Every year I always do a big haunt, this year I am changing the tone of things and planning a family/few friends Halloween party for around 50--60 people. I am so used to doing things LARGE and want to scale back and have a good time. My question is, what are some good theme ideas for a party? I will be decorating the 2 car garage for the eating area. Also, for the teenagers I would like to have a scavenger hunt or something "spooky" just not as elaborate as I am used to doing. Suggestions please, thanks!
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"The closet door was open. Just a crack." S. King, "The Boogeyman
Here are a few themes you might consider:
Edwardian Sideshow/Circus; Arachnaphobia; Dead Celebrities; Pirates; Area 51; New Orleans Voodoo; Ghost Town.
How about a funhouse, or dracula's lair (i've always wanted to do that and make it uber sophisticated), or just old skool Halloween. That could be inexpensive.
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"There is no delight the equal of Dread." - Clive Barker
Peewee,
I know what you mean about getting too big on this. I have the same propblem. However.If you have done far out big in the past your guest may expect the same this time. This is just a warning so you don't get hurt if someone acts disappointed. Any way back to the teenage situation. If you can research some of the music, video or computer games they have now. (I have been out of the loop for some time. My brain is still in Sym City and Doom.) But any way. In your invite Slip a little treasure map in. On the map have several questions that need to be answered to earn bonus point to the scavanger hunt. Say like "If you bring a likeness of the handsome J sparrow you will earn an extra 10 points at the party" I am sure you can come up with something better but it is a start. So at the door anyone who brings a picture of Capt. Jack will get a ribbon or beads that will get them extra points to start with. Lets not forget the popular song monster mash. If they can tell you the name of the person they mention in the song that sent them they get extra points. Better yet. Give them a history question. Like what was the real Draculas name! Who first portrayed frankenstein in the movies. who did he kill by mistake. Good luck. Hope everything come out great.
As you can tell from my "Garage/Dining Room" posts I have decided to have a room full of Halloween food and decoration and then and hopefully a kick-butt walk through graveyard. I am worried about doing a scavenger hunt in the wooded area I would have to use, afraid someone might get hurt in the dark.
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"The closet door was open. Just a crack." S. King, "The Boogeyman
Howabout a catacolmbs/ krypt theme, with corpses/ skeletons that can be incorporated into the food (ribs anyone?), I'm thinking cave style decor. You could make it as big or small as you want, really. good for a garage I think.
Good thread, peewee! Your "scaled back" attendence is still way more than we've ever done, but maybe these ideas will help.
- "The Addams Family": You send invitations that explain that the Addams Family will be having a reunion on the night of your party. You tell your guests, on your invite, that this reunion is for the (your area) branch, as the California Addamses, Morticia, Gomez, et al. won't be able to come. The fun part is, you make up "Addams" names for your guests (when we did it, my mother-in-law was "Grandma Whack", our neighbor was "Cousin Insomnia and her husband, Thudd", myself and two friends were Siamese triples who'd been separated at birth, and so on). You can have a ball coming up with all those wild names! What you're doing is assigning roles rather like one of those boxed "How to Host a Murder" Games. Most people will know about the Addams family and dress accordingly. And decorating your house in the proper Addams style should be a snap.
- Pirates: same idea, only your invites go with pirate names. The fun thing about this is, it's up to your guests to decide what the characters you've assigned to them will look like.
- We've also done witches. Ghosts, zombies, and vampires would work with this type of invitation-names-character party, too. By the way, it's a spooky touch to go out late at night well before your party and hand deliver your invites, leaving them in your guests' mailboxes, in a door, or some other spot so the invites just "turned up", rather than having been mailed.
Help any?
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Mark McG. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Delivering the invites is a lot of fun. A couple of years ago, I did a murder mystery theme. I made my invites and I was inviting people from work, so I recruited a co-worker who worked in the back of the office and this is what we did...
I took a ghoul costume (hide the face kind), skele gloves and a draw string sack. I put the invites in the sack. I went out the back door, doned the costume and came in the front door. I walked slow with bent knees (hide true height), didn't talk and went from office to office, pulling out an invitation and handing them to people. One woman wouldn't take it..it scared her, so I had to drop it on her desk. I went from the front to the back of the office (my office was in the back too) and slipped into my co-workers office. She put the costume on and walked back out the front door with me following on her heels and asking people who was in the costume. (They knew I was giving a party) They never figured it out who was in the costume. It was really funny and added some extra mystery.
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