Sleepy Hollow Party Invitation

A 5x7 invitation to a quilting frolic, the name Washington Irving gives the Van Tassel party in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” A sawtooth quilt border in corn gold and pumpkin frames a moonlit panel: the Headless Horseman galloping over the wooden bridge near the church, a jack-o’-lantern held over his shoulders. It belongs to the Sleepy Hollow Harvest party blueprint.

What’s Included

• 5x7 invitation as a dark PDF, a light PDF for home printers, and a PNG for texting or email
• Write-in lines for host, date, hour, place and RSVP, so it prints ready to fill in by hand
• A dress line built from Irving’s guest list: homespun and pewter buckles, a straw hat or a fine riband, or Ichabod’s rusty black
• A closing line for the ride home: “Mind the church bridge”

The Words

Every quotation is Irving’s, from the 1820 story, checked against the 1897 R. H. Russell edition at the Library of Congress and the Project Gutenberg text. Ichabod is invited “to attend a merry-making, or ‘quilting frolic,’” at Mynheer Van Tassel’s, and the tea-table he finds there has “the ample charms of a genuine Dutch country tea-table, in the sumptuous time of autumn.” Nobody in the story actually quilts. The frolic is supper, a dance and ghost stories, the last of them about the Horseman at the church bridge.

Printing Tips

Print at actual size on 110 lb cardstock and trim to 5 x 7. The dark version fills the page with ink, so use the light version for a long guest list and write the details in gold or white pen on the dark one. Mail it in an A7 envelope. For wording and RSVP timing, see our invitation etiquette guide.

Pairs With

• Sleepy Hollow Harvest blueprint for the tea-table menu, decor and games
• Sleepy Hollow Place Cards for the table
• Fortune Teller’s Parlor blueprint for another candlelit, story-led night