Reference materials Costumes for guests
Have you met anyone interesting at a party recently? Well, this is your chance to mix with some of the most prestigious party guests of all—U.S. presidents, past and present. Choose a time when you and your kids can throw a presidential mixer (you might want to invite other family members and friends, too). A week or so in advance, your children can choose their favorite presidents (or first ladies) and research the person they’ve selected (using encyclopedias, history books, and the like). Then your kids dress up in period costumes and attend the party as their chosen characters, answering questions about their lives, decisions they made, their most important accomplishments, and so on as they mingle with other guests. Alternatively, you might throw a masquerade presidential mixer. All of the guests attend incognito, so nobody knows for sure which president (or first lady) is which. Guests ask each other questions to try to identify each other’s characters. At the end of the party, everyone guesses which distinguished guests he or she has met, and who was playacting whom. So, did George and Martha Washington really mix here?
