# What Party Themes have you done?



## natascha (Jul 21, 2004)

Always looking for new ideas! We have done -

Space Oddity 2001
Addams Family
Gnomes & Trolls
Hollywood
Psychotic Circus
Zombies
Murder Mystery
Face your Fears
Scary Tales
Heroes & Villains
Time Travel
It's the End of the World as we know it - 2012
Ghosts of Halloween Past 

This year is Black & White - A touch of Red would be alright


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## pumpkinpie (Jul 9, 2011)

2011 Boo Bash (each room was themed...living room/spiders, kitchen/witches, front yard/cemetery, etc)
2012 CarnEVIL
2013 Zombies
2014 Pirates


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## Shortpants (Aug 29, 2014)

2011 - Murder Mystery - Murder in the Rock Group
2012 - Murder Mystery - Assassination in Orgrimmar (based on our WoW characters)
2013 - Firefly (2002 Fox TV show)
2014 - Mythical Creatures


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## Sharonr3106 (Sep 8, 2014)

2009 Dead Famous
2010 Haunted Hospital
2011 Vampire Coven
2012 Thriller Re-Made
2013 Scary Fairy tales
2014 Dead Pirates


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## revengemaiden (Sep 4, 2014)

2008 Black & White Murder Mystery Halloween
2009 Gothic Halloween
2010 Vintage Inspired Retro Halloween
2011 Mardi Gras Voodoo Masquerade Ball 
2012 Disney Mickey & Friends Halloween 
2013 Black & Gold Glam Gala Halloween
2014 Parisienne Halloween Frightening French Fête

http://www.pinterest.com/revengemaiden/


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## dbruner (Aug 23, 2012)

2011 - Enter the Crypt
2012 - Trick R Treat
2013 - Gothic Nights
2014 - Witching Hour


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## TheMonsterSquad (Oct 8, 2012)

2012 - Voodoo Hoodoo
2013 - Arcadia Asylum (Arcadia is the name of our neighborhood)
2014 - CarnEvil Manor


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## dawnski (Jun 16, 2012)

2012 - Zombies
2013 - Classic Universal Monsters
2014 - Haunted Hotel


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## booswife02 (Apr 2, 2013)

I've only done themes the past few years. Before that it was just everything I had mismatched. 

Scooby Doo
Edgar Allan Poe
Sleepy Hollow Van Tassel Party 

Next year my main scene will be Hocus Pocus The Sanderson Sisters

I have small kids so im limited on the blood, scare and Gore factor.


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## celipops (Jul 23, 2011)

2009 - Sleepy Hollow Cemetery 
2010 - A night to die for 
2011 - Pumpkin Lovers vs Witches Brew- a team based scavenger hunt 
2012 - Sleepy Hollow 
2013 - Scary Tales
2014 - Pirates 

I also do yearly themes for the 'other' holiday (st patricks day)


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## dkberg (Aug 31, 2012)

Ours are always Zombie Themed, but there is an underlying theme attached to give it more variety

2011 - Zombie (first party so we just did generic)
2012- Zombie Prom
2013- Any costume Zombie-fied
2014- Movie or TV Character Zombie-fied

We have a pot to pull the themes out each year, next year is 
60's Zombie-fied

But, in our pot there are :

Celebrity, Western, Clown, Children, Pioneers, Circus, Religious, Wedding Party, Medical, Punk Rock, Sexy, Animals, 80's, 70;s, 20's Gangster, Ghetto, Disney/cartoon character, Graduation, Ugly Christmas Sweater, Superhero, Medieval, Athlete/sports, Fairy tales, Foreign (german, french, japanese, etc), Under the Sea, Vegas, Military, Caveman, Biker, Pimps and Hos

Some of those are going to be too fun. Especially at photo time, can you imagine a bunch of Ugly Christmas sweater zombies?


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## GodOfThunder (Aug 26, 2011)

Shortpants said:


> 2011 - Murder Mystery - Murder in the Rock Group


Can you provide some details here?

I've contemplated a "dead rocker" party, but combining it with a murder mystery theme sounds really intriguing. 

A buddy of mine used to have a cemetery with exclusively dead musicians, bluesmen, rockers, etc....it was totally cool.


