10 Ideas For Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations For Every Generation

Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations are set to take place from Thursday 2nd June to Sunday 5th June as the nation enjoys an extra bank holiday to join in the festivities. 

The long weekend provides a great opportunity for a multi-generational celebration with all the family together; Her Majesty is Britain’s longest reigning monarch, so it’s a unique occasion that deserves to be marked. The bonus bank holiday means there’s plenty of chance to get together, reminisce, and celebrate with family and friends. 

There’s never been a Platinum Jubilee in this country before and there’s unlikely to be another for a very long time to come, so make the most of the opportunity to get your loved ones together to celebrate this unique occasion.

10 Ways To Celebrate The Platinum Jubilee

From retro party food to homemade decorations and books from around the Commonwealth, here are ten fun ways to mark the Platinum Jubilee with loved ones young and old:

1. Resurrect Retro Party Food Recipes

Food is a big part of any celebration, and an occasion that celebrates the last seven decades is the perfect opportunity to resurrect some retro party food recipes. 

If you’d rather keep your family gathering classic and timeless, you can’t go wrong with cucumber sandwiches, scones, and a Victoria sponge – perhaps decorated with whipped cream, raspberries, halved strawberries, and blueberries for a patriotic touch. But if you’d like to serve up some retro favourites, we recommend:

• Prawn cocktail – the classic 1970s starter is just as delicious today, and it’s easy to put together, needing just a few lettuce leaves, prawns, your preferred sauce, and a slice of lemon. Follow this BBC Good Food recipe to make your own
• Devilled eggs – this retro appetiser is made by scooping the yolk out of hard-boiled egg and mixing it with mustard or mayonnaise before piping it back into the hole in a pretty swirl. Finish with a sprinkle of chopped chives for an extra flourish
• Vol au vents – these little pastry parcels have largely fallen out of favour in recent years, but they still make a great canape option. Fill with cooked chicken or mushrooms in mayonnaise, or the next item on our list…
• Coronation chicken – this dish of cooked chicken, mayonnaise, and curry powder (and sometimes sultanas and mango chutney) was first put together for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. It remains a popular sandwich filling, but we think it would be delicious piled into those vol au vent cases too
• A cheese and pineapple hedgehog – this 1980s children’s party favourite is a lot of fun to make. Traditionally, a cabbage or similar large vegetable cut in half forms the body of the hedgehog, which is then wrapped in foil, given sultanas for eyes, then studded with cheese and pineapple (or grapes!) on sticks to create spines
• Cheese fondue – a dinner party favourite of the 1980s, a cheese fondue always goes down a treat. Hard cheeses work particularly well for a fondue; cut up some vegetable crudites or different types of bread to dip into the melted cheese
• Coconut ice – these retro pink and white squares are simply irresistible. Carnation has an easy-to-follow recipe that uses condensed milk, icing sugar, desiccated coconut, and food colouring
• Cherry Bakewell tarts – buy a box or make them yourself; cherry Bakewells are a classic treat and their red and white design makes them the perfect addition to a patriotic celebration
• Queen of puddings – an alternative to a trifle (which is another retro party food favourite), this regal dessert features layers of custard, cake, and jam, topped with majestic chewy meringue peaks, providing the perfect showstopper for your Jubilee gathering

2. Look Through Old Photographs

Looking through old photographs always provides a great opportunity to reminisce about the past, and younger generations will love to see snapshots from your childhood, and old wedding or holiday photos.

Get your albums out and spend time laughing at your old hairstyles, admiring your old outfits, remembering brilliant holidays, and talking about loved ones who are no longer with us. Make sure everyone takes away the photos they want to copy or save digitally to preserve them for the future.

3. Get Your Vintage Clothes Out

Going through old clothes can also be incredibly nostalgic, and your kids and grandkids will love to see what you wore on your wedding day, and other pieces you’ve worn over the years. From flares to shoulder pads, spend time talking about how the fashions have changed, and see if any of the pieces still fit.

Younger family members may even want to take some of the pieces away with them to customise and make their own – if there are items you’ve not worn for years and aren’t likely to again, let them breathe new life into them.

4. Create A Scrapbook Of The Last 7 Decades

Creating a scrapbook is a great activity to do with the whole family, and it can be a lovely way to gather all of your memories in one place to be passed down to future generations, providing a snapshot of what life was like during Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. Here are some ideas for what to include:

• Old photos
• Your favourite stories and anecdotes – get the grandchildren to write these down to make this a multi-generational activity
• Old travel tickets
• Buttons from old clothes
• Old receipts
• Gift tags from treasured presents
• Greetings cards from loved ones
• The grandchildren’s scan photos
• Your favourite recipes

5. Read The Commonwealth

Take a trip around the Commonwealth by getting stuck into the 70 books that have been selected by The Reading Agency and BBC Arts as part of The Big Jubilee Read. The list features books by authors from around the Commonwealth written over the last 70 years, encompassing a wide range of genres.

