Party at home like you’re in New Orleans

NEW YORK – There may not be parades with colorful floats and crazed women who do just about anything for beads, but you can still be part of the Mardi Gras fun though you’re miles away from Bourbon Street.

In fact, you really only need five things for a good ol’ fashioned Nawlins-style party in your own home: Music, masks, costumes, beads and king cake. Put it together with some decorations in the traditional Mardi Gras colors of gold, purple and green, and you’ve got a Big Easy bash.

The day most Yankees know as Mardi Gras is actually the end of the carinval season in New Orleans. This year, it’s Feb. 24, Fat Tuesday, just before Lent begins. But the season officially starts at Twelfth Night, which occurs 12 days after Christmas, and there are many celebrations around New Orleans.

Carol Blake has been shipping party accessories from Louisiana around the country for more than a decade through her Web site, www.mardigrasday.com, and she says over the years more and more people from Ohio to Arizona to Florida are getting together to party on Fat Tuesday.

Nearly all of her business now is to patrons outside New Orleans.

“If I see any trend,” she says, “I think people in the Midwest have a tendency to spend a bit more on their products. But that’s probably because if you’re in New York, there are a million places to buy beads. Outside of big cities, there’s not as much access to a wide variety.”

After Hurricane Katrina flooded her storage space, Blake had to find a new warehouse and business suffered a bit, but, like Mardi Gras itself, she’s made a comeback and is on track to have the best year ever, despite the dismal economy.

“People need a release, and a good party is just the thing,” she says.

New Orleans natives will say they don’t spend much time on Bourbon Street, anyway, but instead attend costume parties and balls around the city where a king and queen are chosen and hosts serve king cakes, a sticky-sweet coffee cake baked with a teeny plastic baby inside. Whoever finds the baby either throws the next party, is named king or queen, or wins a prize, depending on the bash.

Blake says you can order the real thing and have it shipped to your home for about $50 from bakeries like Gambinos or Manny Randazzo’s King Cakes, or you can fake one yourself with an easy recipe listed on her site.

Beads, masks, cups plates and napkins in the right colors can be found at any party store, or at big box stores like Target or online at Oriental Trading Co., though both companies refused to say whether the holiday is a big seller, or even provide information on what areas of the country were buying the loot.

“People get really into it, they stand on boxes, decorate wagons and trees and yards with the beads,” says Blake.

In the end, it’s all about the attitude. “As long as you’re in good spirits, you’ll have a great time. That’s what it’s all about anyway,” Blake says.