My 3rd Annual Hunger Games Party || Food and Games

It’s no secret that I’m a little obsessive, and by a little I mean a lot, about The Hunger Games. I have Hunger Games earrings, a necklace, bracelet, night shirt, jogger pants, t-shirt(s), sweater, blanket, key chain, a whole lotta posters and random trinkets, and lots and lots of blogs about it. I’ve seen The Hunger Games movie 16 times, read through all the books five times, and my ringtone, text tone, and alarm clock are all Hunger Games music. I also want to say that I ace pretty much every trivia test out there. So yeah….

Introducing my 3rd Annual Hunger Games party! My first party I arranged for the one-year anniversary of the first movie, when we still had EIGHT months to wait for Catching Fire. That was a miserable wait…

My second party I planned before Mockingjay last year spur-of-the-moment when I realized one of my friends hadn’t read the books or seen the movies, and I had to get her caught up fast! This year for my third party (I should probably have 74 right? Sounds doable.) it’s for the release of the final Hunger Games movie.

Honestly, I can’t tell if I’m more sad or more excited that it’s coming. I just don’t want it to end!!! I know a lot of people didn’t like the last book, especially the ending. The most common complaints? Too rushed, not enough languishing over deaths, and a not-super-happy ending. I agree, but I am very excited because I really believe the movie can fix every one of those things, and it could possibly become the best of the series (I don’t know though, Catching Fire was incredible). So, as we wait and see, here is my party!!!

First, the decor. I have kept my Hunger Games magazines from each year, and they make great decoration. The photo in the middle was from the official Hunger Games Exhibition in New York City (yes, I planned an entire trip to NYC so I could go to the exhibit…), and the banner I made with this amazing FREE printout!

I planned this all with Pinterest, so if you want to follow my board, here you go.

My husband is a Graphic Designer and made this amazing Katniss poster below, as well as the two other signs. You can visit his

Etsy shop here.

As people came in, they entered the Reaping, grabbed two “Mockingjay Pins” (clothespins) and two stickers (Green for Katniss’ favorite color and orange for Peeta’s).

I was VERY proud of this display below! I used black chalkboard wall stickers over my table, and recruited two of my kiddos to trim it with orange streamers. Then I put out the snacks and homemade popcorn boxes for movie snackage!

My Hungry Girl Mix consisted of Cornucopias (Bugles), Tracker Jackers (Cracker Jacks), Coal (crushed Oreos with marshmallows), Buttercups (mini Reeses cups), Nightlock (blue M&Ms) and Girl on Fire Crackers (Spicy Cheez-its). If you’re a true Hunger Games fan you’ll know the significance of all those things 🙂

These homemade popcorn boxes were from the same designer as the flag banner above. You can make your own with this

link.

I really love the way it all came together.

Next up, party foods!!!! I am immensely proud of how it turned out! Red, yellow, orange and black were the main color scheme of course, and I saved table space by doing most of the decorations on the wall behind it. I got the two large posters from the movie theater at the Catching Fire release since I was head to toe Katniss in a wet suit for the premiere (the theater manager just stopped by and gave it to me,

the story is here), Jason made the other two, and the picture on the table is also from the Hunger Games Exhibit in NYC. The food is the main attraction though, so here goes:

District 12 Apple Tart. I used this

recipe, and included a quote from the books with each food element.

“In the Fall, a few brave souls sneak into the wood to harvest apples. But always in sight of the Meadow.” – Katniss Everdeen

My Nightlock Punch made its reappearance for the third year in the row, but this time I used a new recipe that I liked much better. I just made it up with Blue Hawaiian Punch, White Grape Juice and 7-Up. I didn’t do any specific servings of it, just kind of threw it all together. It turned out!

“My father’s voice comes back to me. ‘Not these, Katniss. Never these. They’re nightlock. You’ll be dead before they reach your stomach.’” -Katniss’ Father

I don’t know why I never thought of this before, but of course, Haymitch’s favorite drink had to make an appearance…

“All right, I’ll make a deal with you. You don’t interfere with my drinking, and I’ll stay sober enough to help you.” -Haymitch Abernathy

I love Taquitos, and I thought they made for a better meal than the first year when I used fruit inside waffle cones as the cornucopia, so these made it back for a second year. Yum!

“Just as the first ray of sun glints of the gold cornucopia, there’s a disturbance on the plain.” -Katniss Everdeen

Prim’s Goat Cheese Platter was probably my favorite food of the night, with my friend Katherine going ALL out to make it spectacular. She had goat cheese Brie, blueberry Cheddar, dried blueberries, crackers and walnuts, grapes and Lavender Honey all presented beautifully and I about drooled with excitement.

