50’s PARTY IDEAS

50's PARTY INVITATION IDEAS:

• Cut out a black circle to be the record and for the label type in all of the party info and glue onto the record or go to a 2nd hand store and buy a real 45 and place a custom label over the original with party info

• Mail a pair of bobby socks with a tag that has all the party info for a sock hop!

• Use a picture of the guest of honor from the 50’s on the front of invitation with “Guess who’s turning 50?” and all info on the inside of invitation

50's PARTY DECORATION IDEAS:

• Place coca-cola glasses at every place setting that they guests can use for their coke floats and take home as a favor

• Use old 50’s records as your placemats

• Use pink, turquoise and black/white as your colors

• Use black and white checkered tablecloths

• Have a dance contest just like on Grease!

• Use posters or life-size cut outs of Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando and/or James Dean as decoration

• For food have 50’s classics like hamburger, fries, banana splits, and coke floats

• Use pictures of the guest of honor from the 50’s as centerpieces on tables

• Serve coca-cola or root beer in the old fashion bottles

50's PARTY GAME IDEAS:

• Rent a karaoke machine and play 50’s hit songs – have a game of who can do the best Elvis impersonation

• Hire an Elvis impersonator for entertainment

• Have a bubble-gume blowing contest

• Have a hula-hoop contest – who can keep it up the longest

• Give out awards for the best 50’s costume

• Ask the guests to bring pictures of themselves from the 50’s and lay them out and have the guests try to determine who’s who

• Have a limbo contest

• Do some research on 50’s news stories, how much household items cost in the 50’s, billboard music hits, and movie hits and put it all together for a trivia game for the guests to work on

50's PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:

• Anything Elvis!!

• Black plastic glasses for the men

• Cat eye sunglasses for the ladies

• Fuzzy dice

•Bazooka chewing gum

• Coca-cola memorabilia

• Toy guitar

• CD with 50’s hit songs

• DVD’s of old I Love Lucy sitcoms

50's PARTY TIPS:

• For larger events or corporate events, have everyone bring an extra pair of socks for a charity donation

• Rent a 50’s classic car as decoration at your party – can use as a backdrop for the event photographer to use for the guests

• Play on the big screen movies like Grease or famous 50’s sitcoms or game shows while people are mingling and eating

• See if there is local drive-in theatre in your area (their still around!) and rent out the theatre for your party

• Rent out a roller-skating rink for your party and have the DJ play 50’s music the whole time

80’s PARTY IDEAS

80's PARTY INVITATION IDEAS:

• Use a picture from the 80’s of the guest of honor as the cover of your invite

• For the RSVP put “For a good time call 867-5309 – no not really – call this #....” (like the song)

• Popular 80’s lingo to use on your invite wording: Totally Tubular, Radical, Rad, Bogus, Gnarly, Bodacious, As-if, Awesome, Bad, Barney, Cool Beans, Dude or Dudette, Gag Me with a Spoon, Gross Me Out, Killer, Psyche, Bitchin,

80's PARTY DECORATION IDEAS:

• Decorate with old posters of 80’s music or 80’s movies

• Use decorations that are bright in color, animal prints and/or geometric shapes

• Use a disco ball in your main party area

• Have a table out with 80’s memorabilia on display

80's PARTY GAME IDEAS:

• Ask everyone to wear their 80’s gear – big bangs, lots of hairspray and mousse, leg warmers, side ponytails, glittery makeup, cut sweatshirts that fall off the shoulder & rubber bracelets, pastel-colored suits with t-shirts under

• Have an 80’s celebrity look-a-like contest

• Download some 80’s trivia questions on the internet or play the 80’s version of Trivial Pursuit

• Have 80’s karaoke party playing music like Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, New Kids on the Block, Duran Duran, Paula Abdul, Wham, Prince, Michael Jackson, and Outfield • rent a local skating rink and have the dj play 80’s music all night!

• Have guests bring pictures of them from the 80’s and have other guests try to guess who’s who – hang them on the “wall of shame!”

• Have all 80’s music playing

• Buy or borrow the classic Atari game system (reissued everywhere in stores for a good price) and let everyone play games like Pac-Man, Frogger, Asteroid, Donkey Kong

• Lay out several rubiks cube for people to work on and the first person to solve the cube wins a prize

• Have a breakdancing contest

80's PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:

• Rubiks cube

• Bangle bracelets or jelly bracelets

• Miami Vice sunglasses

• Hubba Bubba or Bubbalicious bubble gum

• Aqua-Net Hairspray

• Cabbage Patch Kids or Garbage Pail Kids

• My Little Ponies or Strawberry Shortcake

• CD’s or cassette tapes with 80’s music

BREAK UP PARTY IDEAS:

* Just a note to say Partymall.com does not promote breaking up or divorcing, but sometimes it happens and throwing a party is a fun way to make someone feel better when they are going through a hard time in their life.

