Beyond the crazy masks and beads, few people know what Mardi Gras is all about. Mardi Gras is actually French for “Fat Tuesday” which refers to the practice of feasting one last time before fasting and begins on Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras history actually dates back thousands of years to the Roman festivals and celebrations of Spring and fertility and is currently celebrated in Roman-Catholic countries all around the world. The celebration was the precursor to Lent, so people wanted to celebrate and live it up before fasting began. The traditional Mardi Gras colors, purple, green, and gold, originated from the Catholic Church and continue to hold meaning today.

Today, in America, we celebrate Mardi Gras slightly differently than the traditional Roman Catholics did (they probably had different stakes for earning beads…).

Where do these new traditions come from? At the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans in 1827, students paraded and danced through the streets in costumes, which was meant to mimic performances they had observed in Paris. 10 years later, the first parade took place, and has continued to this day. At subsequent parades, the “krewes” or carnival organizations that ran the Mardi Gras festival introduced the ideas of “throws” by tossing out inexpensive glass beads an necklaces– thus, the tradition of the beads was born.

So, how can you explain this to your kids? We suggest telling it as an ancient celebration of Spring and tradition. And to celebrate, we have a few ways to have a party with the whole family, Mardi Gras decorations, masks, King Cake, and all.

Mardi Gras Mask: Making masks for Mardi Gras can be a fun craft get your kids excited for the holiday. To make your own, grab some leftover cardboard (you can use a cereal box, frozen food box, etc– whatever you have lying around the house), and have your child trace, or use our downloadable Mardi Gras mask template and decorate away!

Using a box cutter or scissor, cut along their traced line for them. Then, decorate away! You can use green, purple, and gold-colored construction paper to cut and paste different shapes to cover the mask entirely.

Glue feathers, sequins, and any other purple/green/gold craft supplies you have laying around to the mask.

Finally, use a wood skewer, sturdy straw, or any other long rod to act as the stem that holds the mask up, and glue that to one side of the mask, and viola! Mardi Gras Mask!

Mardi Gras Decorations: Everyone knows that beads are the quintessential marker of Mardi Gras, but instead of simply wearing the beads, why not get a little creative with how you use them?

For your party, decorate your snack tray with beads, placing one green strand, one purple strand, and one gold strand around the outer edge of the plate, using a dab of hummus, or something else that will keep the beads in place. You can also make your own maracas to make some music at your at-home parade using materials you likely have in the house. You can even help your child make their own beaded (okay, GoGo cap) necklace by stringing them on lanyard with alternating beads as shown below.

King Cake Recipe: And of course, no Mardi Gras is complete without the King’s Cake! The Mardi Gras season which begins on the “Twelfth Night” is shown through King Cakes which use the Mardi Gras colors of green, for faith, purple, for justice, and gold, for power. Inside a King Cake, you’ll often find a plastic (or porcelain or even gold) baby, and whoever finds the baby in their slice of cake is asked to continue the festivities by hosting the next King Cake party. Enlist the help of the whole family to to make your own, super easy King’s Cake.

You will need:

3 14 oz cans of refrigerated crescent roll dough

2 (12 fluid ounce) cans of creamy vanilla, ready-to-spread, frosting

1/4 cup milk

2 drops green food coloring

2 drops yellow food coloring

1 drop red food coloring

1 drop blue food coloring

1/2 cup of multi-colored sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet. Open the cans of sweet roll dough and unroll the dough from each can into 3 strands. Working on a clean surface, place 3 dough strands side by side and gather them together to make one large strand. Fold this in half, and roll slightly to make a fat log. Repeat steps with the remaining dough. Place each log on the prepared baking sheet and shape to make a ring, overlapping the ends and pinching them together to make a complete circle. Pat the dough into shape as necessary to make the ring even in size all the way around. Cover loosely with foil. Bake in preheated oven until firm to the touch and golden brown, 50 to 60 minutes. Check often for doneness so the ring doesn’t overbake. Place on a wire rack and cool completely. Place the cake ring on a serving plate. Cut a slit along the inside of the ring and insert a small plastic baby, pushing it far enough into the cake to be hidden from view. Divide the frosting evenly between 4 bowls. Stir 1 tablespoon of milk into each bowl to thin the frosting. Use the frosting in one bowl to drizzle over the cooled cake. To the remaining three bowls of frosting, stir yellow food coloring into one and green into another. Stir the red and blue food colorings together with the frosting in a third bowl to make purple frosting. Drizzle the cake with yellow, green, and purple frostings in any desired pattern. Dust the cake with multi-colored sprinkles.

Hurricane Recipe:

For those of us of age, there’s no harm in celebrating Mardi Gras the way that most do with a little boozy fun. We love this GoGo Hurricane recipe, and we think you will too. You can modify it and eliminate the alcohol to make it kid-friendly.

Ingredients

2 oz light rum

2 oz dark rum

1 GoGo squeeZ AppleMandarin pouch

2 oz orange juice

2 oz passion fruit juice

1 tablespoon grenadine

1 tablespoon simple syrup

1/2 oz lime juice

Cherry and orange slice to garnish

ice

Directions

Squeeze juice from half a lime into cocktail shaker over ice. Pour the remaining ingredients into the cocktail shaker. Shake well. Strain into a hurricane glass. Garnish with a cherry and an orange slice.

Serves 1.

With Mardi Gras decorations, masks, and a King Cake recipe to top it all off, you’re all set to throw a kid-friendly Mardi Gras soiree that will provide hours of fun. What does your family usually do for Mardi Gras? Share in the comments below!