4th of July

I find it very surprising how few events there are for the 250th 4th of July as compared to the 200th. In 1976, there was an incredible philatelic convention with stamps and a passport. There was a caravan of wagons that came from every state in the country and met in Philadelphia. There were tours of famous areas and even a historical movie being made.

The 250th celebration seems so quiet in comparison. Thought it might be fun to brainstorm some ideas for celebrating it.

One thing I've tried in previous years that was fun was to make your own parade. We got kids from the neighborhood. We decorated their bikes or scooters. They went around the neighborhood with some patriotic music playing. If you're on your own this year, making parade floats using Legos or blocks could be fun.

4th of July always reminds me of ice cream. It might be a great time to create an ice cream social with everyone's choice of ice cream toppings. It may even be more fun if you make your own ice cream with an ice cream maker, high powered blender or try the homemade ice cream in a can method.

It's also a great time for barbecues, cook outs, burgers, hot dots and lemonade. Have to watch what you eat? What about coming up with snacks using healthy red, white and blue vegetables or a red, white and blue salad? I've even seen red, white and blue desserts. You can add blueberries, strawberries, cherries and/or raspberries and yogurt (or ice cream) in layers to a cup or try to recreate the flag design on a cake.

It's fun to deck the house with shiny red, white and blue decorations. Dollar stores or big box retailers might have some inexpensive decor. Craft stores and dollar stores may even have supplies for making your own. Metallic gel markers could create shiny drawings. Potato chip bags often have a silver inside that can be used to cut out decorations. There's a story of how Betsy Ross created the stars for the flag by folding the fabric and making one cut. Shiny paper or silvery potato chip bags could be used to try to make 5 pointed stars that way.

Need a more virtual way to celebrate? How about creating an Indie web page or Pinterest collage for the holiday? How about writing a 4th of July related fan fiction or original story and sharing it online?

The one thing that most embodies celebrating 4th of July for me is fireworks. If you're not near a fireworks display this year, how about checking out a fireworks display virtually? One year, I saw a wonderful display of fireworks photos shared via Zoom. I've seen some simulators for fireworks. Videos of them are available on Youtube. There are some great Open Source fireworks programs. Some were designed for the web and others work on a computer or Android phone. You can also have fun writing your own. Turn it into a challenge and see who comes up with the best fireworks display. My favorite fireworks software is called Xfireworks. It mainly works on X Windows. I coded a compatibility layer using SDL so I could run it on Windows and Android as well.

Does anyone have some crafty or creative ways to celebrate the holiday? Do you have a favorite recipe you can share? Anyone working on a web page, story or program for the holiday? Let me know on Mastodon.

How will you celebrate the 4th of July this year?