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## Shortpants (Aug 29, 2014)

Sure can GOT! I might still even have the original files kicking around somewhere.  This was the first murder mystery we ever did, so I just stuck with the stock characters, but I'm sure it could be adapted to a real band / real rockers relatively easy. To give you an idea, here's one of the invites:

_Dear ______________,
You are invited to a murder mystery party at 
____________________________________________
____________________________________________

This is a murder mystery party to investigate the death of Heavy Metal icon “Tarantula” (please find enclosed a newspaper article on his death).
You are Hank Perez, manager of the band Satanic Saints. You’ve been in the game a long time and Satanic Saints have made you a greedy millionaire. You’re sexist, arrogant and don’t suffer fools gladly.
You will dress like a rich 60 year old. Hank would wear old gentleman’s shades, smoke cigars and wear a suit. You’ll also be a tubby from all those dinners at the Ritz.
You’ll speak: In a American accent (preferably Brooklyn) 
Other guests include:
Stoney Walker – Notorious badly behaved bass guitarist of the band
Rick Rocker – Ageing roadie of the band with a lot of old stories to tell
Peaches Van Helden – Porn actress wife of the deceased
Mr Death – Sadistic band member
Sabrina Hitchmen – Long suffering PA of the band
LuLu Henderson – Secretary to the Satanic Saints fan club
Justin “The Skull” Henderson – Obsessive fan of the band.
Papa D – Number 1 selling rap artist and arch rival

See you there_

This mystery is all script based, but your guests can ham it up as much as they want. We had an absolute blast with this one and have since done 3 others with different themes, even a Murder at the Big Top one! The murder mysteries can be a lot of work, but in my experience, they are SO worth it! Please let me know if I can be more help or if you have any questions.


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## alltogetherdead (Sep 8, 2009)

2014 Dark Side of Oz our 15th year of Parties!
2013 Monster Mash (Old School Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein)
2012 Creature Survival
2011 Commercial Characters (past or present)
2010 Season of the Witch
2009 Beg Borrow or Steal (scavenger hunt)
2008 Under the Sea
2007 Hitchcock Birds
2006 Body Parts
2005 (hiatus no party)
2004 Pirates
2003 Dark Disney
2002 Bonfire


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## HellsKitchenette (Oct 13, 2007)

2010 Seven Deadly Sins Lounge
2011 Voodoo on the Bayou
2012 Childhood Halloween
2013 Scary Movies
2014 - Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos)


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## bettyboop (Jul 24, 2010)

WOWO, I think you win the longevity prize!!! Awesome.

2014 Dark Side of Oz our 15th year of Parties!
2013 Monster Mash (Old School Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein)
2012 Creature Survival
2011 Commercial Characters (past or present)
2010 Season of the Witch
2009 Beg Borrow or Steal (scavenger hunt)
2008 Under the Sea
2007 Hitchcock Birds
2006 Body Parts
2005 (hiatus no party)
2004 Pirates
2003 Dark Disney
2002 Bonfire[/QUOTE]


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## bettyboop (Jul 24, 2010)

2007 - Generic Halloween Costume Party
2008 - Generic Halloween Costume Party
2009 - Generic Halloween Costume Party
2210 - Mardi Gras
2012 - Saturday Night Live
2013 - Scary Tales
2014 - Dead Hollywood Mummy Awards


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

The DIE-ner
Young Frankenstein
Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds
The Beatles (British Invasion)
King Kong
Sweeney Todd
Beware The Blob!
Edgar Allan Poe


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## MsMeeple (Aug 21, 2004)

We've done:
Hell
Macabre theater
Funeral
Mad Lab
Hard Rot cafe
Crime and punishment


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## Muffy (Sep 25, 2006)

I know this may be an odd question but how does one afford to change themes each season. I would love to...but our scenes are so prop heavy with even the smallest of details...how can you change it all out? I think about a scene through the course of the year & buy props for that scene, stuff here & there. Like my funeral parlor the biggest purchase was the antique organ but I been working on the parlor for some time still adding things to it.

If I changed all my scenes at one time it would be costly. We do buy stuff all year just good deals. We never focus on one theme its always a bunch of different rooms that are not related to each other but still they have come together nicely. Game plan for 2015 season is to add a couple of new rooms. I started collecting things & just kept collecting so it went from a small display & now has gotten big enough to stand on its own as a room, actually a pop-up tent. Thats what we are leaning towards now. I started buying these tents. This next year we will move the gypsy set-up back outside cause she had a tent in 2012 but Mz. Sandy blew her away. So 2015....gypsy tent, egyptian tent, mad scientist tent & talk of a Butchers tent for adults ( we have a lot of little kids)


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## mr_synical (Jul 24, 2007)

2009 VooDoo
2010 Alice in Wonderland
2011 Pirates
2012 Mad Scientist
2013 Mad Scientist again
2014 Carnival
2015 Witches


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## natascha (Jul 21, 2004)

Muffy said:


> I know this may be an odd question but how does one afford to change themes each season. I would love to...but our scenes are so prop heavy with even the smallest of details...how can you change it all out?


