Day of the Dead is a beloved holiday in Hispanic culture. Yes, it’s fun to dress up and throw elaborate parties with delicious food, but it’s also a time of serious reflection and celebration for those who have passed on.
If you want to join in on the festivities, here are six Day of the Dead celebration ideas for your café.
Invite people with custom Day of the Dead flyers
The extravagant designs and patterns make Day of the Dead the perfect time for some fun invitations. Invite everyone to your café for the celebration with Day of the Dead flyers customized to perfection.
Of course, you’re busy planning a holiday celebration. You probably don’t have time to design invitations from scratch — especially intricate Day of the Dead invitations! Luckily, there are hundreds of free templates for Day of the Dead flyers available from sites like PosterMyWall.
Simply browse through the designs, choose the one that best fits your café, customize the information in the easy drag-and-drop editor, and you’re ready to send. All templates are professionally designed, you can be sure your invitations will look amazing! It’s the best way to invite everyone in town to your café’s festivities.
Make a special holiday menu
Part of the fun of Day of the Dead is the amazing food. Use your culinary expertise to create a special menu for the holiday. You can feature authentic Mexican delicacies or customize your existing menus with bright colors and maybe a few skeletons. What could be more fun than a pastry with a skull on it!?
Not only is making a special Day of the Dead menu a fun way to celebrate the holiday and bring in more customers, but it’s also the perfect time to showcase your talent. You can make some amazing intricate designs that customers would love to post on social media to share with their friends. It’s a great opportunity to get some extra publicity for your café.
Decorate the café
Your food isn’t the only thing you can decorate. Get the café itself ready for the holiday with plenty of Day of the Dead decorations, like skeletons, skulls, colorful patterns, flowers, and candles. If you want to go all out, you and your staff could even dress up in elaborate costumes.
Decorations are the perfect way to get everyone in the holiday spirit. And if your decorations are good enough, you might even be able to get more people to come in from off the street just to see what’s going on, helping you boost sales.
Organize a movie-watching party
There are plenty of fun family-friendly movies for Day of the Dead. Why not organize a movie-watching party in your café?
You already have the decorations. Set up a projector (or just a sheet on the wall) and play a favorite Day of the Dead movie for your customers. It’s a fun way to attract more people to your café and host an event that’s a little different from your typical operations. And naturally, you’d supply the delicious snacks and drinks people can enjoy while watching the movie!
Plan fun activities
Day of the Dead is all about celebrating together. So bring everyone together to have some fun with various activities in your café throughout the day. There are plenty of Day of the Deadactivities you can host to bring in more customers:
- Make papel picado (a colorful paper banner)
- Host a costume party or contest
- Bake bread of the dead (or at least let people decorate their own)
- Have a face painting booth
You can also set up resources to teach people about the history and traditions of Day of the Dead, especially if your café is in a location that doesn’t have a large Hispanic population. It’s always fun to learn about different cultures and their rich histories.
Build and decorate an offering
An offering is essentially a decorative altar to honor loved ones who have passed and welcome them back to the land of the living during the holiday. Although it’s usually meant for family members, you may choose to set up an offering in your café.
Most offering are decorated with all four elements: water (a glass or jug of water), earth (food), wind (papel picado), and fire (candles). You can also decorate your offering with pictures and offerings for your loved ones, or you could let your customers make offerings to their loved ones.
Celebrate the Day of the Dead in your cafe
With its delicious food, colorful decorations, and exciting costumes, Day of the Dead is the perfect holiday to celebrate in your café. Make everyone feel welcome to come celebrate (whether they’re alive or otherwise) with Day of the Dead flyer invitations, a special holiday menu, festive café decorations, a fun movie-watching party, exciting activities, and a well-decorated offering.