CHAMPAGNE TOWER

HOW TO: BUILD A CHAMPAGNE TOWER

I've never actually seen one of these things done and it looks like a lot of fun, so what better time to try it than on NYE. But if you're even half as disaster prone as I am you will need a little guidance to avoid a Champagne flood. So I found 

this article  on building Champagne towers from marthastewartweddings.com. If you don't feel like reading the whole thing...here is my version:

1. Build your tower on something with a firm base and put a tray under the glasses to catch spillage.

2. You have to use coupe Champagne glasses (the round ones you see in all old fashioned movies) and they all have to be identical.

3. Make your tower up of successively smaller squares. For example, if the bottom square is 10x10 make the next one up 9x9 then 8x8. Don't get all crazy with your shapes.

4. Each glass must touch all its neighboring glasses. If you're doing it right you should see diamond shape gaps in between the glasses.

5. When making your layers always center the stem of the glass over the diamond shape gaps.

6. Repeat. repeat. repeat until you have one lonely glass at the top.

7. Grab your biggest bottle of Champagne, gather all your friends around and START POURING into the top glass while chanting the festive phrase of your choice. (if you have done the other steps correctly it should trickle down into all the other glasses) 

8.  If you are using the tower for decorative purposes only...you should probably reconsider that decision and drink all that good Champagne :)

ps- my instructions vary slightly from Martha's.

Hope this goes well for you!

(photo from here)