Pinata setup

[atgcpaul]

So my daughter's birthday party is tomorrow and she wanted to smash a Hello Kitty pinata. My wife's got the pinata but I've got to suspend it somehow. It weighs about 5lbs.

I don't want to end up on American's Funniest Videos with a bat to the crotch. We're holding the party in our church's basement which has a walkout to a patch of grass.

If it rains, we'll be indoors. Ceiling is 8-9' high. I can't hang it from the suspended ceiling. Any suggestions on how to proceed if we're indoors? I was going to tie it with a string to my extension painting pole and hold it while I stand on a 6' step ladder. Use the top rung as extra support for the weight.

[capncarl]

If it is the usual acoustical grid raised ceiling it will hold this weight. I've seen it done a bunch. Just push up 2 adjoining tiles and wrap a piece of wire around the grid. Use the long pieces of grid metal, not the short ones. There are attachment clips sold for this purpose as well, probably available at one of the big box office supply stores.
capncarl

[trungdok]

Like capncarl said, it will probably hold the weight. Another thought is that you could remove the grid and hang directly from the ceiling (floor above) structure.

[twistsol]

The suspended ceiling will have wire ties coming from the structure above it. As long as you attach it at or near where one of these ties is supporting the grillwork, you should have no problem at all.

[atgcpaul]

Have you ever seen the movie Parenthood? This happened today.

https://youtu.be/sTYIlyRGrA4

It turns out despite its weight, the pinata was manageable to hold from the end of an extension pole. The kids swinging an Al baseball bat around was a little more than scary especially with the crowd closing in with each swing. After all the kids (18) had gone through 3 whacks TWICE with the bat and even my buddy taking his 3 whacks, the pinata was not phased one bit. He tore a larger hole in the candy stuffing opening and that was enough for one kid to whack it open.

I'm glad everyone had fun especially my daughter, but Daddy's happy to be out of there with no lawsuits.

[twistsol]

So you apparently bought one of those titanium pinatas then?