• Pamper the new divorcee with her closest girlfriends by having your hair and make up done and going out on the town!

• Have the girls get-together with an evening at home – hire a masseuse that has a travel table to come and give massages to all the girls – all the girls can chip in extra for new divorcee to get THE WORKS!

• Rent a good girly break-up movie like First Wives Club, The Break-Up, Waiting to Exhale or Le Divorce with all the girls – for ultra laid back party – ask your girls friends to come in their pajamas!

• Have all of the closest girlfriends get together that have helped the new divorcee throughout all of the problems and write down together all of the terrible things the spouse did during the marriage – when finished burn it!

• Ask the guests to bring books for dating or self-help books for life after divorce – along with CHOCOLATE!

• Have all the girls get together at your local spa for a relaxing time.

• For a fun weekend to really get the new divorcee’s mind off of the break-up, plan a girl trip to Las Vegas, New York City, or a weekend at the beach.

• Hire a photographer that caters to tasteful boudoir pictures and have them come to a home that all the new divorcee’s closest girl friends feel comfortable with, hire a make-up artist and a hair-stylist and all the girls can have a photo shoot – everyone will feel beautiful! (and even better to find a photographer that knows Photoshop so they can take away any blemishes!!)

• Have the girls get together and ask them to bring a card or note declaring why it can be fun to be single.

• Make sure you get a cake that is shaped like a "body part" of the significant other so that you can have fun cutting into it.

• Have a ritual burning of any items that the new divorcee would like to get rid of like pictures, marriage license or cards, etc.

• Have a karaoke party or go to a karaoke party and you can only sing Divorce songs – like “Goodbye Earl” by Dixie Chicks, “Cry Me a River” by Justin Timberlake, “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood, “The Thunder Rolls” by Garth Brooks, “Cold Day in July” by the Dixie Chicks (there are tons of them – especially country songs!)

CORPORATE MIXER IDEAS

• Have a roast and/or a toast!

• Everyone takes off one shoe and places into a pile in the middle of the room. Once all of the shoes are in pile, then everyone goes back to the pile and picks any shoe on and then goes around the room trying to find their match. Variation: divide up into 2 teams and everyone take off both of their shoes and place into their teams’ pile. Have the teams line up. The first person in line on each team races up their pile and digs through trying to find both of their shoes, put them completely on, and then race back to the next person in line on their team, tags them, and then the next person does the same thing. Whichever team finishes first, wins.

• Hand out $500 worth of monopoly money, counterfeit money, or use 20 pennies to each of the guests as they arrive. They have a certain time limit to make some money by the other guests at the event by only playing: Rock, Paper, Scissors, Flipping a Coin, or Thumb/Arm Wrestling.

• As each guest arrives, send them on a scavenger hunt looking for certain people that match up to their list. Some ideas: Find someone who has gone to the beach within the year and then get them to initial page, Find someone who has had a birthday within the past month and sing Happy Birthday to them and then have them initial page, Find someone that is wearing black cowboy boots, yell “Yeehaw” and then have them initial page, etc. Get Creative!

• Hand out sheets of paper numbered #1-10. Every table at the event is a team. Play a few bars of random songs – use a good variation of type of music – and have the guests at the table try to guess what song it was and who sang it and bonus points for what year it was written. Tables can only talk with each other. After all the songs are played, announce what the answers are – whichever team wins can go through buffet line first!

• Blow up a poster size picture of the boss and play a game of “Pin the Nose on the Boss”

• Combine the entire party into 1 large group. Have a fast-moving, energetic leader calls out a number – usually not more than half of the total number of participants. When the number is called out everyone must try to collect in a group that contains that number of people. The group members latch arms so that the leader can easily count who is in the group. If someone cannot enter a group because the number that has been called out has been reached, he is out of the game. As different numbers are successively called out, the number of guests playing the game gets smaller and smaller. Eventually, there are is a small enough group that you can award door prizes to.

• Divide the room into equal groups of about 10 people each group. The leader calls out random formations for the group, like: line up by birthday dates, January through December, by age or by shoe size, etc. Whichever team is the most consistent in doing the fastest formations, wins.

• As guests arrive, they get a piece of paper pinned to their backs that has the name or picture of a famous person. They can go around the room only asking “yes” or “no” questions - whoever guesses their person the fastest, wins.

