Why a 1950s St. Patrick's Day party involved a lot of prep work
CBC's Open House had tips for putting on an elaborate, labour-intensive party on March 17, 1956
Maybe you plan on having a Guinness today, or a bowl of Irish stew.
Perhaps you're all ready with some soda bread.
Sláinte, you might even say, having Googled what that means in advance of St. Patrick's Day.
Well, that's really not enough. You're going to have to step it up, if you want to measure up to the standard of the kind of St. Patrick's Day shindig that CBC's Open House was envisioning in 1956.
The show, described as "items of interest for the homemaker" in the CBC program guide, had a St. Patrick's Day-themed episode in March of that year, showing viewers how to make elaborate cakes and paper decorations.
Perfectly mashed potatoes were also on the show's menu for Ireland's national day on March 17.
Working 'wonders' with an icing tube
A sheet cake shown near the start of program was festooned with iced-on harp and shamrock symbols — though you didn't have to go the store-bought route.
You could do it yourself, obviously.
"You can ice it at home, if you like. You can order one," said host Dorothy Lash Colquhoun, offering helpful tips to those inclined to decorate their cake with tiny Irish symbols to impress their guests.
"You can do wonders with your own icing tube, you know?"
But wait, there's more work to do
Open House also had a hat that you'd expect a leprechaun to wear, which you could make yourself — if you wrote down the address shown on screen to get the pattern in the mail and then received that pattern before St. Patrick's Day.
"That's made of green construction paper," viewers at home were told, as they were only seeing a black-and-white version of the final product on their TV screens.
It also had small shamrocks painted on it, which was another part of the labour-intensive crafting process.
According to Lash Colquhoun, the hat could be used as a centrepiece, a party favour, "or anything," suggesting the hours of work you put into making it would pay off.
Pig placemats? If you have the time...
And sure, there were other handicrafts to make to entertain younger party guests, including the paper plates with paper shamrocks glued to them, or the paper pig with shamrocks drawn on it.
But those were only some of the things that could be made for the Irish national holiday.
"It can just go on and on," the crafting expert said.
"The only thing that is going to limit you is your imagination, because I can assure you it's not going to cost you much."
She did not mention time limits being a problem.
A later segment on the same show saw cooking expert Madame Jehane Benoît teach viewers how to make champ potatoes — "the real Irish way" — a process that involved the use of a lot of butter and a lot of salt.
