Indian Theme Party

Celebrate a birthday, wedding, bridal shower or any special occassion with an Indian Theme Party or Bollywood Party!  The rich, vibrant colors that are so popular in Indian clothing and decorations are also a must for theme party decorations, birthday parties and weddings.   Indian Theme Party Supplies Supplies

photo credits: top picture collage, second collage: henna mehndi, embroidered paisley, Indian model in pink sari, and kids charming a mock snake.

Indian Theme Party Plan

• Indian Party Invitations
• Indian Party Decor
• Indian Crafts
• Indian Party Recipes
• Indian Party Cakes and Desserts
• Indian Party Games
• Indian Party Favors

Indian Party Invitations

• Save The Date cards. Send out beautifully created Save The Date cards for your Indian themed wedding, birthday or celebrations in caricature format!
• Save The Date magnets. Another great idea is to have the entire card be made out of magnet!  An innovative way to help remind guests about your special event!  Get magnets made separate to match your themed cards or send out just the magnets as “Save the Dates”!
• Hand-stamped invitations. Create unique custom invitations by hand-stamping them yourself using stamps from craft suppliers or stores.  Get gold ink and stamp bright bold card stock in various designs and borders.  Use paisley scrapbooking paper, stickers, and sparkle glitter, gems to decorate.
• Indian invitations. Purchase handmade birthday invitations, handmade diwali invitations, handmade eid invitations, handmade griha pravesh invitations and Indian theme invitations for your party. There is a vast array of Indian  merchants and supplies on the market with plenty of invitation choices for your Indian Theme Party.

Indian Party Decorations

• Bold Colors. Use colorful fabrics in rich colors, textures and designs to decorate the party room, party table and chairs.  If you don’t have a table cloth, use silk curtains instead or use napkins as mini table toppers for splashes of colors. If you need larger quantities of fabric, consider purchasing from wholesale silk suppliers.
• Gold Accents. Use gold chargers to accent plates, gold napkin rings and fabrics with gold embroidery that is typically found in Indian silk fabrics.  If you can’t find table cloths to match use Indian saris as accent pieces for chairs or as a table topper.
• Intricate Designs. Indian decorations, furniture, statues, rugs and art work are typically hand-made with intricate details and carvings.  If you can find a few pieces of art work, add them to your party room to recreate the Indian ambiance.
• Animal Statues. Indians believe in many gods.  One of the more popular ones, is the Ganesha, the elephant god.  Ganesha’s head symbolizes the Atman or the soul, which is the ultimate supreme reality of human existence, and his human body signifies Maya or the earthly existence of human beings. The elephant head denotes wisdom and its trunk represents, the symbol of cosmic reality.  All Hindus worship Ganesha regardless of their sectarian belief. He is both the beginning of the religion and the meeting ground for all Hindus. So it is not unusual to see a Ganesha at birthday celebrations or weddings in the forms of a cake, centerpiece or party decoration since it is such an intricate part of Indian life and beliefs.  A few other animal gods are tortoise, cow, peacock, winged horse.

Indian Birthday Customs

• Birthday Traditions and Customs. On a Hindu child’s first birthday, his or her head is often shaved.  The hair can be donated to the temple as a symbolic gesture.  There are several reasons for shaving the hair, one of them is that removal of the hair cleanses the child of any evil in past lives, thus symbolizing a renewal of the soul. Usually girls will have had their ears pierced before the first birthday.  On the day of the birthday, the birthday child will wear colorful clothing to school and pass out treats, like chocolates, to the entire class.  In Western societies, birthdays are celebrated with cake and birthday candles as well.

How to say “Happy Birthday” in Hindi

• Janam Din Ki Badhai
• Janam Din Ki Shubkamnaayein

Indian Celebrations and Holidays

• Diwali. This is the Festival of Lights celebration an official holiday. The tradition is to light diyas—cotton-like string wicks inserted in small clay pots filled with coconut oil—to signify victory of good over the evil within an individual. In Western societies, people also turn on small twinkle lights. The five day festival of Divali occurs on the new moon between October 13 and November 14.
• Holi. This is the Festival of Colours where people throw colored powder and colored water on each other, and celebrate the triumph of good over evil with a bonfire.  Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month (around February/March).
• Ganesha Festival. This is celebrated as the birthday of Lord Ganesha ( the elephant god who is worshiped as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. ).  This day usually falls between 20 August and 15 September and lasts for 10 days.  Decorations of Ganesha statues can be seen everywhere – in homes, on the streets and in predominant public places.

