Trailer Trash Party - SPAM Carving Contest

This is an adult party I throw for myself.  I am originally from the sticks of Indiana, and have married and become friends with many "city folk" in Arizona.  As a result of a reminiscent night near my birthday, I realized what I missed most about Indiana wasn't the food or countryside, it was the people.  Therefore, I threw my own "Trailer Trash Bash" party as a joke one year. 

Little did I know how much fun people were going to have, or that I would now be getting ready to host my fourth annual one! This is how it works!  For the invitaitons, I simply printed an 8x10 paper with the details encouraging costumes and trailer park food for the evening's contests.  I just used clip art flamingos, trailers, six packs, and NASCAR photos to spruce it up before running to Kinkos to find the most ugly green to run them off on.  In each invitation I include one of Ruby Anne's trailer park recipes (it's an honest to goodness cookbook with recipes including lots of tater tots, Spam, and cheese!) to give the guests an idea of something to bring.

Decorations are super easy! I happen to have some great 1970's Elvis pictures I use to replace the existing art in my house for the evening (you would be surprised at the stuff Goodwill has to accessorize your house for the evening!)  My grandmother's old balnkets and afghans cover the furniture and beach towels become table cloths for the night.  I usually just toss out all of the mismatched plastic plates and silverware left over from the year, but you can be creative here with NASCAR or Goodwill purchases!

As the evening begins I usually play Blue Collar Comedy Tour on the front room tv and let people sample the trailer trash food to vote for their favorite and most creative.  We then play silly relays in the back (potatoes inbetween the knees, the baseballs in the panty hose hitting a ball while only moving you hips).  We then also have rootbeer chugging contests, watermelon seed spitting contests, and the all-time favorite SPAM Carving Contests. 

Prizes are super easy - beer coozies, anything with a flamingo, NASCAR items, wind chimes and spinners.  This year's favors were flamingo straws from Oriental Trading Company with Trailer Trash Bash 2005 stickers on them. Every year people look forward to April and this party.  I am amazed at the creativity in costumes and food - it is a blast! 

We usually wind down the night with Joe Dirt on the VCR and start planning for next year!