3 Quirky ways to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

by claire close


We love an excuse for a celebration. We’ve never enjoyed The Eurovision Song Contest as much as we did this year - everyone was ready for an uplifting spectacle of togetherness. But we want more! 

Having scrutinised the programme, we’ve got high hopes for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant on the 5th June, which the studio team will be tuning into for highlights across the day - we’re particularly looking forward to seeing the giant puppet of Lady Godiva, and the 25 foot LGBTQIA+ celebration maypole. I’ve put up some fabulous bunting featuring the Queen’s hats in preparation for the day, and am busy printing off our fun corgi mugs for the team to sip their very British cuppa from. 

Since the pageant will be celebrating the very best of British eccentricity, we’ve come up with a few quirky ideas of our own to share with you, which are suitable for street parties or smaller gatherings. Here’s our top three quirky ways to celebrate Liz’s Royal Jubilee........


Platinum Jubilee Pageant Bingo

Well aren’t you lucky, we’ve made this bingo card which you can download free!

We scoured the pageant programme for info about what’s going to be on show, and came up with this Bingo card full of daft items for you to spot as you watch the spectacle. And if you want to turn it into a drinking game, well, that would be very British of you. Just the thing to liven up your street party.

Download our A4 Queen’s royal Jubilee Bingo Card Here

 

 

Queen-eoke (kareoke, but make it royal)

Back in June 2016, Queen Elizabeth told the BBC her top ten tunes … and some of them are classics we can sing along to! 


  • Anything You Can Do (Annie Get Your Gun), Dolores Gray and Bill Johnson

  • Oklahoma! by Howard Keel

  • Sing, Gary Barlow and the Commonwealth Band feat. the Military Wives

  • Cheek to Cheek, Fred Astaire

  • The White Cliffs Of Dover, Vera Lynn

  • Leaning on a Lamp-post, George Formby


Less sing-along friendly are her last few choices; Praise, My Soul, The King Of Heaven (hymn), The Lord is My Shepherd (hymn), The Lester Lanin Medley and Milanollo’s Regimental March.

You don’t just have to stick to Queenies favs though, use your imagination and throw in some classics by Queen, add a bit of Brit Pop and any of your favourite rock royalty classics from her 75 year reign. Why not take inspiration from act 2 of the pageant which will have jivers, glam rockers, brit poppers and even acid ravers! Find out more on the official pageant website here https://www.platinumpageant.com/#act-2

 

 

Spaghetti races

Anyone who has watched “The Crown” will tell you that, whilst she may be the only person in Britain who’s allowed to eat swans, there’s a loooong list of foods the Queen won’t eat in public. Famously, on her tour to Italy in 1961, the palace requested that she should not be served “messy” tomato sauces, or (gasp) garlic, and under no circumstances should she be given spaghetti. We can only imagine what Italian chefs made of these requests, but reading that was the moment that I realised … I would never want to be Queen! Carbs before crowns, am I right? 

Celebrate your freedom from the restrictions of the royal diet and have a spaghetti race.

There’s two ways to do this: The Butlin’s classic spaghetti eating contest, or the sports day version. 

For the Butlin’s classic version, just top plates of spaghetti with the messiest tomato sauce you can find, and set the timer to see who can finish their plateful first! Go hands-free for extra mess.

The sports day version involves transferring spaghetti from the start line to the finish using only a fork. Kids love trying to get the whole bowl of spaghetti twirled onto a fork at once to see if it can be done in a single trip. 

 

Bonus - jubilee pudding inspired cocktail!

The official Platinum Jubilee pudding is the lemon Swiss roll and amaretti trifle, which won a competition for the title earlier this year.

When I heard “lemon and amaretti”, my mind immediately jumped to amaretto sour cocktails. Perfect for slowly sipping with friends. 


Amaretto Sour Cocktail (makes 3)

  • Ingredients: 

  • The juice of 3 large lemons
    200ml amaretto

  • 1 egg white

  • 4 tsp of the syrup from a jar of cocktail cherries

  • Cocktail cherries (to garnish)

  • ice

Method

Put the syrup, egg white and lemon juice and amaretto into a blender, and pulse until it goes pale and a little frothy.

Pour into glasses over ice, and garnish with the cocktail cherries. 

 


Cheers to you all, 

Claire 

 

 

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