Hi friends! Greetings from the beautiful Outer Banks of North Carolina. This is spot we’ve vacationed as a family since I was a little girl and have so many fond memories of hot, laid back summers here. A few years ago we were here for the 4th of July for the first time and I loved seeing everyone decorate their bikes for a kind of neighborhood bike parade on the 4th. A Southern thing? A small town thing? Who knows, but I love it!
This year we’re here for 4th of July again so I decided we’ll definitely have to decorate our bikes as well. The more festive, the better! Here’s your chance to use all those flashy, colorful, patriotic, glittery banners and party decorations lining the aisles of stores right now.
Keep reading to see some more pictures and details of how we decorated our bikes (complete with noisy cans trailing behind!)
All of my 4th of July decorations were from my local Target. I used lots of streamers, balloons, and other seasonal decorations you can find in stores.
Images and styling by Liz Stanley. Thanks to my sister Celeste for modeling a decorated bike!
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This summer inspiration is brought to you by Target. Find more fun and surprises all season long on Target’s #SummerUp Pinterest board.
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I loaded up on 4th of July party supplies at my local Target- glittery star banners and crepe paper in red white and blue, balloons, American flags, etc!
We cut streamers to hang from the crossbar and alongside the glittery star banner. Tape was used to secure the crepe paper.
We also threaded the spokes of the bike with the patriotic crepe paper. I love how it looks as the wheel turns- it’s my favorite part (well, besides the noisy tin cans of course).
The giant pinwheel was a great find at Target. I folded the crepe paper around in a circle and attached a glittery star for the inner pinwheel. The handlebars were laced with more glittery stars plus red, white and blue balloons.
With string I attached a few stray soda cans and more star banners for a noisy trail of festivity from the back! The kids love it!
Have you ever decorated your bikes for the 4th? Am I off-base thinking it might be a Southern thing?
I’d say it’s just a neighborhood thing. When we lived in South Carolina (Charleston), our neighborhood didn’t do this. But our neighborhood in Salt Lake (the Harvard-Yale area, if you’re familiar) does a big bike parade at the neighborhood park. All of the kids decorate their bikes and scooters, and parents decorate little red wagons to pull toddlers that are too little to ride. Then they ride/scoot/get pulled around the park a couple of times and then everyone sticks around to socialize. We’ve also gone to the Sacramento area to see my brother-in-law and his family for a couple of 4th of July visits, and their neighborhood does a 4th of July breakfast (very common here in Utah too) that ends with a bike parade around a park. So when we go there for the 4th I actually sacrifice the space in the car to take my girls’ bikes, as well as my collection of 4th of July decorations so that my girls can participate in the parade with their cousins. We’ll be doing it next week!
So I’d say it’s just a matter of neighborhoods having some residents who are motivated to deliver/post flyers and get people to join. You could start the tradition in your neighborhood in SF!
Interesting! I should start something…except San Francisco’s cold summer weather makes it a little un-festive for the 4 th
I love it! As kids we did this to our bikes and rode in the local parade in northern California, so for me its a small town thing. Funny note though is that now that my cousins and I are grown we are going to do this as a joke for my grandparents. We think they will get a kick out of us since it is usually only the children that participate. Some of us never grow up!!!
Small towns! I’ve never ever lived in one but they sound dreamy in so many ways.
oh, that is just the BEST THING EVER!!
haha! my neighborhood always had a parade of decorated bikes on the 4th and that wasn’t a small town, so maybe it’s a southern thing?
That look’s so cute and fun! My mind is spinning with idea!
darling! our community in san diego has a bike parade every year for the 4th…so maybe it’s just a small community thing? great ideas!
We did this when i was little in Oregon…and now I’m in the east bay (40 minutes from you!) and we all do it here too 🙂
I’m starting to think every town does it but the ones I’ve lived in!
I’m from Connecticut and all three towns we’ve lived in here do it. It’s so fun and my kids especially love pinwheels as they spin while you ride!
I can’t 100% say it’s only a Southern thing as I haven’t spent the 4th of July anywhere else. However, my family would do this all the time when I was younger, but with a slight twist.
We would vacation on beautiful Bald Head, NC every Summer. It’s an island only accessible by ferry and no cars are allowed. So, in order to get around, everyone drives golf carts. On the 4th there are festivities, such as sand castle building contests, all around the island, but the highlight is the golf cart parade. Everyone dresses their carts to the nines! I loved seeing the crazy things people would come up with, and riding along in the parade was so much fun.
I also know in North Myrtle Beach, where my husband’s family vacationed, they hosted a similar parade with golf carts and bikes!
Bald Head! That sounds amazing, I just looked it up on the map- seems like it’s all the way south of here down the coast. I love the idea of dressing up the gold carts- it’s fun to see people do crazy things for a kind of ‘homemade’ parade.
This is so fun- I don’t know if it’s a Southern thing but it makes sense, it’s very Patriotic in the south!