Martha Washington Inspired Fashion Show Activity for Kids

Did you know that Laredo Texas has the largest celebration of George Washington’s birthday every year? Lets have our own fashion show based off the George Washington Birthday Celebration from Laredo, Texas! While celebrating the first president of the United States birthday, the people of Laredo, Texas would hold the Martha Washington Pageant where women from all over the community would dress up in colonial style dressed in colonial style dresses. So let’s do a fashion show based off that!

Washington Birthday Celebration for Kids

This Martha Washington dress up fashion show activity is great for kids of all ages. Hosting your own Martha Washington fashion show is great for birthday parties, sleep overs, and any other event where you’ll need to entertain a lot of kids! You can do this activity at home or in a school setting, and it works great both indoors and outdoors!

What you’ll need to host your fashion show

• Bedsheet, yoga mats, carpet, roll out paper, or bath/beach towels
• Music
• Speaker or TV to play music (optional)
• Crayons, markers, or colored pencils (optional)

How to host your own fashion show

Step one

Get ready to host your event or party. Make sure to tell your guests to wear or bring a dress or costume they want to wear in the fashion show.

Step two

Set up a catwalk for your contestans to walk down. You can use a bedsheet, some yoga mats, towels, or long carpet to create your catwalk.

If you want to bring out the creative side in the kids, you can use a roll of paper and have them draw on it before the show!

Step three

Once all your guests have arrived and it is time for the fashion show, have everyone to listen to some rules.

Tell all your contestants that they must line up and take turns walking down the catwalk one at a time. Everyone should get one turn! You can walk or sashay up the catwalk, strike a pose, then walk back. Remind the kids that there are no winners or losers!

Step four

Once everybody understands the rules, you can play some music and everyone get in position.

If you want to play some classical music, heres a playlist of some classical music!

Classical Romance – Classical Music from the Romantic Period

Step five

After everyones lined up and you have some music playing, you can start the fashion show!

Let us know how much fun you had in the comments!

fashion show ideas for older kids

If you are planning to host your Martha Washington Fashion Show at a party for older kids, here are some changes to make to ensure that they’ll have a good time!

• Let the kids pick some music to play while they have their fashion show.
• Instead of princess dresses or costumes, have the kids dress up in their favorite fancy outfits.
• If you feel it’s appropriate, have some of the parents or adults judge the contest. If you decide to do this, do keep the kids feelings in mind and provide some kind constructive criticism.

the history of george washington day

In Laredo, Texas, a city on the border of the United States and Mexico, there is a celebration to honor the birthday of the first United States president, George Washington. The celebration initially began in 1898 around the time when many Tejanos (native Mexican-Texans) began to want to assimilate into American culture.

Prior to the late 1890s, not many Americans had lived in the outskirts and borderlands of Texas, but many had begun to move into the area. The American migrants quickly took over the government (as Texas had been accepted as a US state), and would express prejudice to the Tejanos living in the area. In an effort to seem more American, many Tejanos would try to integrate into American culture.

In 1898, some business men in Laredo at the time wanted to make the city more American and bring in some more American customs, so they decided to create the George Washington Birthday Celebration. In the beginning years of the celebration, the celebration was fairly rudimentary and lacked the depth it would achieve decades later.

In the 1920s the George Washington Birthday Celebration would become more complex. The Washington’s Birthday Celebration Association of Laredo was founded in 1923 and would allow for the celebration to become more extravagant. By 1939, the first Colonial Pageant would be added to the celebration. A welcoming ceremony would be added as well, which featured officials from Mexico and the United States exchanging “abrazos” to symbolize understanding between both nations.

Over the years, the George Washington Birthday Celebration would become more and more extravagant, as would the Colonial Pageant. In the current day the Washington’s Birthday Celebration Association of Laredo states that twenty-eight events occur and approximately 400,000 people attend Laredo, TX for the event every year!

Martha Washington pageant

In an effort to integrate women further into the George Washington Birthday Celebration, the Martha Washington Pageant would be created in 1939. The pageant featured thirteen young women and girls from Laredo who would represent the original Thirteen Colonies from US history.

Over the years the Martha Washington Pageant has become more and more complex. Dresses have become increasingly opulent as the contestants seek to win the pageant and make their names in the community. By 1997, a debutant, or contestant, of the pageant would spend up to $20,000 on her gown!

George Washington Day video

Here is a fun and informative video about the George Washington Birthday Celebration! You can show this to your kids so they can learn about how the celebration is celebrated in modern times!

MORE FUN HISTORY CRAFTS AND ACTIVITIES FROM KIDS ACTIVITIES BLOG

How did you fashion show turn out? Let us know in the comments!

Sources

Alex Mendoza. “The Americanization of Tejanos: A Case Study.” Tejano Studies. (class lecture, Spring 2023).

Texas State Historical Association. “Washington’s Birthday Celebration.” Texas State Historical Association. Accessed January 9, 2024. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/washingtons-birthday-celebration. 

The Texas Bucket List. “The Texas Bucket List – George Washington’s Birthday Celebration in Laredo.” YouTube. YouTube, February 12, 2019. Last modified February 12, 2019. Accessed January 9, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10OgLqvZTcc. 

Washington’s Birthday Celebration Association. “History.” WBCA RSS. Accessed January 9, 2024. https://wbcalaredo.org/history/.