# Costume Contest Questions



## star_girl_mag (Aug 5, 2008)

I have always passed out slips of paper with "best costume... sexiest costume... and scariest costume..." then come back and collected them for counting or had some place for guests to put the slips. This seems to slow down the party a little though, but I think this is the best way to keep the surprise if you have less than 20 guests and it seemed to work better when I had a smaller crowd. I will have at least one in character helper though this year, and I figure they can walk around with a pen and pad writing down peoples votes. If your crowd is big enough you could just eyeball the best costumes, and have people vote for their favorites by cheering. This is usually the way I've seen it done at bars but my guest list is only 50. So what I'm saying is I think it depends on the size of your party. 1-20-- vote by slips. 20-75--take votes down. 75+ by applause. Good luck!


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## BadTableManor (Sep 8, 2007)

I have the same problem - counting the votes always takes me about 15 time-sucking minutes, seeing I usually have 30-40 guests. And it never fails - there is always a tie in at least one category.
How I wish I could just put up a voting booth, and trust folks to only vote once!


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## MissMandy (Apr 18, 2011)

I do 3 catergories (Most Creative, Best Couple & Best Costume of the night). I have 3 black bowls on the counter, each labeled with a costume catergory, slips of paper & pen. Throughout the night, everyone just goes to that area and votes for each catergory.


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## badgirl (May 4, 2008)

I was thinking of setting up a similar voting area this year....a voting BOO-th. 
Seems things always get crazy and I can't stop to pass out slips, or tally votes. Last year guests were coming and going and I nearly forgot all together. 
I'd like to find one of those little countdown clocks to put out at the voting area so everyone knew they had to get their votes in by a certain time. Hoping that will get more attention so more will participate in the vote....maybe it will help me so I don't forget either!


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

We do printed ballots and a slotted box. We encourage people several times a night on the PA to vote, and tell them not to vote for themselves (we say if they think their costume is the best, then vote for second best). We have a best male and best female costume contest. We give $50 Home Depot and Bed Bath and Beyond gift certs usually. We also give a bottle of wine or booze to a guest as the "Hosts Choice" award (sometimes if they "play the part" or dance the best, etc.).

My wife and I usually go into a bedroom and count the ballots. It seems every year there is some kind of tie, and we used to sweat it, and then the last year or so decided to spend about 3 seconds discussing it, and then make an executive decision. It *is* our party after all...


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## BewitchingHalloween (Aug 18, 2010)

last year we handed out slips and then counted them afterwards


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## CantHalloweenBeTwiceaYear (Aug 25, 2011)

Thanks for all of the ideas! I think we will have ballots and slotted boxes too, since we have a PA system and will be able to remind everyone to vote. THANKS SO MUCH!


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## Drayvan (Sep 22, 2009)

I use the crowd response technique. When I decide to hold the contest I stop the music and use a mic and those that feel they want to enter will step forward. It seems to work for me and I even have had children win best costume of the night.


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## CantHalloweenBeTwiceaYear (Aug 25, 2011)

Maybe the crowd response would be better. This way I don't have to stop and count ballots. Plus I won't have to worry about people voting twice, forgetting, etc. AND that's one less thing I have to make. haha


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## jakiedoodle (Sep 17, 2011)

my boyfriend and I were originally going to be the judges and decide who wins, but after some consideration we don't want anyone thinking we are playing "favorites", so we're going to have our party-goers vote instead. I've made up signs "Good evening Ghouls - please write the name of the person you think should win "best overall costume" (will change for each category) and put into the cauldron. ONE vote per person please. Winners to be announced @ 8:30 and prizes will be awarded"

That's how we are going to handle it. Hopefully it'll work out well enough. We are only anticipating about 20-25 guests (all adults) and it won't take us more than a few minutes to count votes.


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## Minshe (Jul 7, 2011)

All of you are way too democratic! LOL! My husband and I just make our own decision on who wins what costume prize. We greet and see everyone as they enter the party before they have taken off parts of their costumes or their make-up has started to run or whatever happens to costumes as parties progress. Everyone knows we judge and no one has ever seemed to have any problem with it. It also allows us the flexibility to invent categories if someone shows up in a unique costume. We announce the winners about half-way through the party, but we usually only have to spend about five minutes of our time discussing between the two of us who wins what.


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## SkellyCat (Oct 30, 2008)

About half way thru the party my daughter goes thru the crowd with slips of paper and a theme-decorated slotted box (I used one of those tubular wine gift boxes). Later on she and her friends count them up and give me the results, which we then announce and present the gifts/trophies. We keep it simple for the guests, since they are drinking and don't really want to go find the voting area and leave their coveted spot at the bar!


