A Political Party!
When the first Tuesday in November rolls around, it'll be time to vote for your favorite political party. So open the poll site and invite your partying partisan pals over for televised election results, recreation and refreshments. We the people say: "Let the politics begin!"

Invite the voters to your Political Party with patriotic invitations.

• Write your party details on computer-designed ballots, copied from the real ones, and let the guests "vote" for different parts of the party. Include your name as the candidate for "Party Prez," then list some games and goodies to vote for, along with the other party choices.
• Buy small plastic American flags and write the party details on the stripes, using a blue permanent felt-tip pen. Roll up the flags to mail them.
• Have bumper stickers made at the copy shop, featuring party slogans instead of campaign slogans, such as "I Like To Party!" or "Vote for Fun!" Write the party details around the edges of the bumper sticker and mail to friends.
• Write the party details inside the patriotic paper hats, and mail to guests in a padded envelope. Ask them to wear their party hat invitations to the event.
• Buy donkey and elephant noses. Write party details on a card, attach it to the nose, and mail in a padded envelope. Ask guests to wear their noses to the party.
• Decorate the party envelope with red, white and blue star stickers.

Wear your party colors and show your political spirit!

• Ask the guests to dress in a creative combination of red, white and blue. Tell them they can go crazy with the costume, as long as it’s in the patriotic color scheme. They can dress simply in a white t-shirt, blue jeans and red shoes or wildly as Uncle Sam himself!
• Suggest the guests come dressed as a favorite historical American figure, such as Betsy Ross, George Washington, Eleanor Roosevelt, even >Richard Nixon!

Turn your party room into Convention Headquarters.

• Fill the room with red, white and blue balloons. Use them as archways for the front door, tie them to the backs of chairs, tape them to the walls to make a flag, or just float them from the ceiling.
• Add red, white and blue streamers, and swag them from the ceiling, twist them along the walls, hang them from the entryways, or wrap them around the tables and chairs.
• Have the guests enter through a >flag-like curtain, as if they’re entering a voting booth. Set up more "voting booths" in the party room, then place small tables inside and display food.
• Hang political candidate posters and lots of American flags.
• Set out lots of campaign banners, candidate buttons, bouquets of red, white and blue carnations and red, white and blue candles.
• Play John Phillip Sousa marching music in the background, as well as "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "It’s a Grand Old Flag," and so on.

Play games while waiting for election results.

• Divide the group into "Democrats" and "Republicans." Give political trivia questions to answers throughout the evening. The team with the most points at the end of the party wins a prize.
• Search your history books for a timeline of historical events, such as: "Lincoln becomes President," "Patrick Henry says ‘Give Me Liberty," "Washington crosses the Delaware," and so on. Write the events on strips of paper and spread them out on the table. Have the players organize the events in chronological order.
• Draw up a large chart and choose trivial categories to vote on, such as: "Biggest hair on a news commentator," "Most obnoxious victory speech," "Loudest celebration for a candidate," "Funniest commercial," and "Worst overall election coverage by a network." Let your guests add their nominations. Bet pennies on each of the nominees.
• Have everyone write their predictions for winning candidates. Award the winners a prize. If the election results are not completely tallied by the end of the party, award prizes for the leading candidate at that point.
• If the final vote is in your party’s favor, then whoop it up--blow bubbles, wave pennants and toss confetti. If not, whoop it up anyway!

Keep the voters refreshed with patriotic treats.

• Serve bowls of red (strawberry) punch, blue (blueberry) punch and white (pina colada) punch.
• Bake a Flag Cake. Cover a sheet cake with whipped cream, then decorate it with blueberries and strawberries to make a flag.
• Celebrate with champagne. Spear a cherry and blueberry onto a flag swizzle stick to put in each champagne flute.
• Grill "Donkey Burgers" and "Elephant Wieners" with a side of red, white and blue tinted pasta salad.

Say goodbye with all-American flair.

• Send your guests home with miniature American flags, red, white and blue jellybeans—and perhaps a patriotic stress ball.

-- Penny Warner