Memorial Day (celebrated this year on Monday, May 27) is one of the biggest picnic/cookout holidays of the year. Many families use the occasion as an official "start of summer" celebration.
But Memorial Day has the word "memorial" in it for a reason.
It's a day for us to honor the men and women who have served our country and to remember those who have lost their lives while on active duty. Memorial Day was first called “Decoration Day” because of the practice of decorating soldier’s graves with flowers.
At this year's cookout, why not craft up some decorations that let the red, white and blue colors fly and remind us of the origins of the holiday?
Patriotic Picnic Placemats
With just some red, white and blue paper and a few embellishments, you can create patriotic placemats for your guests.
Each placemat requires one piece of 8.5x11 inch paper in each color.
- First, cut the red and blue paper into 1-inch strips.
- Next, mark a one inch border around all sides of the white paper. Then cut vertical strips at 1-inch intervals within the border.
- Weave the red and blue strips through the white paper, alternating colors or creating a pattern of your choice. Tape or glue strips on the back of the white paper.
- Use embellishments (ribbon, stickers, star cutouts) to decorate the edges of each placement. We used red, white and blue ribbon on ours.
- For added durability, cover in clear contact paper.
USA Silverware
Wrap the silverware in a red/white/blue colored napkin with a color-coordinated ribbon. Let the kids help you out to practice their tying skills! (Don't include knives if kiddos are helping).
Military/Memorial Wreath
Make a circular shaped wreath to honor "eternity" with a continuous circle shape. Use red, white and blue ... or even colors to represent specific military branches (i.e. desert camo, army green, navy, etc)
- Gather supplies from the dollar store. (Wire wreath frame, colored ribbons, tinsel or flowers ... clothespins are also an option and you can paint them however you please)
- Wrap/weave the ribbons, tinsel, flowers, clothespins or other medium around the wire wreath frame, and voila!
Popsicle Stick Flags
Gather a pack of popsicle sticks from the dollar store, some glue and red, white and blue paint. You'll use 2 plain (not painted), 3 red, 2 white, and 3 half pieces of blue sticks for each flag. Lay out some newspaper first, before you begin any painting or gluing.
- Begin by painting 1/3 of the popsicle sticks red, 1/3 white, and 1/3 blue. Be sure to leave several unpainted (2 per flag), which you'll use to glue the colored sticks to.
- Once dried, cut the blue popsicle sticks in half.
- Take two plain sticks, lay them vertically in front of you, and add glue to one side of both.
- Take a red stick, and lay it horizontally across the top of both plain sticks. Take a white stick, and lay it horizontally under the red stick. Lay another red, then white, then red until the plain sticks are not seen anymore
- Take 3 of the half blue pieces, and glue them horizontally to the top left of your red/white colors, in the shape of a square.
- Cut out or use tiny star stickers to decorate the blue sticks from the flag.
- Let dry, and you've got yourself an Popsicle Stick Flag!
Bandana Tablecloth
You'll need some sewing skills (preferably a sewing machine), and a bunch of red, white and blue bandanas for this one. You'll stitch all of the bandanas together, in a pattern, in whatever shape your table is (i.e. rectangle or square). This one you'll be able to keep for Independence Day as well, and it's machine washable!
