# Best way to judge costume contest?



## Halloween Princess

This is my first year hosting a party and we are having a costume contest. We included on the invites that there will be prizes for Best Costume, Sexiest & Most Original. I can't figure out the best way to choose the winners. It would be easiest for me to just choose the winners but I am affraid people will think it's biased. But here will be ~25 guests and I think it would get too confusing to just let them all vote on each category. I thought perhaps I could pick 3 to put up for each prize, then people could vote, but not sure how to do the voting. Any ideas or ways you've tried in the past?


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## Rikki

I print out ballots with all the categories and set them, along with pens, next to the ballot box. At midnight I make an announcement for people to put their votes in and give them 30 minutes to do it. At that time I take the box into another room and tally up the votes. Then I gather everyone up to announce the winners and give out prizes. No trouble, in my opinion.


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## MsMeeple

I do pretty much the same thing as Rikki....only right before voting, we do a monster stroll so that everyone can show off their costumes. After the stroll we vote using pre printed ballots with the categories on them. Only problem we've had with this system is what people write. Someone will write in 'pumpkin dude' but we have 2 people dressed as pumpkins. Or they don't know exactly what the person is dressed as and they don't know their names. So this year we have decided to use numbers to avoid confusion.

MsM


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## McGraw_WV

The way to go when you have 25 people, is to do it by loudness of the crowd.

We have 3 categories... funny, scary, and overall best.


When we are ready to do the contest, we have all the people who want to compete go into the other room and they parade through the main areas one at a time. 

The person who gets the loudest noise for their costume/dance through the room wins...

It's fun, people get LOUD and enjoy it, and its not so sterile. 

The one thing I have learned throwing parties, especialy for adults, is the less they have to pay attention to detail the better. Having people fill anything out will not be "fun" for the people who just came with iffy costumes.


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## Handy_Haunter

Never thought about doing it by loudness like that. We have always just done a ballot. But, I agree that the 'pumpkin dude' problem has persisted in the past. I think that loudness might go over really well with my group. 

-Handy_Haunter


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## peyote2004

We do the vote survivor style ... everyone is markes down their favorite costume,and places it in a jack-o-lantern cookie jar. then my roomie reads them out like jeff probes on survivor


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## LV Scott T

My vote: ballots, especially when we have over 100 people voting. We print & cut out simple 1/4 sheet ballots with 4 categories: Sexiest, Cheesiest, Best Couple or Group, and Best Overall. We also bought a box of 100 "golf pencils". At around 11:00, we pass out ballots & pencils. By "we", I mean the 2 hosts & 5 co-hosts. We tell people if they don't know the name of the person they want to vote for, then just write down what they are. Then, we collect them & start counting. This year, I think we're going to move everybody out front for the group photo while the ballots are being counted. When we have the results, we announce the winners, present them with their trophies, and take a few pictures.

Just as a heads-up... Over the years, we've noticed that people usually start leaving after the contest, so don't have it too early.


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## Frankie's Girl

Hubby and I just whispered in a corner for about 10 minutes to come up with the winners for last year (our first party). 

I really don't think you can be accused of playing favorites your first year!


This year, we're probably doing ballots, but I don't want to... I may just choose (with hubby) again. We reward creativity and weirdness.


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## colmmoo

We do ours by ballot, but with over 50 people last year it was taking a long, long time to tally all the votes and we just chose winners halfway through the tally. I know, not very accurate. 

Hmmm......having people cheer would be so much easier, but for those of you who do that, do you find that the people getting less cheers get kinda sad, especially if they're kids?


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## McGraw_WV

colmmoo said:


> We do ours by ballot, but with over 50 people last year it was taking a long, long time to tally all the votes and we just chose winners halfway through the tally. I know, not very accurate.
> 
> Hmmm......having people cheer would be so much easier, but for those of you who do that, do you find that the people getting less cheers get kinda sad, especially if they're kids?


Well ours is 100% over 21 adults... But even the "sad" costumes get cheers, everyone cheers, people SCREAM for their favorite...


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## BooBerrie

We do the ballot system too. I make it easier by having each categorie's ballot a different color. It sure helps when you counting the tally. I was going to take a polaroid picture of each costumed guest and write their names on it and put them on a corkboard, but with the polaroid film being almost $17 for 10 pics, I had to scratch that idea. If you had a photo printer handy, that might work too, but be a little more time consuming.


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## LHALLOW

We set up a picture spot and take a poloroid of everyone when they enter. We write their names on the bottom of the pic and post them on a piece of posterboard. We have ballots and we make a couple announcements through the night to place their votes. After the contest, we give each guest their poleroid as their gift. I don't remember the poloriod film being that expensive....we buy it at Target.


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## MsMeeple

We tried the cheering thing the first year or two. That's when we decided to do the ballots lol Sometimes it was really hard to tell who got the most cheers and some people took it very personally. I confess that I too sometimes fudge with the ballots. If I'm more than halfway thru and its pretty clear who's gonna win, I don't finish counting. But I make it look good lol I even gave a prize once to someone who comes a long way each year and had never won. She was soooo close. And the one who 'technically' won had already won a few times.


