[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ho doesn’t like a costume party? They’re a great opportunity to get together with friends and family. Everyone can show off a new side of their personality, and they can pretend to be someone else for a few hours. If you’ve been dreaming of throwing a costume party that everyone will have fun with, you need to do some planning, such as deciding on a theme, planning decorations and food, and choosing the place and time that you will have your costume party. If you’re ready to get planning, read on.
Place and Time
The first few details that you will want to nail down is the place and time of the party. Themed parties, such as costume parties, can be fun for pool parties and any-occasion parties, as well as many major holidays.
Invitations
Send out invitations with the time and place, and be sure not to forget to let your guest invitees know what theme you’ve chosen. If you choose a theme, but you want to tell people what kind of costume you would like them to have, then make sure that you put that in the invitation, as well. For instance, if you plan on having games that require certain characters, you might choose to assign characters to your guests.
Food and Decorations
If you are choosing a specific theme, your food needs to coordinate with it. For instance, if you are choosing a theme that incorporates a specific decade, can you think of foods that will evoke that decade? How about a book or movie-themed party? Was there any food in those movies or books that people would instantly recognize? You also might want to come up with some ideas for decorations. If you have an era-themed party, you can have a few pieces of furniture or knick knacks that are reminiscent of the decade that you are trying to evoke.
Games and Activities
Especially if you are inviting guests in which not all of them will know each other, make sure that you have plenty of games and activities so that everyone has a chance to get to know each other. While a mixer-type environment is classic for parties, having a runway show is another way that your guests can show off their costumes. To get people talking to one another, you can also pair them off according to their costumes. For instance, if you have a movie or book-themed party, have your guests find the people who are also dressed as characters from the same story. Another idea for an activity is to have people try to guess which food items are from which movie, book, or time period.
Theme Ideas
Aside from books, movies, and time periods, you can also take inspiration from animals, places to travel, and celebrities, to name a few. For instance, if you choose an animal theme, people could dress up as anything from polar bears to house cats to gazelles. Places to travel could be China, Mexico, or India. Each person could dress up the way that they would dress on vacation there. The creativity for this one is in figuring out how to let people know of the specific place and not just the region. Celebrities could actually be a fun and fairly easy costume party theme.
If you’re looking for ways to throw a costume party that your friends and family will remember for years, just remember to plan ahead. Also, be available for your friends if they have any questions about the theme or need help thinking of costume ideas.
