Tupperware Parties

Party, party… Let’s have a party! Do you remember or have you attended/given a Tupperware party? These were at the height of popularity in the 70’s. I have, personally, attended and hosted several of these parties. I was young and on a very strict budget, but already had an eye for the finer things life could offer, and Tupperware was in the top running. Sure there were cheap, flimsy imitations, but Tupperware was the wave of the future… the real thing.

Tupperware was invented in the 1940’s by Earl Tupper, to promote thrift and cleanliness, an essential to a postwar life that stressed causal entertaining and celebrated the abundance of plastic in America. Tupperware was promoted in a unique way, instead of being put on store shelves, it was demonstrated and sold at home parties, by suburban hostesses. By the mid 1950’s, the Tupperware party was a multimillion-dollar business and an icon of suburban living.

The products were numerous and varied. There were cake takers, pie takers, deviled egg takers, and sandwich takers, all with wonderful tops that “sealed like magic.” Canisters existed for everything imaginable, from foods to fishing gear. Glasses of all sizes came complete with those wonderful seals. There were molds, party susans, lazy susans, salad crispers, tea spoons, gravy shakers, and toys making their way to the party scene. There was always something for everyone, and everyone’s pocketbook size.

If the products were not enough to entice you to the party, the food was irresistible. There was always a “just off the press” party salad (generally congealed), salty nuts, and mints. To round out the menu, petite finger sandwiches were served. Top this with punch, tea (hot, cold or spiced), coffee, and/or lemonade and the munchings were good. And, let’s not forget the Tupperware prizes, for those little games we played. While all of the trimmings were great, the best part of the party, for the hostess, was the earned Tupperware products. Depending on the size of your party sales, free Tupperware abounded, and, as I stated earlier, my princess taste and pauper pocketbook was made for the party idea.

As the years went by, new products entered the marketplace giving rise to competition, and the icon lost a little of her luster. The product is still out there, in the vast marketplace, but with more equal competition. Parties are still given, but not with the same enjoyment (we’re too busy). But, in my kitchen, these many years later, are several items from the Tupperware parties of the 1970’s, when a party was a Tupperware Party!