A Celebration of that Magical Day when the Girl Alice left the Real World behind and followed the White Rabbit Underground

Lewis Carroll chose May 4th for Alice’s adventure down the rabbit hole because it was the birthday of the real Alice Liddell. The date is revealed during the tea party scene – first from a comment that it is May and therefore the March Hare won’t be raving mad, and then when the Mad Hatter asks Alice what day of the month it is, and she replies that it’s the fourth. (In the sequel Through the Looking Glass, she mentions that tomorrow there will be a bonfire – for Guy Fawkes Day, which is November 5th – and then tells Humpty Dumpty that she is seven and a half years old, exactly, making it November 4.)

I have celebrated Alice’s trip to Wonderland on this date for almost 20 years. However, one day is never enough, and so I call this Alice Days, since the festivities always last through several days and nights. Following are some of my ideas for Alice-themed parties on May 4 and beyond.

Alice Day Activities, Food & Decorations

You must center the day around a tea party, of course. If one of the guests is male, he can wear the Mad Hatter’s 10/6 top hat. Women can dress like Alice or the Queen of Hearts. (Or vice versa, no reason gender roles can’t be reversed!) Stuffed animals can be the rabbit and dormouse. The table is laid with a full tea set. Add to this oversized and/or miniature bottles of alcohol (with “Drink Me” tags) and cakes marked “Eat Me”.

You can make mushroom-shaped cookies and tea sandwiches with an appropriate cookie-cutter, or make red velvet cupcakes and decorate with dabs of white icing to mimic the traditional fairy mushroom. You can make a fairy mushroom salad by laying out a bed of greens, then placing several hard-boiled eggs upright, topped with halved cherry tomatoes which are daubed with bits of goat cheese.

We also like to have plenty of candy on hand, to increase the child-like fun. Those little wax bottles filled with candy liquid are especially appropriate, as are cordial chocolates – we even found some shaped like bottles, and they have real liqueur inside. We use gummy worms as “caterpillars” – get creative!

Signs can be hung with famous illustrations of Alice, and sayings like “Beware the Jabberwock,” “Who Are You?” and “We’re All Mad Here.” You can make a great curtain-type entrance to a room by stringing oversized 5×7 playing cards at odd angles and hanging them from a doorframe – it mimics the last scene where the pack of cards comes falling down on Alice. Colored chalk can be used to decorate the sidewalk outside for guests, including big white rabbit footprints leading up to the door, and admonitions of “You’re Late!”

Start off the festivities by playing “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane, or any other thematic music you can find.

I recommend watching every available film version of the Alice stories that you can find – keep them running throughout the day, even as background to the games and activities. My favorite film version of Alice is probably the one by Jan Svankmajer, but there are dozens. (See my list of Alice movies below.) I also have compiled a YouTube playlist of Alice-related TV episodes, commercials, homemade short films, music videos, and more.

Silly games are a must. If you can find one, there are several Alice-themed puzzles available, as well as board games, card games, coloring books, and even a tarot deck! Any card games are appropriate, of course, as is chess. And there are always plenty of fun drinking games. I also suggest a round of blindfolded “pin the grin on the Cheshire cat”.

The books, or portions thereof, can be read aloud to all the guests. You can also use the books for bibliomancy, finding Alice Day oracles for each guest by opening to a random sentence.

Other intoxicants besides alcohol can be consumed if desired (and legal and safe)*. Try to achieve, by whatever means, a sufficiently surreal state of mind. This can also be affected by decorations/atmosphere, the repetition of various Alice versions on film (the fifth or sixth time you see an incarnation of the Mad Hatter or Caterpillar will start making you feel very strange indeed), and the dedication of the participants to putting their mundane cares aside. Be prepared for an otherworldly experience, and have fun!

*Obviously mushrooms would be most appropriate – the only type of psychoactive mushroom that’s legal as far as I know is Amanita muscaria (fly agaric), recognizable as the classic red and white-spotted fairy mushroom, often mistaken as the one on which the Caterpillar sits with his hookah. For more information, look it up on Erowid. Always do your homework before experimenting with any substances.

ALICE MOVIES (in chronological order; recommended versions are starred)

Alice-themed episodes of television shows:

“Bob Hope and Danny Become Directors” – The Danny Thomas Show, 1959

“Uninvited Guest” – My Living Doll, 1964

“Shore Leave” – Star Trek, 1966 (just a short appearance, but memorable)

“Alice in Wonderland” – Festival of Family Classics, 1973 (Rankin/Bass animation)

“Alice in Disco Land” – The Incredible Hulk, 1978

*”Brooke Shields”* – The Muppet Show, 1980 (fantastic musical numbers!)

“Sabrina in Wonderland” – Sabrina the Teenage Witch, 2003

“Alice in Wonderland” – CBeebies, 2015 (Christmas special)

“Alice in Wonderland” – Cake Wars, 2016

Non-Alice movies appropriate for viewing on Alice Day:

Labyrinth

Legend

Wizard of Oz, Return to Oz, Tin Man, and other versions of the Oz stories

Spirited Away

Mirrormask

Pan’s Labyrinth

other Girls Underground movies (look through my Examples list to see the films I’ve covered)

Some Alice books to read, besides the two originals:

Alice’s Journey Beyond the Moon by RJ Carter (written as if it were a long lost sequel)

Wonderland by Tommy Kovac (Disney-produced graphic novel following Mary Ann)

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (young adult fantasy novel)

Fantastic Alice, Alice Redux and Alternative Alices (collections of Alice-inspired short stories by multiple authors)

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin (novel based on the life of the real Alice Liddell)

Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot (graphic novel)

Alice Through the Needle’s Eye by Gilbert Adair

Automated Alice by Jeff Noon

Alice’s Misadventures Underground by Bradley E. Craddock

Still She Haunts Me by Katie Roiphe

Return to Wonderland (graphic novel compilation)

Wonderland Revisited and the Games Alice Played There by Keith Sheppard

Alice in Verse: The Lost Rhymes of Wonderland by J.T. Holden

A New Alice in the Old Wonderland by Anna Matlock Richards

If you want to take your Alice festivities on the road, here are some Alice-themed attractions to visit: