest Place on Earth.

For each area in the resort, I'll outline a few different aspects. Themes refers to party themes, not park themes, and basically boils down to which section(s) of the big-box party store you should scour for decorations and the like. These are often seasonally specific, but no worries—it's not unusual to be loved by anyone for a large store to stock some of everything year-round, and a whole lot of whatever is coming up soon on the calendar. Food and Music should be pretty self-explanatory. And finally Disney Movies you can tap for imagery, party entertainment, or other inspiration, covering not just those movies which actually tie in to the local attractions, but also those with a similar setting or vibe. Unusually for me, I'll address both animated and live-action films, because not to do so...would be pretty silly, as we'll see.

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.)

Kidnap the Magic: A Haunted Mansion Halloween

I've really been looking forward to this one. Of the several Disneyland themed party ideas I've shared so far, this is the only one I've actually tried for myself, rather than merely speculating upon. So quell those doubts, readers—this stuff's been field-tested in advance by Yours Truly and my then-housemates!

Kidnap the Magic: Talk Like a Pirate of the Caribbean Day

September is here at last, bringing with it (hopefully) cooler weather, quieter households...and on the 19^th of the month, the most beloved holiday that never got its own section in a Hallmark store: International Talk Like a Pirate Day! It's not hard to see why this “holiday” took off the way it did—it asks so little of you. You don't have to buy anyone a gift or a card, or spend hours decorating your house, or sit through a long church service. All you have to do is alter your speech patterns in accordance with a well-known pop-cultural archetype.

But why stop there? Talking Like a (Hollywood) Pirate is fun and all, but maybe a little too easy. The name hasn't changed, but for many people, Talk Like a Pirate Day is also Dress Like a Pirate Day, Fly the Jolly Roger Like a Pirate Day, and Watch Pirate Movies* Day.

Even...perhaps...Throw a Pirate-Themed Party Day! And when it comes to pirate theming, nobody has more vivid mental images than devotees of Disney parks. This is probably because the original version of Pirates of the Caribbean, the ride, installed at Disneyland in 1967, is the best theme park attraction ever built. As an iconic fantasy depiction of piracy in the Age of Sail, it's second only to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. As a first-person experience, it's simply incomparable. It's got its own specific imagery, its own instantly recognizable soundtrack, its own unique smell. If you want your Talk Like a Pirate Day party to take its cues from the ride—and if you consider yourself a Disneyland fan, then you do, no two ways about it—then you have plenty of material to work with that will make your guests go “Hey...this is that ride!”

What you don't have a lot of is convenient shortcuts. Make no mistake—“Pirate” is one of the big themes in your average party store, and you can even find Pirates of the Caribbean branded items...but naturally it's all to do with the film franchise. Use it anyway if you like; these days Jack Sparrow is on the ride, after all. But if you really want to evoke the ride itself, Party City and its brethren will be of very little help. And nor will much of anything else in the retail arena. It's just that unique.

So what can you do?

You can do what brought us the marvels of Pirates of the Caribbean to begin with. You can Imagineer.

This isn't going to be like my other Disneyland party ideas, where I take you through all the major facets of party planning including ideas for food, games, and music. The food should be sumptuous, the games should revolve around treasure maps, and if you follow this blog but can't think of any music that reminds you of Pirates of the Caribbean, then there's simply no help for you. Rather, this post is going to highlight some specific things you can do to create a Pirates of the Caribbean-style atmosphere...be it for a party or any other reason!

Kidnap the Magic: Jungle Cruise Cookout

Can you believe it's August already? Where is the year going? Before you know it, it will be Labor Day, and then the kids will go back to school, and then you'll start seeing Halloween stuff everywhere, and The Holidays Will Be Upon Us.

But in the meantime, there's still plenty of summer left—plenty of hot weather and late sunsets and not a lot of other commitments involving school or calendar holidays. Perfect conditions, in other words, for a barbecue! You know where else the weather is hot, the demands of civilization have little to no hold on you, and people cook over open fires? The untamed jungle. So for this installment of Kidnap the Magic, I'll give suggestions for turning your cookout party into a Jungle Cruise-themed extravaganza!

Kidnap the Magic: Enchanted Tiki Luau

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Spring has sprung and the weather is warming up! It's the time of year when people start to think about moving their recreational activities outdoors, and one of the classics is the luau. A better term might actually be “Hawaii theme party,” since we mainlanders don't usually follow all the genuine island traditions, but “luau” is the accepted term used by all the party supply stores. Luau gear is in abundance all throughout the spring and summer in the U.S.—all the leis, tiki torches, and plastic piña colada glasses molded to look like coconut halves that you could want.

But this isn't just any party planning guide. This is the Disneyland Dilettante! And when a Disneyland aficionado gets it into their head to hold a luau, there's only one place to go...

To the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room!

In this issue of Kidnap the Magic, I'll provide tips for turning your party space into a tropical hideaway for the lucky people you welcome there.

Kidnap the Magic: A Good Old-Fashioned New Orleans (Square) Mardi Gras

Quick! What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about New Orleans?

Well, if you're a Disneyland nut like me (and you probably are, or you wouldn't be reading this blog), you immediately think “Square” and then start singing “Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)” and/or “Grim Grinning Ghosts” until they throw you out of Macy's. But beyond that...there are still a lot of answers. New Orleans is one of the most culturally distinctive cities in the United States, if not the most. Everyone knows what kind of music (jazz, particularly the Dixieland variety), food (gumbo and jambalaya, to start with), and religion (Voodoo) comes from there. But no matter where your interests lie, there's one thing that's certain to make your New Orleans Free Association Top Ten, and that's Mardi Gras.

It wasn't until fairly recently that this holiday caught on anywhere else in the U.S. I blame Protestant dominance—Protestants don't observe Lent* and hence have no need for a last-ditch hedonistic bash before the austerities commence. As general hedonism has become fashionable in the modern day, Americans of all stripes will take any excuse they can get for a drinking party, but all the same, Mardi Gras has been indelibly stamped as a New Orleans tradition. Wherever in the country you live, when you decide to throw a Mardi Gras party, you're sort of committing yourself to serving shrimp and mint juleps and playing jazz.

But that doesn't mean you can't put a special spin on it. In this, the first of (hopefully) many Kidnap the Magic project ideas, I'll instruct you, fellow Disneyland fan, in how to make your Mardi Gras party not just a taste of New Orleans, but a taste of New Orleans Square.

* An alternate hypothesis is that they observe Lent all year-round.