Voodoo Party 12yr

For my daughter's 12th birthday party we had a "Voodoo in the Bayou" party.  I purchased off-white blank cards and envelopes and we glued Spanish moss and lichen-covered twigs on them with alligator stickers.  Inside we put party details - date, time, place and also we put "Enjoy Cajun and Creole Food, Voodoo Queen Gypsy Fortune Telling, Swamp Music, Charms and Potions" We went ahead and invited the entire soccer team, friends from school and the Girl Scout troop - some overlap, but in all 24 girls.   As the girls arrived each was given a light up bracelet to wear. After they all arrived, we took a group photo in the front yard between 2 tiki torches at dusk.  Then inside I explained the party set up to the group. I told them I had hired a gypsy fortune teller I found out of the phone book, and I didn't know if she was any good or not, but that we thought it would be fun for them.  Actually she was a good friend of mine who was prepped beforehand.  I told the girls they would be sent to see the gypsy "Madame Marie" in pairs, and while waiting for their turn there were activities to do inside and food to eat too.    To set the mood outside in the backyard, we set up tiki torches, and built a fire in our backyard fire pit.  In the fence posts I inserted incense sticks and lit them. We set up a tent under a tree and hung long streamers of raffia from the branches.  (This party was in October in No. Calif.)  Inside the tent "Madame Marie LaVeau" was stationed on a folding beach chair draped with a piece of velvet and gold lame, and a small table covered with a piece of satin material.  On the table were fortune telling books from the library and a battery operated lantern covered with a piece of black lace to dim it and provide atmosphere.  We strung purple twinkle lights inside the tent also.  I put our two sleeping pads covered with more velvet for the girls to sit on when getting palms read.  We sent girls out in pairs to the backyard to get fortunes read, and my husband stayed outside to tend the fire and tiki torches and said it was a riot seeing the girls take in the glowing tent where they were to go, and suddenly pushing each other - "you go first, no you!"  My friend knew what order the girls were arriving and had a few facts beforehand about each girl, but mostly winged it and made up fortunes while reading their palms and these 11/12 year old girls completely bought it! I also put a small space heater in the tent for my friend because it took a couple hours to get through 12 sets of girls palm reading!  Inside, I had a buffet set up and girls got to eat cajun sausage I had in a crockpot, creole potato puffs, shrimp spread with "Slap Ya Mama" Louisinana spice mix in it, deep fried dill pickles, crackers, tabasco cheezits, gummy snakes and alligators and pretzels.  The girls had to choose between two drinks - Bubbling Love Potion (red koolaid and ginger ale) or Smouldering Swamp Water (Green Koolaid and 7UP)  So while girls were waiting for their turn at fortunes, they got to eat or move between several stations.  I bought plastic top hats from Oriental Trading Company and the girls hot glued Spanish moss, shells, feathers and lichen-covered twigs on them for authentic looking Voodoo Priest (Baron Mundi) hats.  In another corner we had rectangles of felt which the girls folded in half and blanket stitched the sides for "gris-gris" bags. In another area I had fun foam and pin backs and scissors.  The girls created Voodoo Mask pins.  At about the half way point of the party a different friend of mine showed up dressed as a snake charmer (black lizard-looking pants, a black cape, sparkly makeup, big poofy hair, black eyeliner) with her pet boa constrictor.  Any girl who wanted (no one was forced of course) got to pet and hold the snake and get photo taken with snake charmer and snake.  After all the girls had their fortunes told and gifts opened, the girls were brought back outide.  I had colored tealights (Dollar Tree) on the picnic table, as well as items for the "gris-gris" bags.  I explained to the girls that lucky charms in gris-gris bags included something from the sea (a basket of shells to choose from); the earth (polished rocks), the air (feathers).  Then I gave each girl a piece of paper to write a secret wish on.  The paper was magic flash paper from a magicians website.  They were told to fold it up and cast it into the fire pit for the wish to come true. The gypsy came out and muttered a spell over the wishes and when the girls threw them into the fire, they  well, went up in a flash, and were very impressive.  We then brought out the dessert - swamp pudding.  Lime Jellopowder/green food coloring/kool whip mixed with red jello, add madndarin oranges and blue berries, gummy worms looks gross, tastes pretty good.  I purchased special colored flame candles for the dessert, also very impressive.  As parents picked girls up, my daughter handed out gift bags.  We cut lunch sacks down and glued a sage green ribbon handle to each.  On off-white paper we printed "A token of your voodoo experience - colored candles, music and incense to set the tone, charms and magikal powders to facilitate your innermost dreams and desires and a spirit bag of good mojo.  Thanks for coming"  We burned the edges and glued it to the outside of the bag with a little more Spanish moss.  Inside the bag - colored tea candle, incense stick, pixie sticks, Charms blow pops and Charms suckers and a Magic 8 ball keychain, plus a CD a friend of mine burned with the following music: Witch Doctor, Dark Lady by Cher, Black Magic Woman by Santana, Born on the Bayou by CCR, and others and chocolate alligators.  Thank you's featured either group photo or photo of girl with snake a nd snake charmer, along with more Spanish moss.  The girls and parents talked for days about the fortune telling and the party in general.  Not sure how I am going to top myself next year!