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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 clambake celebration that we hosted was obviously through a catering company. We ordered a full menu, including clams, mussels, lobsters, and quahogs. They bring over live lobster, and kill/cook them in front of you. Half of the fun (both for the children and the adults) is to watch the showmanship of the chefs doing this. They also have a lot of rocks and seafood laid out that they serve the food on top of.

When we purchased, we chose the "standard clambake," but they also offered a "New England clambake." The difference in price between the two choices was negligible but the New England one seemed to have more items from that area. The standard clambake was perfectly fine for my needs. I don't have any experience to comment on the New England clambake but I wouldn't mind trying it.

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!