Hold an Olympics Closing Ceremony Party
The feast of sports, emotional moments, country love and excitement that make up the Olympics culminate in the closing ceremony, the last opportunity to see your favorites in their country formations and to see whatever spectacular surprises the organizers have in store. While you could sink back into the couch alone or with family, it can be a nice gesture to use the closing ceremony as an excuse to throw a party and invite over friends and more family, so that you can all share your various excitement and disappointment over various sporting achievements over drinks and nibbles.
Steps
- Invite everyone you'd like to come. It's best to keep a party like this informal, and perhaps even a drop-in occasion to let people come and go as they please. Send out email and text invitations or simply call people and ask them over.
- Encourage everyone to wear their favorite sporting gear, to add to the sporty theme of the party. If anyone is coming back from playing sport that day, ask them to stay in that mode!
- Decorate the room where the party is held. Look for Olympic themed decorations and use the five Olympic colors (blue, yellow, black, green and red) for color themes. Print out the Olympic mascot to pin up here and there, add some balloons and streamers and perhaps add a few print-outs of a few fun Olympics achievements statistics for people to read as they're seated. If any Olympic athlete that you have been following devotedly has achieved something amazing in the Olympics, why not print out his or her photo and display it proudly as well.
- Make the largest screen in your home the focal point for the party. Everyone will want to watch the ceremony at various points during the party, if not the entire time, so have plenty of room for all guests in front of the screen. Set out extra chairs, cushions, and other seats to make it comfortable for everyone.
- Does the TV's sound travel well? If not, you might need to get some additional speakers to make sure the sound can reach everyone.
- Include small areas to rest drinks and snacks, such as coffee tables, small tables, boxes, etc. It can be awkward if guests can't set down drinks and plates.
- If you have too many guests and not enough space in one area, consider using other areas that have TVs or borrow a friend's extra TV to set up another room. This might be a good way to keep noisier kids happy in one room while the adults watch more peacefully in another.
- Serve a buffet. The easiest style for a sports party is usually buffet style, with occasional snacks being handed around as well. While you could go to the trouble of making food with a theme, such as your country's national colors, the shapes of various sporting gear, etc., you don't have to. Party food of all sorts will work well. Suggestions include:
- Dips and chips, finger food, cheese and crackers, bowls of nibbles, spiced nuts, etc. If you don't have any of the other food suggestions below, at least have snack foods available.
- Sliced meats, savory pies, buffalo wings, pizza, curries, etc. for savory foods. Include plates and cutlery for serving and eating with.
- Cupcakes, doughnuts/churros, whoopie pies, dessert pies, cookies, cheesecake, candies, etc. for sweet foods.
- Healthy foods like salads, fruit kebabs, sugar- or gluten-free options, etc.
- If you want to make Olympic themed food, try such approaches as using the Olympic colors, turning items like bagels, pizzas or cookies into the Olympic rings, decorating cakes and pies with sporting themes, etc.
- Include drinks. The usual drinks from lemonade and sodas to beer and wine are good choices. If you want something fancier, consider making Jell-O shots, cocktails/mocktails, mixed drinks and alcohol-pops.
- Consider having a mini Olympic Games in the backyard to keep the kids entertained. Hold small races (running, sack races, egg and spoon races, etc.), set up a mini obstacle course or hurdles, have target throwing practice for prizes, play ball games, throw paper planes or other paper objects over distances, and if you have a pool, perhaps include supervised swimming races or even synchronized swimming! If adults get involved, simply make the games harder or challenge them to a tug of war, which was once an actual Olympic event.
- Encourage teams if there are lots of kids, or if the adults would like to join in. Have each team develop its own mascot (give them paper, stuffed toys, markers, etc. to do this with).
- Set out an area with soft mats for anyone who is good at gymnastics or who simply wants to try out some cartwheels and handstands.
- Award the children with medals for their wins. These could be made from cardboard, paper, etc. attached to ribbon, or you could use chocolate coins attached to a ribbon.
- Hold an Olympics trivia quiz. Some of the party guests might enjoy testing their wits about all things Olympic. There are several possible approaches to this:
- Run a pub-style quiz that only uses the Olympics for the subject-matter.
- Play Trivial Pursuit but replace the cards with your own Olympic themed ones. This would be a lot of effort though!
- Make a pass-the-parcel that can only have each layer opened upon answering an Olympic-related question.
- Simply ask Olympic-related questions for on-the-spot prizes throughout the party.
Tips
- Medals could be given to every guest on arrival or departure, either as a way to get into the party spirit, or as a parting gift in place of a goody bag.
- Since the Olympics began in Ancient Greece, any theme focused on this wouldn't be out of place––this could be fun for the costumes! Have some beer around for adults.
- Chocolate medals can be purchased if ordered ahead in enough time.
Warnings
- Do not make anything with the Olympic symbols or mascots for sale or profit––these are copyrighted symbols.
Things You'll Need
- Food and drink
- Big screen TV (and optional extra TV if space is tight)
- Comfortable places to seat guests
- Backyard games (optional)
- Trivia questions and games (optional)
- Party Food
Related Articles
- Watch the Olympics Online
- Buy Food for a Party
- Train for the Olympics
- Avoid Olympic Spoilers
