Casino Night
Let the good times roll! Who needs a trip to Vegas when you can set up a mini casino right in your own living room? Whatever the occasion—a birthday, an anniversary, or just hey, why not?—a casino-theme tablescape is sure to be a hands-on favorite with your guests. The palette is reds, blacks, and greens, with a game table serving as the food table too. If you don’t have a game table, improvise by covering any table with green felt. No need to hem—no sewing makes it easy. Just buy it at the fabric store and cut to fit. The decor is simple—plenty of poker chips, cards, and dice, plus a tabletop roulette wheel that invites guests to spin and win. The decorations are reusable, so store them and make Casino Night at your place a monthly event. After all, the whole table goes home a winner.
Accent Pieces
A little mood lighting is what the table needs. To make a poker party chandelier, start with lit holiday greenery. Attach a faux lit wreath or sprigs of greenery to your overhead light fixture. Hole-punch the top of several dozen playing cards and swag them around the greenery with gold or red cord. Follow with card-theme ornaments hung from the greenery with long ornament hooks. Hang dice, poker chips, beads, or cardboard cutouts of the card suits to finish.
Centerpiece
When it comes to the centerpiece, it’s dealer’s choice. A bowl filled with playing card ornaments and topped with a glass platter of Fruit Pizza makes a help-yourself centerpiece for the table. For a more elaborate arrangement, turn a large card-motif serving bowl upside down, set a smaller bowl on top and hot glue a black plate on that. Scatter chips and stack red and black snack bowls, jumbo foam dice and playing cards up, down, and all around for a go-anywhere focal piece.
Favors
Take-home favors are sure to be a deal for your guests. Purchase unfinished wooden recipe boxes from your local craft store. Paint the base of the box black and the lid red. Hot-glue playing cards around the base, leaving a stripe of black showing at the bottom. Finish with a few plastic dice hot-glued to the top and fill with the party recipes, playing cards, poker chips, or even candies—red and black candies would be perfect. When you’re making boxes by the bunch, set up a craft table and put them together assembly-line style, and it’ll go faster. Fashion: Black? You bet! It’s the color of the evening, and my peek-a-boo wrap sweater makes style a done deal.
Food and Drinks
hether you’re playing for prizes, favors, or just for fun, keep drinks and food flowing in playing card plates and poker-theme bowls that double as décor. Chips and dips are a natural, but a Chicken Caesar Pizza Salad feeds a full house, while dessert—a colorful fruit pizza—doubles as a centerpiece on a pedestal bowl. Coconut rum, lime juice, and a fresh mint garnish turn a mojito into a Cocojito that’s better than a royal flush.
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