I have just received an amazing book through the post!’ The Book of Wizard Parties; in Which the Wizard Shares the Secrets of Creating Enchanted Gatherings’. I bought it from Bibliophile, a mail-order book suppliers. It is really for children, but to my (possibly) juvenile mind, I feel that some of the ideas could easily be adapted for adults too – I don’t think much of so-called parties where one simply sits and eats and talks – I like activities and something to do!
The themes are varied and interesting as well as magical. There is the Alchemist’s Gathering, the Aladdin’s Cave Party, and the Egyptian Summer Solstice Party, as well as Merlin’s Birthday Party , Springtime Fairy Frolics and the Wizard’s Winter Revels, the Chinese Dragon Fete, and, most applicable to me and this time of year, the Spirited Druid Hallowe’en Gathering.
Each themed party has instructions on how to make a suitable costume or accessories to wear, decorations for your party room, games to make and play, food to assemble or bake and little stories to tell. One of my favourite suggestions is how to make a royal throne, (this one of for King Arthur, but would do for any royalty, or adapted for a celebratory ‘birthday chair’), and is simply formed by taking a rigid plastic garden chair and covering it in silver kitchen foil, then decorating the back and arms with fake jewels or other similar haberdashery. What fun children could have creating their own very special chair. Heck! What fun I could have!
The pages are all beautifully laid out – it is an absolute joy to just to handle and certainly to read.
Or how about adapting a fallen tree branch into a Christmas Bough (as opposed to a tree) and making all the decorations for it in the form of silver icicles, glittery snowballs (fir cones could be adapted here) and paper snowflakes. You would only need to spend a very little money on craft supplies to enjoy a lot of family fun and shared activity to produce something utterly personal and unique for Midwinter celebration.
At the front of the book, there is also some sound advice on how to both give and attend a party – and the activity really is a two-way street with just as much responsibility on the guest as the host to make the event enjoyable and successful for all. There are also a couple of pages about how to make, send and respond to party invitations – again, valuable and sound information based on good manners and thought for others, something which we perhaps all need reminding of occasionally.
The book originates in North America, but the differences in names for hardware and kitchen items aren’t too difficult to get around. It is beautifully written and presented and I find it simply inspiring, which is why I wanted to share it with you all.
Anyone who has read any of my books, (but especially ‘Merry Midwinter’), will know that I do not normally encourage consumer spending, but there are certain items which are incredibly helpful, fun and full of the feel ‘good factor’ as well as invaluable in getting one started on creating, making and baking for oneself, and this is certainly one of those instances.
I have found ‘Wizard Parties’ on Amazon, priced at £12 54, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Wizard-Parties-Enchanted-Gatherings/dp/1454935499/ but from Bibliophile, it was a paltry £3.50 https://www.bibliophilebooks.com/epages/Bibliophile.sf/en_GB/?ObjectID=9886&ViewAction=FacetedSearchProducts&SearchString=The+Book+of+Wizard+Parties&SearchButton= Give it a try – I promise you that old and young alike will not be disappointed.
Happy Partying!