• If hosting a Holiday Corporate Party, have out at each table the supplies to make a gingerbread house. Each table is a team. Give each team a time limit – once the time is up, have each team line up their houses in a central location and have the guests of the event take votes on Most Creative, Prettiest, Worst, etc.

• A picture, symbol or logo is cut in half and all placed in a bucket. Each guest draws a half out of the bucket and once the party begins, has to go through the party trying to find his “other half” – first team that finds it’s pair, wins.

• Give each guest as they arrive 3 clothespins or clothing pins. They will be instructed not to say the words, “Yes, Yeah or Uh-Huh” – if a guest catches someone saying those words, they can take away one of their pins. Whoever has the most pins by the end of the party, wins.

• Collect one personal item from each worker’s desk at the company. Set them all out on a table in a central place and have the guests try to guess what item belongs to which co-worker. The person that gets the most right, wins.

• Go on a purse/pocket scavenger hunt – as each guest arrives, they receive a list of items to be looking for throughout the evening that a fellow guest might have in their purse or pockets. Assign different points for different items, more points for the crazy, hard to find items. A few examples: nail clippers, picture of a grandchild, camera, etc. If a guest finds a fellow guest with an item on their list, have that guest sign their paper – whoever has the most signatures at the end of party, wins.

LUAU PARTY IDEAS

LUAU PARTY INVITATION IDEAS:

• Attach a tag with party details to a Hawaiian lei or a tissue fish or pineapple.

• Hot glue a tropical flower to the front of card stock, on back have the party details – don’t forget to ask everyone to wear their favorite Hawaiian shirts!

• Inflate a beach ball, write party details on ball, deflate and mail. The invited guests will need to inflate to see the party info.

LUAU PARTY DECORATION IDEAS:

• Set up an area to designate for your bar – you can make a sign by getting a piece of cardboard (can tear a lid off of a box) – call your bar area a name like Hula-la Bar or Tiki Bar – write it on the box lid and then punch small holes sporadically tracing the letters of the name and stick small Christmas lights in the holes so that when hung, the letters light up. Provide a variety of fun, frozen drinks with little umbrella’s for the guests.

• Decorate the tables with grass skirting around the base of the table. Can line the edges of skirt with fun, tropical flowers.

• Line your sidewalk or pool area with tiki torches.

• Fill coconut bowls with snacks and place on the tables.

• Decorate with real, tropical flowers as your centerpieces.

• Fill a small kiddie pool with ice and drinks.

• Use inflatable palm trees as decorations around party area. You can also place a palm tree into a kiddie pool that is full of sand and shells.

• Use bowls filled with water and beta fish as centerpieces on the tables or just float candles.

• Attach butcher paper to the base of tables or chairs and cut the ends into strips to make it look like grass skirts.

• Use white lights or paper lanterns to decorate the trees or pool area

LUAU PARTY GAME IDEAS:

• Play a game of Limbo! A variation of this game is if it is hot outside, use a water hose as limbo stick.

• Have a hula-hoop contest!

• Have a water balloon fight!

• Have all guests hold hands and pass a hula hoop down the line while only using their head!

• For more of an extravagant party, check your local area for a Polynesian group that can entertain for 30 minutes to an hour for your guests or just hire one hula dancer to teach lessons to your guests at the party.

• Check Hawaiian name websites and pre-make name tags for all guests by placing their Hawaiian translated name on their tag. As the guests arrive, they receive their name tag and a small bag of 4-5 shells – throughout the party, all the guests have to use everyone’s Hawaiian name – if they get caught using someone’s regular name, then they have to give up a shell. Whoever has the most shells at the end of the party, wins.

• Play a game of coconut bowling by trying to roll a coconut down to knock over 3 pineapple.

• Have a craft table with pre-drilled seashells, beads and artificial, tropical flowers for the guests to make their own Hawaiian jewelry (great for adults too!)

• Fill a kiddie pool with sand and have the guests dig through to find special prizes with their buckets and shovels.

• Buy lots of inexpensive flip-flops and set out several different items to decorate the flip-flops with and let the guests be creative and decorate their pair the way they want to.

• As place card holders, decorate small, inexpensive frames with sea shells and slide the guests name into the frame.

LUAU PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:

• Greet your guests by hanging a Hawaiian lei around their neck.

• Make tropical hair clips by buying fake tropical flowers and hot gluing to hair clips for all the girls at the party to wear.

• Sunglasses

• Beach Balls

• Flip-Flops

• Bag of colorful shells

• Suntan Lotion with custom label on front

• Beach buckets full of nuts, candies or mints

• Beach towels

• Maracas

• Sea shell necklaces

• Chapstick

RECIPE SWAP PARTY IDEAS
RECIPE SWAP PARTY INVITATION IDEAS:

• Send out recipe cards as your invitations! Fill out all party details right on the card.

