Make the most of the extra time off this June with our ideas on celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

This year, the UK is celebrating a once in a lifetime event: the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. This historic occasion marks Queen Elizabeth II’s 70th year on the throne — quite the milestone! Many of us around Britain will benefit from a fabulous four-day weekend in honour of the jubilee. But how to spend it?

Here are some ideas to bring your local community together and enjoy the nationwide celebration — and some might just have a little chocolate twist…

Get the neighbours together for a street party

Bunting, food, and dancing: what’s not to love about a neighbourhood street party?

What’s the origin of the street party?

Street parties are a quintessentially British affair. The tradition began with the ‘Peace Teas’ of 1919 when communities gathered together in their neighbourhoods to celebrate the Treaty of Versailles that signified the official end of the First World War.

These Peace Teas involved getting together in the streets to enjoy a banquet of treats. The focus was mainly on providing children with a fun and carefree event — much needed after the hardships of the war and the Spanish flu pandemic. There were tea parties, parades, and games, and participants loved to dress up in their best outfits.

Later, neighbourhoods gathered together again to mark King George V’s Silver Jubilee in 1935, the coronation of George VII in 1937, and VE-Day in 1945 — a national tradition was born.

Organising a street party for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

Events like the jubilee are a wonderful opportunity to step back in time and enjoy the community spirit that many of us don’t experience every day. Traditional street parties involve shutting off roads to set up big banquet tables and pedestrian-only access. 

The Big Jubilee Lunch is an initiative from the Eden Project to get neighbours celebrating and spending quality time together this double bank holiday. The Big Jubilee Lunch website has tips and resources to help you set up your own event, whether that’s in the street, a local park, or another community space.

There are some guidelines to adhere to. For instance, depending on where you live, you may need to complete an application form for your local council. However, you can certainly exercise some creativity in your gathering. You could organise a potluck, where everyone brings a dish to share, set up a cake stand, and play music. 

When holding a Platinum Jubilee street party, you don’t need a risk assessment or licence for consuming food and drink. However, you may need to obtain a temporary events permit if you wish to sell alcohol. Take a look at these legal details for information on insurance, road closures, and health and safety.

Host a Jubilee lunch at home

If you’d prefer a more low-key celebration, why not host a Jubilee lunch at home? You can follow a similar premise: decorations, delicious food, and fun music, but on a smaller scale.

Invite friends and family over for a sit-down meal or ask them all to bring a sweet or savoury dish for a buffet. You might like to look at some traditional British desserts to keep the event on theme. Or why not choose some bite-size puds with our Patisserie collection? From Carrot Cake to Banoffee Pie, our chocolatiers adore giving the nation’s favourite desserts a cacao twist. These little morsels are the perfect way to round off a big meal without indulging too much!

Hold a tea party in the garden

Our Patisserie treats also make an excellent addition to a garden tea party. What could be more quaint than a sophisticated tea party? Finger foods, like sandwiches and crudites, are ideal for a tea party, as are bite-size choccies.

A tea party also offers a lovely excuse to dress up. Why not set a theme for your guests? Each person could choose a decade from the Queen’s reign, from the 1950s to today, and create an outfit to reflect it. Alternatively, you could choose a ‘distinctly British’ theme, and see what people come up with!

If you’re a big fan of literature, you could take inspiration from classic British writer, Lewis Carroll, and host a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. We love the idea of making it a chocolate Mad Hatter’s Tea Party for something a little bit different.

And for a more grown-up soiree, you could swap the tea or hot chocolate for refreshing summer cocktails served in teacups. Our Pretty in Pink Cocktail features rose water and fresh raspberries for s delightfully English beverage. It also contains a generous amount of Cacao Gin and Prosecco to really get you enjoying the festivities!

Get crafty with decorations

Whether you host a street party or tea party or just fancy getting crafty, the Platinum Jubilee is an excellent excuse to make some decorations. It wouldn’t be a jubilee without some bunting, after all.

You could keep your bunting classic, with some union jacks, or choose a different pattern. The Big Jubilee Lunch has printable templates to use as a guideline for paper bunting but you could also make some from small pieces of fabric.

Bunting has been a British tradition since before the Peace Tea gatherings of 1919 but has definitely remained a big part of street parties right up until today.

Other Platinum Jubilee decorations the whole family can get involved with include:

• Paper chain garlands
• Paper hats, crowns, and tiaras
• Royal family finger puppets or paper cone characters
• A cardboard Buckingham Palace
• Crocheted corgis
• Platinum Jubilee bookmarks

Host a royal ‘Bake Off’ cake competition

Want to put your baking to the test? The Platinum Jubilee is the ideal opportunity to whip up some showstoppers. Whether you host a small party or go all out organising a street party for the whole neighbourhood, a Bake Off cake competition is sure to go down a treat. Will you be one of the judges or get involved with the baking?

From a traditional Victoria sponge cake to something a little more experimental, this is the time to try out delicious recipes. You can get some practice in with our irresistible molten chocolate lava cake recipe or try your hand at a technical chocolate brioche.

Don’t forget to make sure the winner gets a prize! We reckon one of our Summer Desserts Sleeksters would be an excellent choice.

However you celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, have a wonderful double weekend!