How to Celebrate Independence Day

If the Fourth of July has become just another day off work, maybe this is the year to put a little oomph back into your celebration of our country's birth.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• red, white and blue clothes
• Sparklers
• Travel Guides To Revolutionary War Sites
• Airline Tickets

1. Visit one of the places where the urge for freedom simmered up and finally boiled over into the revolution of the 1770s. Hike Boston's Freedom Trail, follow Ben Franklin's footsteps through the winding streets of Philadelphia, take a boat up the Potomac to Mount Vernon, or tromp through the fields at Valley Forge.

2. Read the Declaration of Independence and try to put yourself in Thomas Jefferson's shoes as he wrote it.

3. Find a small town that still stages an old-fashioned Glorious Fourth and revel in it. Watch the parade, cheer at the speeches on the green, sing at the top of your lungs when the band strikes up "America the Beautiful," ooh and aah at the fireworks. If you can't find one, organize your own.

4. Throw an old-time neighborhood barbecue. Grill hot dogs, toast marshmallows, wave flags, twirl sparklers and sing patriotic songs.

5. Have a costume party with guests dressing as their favorite characters from the Revolutionary period. Play music and serve food and drink popular at the time. You'll find recipes and inspiration in biographies and Colonial-era cookbooks.

6. Stage a skit based on what would have happened if the British had won the war.

Tips & Warnings

• For information on events scheduled for Fourth of July week, contact tourism offices, especially those in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.
• If you have sparklers at your gathering, keep them out of the hands of small children and supervise older children closely. And leave anything more potent in the hands of pyrotechnics professionals. Fireworks have been known to cause serious injuries when not handled properly.