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## Halloween Princess

Thanks everyone for the ideas and experience. I think I am going to kinds try combining methods. I think the husband & I will pick 3 for each category that we think stand out, then do a ballot vote. Our party will be on two levels of our house and people will be all over the place so ballots would allow people to vote when they feel like it. Maybe I need to get a mega phone =)


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## Kylems

As someone else mentioned with the polaroid photos. We have a photo booth every year. We ask those entering the contest to take a photo and post it on a poster board. Around 11 we give pre-printed tickets for the three categories, guests are then asked to tape their tickets to the person they are voting for. 
Although the setup is a bit of a pain this was great because there was virtually no counting. You can pretty much look at the poster board and tell who the clear winners were!

PLEASE SOMEONE MAKE AN APP FOR THIS!!! I CHECK EVERY YEAR!!


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## DonkasaurusRex

Kylems said:


> As someone else mentioned with the polaroid photos. We have a photo booth every year. We ask those entering the contest to take a photo and post it on a poster board. Around 11 we give pre-printed tickets for the three categories, guests are then asked to tape their tickets to the person they are voting for.
> Although the setup is a bit of a pain this was great because there was virtually no counting. You can pretty much look at the poster board and tell who the clear winners were!
> 
> PLEASE SOMEONE MAKE AN APP FOR THIS!!! I CHECK EVERY YEAR!!


We actually create a quick 1-question survey using Survey Monkey. It's free to use. I make simple signs for each contestant to hold up while standing at the front of the room (ex. Contest #1, #2, etc.), then have a QR code printed around the house for everyone to scan and access the survey. They vote and we get the results as admin immediately on our phones. You can limit it to 1 vote per person or multiple. It's worked really well and we can post the result to the Facebook event page later. This eliminates any questioning of validity. 

Alternatively, we have also handed out contest name tags (#1, #2, etc.) as they arrive and allow them to vote until a specific time until we make the announcement. This works best if you have lots of signage reminding people to vote (by midnight) and the QR code.

Happy Haunting!


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## Hubheit

Kylems said:


> As someone else mentioned with the polaroid photos. We have a photo booth every year. We ask those entering the contest to take a photo and post it on a poster board. Around 11 we give pre-printed tickets for the three categories, guests are then asked to tape their tickets to the person they are voting for.
> Although the setup is a bit of a pain this was great because there was virtually no counting. You can pretty much look at the poster board and tell who the clear winners were!
> 
> PLEASE SOMEONE MAKE AN APP FOR THIS!!! I CHECK EVERY YEAR!!


A little late but you should try PollUnit's photo contest feature. Voting is also possible in various categories. For small teams it is free to use. Various types of voting, halloween themes, light box view and many other features.

Disclosure: I am one of the developers.
If you are missing a feature feel free to create a feature request.


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## 3pinkpoodles

DonkasaurusRex said:


> We actually create a quick 1-question survey using Survey Monkey. It's free to use. I make simple signs for each contestant to hold up while standing at the front of the room (ex. Contest #1, #2, etc.), then have a QR code printed around the house for everyone to scan and access the survey. They vote and we get the results as admin immediately on our phones. You can limit it to 1 vote per person or multiple. It's worked really well and we can post the result to the Facebook event page later. This eliminates any questioning of validity.
> 
> Alternatively, we have also handed out contest name tags (#1, #2, etc.) as they arrive and allow them to vote until a specific time until we make the announcement. This works best if you have lots of signage reminding people to vote (by midnight) and the QR code.
> 
> Happy Haunting!


I like this idea!

Can you give more details? 

For example, we have multiple categories (Best Couple, Best Theme, Silliest). 

How exactly do you make the QR codes? 
Are the QR codes based on the category they are trying for?

So, you'd have three codes in my case?

Sounds easy yet complicated...

I would love more info


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## Masani3

DonkasaurusRex said:


> We actually create a quick 1-question survey using Survey Monkey. It's free to use. I make simple signs for each contestant to hold up while standing at the front of the room (ex. Contest #1, #2, etc.), then have a QR code printed around the house for everyone to scan and access the survey. They vote and we get the results as admin immediately on our phones. You can limit it to 1 vote per person or multiple. It's worked really well and we can post the result to the Facebook event page later. This eliminates any questioning of validity.
> 
> Alternatively, we have also handed out contest name tags (#1, #2, etc.) as they arrive and allow them to vote until a specific time until we make the announcement. This works best if you have lots of signage reminding people to vote (by midnight) and the QR code.
> 
> Happy Haunting!


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## Masani3

Hi how exactly did you set up your survey questions on survey monkey for the contest? Meaning what menu choices did you use in what order to enter them? You created a survey then gave it a name then added the questions on …how? Also how did you create a QR code link to it?
I never used it but love your idea & signed up on survey monkey to do it this way too so I really want to set it up properly before my event! Thanks!


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## Cranium

3pinkpoodles said:


> For example, we have multiple categories (Best Couple, Best Theme, Silliest).
> 
> So, you'd have three codes in my case?


You could just have 3 questions - one question for each category.

make a QR code using a generator— once the survey is made, you’ll have a url link. Paste the link to a site like QR Code Generator | Create Your Free QR Codes


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