RECIPE SWAP PARTY DECORATION IDEAS:

• For a more formal affair, take out your nicest china – the ladies will enjoy and appreciate getting to have a sit-down dinner with nice dishes

• Make place cards for each of the guests for a more personal touch

• Create cards for the dishes that were brought so that the guests can recognize the title of what they are eating so they can make plans to cook it for their own family

RECIPE SWAP PARTY GAME/ACTIVITY IDEAS:

• Ask each guest to bring a dish (that is one of the recipes that they are sharing) so that the guests will be able to try them out!

• Ask each guest to bring 5-6 of their absolute favorite recipes to share with the group – you can ask them to make copies and bring to party (make sure they know how many guests will be attending) or ask them to email or mail the recipes before hand and you can arrange all recipes in an inexpensive book format.

• Have each guest give the background or history of the recipes they are sharing

• have a cook book or apron exchange

• cover 8-10 labels of spice bottles and number the caps from 1-10. Pass out sheets of paper and number 1-10 and have each guest smell the spice and try to guess what spice it is and write down their answer on the corresponding number. Whoever has the most correct wins.

• Try a specific theme of a recipe swap party like Christmas cookie recipe swap, Italian dish recipe swap, holiday dishes, desserts only, etc.

• If you have a small group and a large kitchen, set out a few ingredients like flour, sugar, spices, milk, eggs, etc and split the guests into 2 teams and see what each team can come up with not using any type of recipe – set a time limit, when finished, do a taste test of each teams and take a vote on who’s is best.

• Before the party, create a “cooking quiz” by asking questions about measurements, spices, substitutions, etc – whoever has the most correct wins.

• After everyone finishes eating and sampling all of the dishes that people have cooked and brought to the party, take a vote to see who has the best donation – maybe even try different awards like “most unique”, “best dessert” or “most kid-friendly”, etc.

• Purchase solid-color aprons and fabric paints and have the guests decorate their own aprons – award prizes for best designs

• Have a Christmas cookie decorating party – set out all of the sprinkles, food coloring and cookie cutters and have fun decorating – even invite your guests to bring the kids – they would have a blast.

RECIPE PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:

• Wrap a dozen recipe cards in raffia ribbon to give to each guest

• Combine all recipes swapped (ask for before-hand) and put together in a book and hand out to all guests

• Cute recipe boxes

• Kitchen utensils with ribbon tied around and thank you tag

• Refrigerator magnets

• Fill mason jars with layers of the ingredients to bake cookies – attach the recipe with raffia on a small card on what wet ingredients they need to add and how long to cook at what temperature

SUPERBOWL PARTY IDEAS

SUPERBOWL PARTY INVITATION IDEAS:

• Make your invitation look like a ticket stub - kick-off, place (add "stadium to the end"), a coupon for "Free Food", Admission: Free!

SUPERBOWL PARTY DECORATION IDEAS:

• Check out our Superbowl decorating supplies on Partymall.com! (click on supplies)

• Decorate your room with half the room one team’s colors and the other half, the opposing team by using balloons, streamers and sports memorabilia – when guests arrive, they can choose which side of the room they want to sit on so they can root for their team

• Use a football-field tablecloth with your teams plates, cups and napkins –or with the team colors

• Use pom-poms as centerpieces with balloons tied to them with your teams colors

• Decorate with team pennants, foam fingers and Go team signs

• Have out bowls of game food like peanuts, popcorn, beer, cotton candy, hot dogs & nachos

SUPERBOWL PARTY GAME IDEAS:

*These games are best played during commercial breaks or before the game!

• Play a football word scramble

• Ask guests to wear their football gear or their team colors of who they want to win!

• Have a commercial contest – vote on the best commercials during the Superbowl

• Assign everyone a jersey # or have the guests draw names or numbers of football team playing and give door prizes for points scored by chosen player or game’s MVP – give out silly prizes for missed pass or missing field goal

• Don’t say “Touchdown” or Don’t say “Football” – pass out 3 tiny footballs (usually found in the homecoming mum section of craft store) and the guests are not allowed to say The Word and if a guest catches someone else saying it, they can take away one of their footballs – whoever has the most by the end of the party, wins!

• Set up an old-fashioned football pool and give gifts to the winner

SUPERBOWL PARTY FAVOR IDEAS:

• Team tattoos

• Sports memorabilia

• Mini-footballs

• Football keychains

• Football stickers

• Stress squeezers

• Team pennants

• Football shaped cookies