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## jakiedoodle (Sep 17, 2011)

you are all making some good points - Hmmmm.....we may need to re-think our method. LOL  Maybe we should just go with our first thought and WE decide who wins. I'll have to talk to my bf tonight and see what he thinks.


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## memphis306 (Sep 26, 2010)

for the people who do the slips,how do the people identify their favorite? by name or costume? what if everyone doesnt know everybody? my party has gotten so out of control with friends of friends and friends of sisters etc that not only do i not know everyone,im sure the partygoers know even fewer than me.just wondering.i probably should just do the applause thing


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## MissMandy (Apr 18, 2011)

memphis306 said:


> for the people who do the slips,how do the people identify their favorite? by name or costume? what if everyone doesnt know everybody? my party has gotten so out of control with friends of friends and friends of sisters etc that not only do i not know everyone,im sure the partygoers know even fewer than me.just wondering.i probably should just do the applause thing


For our party, people did both lol. If they knew the person's name then they wrote it. If not, they just wrote what the costume was.


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## BewitchingHalloween (Aug 18, 2010)

MissMandy said:


> For our party, people did both lol. If they knew the person's name then they wrote it. If not, they just wrote what the costume was.


yes they would do name or name of costume


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## Mz Skull (Nov 18, 2005)

This yr. I think we are bringing in 3 ppl that doesn't really come to the party but wants to see all the costumes to do our voting....only because even with the ballot method which I have always done it seems to becoming a popularity contest...and they vote "couples" for ppl that are married but aren't dressed in a couples outfit...Hello ppl!!!!! I think this
way the most deserving will get the prizes and it free's me up from counting all the ballets!!!


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## printersdevil (Sep 7, 2009)

badgirl, I love the voting Boo-th. A video set up would be nice like on Big Brother.


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## star_girl_mag (Aug 5, 2008)

Mz Skull said:


> This yr. I think we are bringing in 3 ppl that doesn't really come to the party but wants to see all the costumes to do our voting....only because even with the ballot method which I have always done it seems to becoming a popularity contest...and they vote "couples" for ppl that are married but aren't dressed in a couples outfit...Hello ppl!!!!! I think this
> way the most deserving will get the prizes and it free's me up from counting all the ballets!!!


I know exactly what you mean. Last year one woman one who was wearing a cheap store bought costume while others walked around in hand sewn masterpieces.


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## star_girl_mag (Aug 5, 2008)

MissMandy said:


> For our party, people did both lol. If they knew the person's name then they wrote it. If not, they just wrote what the costume was.


 On that note, my guest list has gotten to be so filled with "friends of friends" that last year while I was counting votes I saw a few votes by people describing my costume who not only didn't know my name, also didn't know that I was the host. LOL!


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## memphis306 (Sep 26, 2010)

lol.same with me.last year i was looking for my wife and as i walked into our main entryway,i looked left into the room and didnt see her,looked right and didnt see her and i kind of mumbled under my breath "where is she?" and this woman that didnt really hear me but could tell i was looking for something said,"you looking for the bathroom?its right down that hall"


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## MissMandy (Apr 18, 2011)

star_girl_mag said:


> On that note, my guest list has gotten to be so filled with "friends of friends" that last year while I was counting votes I saw a few votes by people describing my costume who not only didn't know my name, also didn't know that I was the host. LOL!


Oh my gosh lol. That's when you say to yourself "Ok, this party is getting too big" LOL. I allow each guest to bring a date or a friend. This way it doesn't get too out of hand. Makes me nervous to have tons of people I don't know in my house.


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## jakiedoodle (Sep 17, 2011)

I have told my guests they can bring one friend if they choose, as long as they let me know ahead of time so I can account for extra people. That way, I'll mostly likely know the friend they choose anyway and they won't be bringing 6 or 7 people I've never met. 
My boyfriend and I have decided that we will pick the winners instead of trying to deal with having people take time out of their socializing and merriment to vote. We will only have about 20 people, so we're not going crazy with all kind of categories, probably just Best Overall costume and Most Creative, maybe one more (probably scariest).


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## jaineodell (Aug 18, 2011)

what i,ve done each year is get my neigbours to judge costumes and pumpkins as then its fair for all.
and alot quicker as well. 1st two years i handed out certificates but last year i did theses cool medals.
i do 1st & 2nd costumes then 1st to 3rd in pumpkins .
jaine


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## GodOfThunder (Aug 26, 2011)

Last year, time flew by and I forgot to do the costume contest thing until my wife reminded me. Well, by this time I had imbibed copious adult beverages, so I made executive decisions on the costume contest. I think I'll do a ballot and then do a crowd applause deciding factor among the top 2-3 vote getters for each category. That way, everyone has a say AND it becomes a fun group activity sort of thing.