See how much London itself has changed during Her Majesty’s reign by starting with one of the first books on the list from 1956, The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon, before giving Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other (2019) a go. If your eyes aren’t what they once were, try listening to an audiobook instead. 

Challenge yourself to read one book from each decade or from as many countries as you can – suggest one of the titles for your next book club session, as they’ll all make great discussion starters. 

6. Plan A Family Jubilee Quiz

A quiz – either in person or virtual – is a great way to bring all the family together. The Platinum Jubilee is a fantastic theme for a quiz, as you can theme it around pretty much anything from the last seven decades. Take a decade each and plan a round based on that, or let everyone choose a different category.

Ideas for rounds include:

• The Royal family
• Flags of the Commonwealth
• Sporting achievements since the 1950s
• Oscar winners of the last 70 years
• Music from the last seven decades

7. Make Your Own Platinum Jubilee Decorations

Making Platinum Jubilee decorations is another activity the whole family can get involved in. Patriotic red, white, and blue paper chains are incredibly easy to make, and the repetitive action of stringing the loops together can be soothing. Get everyone to make their own mini chain and join them all together to make one big decoration.

You could also get everyone – young and old – to make a few triangles of bunting in the colours of the Union Flag. These could be sewn, quilted, felted, or simply made from paper or card. Attach the different generations’ triangles together and get your homemade bunting out at future coronations or national sporting events – it will make a wonderful keepsake for the future, and there’ll be a lovely story to share behind how it was made.

8. Attend A Big Jubilee Lunch

The Big Jubilee Lunch is one of the official initiatives that’s being hosted across the country to mark the Platinum Jubilee, with the idea of bringing together communities to share food and spend time together to mark this unique occasion.

Find out if there’s a Big Jubilee Lunch being held in your local area – there might be a street party or a gathering in a local park. Go along and join in the festivities, take a signature dish with you, and get to know your neighbours better.

9. Get Nostalgic

Short-term memory can be one of the first things to be affected in people with early onset dementia and other types of cognitive decline. As a result, people can take comfort in old memories, and an occasion that celebrates the last 70 years is the perfect opportunity to indulge in some nostalgia.

Encourage your loved one to share stories from the last seven decades – you might learn something you never knew about them – or create a playlist of songs from the earlier years of the Queen’s reign to spark memories and conversation of times gone by. 

10. Design Your Own Platinum Jubilee Pudding

The Platinum Pudding competition was launched by Fortnum & Mason to find a new dessert to represent the Platinum Jubilee. Inspired by the creation of Coronation chicken all those years ago, people from across the UK were encouraged to submit a dessert recipe, with entries judged by a panel featuring the likes of Dame Mary Berry, Monica Galetti, and Buckingham Palace head chef Mark Flanaghan.

Entries to the Fortnum & Mason competition are now closed, but you could still have your own Platinum Jubilee family Bake Off challenge. Get everyone to make your signature recipe and judge who does it best, or set a theme and see how everyone interprets it differently. 

If you’re unsure where to start, take inspiration from spices from around the Commonwealth, combined with exotic fruit and a traditional British bake; think a Victoria sponge cake with pineapple jam and cardamom buttercream, or a Swiss roll flavoured filled with mango cream and decorated with desiccated coconut.

How To Celebrate The Platinum Jubilee With A Loved One In A Care Home

If you have a loved one in a care home, it’s likely that their home will be planning some Platinum Jubilee celebrations of its own. At New Care homes, residents are being treated to visits from little Isla, the three-year-old daughter of our Recruitment Lead Alex Fairhurst, who’s embarking on a special royal tour of the country with her faithful Corgi to mark the occasion. 

You might also want to create some new memories over the Platinum Jubilee weekend by taking your loved one out for the day, and you might like to plan a trip that ties in with the nostalgia of the occasion. For example, our Formby Manor Care Home in Merseyside is not too far from Liverpool’s The Beatles attractions, which provide a fantastic opportunity to reminisce about the 1960s. 

Meanwhile, Bridgewater Manor Care Home in Worsley is within easy reach of the Coronation Street Studio Tour at Salford’s Media City – take your loved one for a visit to an institution that’s been around for almost as long as the Queen herself.

If you have any questions about any of our care home locations or would like to arrange a visit to one of our care homes, please contact us here.