I came up with a silly idea for a party and it seems to be a very interesting psychological experiment. I want to test it again!
The idea is Tiny Foods! I got baby cucumbers and cherry tomatoes and made a tiny salad, served on a tiny plate. Tiny layer cake, sliced into adorable little pieces, served with tiny scoops of ice cream out of the tiny Ben and Jerry’s cartons. Tiny Oreos displayed as if they are big cookies. I even got the cheesy Muchies mix and took out the tiny Doritos and tiny Sunchips to serve in their own separate bowls as though we are full sized chips. Tiny cup cakes! I made tiny hamburgers and buns and served them with more tiny tomatoes. Tiny silverware and glassware are available at the party stores and, oh my goodness! Cuteness! Tiny bottles of champagne and wine served in sherry or cordial glasses. Small bottles of soda and airplane liquors to make tiny cocktails served in shot glasses or the like. There are also many tiny versions of candies now and those are so hard to pass up. Tiny crackers, a baby pineapple, petite carrots, and tiny sandwiches made on tiny cocktail bread!
I did this party a couple of years ago when the Heineken mini keg was out and we all had tiny beers too. We had our tiny glasses, ate off small plates with the tiny silverware. It was amazing! Everything was super adorable, but the magic was that we barely made a dent in all the tiny foods! We felt full SO quickly. We made a similarly small dent in all the alcohol and yet we were all quite convinced that we were drunk! We really ate and drank a small fraction of what we would have if all the foods were normal sized. I have read that eating off smaller plates helps with portion control, but apparently if you go ALL the way with the tiny it works wonders!
We tried this party idea again this past weekend. I am vegan now so I didn’t get to enjoy some of the treats, and I wasn’t able to get there in time to help set up, so the display was sort of like, Tiny Food displayed in normal sized containers, rather than displayed on small dishes as though it was all normal sized. It still worked (this was a different group of friends than who came to the first tiny party) but not nearly as well. People ended up sitting by the food and grazing (I’m guilty of that too) and the organization broke down, so rather than eating tiny scoops of ice cream from the tiny containers, people ate the whole container! But over all everyone was still impressed and consumed way less than they would have of normal sized stuff.
It isn’t the most cost effective way to go about a party, yet people end up eating so much less (especially if it is served on tiny stuff and at a counter or something away from seating to avoid the grazing effect) that it basically balances out and ends up being healthier. So, the Tiny Party was one way I let myself goof off with friends and have a great time without over doing it! I highly recommend it if you and your friends enjoy having silly little parties!