“On the table, under a wooden bowl…sits a perfect little goat cheese wrapped in basil leaves. Prim’s gift to me on reaping day.” -Katniss Everdeen

Meatballs are such a great party food, so I’m glad it was easy to fit them into the Hunger Games world foods! Greasy Sae is known to take pretty much any meat and make it a meal, but I’m pretty sure this was beef. We used

this recipe.

“Once it’s in the soup, I’ll call it beef.” -Greasy Sae

This was my third year doing “Peeta” chips and hummus as well, but it still always gets the best reactions. It’s so funny to me! The first time I read the book I thought… “Oh, Peeta? Like Pita? Not like Peter? Okay…” So “Peeta” chips were an obvious choice for a party food, but for some reason people crack up when they see it among the other party foods. So funny.

“To this day, I can never shake the connection between this boy, Peeta Mellark, and the bread that gave me hope…” -Katniss

With a bakery being Peeta’s home, I had to make something special. This was delicious and was the first thing eaten at the party.

Here’s the recipe.

“I don’t want to lose the boy with the bread.” -Katniss Everdeen

The “Weapons” were back as well.

So that made up my Capitol feast! It was quite a spread. If you can believe it, this entire party was $110, but that’s because I asked my friends to bring various foods. I provided the Nightlock Punch, Mellark Bakery Bread and Apple Tart, my friends got the rest. The remainder of the money was spent on the decorations and party supplies and prizes.

After we all had our fill, it was onto games! We did five party games, all Hunger Games themed, none with a lot of moving around (because we are old). This first one we played was called “Staying Alive.” Here’s how you play, and

here’s where I got most of these awesome game ideas.

Staying Alive: As guests arrive, tell them each to take clothespin (Mockingjay Pin) and read a list of words on a sign. I used “play” “fun” and “game”. The way the game works is that if someone gets caught by someone else saying one of the words on the list, they get to take their pin. The person at the end of the party with the most pins wins!

Simultaneously we played “Tribute Battle.” It was reeeeaaally fun! Every time someone “died” I “fired my cannon (Canon)” and took their picture. The credit for that hilarious consequence is my friend Katie.

Tribute Battle: Put one sticker on each person’s back. Draw names to see who you need to “kill” and try to take their sticker (but you can’t tell anyone who you got). The last person standing with a sticker wins!

While this was all going on, every ten minutes or so we held a “Reaping.”

The Reaping: As your guests arrive, have them write their name on one slip of paper and put it in the jar. After your guests have all arrived, begin your “reaping.” Every 10-15 minutes, depending on how long your party goes, pull a name out of the jar. Whoever’s name gets selected is out. The final name left in the jar wins a prize!

We also played Real or Not Real Trivia and a Hunger Games Would You Rather? Click on the links to see the questions!

You might be wondering why I’m making these faces? Well that, my friends, was our final game “Nightlock or Not.” It was hilarious! You know Nightlock right? The berries Peeta thought were blueberries or something and almost DIED from??!! Oh, spoiler alert… sorry. The game was basically

BeanBoozled, with a vindictive element.You have to eat one, but you also get to pick one other person to share in your misery. Muahahahaha…

Nightlock or Not?: Choose a starter, then work clockwise from there. The first person picks out two Nightlock of the same color and picks who else gets the other one. No picking the same person twice in a row, and you must chew at least four times. Once a person has been picked three times they are dead and don’t eat any more. 

Accordingly to my friends, Vomit and Dog Food were the worst flavors. Katie and Felicia had the best reactions:

You know how I’ve been mentioning prizes? Well, I definitely had prizes. See that wrapping paper? Can you figure out why I chose it?? No? Well, it’s snowflakes right? Snowflakes? SNOWflakes? President Snow of course! He’s the giver of the “generous” gifts, such as Tesserae, so it’s only fitting. My gifts were ranked 1-5, easiest to hardest, because each one had a Hunger Games element, and you had to figure out what that was before you got your prize.

Prizes:

1. A box of “Life” cereal. Well, duh, because your life is the ultimate prize in the Hunger Games

2. Lifesavers. I know I don’t have to explain this one either, these two were basically throwaway answers they were so easy. Here come the harder ones.

3. Chocolate Barkthins. No…not because of trees, not because of the mutts at the end of movie #1, but because Katniss eats Pine bark in the first Hunger Games when she has yet to find food!

4. Trident gum. Whose weapon of choice is the 75th Hunger Games? Why Finnick’s of course.

5. A box of Barnum’s Animal Crackers. Yeah, this one was tough. I was SO proud of myself for coming up with it. Well you know why Panem is called Panem right? Because it means (loosely translated) “bread and circuses.” Animal crackers=bread, Barnum=circus. Boom!

Also, please note my Hunger Games inspired

Jamberry nail wraps, in Pumpkin Spice! I think it looks very “girl on fire.”

Here’s the whole clan! Man, was that fun! Thank you all so much for coming and bringing food and playing the games with gusto!

Also, for being so dang good looking!