Prizes last year were bottles of Blavod black vodka--it even came in a cool black koozie thing with spiderwebs on it. This year, I bought some cheesy award ribbons to go with that again and may do gift cards or something too.


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## Haunted Dogs (Jun 15, 2007)

About 10pm we have our costume contest....we pass out pre-printed ballots and pencils. i enlist help from our kids & friends to pass things around. Then we get our son-in-law (loud voice) to be the emcee and he pulls people up onto the spa steps outside (weather has been great so far). He announces to the crowd what each person's costume is...that way it helps people know what to write down. We have 9 different categories- best: costume, couple, group, home made, funniest, scariest, sexiest, Most unique, and WTF?- the one you just can't figure out what it's supposed to be! that one always gets lots of laughs! I'm thinking of adding a category this year- Best Theme Oriented costume. We give out various prizes, nothing too expensive. People seem to like how it works...a lot of people make a point of staying long enough to vote, even if they don't plan on trying to win themselves. The whole process helps to draw the entire group together which is nice.


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## halloweencreature (Aug 6, 2008)

memphis306 said:


> lol.same with me.last year i was looking for my wife and as i walked into our main entryway,i looked left into the room and didnt see her,looked right and didnt see her and i kind of mumbled under my breath "where is she?" and this woman that didnt really hear me but could tell i was looking for something said,"you looking for the bathroom?its right down that hall"


OMG! Thanks for the great laugh, I can totally see how someone would think that! Thanks again for sharing! (still laughing....!)


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## ScaredyCat (Sep 9, 2011)

Hey, I know I'm coming in on this thread a little late but...I just had my party last weekend and the costume contest vote counting was a HUGE drain on time. It has been every year but I think we had more people than ever this year so it was more apparent. We always have a five category contest: Scariest, Prettiest, Funniest, Most Original, and Best Couple. I am thinking next year I am going to put five halloween themed containers on the counter, one for each category, and let people just add their votes inside. Every year I can switch up the containers if I want. Like, one year I can do all pumpkins, the next all coffins, etc. 
Anyway...it's really sick that I'm already planning next year's party... Good luck with your party!


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## yummum29 (Oct 22, 2008)

we always play Tempt your Fate. We use some of the "good" fates be "you get to pick the best male costume" or, "you get to pick the best couples costume" It always stipulates that they cannot pick themselves ,nor the hosts. Our guest know that those fates are in there and they always want to play the game so 
that they can be a costume judge. Win - win


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## brew8354 (Oct 2, 2010)

In the past my husband and I usually get together (after way to many cocktails, beer and shots) and decide who we think for each category (I have 9 categories) with help from a few friends and we also go by what most have the crowd has been talking about. We usually average 100 guests so it gets crazy. Last year I printed off sheets on Halloween themed paper with the categories at the top of the sheet. I put each sheet on the tables beside the corresponding trophy and prize basket. During the party we kept making announcements (We have a woman who owns a Karaoke company come to the party each year and bring all her stuff and we do Karaoke and she plays dance music in between) to make sure you have voted for your favorite costumes. We provide plenty of pens on the tables. Of course the more people drink they will write crazy stuff down, but most people are honest and vote once per category. Before we announced the winners my husband and I and a couple of friends that helped bring us the trophies and prizes as we announced the winners looked over the lists and you could pretty much see who got the most votes. Most of the time with our parties there are the people who go all out in order to win. No matter what we will make the final decision because it is our party. We definitely don't do anything precise, but our party is more about having fun than who wins the contests, even though some of my friends take it pretty seriously. Good luck and Happy Halloween!!


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## brew8354 (Oct 2, 2010)

memphis306 said:


> lol.same with me.last year i was looking for my wife and as i walked into our main entryway,i looked left into the room and didnt see her,looked right and didnt see her and i kind of mumbled under my breath "where is she?" and this woman that didnt really hear me but could tell i was looking for something said,"you looking for the bathroom?its right down that hall"


Haha, that happens all the time at our party. We have so many people that come and bring people that we don't know as well as being in costume that sometimes you have to announce that excuse me, and cut to the front of the line to the bathroom and then explain to the drunken girls that are getting upset that this is my house.


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## Teresa M (Aug 11, 2011)

We have done parties for 10 years now, when we started we did the ballot method. We lost so much time counting ballots (we have 5 categories that we do in 4 different age groups), now we do it by crowd response. We have done it this way for the past two years and it is soooooo much quicker! I announce 15 minutes prior that it will start in 15 minutes. I start with the youngest group, announce the category, stand behind each one and use the response to determine the winner. I go through each age group with each category. People seem to enjoy the participation aspect of it also. Last year I only had four kids in the youngest age group, so I told them that they all won and to go pick a prize, they were thrilled!


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