On the Saturday before Independence Day, my family always hosts a Fourth of July celebration. There is usually a water balloon fight, lots of beer, an awesome display of fireworks, and a wonderful variety of food. There is always something catered, like chicken, and lots of different sandwiches, potato salads, sushi, etc. Once, we hired a pig roaster. It was fun, but the expense was too much. Last year was the best Fourth of July party so far, because we decided to have a clambake celebration.

I can suggest following the seafood route to anyone wishing to organise a summer party like the ones we do. Ok, I admit it's never really unexpensive to hire professional catering services for a party. But - if you already decided to cater anyway - the seafood root is not very more costly than a traditional macaroni, chicken and potato salad or any other similar common food that caterers usually provide.

A couple hundred people often show up for our Independence day celebrations. Not all of the people show up at the same time, but they come and go over the course of the party, and I guess that 200 or more show up every year. For a successful clambake celebration, you ought to have at least 40 people show up. If you don't have that many people, you may find that you end up having too much stuff and not enough participants. When there are enough participants, it would be worthwhile to have a clambake celebration.

The food for last year's clambake celebration was provided by a catering company. The main attraction was the live lobster. Kids and adults enjoyed watching the entertaining performance of the chefs as they prepared and cooked the lobster right in front of them. The catering company also did a great job displaying the rest of the full menu items on rocks and seafood. In addition to the lobster, we were served clams, quahogs and mussels.

What we ordered was considered to be a "standard clambake" but they also had an option for a "New England clambake". Both were similarly priced, but I guess that the New England one had more local menu offerings for New England stuff. I was pleased with the one we ordered, but I cannot say anything about the New England style, because I haven't tried it (yet!)

We are excited to once again throw a clambake celebration for this year's 4th of July Party, and it is already all planned. July cannot come soon enough! It was such a big hit that we couldn't even consider doing anything else food-wise. The fireworks, beer, and water balloon fight will also stick around though!