Indian Guest Arrival and Introduction

Dress for the occassion. Have your guests come dressed in Indian outfits. For women, it’s traditional to wear sarees, saris or tunics with pants.  For men, kurta shirts with pants are appropriate for casual parties.

Sari. For women it’s the traditional saris or tunic tops.  Saris are traditional outfits for women and have become popular in the Western world.  In today’s festive or formal functions women have a multitude of choices as far as fabrics, colors and designs.  A Sari is an outer garment worn by a woman consisting of a single length of cotton or silk, 5 to 7 yards long, most often with one end wrapped around the waist to form a skirt, the other draped over the shoulder, or head. It is worn over a short, tight top (called Choli or Blouse) with short arms and a thin underskirt of plain cotton (Petticoat).

Salwar kameez is another traditional dress worn by women from India. Salwars or shalwars are loose pajama-like trousers. The legs are wide at the top, and narrow at the bottom. The kameez is a long shirt or tunic that is worn on top.

Kurta Pyjama. For casual or formal occassions, men can wear  a long tunic over matching pajama-like trousers.  For weddings, a sherwani with churidar can be worn that is teamed up with a turban on their head.

Indian Music and Movies

Have some party music playing in the background as guests arrive or have a movie playing to introduce guests to some of the culture.

• Indian Academy Awards DVD: Slumdog Millionaire
• Indian Movie Sound Track: Slumdog Millionaire
• Traditional Indian Music by Ravi Shankar:  The Sounds of India
• Relaxing and Meditation Indian Music: Sadhana

Indian Party Crafts

• Beading. Make teardrop earrings using craft supplies and beads.  Purchase various beads, clasps, wire, etc. from craft stores and set up a table where girls can go and make their own creations.
• Stamping. Set up another table with various stamps, cards, cardstock, ink and embellishments so kids or adults can create their own cards, placemats, etc.  Try to get paisley stamps or gold ink to recreate the Indian theme.
• Batik Painting. Decorate scarves with fabric paints on white satin or silk fabric.
• Hand made candles. Melt wax and decorate candles with natural materials.  Light the candles during Diwali, the Festival of Lights.
• Basket weaving. Weave a basket out of paper and fill with flowers or incense.
• Clay pottery.  Use non-baking clay and let kids make vases or bowls.  Use toothpicks, stamps and gems to carve out intricate details and decorate the pottery.

Indian Party Recipes

Make a delicious Indian meal for your party or if time is limited, order take-out from an Indian restaurant.

• Mango Raisin Chutney. Make delicious mango chutney as a condiment and side dish for your Indian Theme Dinner Party.  Use fresh fruits, spices, raisins, and frozen mangos.
• Curry Lentil Dish. This lentil side dish is perfect for a Vegetarian Indian meal or as a side dish.  Serve with a dollop of fresh plain yogurt and sprigs of cilantro.
• Coconut Curry Chicken with Eggplant. Your guests will love this coconut curry dish with coconut milk, chicken, eggplant, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, spices and fresh garlic and onions.
• Stir Fried Cauliflower and Peas with Ginger. Another perfect dish to accompany a vegetarian meal or just as a side vegetable dish.  This Stir Fried Cauliflower and Peas dish is light and fragrant and can be quickly prepared right before dinner or made ahead of time and reheat right before serving.
• Samosas. Great as appetizers or side dish.  Triangle crusty dough filled with beef filling inside.
• Steamed Basmati Rice with Saffron. Fragrant basmati rice dish and staple of an Indian meal.  Top with golden saffron rice for a festive elegant look.
• Yogurt Cucumber Dip. Make a cooling yogurt dip to go with the main meal or as an appetizer with pita bread.
• Mango Lassi Drink. Serve delicious mango lassi drinks during the party to help cool the spiciness of the foods and the sweetness of the drink makes it a perfect ending for a meal.

