"Some of the best Luau Party Decorations are the ones that you make yourself. After all you have the fun of making something before the party and the fun of having the party and getting compliments from your guests.

One of the most commonly seen Luau Party Decorations are Leis. You may find it very fun and fragrant to stay up late stringing together flowers for your Luau Leis. More expensive leis are made using Plumeria and other tropical flowers, but for the home Luau you might find using such flowers as Carnations just as well. Plus Carnations are easy to dye in tropical colors and you can find or make your own tropical Carnation Leis by putting white Carnations in colored water a day or so before you start making the Leis.

Once you have your flowers you can string them together by piercing the center of each flower with a needle and thread, string them up one after the other as you would a garland at Christmastime. For fragrance spritz a little cheap floral body spray on each of the Leis you make.

Another interesting and easy to make Luau party decoration to make is the Paper Mache Palm Tree. You can make several of these to stand up on the tables as they are only about a foot or so high. Collect several of the cardboard tubes at the center of grocery store paper towel rolls. These will serve as the support for the wet newspaper. Mix up a paste of flour and water and shred into strips lots of old newspaper. You will also need some paint, twist ties and green construction paper or even real leaves.

Wet down and strategically place clumps of newspaper around the base of one of the paper towel tubes. This will help hold up the tree and give it a more tree-like form. Slowly build up layers of wet newspaper around the tube so that it looks like the trunk of a palm tree. Try twisting or narrowing in the top of the tube so that it appears the tree is getting smaller towards the top. Let dry.

Cut out your green construction paper in the shape of palm leaves and glue a twist tie along the center of each leaf. You’ll need a bunch of them. Once the paper mache is dry glue the leaves to the top of the trunk. For coconuts try making small wet newspaper balls and letting them dry, paint them brown and glue them to the top of the palm tree. Paint the trunk an appropriate palm tree color. These make great little table centerpieces."