A Backyard S’mores Party

I threw a backyard s’mores party for my sister’s birthday and, years later, we’re all still talking about it. We aimed for a simple yet pretty outdoor party, with little stress and preparation because who needs that, especially on a birthday?

We launched our Gatherings from Kitchn series a few years ago to bring you party ideas that are fun and gracious and yet always accessible in budget and details. This s’mores fête turned out to be our easiest party yet — with almost no cooking ahead, and just a few hours of setup. Want to see how we transformed the backyard and threw our S’moresgasbord for a crowd of 20?

The beauty of this party is that there was almost nothing done ahead. My sister Susanna, who got the craftster genes in the family (I have none), did have the hankering for a few projects, so the week before the party she made two sets of pretty decorations.

She used coral-colored paint to color the insides of some old jars. She found the tutorial on Apartment Therapy. We used them to hold flowers.

See the steps: One-Minute Tip: DIY Painted Jars at Apartment Therapy

She also made some garland out of card stock, folding each square over twine to make pennants.

For my part, I made a batch of special birthday cake marshmallows. But of course homemade marshmallows aren’t required — we had plenty of store-bought marshmallows too.

And that was pretty much it for our make-ahead arrangements! We didn’t even shop until the day of the party itself.

We had three major things to do on the day of the party: grocery shop, set up and decorate the backyard, and set up the food.

Never underestimate grocery shopping for a crowd! Although we were only shopping for s’more ingredients and flowers, we ended up going to three stores to find all the chocolate we wanted, and it took three hours instead of the allotted two. In hindsight, I wish I would have shopped the day before.

The week of the party my sister’s roommates mowed the lawn and cleaned up the dog, ahem, leavings. So the yard was neat and ready for us.

Here was our plan for setting up the backyard for the party.

1. Hang strings of lights.
2. Set up tables for seating, food, and drinks.
3. Hang pennants and put out flowers.
4. Get the fire going.
5. Set out the food.

One of my brothers helped string lights from the tree to the neighbor’s garage. This was a little bit more of a challenge than I expected, even after we scrounged up extension cords and my husband responded to a distress call with a ladder. Unless you have a pergola or frame for lighting, it takes time and some stretching on tip-toes to get the job done. Again, it was something that could have been done the day before, but we pulled it off and got one long festive set of lights strung up.

We hung another set of lights on the fence behind the food table and called it good.

My sister had the bright idea of setting up tables for people to sit at in the grass. We made the tables out of two old doors she found in the garage. One was propped up with plastic milk crates, and the other with bricks. We draped each table with old sheets from the thrift store and laid down more sheets in the grass, along with some old pillows in thrift store pillowcases. We set out flowers and candles in vintage Ball jars (I have a big collection), and we were all set.

We set up a table for drinks, with these drink dispensers filled with water, citrus slices, and ice, and tubs full of ice for bottled beer and soda.

I had brought two folding picnic tables from home, and we draped them with sheets and a big sheet of brown craft paper, and set the food out here.

We hung some pennants on the bushes, and other pennants (from the sale section at BHLDN) on the tables. I didn’t even tape them up — just draped them quickly. Easy-peasy.

Another smart idea from my sister: the Sticky Fingers Station, with a bucket of hand wipes, paper towels, and bug spray. All of which went to good use throughout the evening!

It was a lot of fun to think up creative s’more combinations (see the 12 most popular here) and new things to try in this classic treat. Here’s a quick overview of some of the things that went on the table.

Graham crackers, cinnamon grahams, peanut butter cookies, gingersnaps, fudge stripes, Carr’s wheat crackers, and water crackers.

Plain marshmallows, birthday cake marshmallows (homemade), chocolate marshmallows, and cinnamon marshmallows.

Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, raspberry chocolate, mint chocolate, caramel chocolate, white chocolate, and Reese’s peanut butter cups.

Lime curd, lemon curd, Nutella, peanut butter, and dulce de leche.

Strawberry slices and banana slices.

Basil, tomato slices, goat cheese, mozzarella, prosciutto, and bacon.

Without a fire, all you have is graham crackers and cold marshmallows. The thing that made this whole party possible was that my sister’s roommates had built a fire pit last summer. It was small and ringed with rocks — safe and well-built. We stacked it up with wood from the pile and when another of my younger brothers showed up, we handed him a lighter and some newspaper and let him take it from there.

A note on fire: In my area, it is legal to have a fire in your backyard, provided you are cooking something over it and the fire is no larger than 2×3 feet. If you want to throw a similar party, check the open burning regulations in your area, as they may be more restrictive, especially in the West where wildfires are a risk. If you can’t have an open fire, it is less romantic but just as effective to toast marshmallows over a gas grill.

We had, naturally, underestimated our work a bit, so we were still running around cutting tomatoes and baking bacon when my sister’s first friends showed up. So we put them to work in the kitchen, arranging chocolate in the cute paper baking dishes we used (see Resources below for a source on those). We forgot the ice at the store, so my sister-in-law ran out and picked up 15 pounds of ice.

People trickled in a little after 7, the start time of the party, with beer and cider in hand and ready to eat a s’more. We handed over the s’more tools — marshmallow forks and skewers, and cages for roasting an entire s’more sandwich.

Our guests jumped in with alacrity — attacking the savory s’mores fixings first, and then the sweet.

People drifted in between the fire and the tables, taking turns toasting marshmallows, and making sticky-fingered sandwiches of crackers and chocolate. Some of the guys got creative late in the evening, wrapping the last slices of prosciutto around marshmallows and roasting for a savory-sweet treat.

This was a mixed group of friends — some from work, some from church, some from college — so my sister played hostess, introducing people and foisting ever new s’mores combinations upon them.

At one point I made her a birthday s’more and we all sang the requisite song — pink candle included!

I left around 10:30 and the party was still swinging, the beer getting replenished and the s’mores stash still going strong.

All in all, it was a lovely party, especially as the day cooled off and the sun went down, leaving just the lights and the fire to warm up the backyard. It was easy, inexpensive, and most of all, fun!

• Parchment Pennant Garland, BHLDN (on sale, no longer available)
• Homemade Garland
• Painted Jars
• Vintage Ball Jars
• Flowers from the grocery store, separated into bouquets

• Spiraled Shoppe Straws, BHLDN
• Gingham Cocktail Napkins, BLDN (on sale, no longer available)
• Paper Bakeware from Welcome Home Brands (sent to us as editorial samples)
• Savannah Embossed Drink Dispensers, World Market
• Evergreen Beverage Tubs & Evergreen Angled Beverage Tubs, Target

• Key Lime Pie S’mores
• Lots of S’mores fixings, such as these 12 combinations

• Picnic Forks, S’more Maker, and Marshmallow Tree from Rome Industries (sent to us as editorial samples)

See all the posts in this series

Photographs: David & Deborah Hopler of D Squared Photography & Video

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