75th VE Day – Stay Home Celebrations

75th anniversary of VE Day 1945 - 2020

Plans for celebrations for the 75th anniversary of VE Day were well underway, our May bank holiday had even been moved to Friday 8th May to coincide with the celebrations, then... coronavirus pandemic!
Nothing like a pandemic to ruin all kinds of fun and epic days in British History. That doesn't mean that we can't still celebrate though.

What is VE Day?

Before we get onto what we can all do to celebrate lets go over VE Day and what it stands for and why it's so epic! So VE Day stands for Victory in Europe, the 8th of May 1945 is the day that Germany accepted an unconditional surrender thus ending the 6 year war that had raged on. Celebrations spread across Europe, street parties began happening in the streets of London, and in the city centre itself many gathered outside Buckingham Palace to celebrate with the Royal Family and Sir Winston Churchill.
You can read more about VE Day here.

VE Day Street Parties...

Street parties are the pinnacle celebrations that take place each year for VE Day. With the big milestones being the biggest celebrations and the most street parties. I clearly remember the 50th anniversary of VE Day, our estate had a party. Many of the older ladies dressed in 1940's attire. My nan wore a boiler suit, my mum and her sisters dressed in aprons, tea dresses, chunky cardigans and slippers and all sported a headscarf. It was a brilliant day! I'm gutted our girls won't get to experience a street party like it this year.

You may have seen there's a movement gathering momentum that's calling for streets and communities to celebrate in their front gardens, back gardens, balconies, whatever space they have where they can still adhere to social distancing.
Will your street be taking part in social distancing front garden celebrations?
I've not been able to find any information as to whether our road is taking part in anything, I will be asking those I pass on our daily exercise walks though! What a fabulous way to meet your neighbours you've not yet met and to have a much needed chat, all be it from a safe social distance. There's not as yet any decorations along our road that won't however stop me and the girls from hanging bunting. Displaying our colouring sheets and waving our print out Union Jacks (maybe we'll be the ones to get our road rolling!) This is the running order that has been suggested for the day;

Decorating your house

There's a few ways you can decorate your home. Simple red, white and blue bunting whether that be paper, plastic or fabric. Union Jack or St Georges Cross bunting and flags, you'll find some of those attached below. You could make poppy pom pom's if you have some red and black wool. If like us you don't have any wool you could make paper poppies for your windows. Paper chains in red, white and blue or just red and white! This is a great one for smaller kids as they're so quick and easy.

What's on the menu?

To celebrate with the kids you can make a traditional afternoon tea, after all street parties first started after WW1 where they would come together for a 'Peace Tea' with those children that were poor and/or orphaned.
This is our menu for our VE Day Afternoon Tea

This is the recipe we're (Leah!) is going to use to make scones, they'll be a first for her! I'll let you know how they go.

• 350g self-raising flour, plus more for dusting
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 85g butter, cut into cubes
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 175ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

The method can be found here.

VE Day with the kids

I have put together some bunting designs, hand flags and colouring sheets for you to download and print for the kids. If you'd like to teach them some more about VE Day and do some activities with them Twinkl has a fabulous work pack thats free, click here to take a look. If you're kids are a but older they can read more here or could watch Darkest Hour and Dunkirk - both brilliant movies in my personal opinion.

Share with us!

If you choose to have a social distance home party or a living room picnic or afternoon tea please do share with us. We can feel like we're all partying together! You can tag us on Instagram using either @AshleighSheaPhotography or with the #VEdayWithASP

We can't wait to see what you get up to, remember stay home, stay safe!

With Love,
Ash.x