Cinco de Mayo parties or Mexican fiestas are lively and festive celebrations filled with vibrant colors, delicious food, friends, family and margaritas. They are always so much fun! We’re sharing all the details of everything you may need to throw an epic Cinco de Mayo party including:
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Set the Vibe with Fiesta Decorations and Music
Cinco de Mayo Decorations
Decor in Mexico is vibrant and colorful so be sure to bring plenty of color to your Cinco de Mayo aesthetic.
To start, think of what you might have around the house, any souvenirs from trips to Mexico? Anything bright and colorful? Bring those into your fiesta decor. Best part, free!
Another inexpensive idea is to pick up canned goods in the Spanish section of your local grocery store. These cans looks so cute with fresh flowers in them. I just clipped from our tree outside. Also, if you have extra margarita glasses, you can add votive candles to them. Both ideas seen here:
The perfect start to your Cinco de Mayo table(s) is a colorful serape runner :
Decorative paper like paper flowers and/or papel picado bring so much color to your fiesta aesthetic:
Another cute idea we used one year is to make a painted taco shell garland using hard taco shells. See all the details and variations in this post.
You can always check out the Target dollar section, Etsy, Amazon, the Dollar Store or your local party supply store to add in a few more items. As May approaches, they may have cute Cinco de Mayo decorations.
Cinco de Mayo Music Ideas
Playing music you might hear at a Mexican restaurant can add to the fiesta vibe. If that isn’t your cup of tea or you’re looking for something your crowd could sing along with, you could always make a playlist of more popular English songs with a Spanish influence. Here is a list of some popular “Spanglish” songs you may know such as Despacito, Macarena, Livin’ La Vida Loca.
You can check out Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, Apple Music wherever you subscribe to find some playlists with Mexican or Spanish music. There are plenty of Cinco de Mayo playlists already created. You could use theirs or create your own using those as a starting place.
If you don’t have a music subscription, head to your local library to borrow music for free.
Fiesta Menu Ideas
A great way to honor Mexico in your Cinco de Mayo party would be to order food to serve from your local authentic Mexican restaurants. You could cater your entire meal or just get a few favorites such as QUESO! Here are some fiesta menu ideas to choose from when planning what you’ll serve. Consider printing this post and circling the foods you want to include on your own menu.
Fiesta Appetizers
- Chips, guacamole and salsa
- Mexican layer dips
- Queso with chips
- Taquitos
Fiesta Main Dishes
- Tacos – fish, beef, chicken, short rib, carnitas or black beans are great options.
- Burrito Bowls- ok so this is maybe Tex-Mex but is a great crowd pleaser for your guests to make up a bowl of their own. Include items such as rice, a few meat options, black or pinto beans, corn, salsa, cilantro, sour cream, guacamole, grilled onions and peppers, cheese
- Fajitas
- Enchiladas are always a crowd pleaser and something you can prepare ahead of time.
Fiesta Side Dish Ideas
- Mexican street corn
- Plantains
- Mexican rice
- Black beans
- Refried beans
Fiesta Dessert Ideas
- Fried ice cream – prep ahead and fry at the party or fry and refreeze. You could set up a fried ice cream bar with fried ice cream balls, fried or baked cinnamon sugar tortillas plus toppings such as syrups, fruit, whipped cream and cherries.
- Tres leches cake
- Dulce de leche cheesecake
- Churros
- Sopapillas
- Sopapilla cheesecake – we love this recipe
Fiesta Drink Menu Ideas
Cinco de Mayo Drink Ideas With Alcohol:
- Margaritas (obviously!)
- Mexican beer
- Paloma
- Pina Coladas
- Mercadito – a cucumber jalapeno margarita
You could set up a station where guests can run a lime over the rim of their margarita glass and dip it in salt, sugar or even tajin. You could add some margarita mix-ins like extra tequila for those who enjoy stronger margs, jalapeño slices, blood orange slices, mango slices or other fruits.
Cinco de Mayo Non-Alcoholic Drink Ideas
- Aguas Frescas
- Mexican soda such as Jarritos – the variety pack is so colorful, served in a beverage bucket with ice will also add to your fiesta aesthetic
- Horchata
- Non-Alcoholic Pina Coladas aka Nada Coladas
- Non-Alcoholic Strawberry Daquiris
Mexican Fiesta Activity Ideas
Fiesta Activities for All ages:
- Set up a photo booth area with a backdrop, props and a phone tripod for guests to take photos.
- Hang a piñata for guests to take turns breaking. Fill it with candies and small toys for kids or mini (plastic!) tequila bottles for adults – remember to have a blindfold and bat or stick on hand
- Guests could dance to salsa songs on Just Dance
- Hot sauce tasting station
- Each guest could bring homemade or their favorite store bought salsa for a salsa-off competition. Have a table set up with chips to dip, numbers and voting papers.
Fiesta Activities for Adults:
- Set up a tequila tasting station with a few different tequilas along with score cards for guests to vote
- Alternately you could set up a Mexican beer tasting station the same way
- Beer pong – to add a Mexican themed twist you could use Mexican beer, use margarita glasses, or if you really want to go all out, create a custom painted beer pong table
Fiesta activities for kids
- Paint hard shell tacos, dip edges in glue then sprinkles like we did for our taco garland. You could also include tortilla chips to turn the shells into sombreros. Both ideas seen here:
- Create your own papel picado. Here is a tutorial
- Make your own paper bag piñatas see the details in this post:
- Make your own maracas station using leftover plastic Easter eggs as seen in this post
- Provide materials for kids to decorate sombreros
Cinco de Mayo Favor Ideas
- Hot sauce – to make it extra festive, you could add a tag that says something like Thanks for SPICING up our fiesta. Definitely top with one of these mini sombreros or mini sombrero and serape:
- Tequila mini bottles – again, you could add mini sombreros and/or cute favor tags to make them more festive
- Mexican wedding cookies – delicious and so cute packaged up with a favor tag
- A potted mini cactus would make a cute favor, again with a cute tag
- A mini pinata is always a hit especially with the kids. If you have time, you could make simple DIY ones like we mentioned above or pick up pre-made mini pinatas.
A Little Cinco de Mayo Background
Per Wikipedia, Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of the Mexican victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla. Contrary to popular belief, it was not Mexico’s version of Fourth of July. In fact, many people of Mexican heritage don’t actually celebrate the day. Americans take it as an opportunity to enjoy Mexican inspired things they love, especially food and drink. Hopefully we can all do it in a culturally respectful way!
Happy Planning!
We hope this helps when planning your Cinco de Mayo party or Mexican fiesta! The Mexican culture values hospitality, creativity and joyfulness. Celebrate with these values in mind and it will be an amazing fiesta!