Indian Party Cakes and Desserts

• Indian Wedding Cakes. If you are celebrating a wedding, get an Indian cake topper for your wedding cake.  Choose a traditional themed one or a modern one.
• Baklava. Make delicious baklava as dessert for an Indian Themed Dinner Party.  This dessert is made with crusty filo dough with layers of nuts, spices and butter.
• Coconut Cookies. This shortbread version of a coconut cookie is simple and melts in your mouth!  Make ahead of time and serve in delicate tiered cookie servers. Ingredients: 1 1/2 cup flour, 1/8 tsp salt, 7 ounces unsweetened shredded coconut, 11 ounces sugar, 1 egg yolk, 2 ounces unsweetened coconut.  Directions: In a medium bowl, blend the flour, salt, 7 ounces coconut.  In a large bowl using an electric mixer, cream butter, add egg yolk, and beat until fluffy.  Blend in dry ingredients from medium bowl.  Roll dough into 8 rolls and coat each roll of dough in coconut.  Cover and freeze for 4 hours or more.  Take out of fridge and using knife cut into 1/4 inch thick slices.  Bake at 325 degrees for 8 minutes.
• Paisley Brownies. Make a batch of brownies and ice with chocolate icing.  Cut up into small squares.  Using bright vibrant icing colors like orange, reds, yellow and turquoise, pipe a large Paisley decoration with dots and swirls on each square.  Serve in gold foil cupcake foils.

Indian Party Games and Activities

Henna Painting. Henna was considered a “blessing” and henna painting has been traditionally done on young women before a wedding and for festive celebrations like birthdays, Eid, Diwali and other important holidays and celebrations.  Henna painting has been traditionally done by many groups, including Muslims, Jews, Christians and Hindus.

Indian Traditional Dance. The Dandiya Raas dance Originated as devotional Garba dances, which were performed in Durga’s honor, this dance form is actually the staging of a mock-fight between the Goddess and Mahishasura, the mighty demon-king, and is nicknamed “The Sword Dance”. The sticks of the dance represent the sword of Durga. Today Dandiya (Dandia) Raas is an important pre wedding event in any Gujarati wedding.

Chess game. The chess game originated from India in the 6th Century AD.  This game is fun for young and old.  Set up several chess boards and let kids and adults alike play tournaments and challenges.  For younger ones who don’t know how to play, start off with pawns and add other pieces as they understand the game.

Snake Charming. Put a rubber snake in a basket supported by a wire stick.  Get a recorder or flute and let kids take turns “charming” the snake.  Have a volunteer be the snake and maneuver the snake using the stick.

Marble Kanchey Game. One of the traditional Indian games is the game of marbles, called Kanchey.  All you need is marbles.  Dig a shallow hole in the ground and the objective of the game is to get all the marbles into the hole. Start at about 2 yards away from the hole. The way to get the marbles into the hole is by aiming using your forefingers.  The marble was held by the forefinger of the left hand. The finger was stretched back like a bow-string by the pressure of the forefinger of the right hand. When the finger was released the marble shot forward.

Pachisi Game. Pachisi is a cross and circle board game that originated in ancient India; it is described as the national game of India. It is played on a board shaped like a symmetrical cross. A player’s pieces move around the board based upon a throw of six or seven cowrie shells (a sea snail), with the number of shells landing aperture upwards indicating the number of places to move.  Below is a version (Parcheesy Game) adapted for kids.

Hop Scotch. The traditional game of Hop Scotch has become very popular in India since it is quite simple to play and easy to set-up.  Play the traditional game or play challenging versions of it depending on the age of the kids.

Water Balloon Toss. During the festival of Holi, people throw colored water at each other as part of the celebration (see above).  Sometimes they will also use water balloon.  Have a fun water balloon toss with water on a hot summer day outside as one of the fun Indian activities.

Indian Party Favors

• Exotic Indian Jewelry. Give out inexpensive Indian Jewelry as favors.
• Henna Butterfly Tattoos. With the popularity of henna painting or mehndi, these temporary Henna tattoos give you the same effect without permanent markings or spending hours to have your hands and feet painted.
• Paisley Note Cards. Paisley Indian inspired note cards make great party favors and gifts.
• Indian Dolls. Find inexpensive Indian dolls or figurines to give away as party gifts at thrift or Oriental stores.
• Bag-o-Marbles. For boys, consider giving them a small bag of marbles.  Get a few unusual ones to hide or to give out as extra prizes.

Indian Theme Party Links

• Indian Women Tunics and Saris
• Indian Party Supplies – Invitations, Decor, Favors
• Indian Recipe – Mango Raisin Chutney
• Indian Recipe – Curry Lentil with yogurt
• Indian Recipe – Coconut Chicken Curry with Vegetables
• Indian Recipe – Stir Fried Cauliflower and Peas
• Basmati Rice Topped With Saffron
• Yogurt Cucumber and Garlic dip
• Middle Eastern and Indian Dessert – Baklava
• Indian Drink – Mango Lassi