Chocolate Lover's Paradise

Everyone knows that chocolate makes a great gift at Valentine's Day or perhaps Easter, but here are some other days that you may not be so familiar with. What would life be without a good excuse to give or get chocolate!

July 7 is Chocolate Day!
Now, let me think....what would be a good way to celebrate??

July 18 is National Ice Cream Day.
What's your favorite flavor? CHOCOLATE!

November 7 is National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day

How about a party themed around chocolate? It's the perfect idea for your friend's surprise celebration or for a child's party. And it doesn't have to be all that expensive or fattening....

DECORATIONS:
Use brown and silver crepe paper, table cloths, napkins, paper dinnerware and so forth. Add some candy bouquets to the tables and around the party area-you know, the ones where candies are done up like flowers in a vase. Try hanging the fronts of case boxes of candies on the walls to add some color-many stores will be willing to give you empty cartons to work with. Create bar or candy-shaped invitations to give to party guests, too.

GAMES FOR YOUNG ONES:
Try a chocolate hunt (like an Easter egg hung) for chocolate coins. These are often wrapped in shiny gold paper and are wonderfully fun for the kids.

Have a pinata filled with small chocolate treats.

Make a treasure trail with written clues that lead to the next clue on the trail. At the end, be sure to provide a yummy chocolate treat for the party guests.

Serve do-it-yourself chocolate sundaes or cookies to decorate with chocolate sprinkles as part of the party treats.

Cut out several large colored circles to look like colored round candies and do relay races with them: step on one and move the other forward to step on next, pass them using knees or chins, and so forth.

Play Chocolate Tag: runners are safe for a count of five if they squat and yell out the name of a chocolate bar. Make the game harder by not allowing repeats.

FOR OLDER GUESTS:
Play Poker or other gambling game using small chocolates as chips.

Choose the name of a chocolate candy with lots of letters and see who can make the most new words from it.

Go on a chocolate scavenger hunt by finding at least one item that begins with the letters needed to spell 'chocolate.'

Make letter cards that each have a letter needed to spell 'chocolate' and tape one card to each player's back. Have teams race to line up in the correct order without telling each other what letter is on their back. If you have a smaller group, break the word up into pairs of letters, such as 'ch' and 'oc.'

FOR ADULT GUESTS:
Try solving chocolate riddles.

Play chocolate charades or pictionary.

Make up a chocolate trivia game and see who is the most knowledgeable about the treat.

Plan door prizes for the person who has most recently (before the party) eaten particular types of chocolate, chocolate from other countries, and so forth.

Have fun!