I usually do one new Big Prop each year, and most things can be re-used or changed up a bit - sometimes things don't get used for a couple years. One of the main reasons I have a Theme is to give people a goal in their costumes.


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## celipops (Jul 23, 2011)

Muffy said:


> I know this may be an odd question but how does one afford to change themes each season. I would love to...but our scenes are so prop heavy with even the smallest of details...how can you change it all out?
> 
> We change themes every year. Some of the bigger props we sell. That help with the expense. It's also a help to manage storage. The fun is presenting a new fresh theme to get inspired and gives the guests something to get excited about. If you plan the next theme as soon as halloween is over, it gives you 11 months to shop for bargains.


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## JennWakely (Jun 19, 2012)

yeah I am with celipops there. I just keep adding to my same theme, starting with my dungeon and working outwards. eventually I want to have a whole medieval castle. If I were insanely rich I might explore changing themes though.


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## obcessedwithit (Jul 13, 2009)

I have been doing parties for 15 years and I just recently started using themes, 
Haunted hotel, 2013
Insane asylum, 2014
Gypsy werewolf funeral 2012
7 deadly sins 2011

Not sure what I want to do next, either voodoo in the swamp, or carnival


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## amyml (May 21, 2012)

2014: Freaky Tiki
2013: Infestation 
2012: Nightmare Before Christmas
2011: The Mad Lab
2010: Carnival/Freakshow
2009: Generic Halloween (we had a family wedding in early October, so no time)
2008: Pirates


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## Kenneth (Feb 14, 2014)

2009 + 2010: Feast of Fright (small gathering, your basic "Halloween Party")
2011: A Night In Hell House (Masquerade theme, party guests came dressed to impress and survive the night)
2012: The HallowBall (The Hallow King and Queen invite the subjects of the land of Halloween to a ball)
2013: The Macabre Menagerie (Animal/zoo inspired, the idea was to have demons and creatures from all across the world showcased to our guests)
2014: Cirque Du Inferno (Hellish circus, this was our last party before we took a break so we marketed it as our last "show")

We're taking a break next year to hopefully make our pilgrimage to Salem for Halloween!


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## Muffy (Sep 25, 2006)

Yes I agree that with a new theme each season people get really excited. We have always just kept building the scenes we already have & in the last 3 seasons we added the Egyptian, which has been in a small section but now has enough props & such it can turn into a full scene with the adding of some large scenery. Also the gypsy room which also started as a small scene but now has enough props to become a full room, and then last year was the 1st appearance of the witches tea room which we set up on a big deck we have behind the house. It was just full of props I did not have any other room for anywhere else. It came out just great.

Now we are working to get more things to add to some of these rooms and the funeral parlor in the living room in the house is still a work in progress. We are now tossing around a few more ideas, hubby was a surgical nurse so he's taking on the design of the mad scientist lab/surgical room (gonna talk to froggyfathoms, we went out to see his halloween display & it was fantastic, he has a full sized pirate ship, really something but his lab was really something to see, hope he can give me some ideas. The lighting was so good.) and I finally decided to add an adult scene. We have mostly small kids so I keep it light but we want something to scare the hell out of the adults. Jerry was a meat cutter for 40 years he is taking on the design of a Butchers Room. We are gonna try & start working on a new cemetery, ours is in pitiful shape. Gonna turn the old one into a pet semetery type scene. Luckily we have a huge amount of space to work with so even with all these pop-ups going outside there is still plenty of room around them so they are not cramped. So hey I guess I am changing things a bit.


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

Muffy, our themes are expressed by our custumes, invitation, additions and details added to existing items. For example, for "The Birds"' my wife dressed as Tipi Hedron, I dressed as Hitch. The food was Bird-themed, i dressed out one of my Buckys as Mrs. Bates (complete with swinging, dangling bulb hanging overhead) and put her in the downstairs family room. We purchased and printed out movie posters and lobby cards ans decorated with them. And we bought 2dozen dollar store black birds, and I cut out over 100 black flying bird silhouettes and placed them on the living and dining room ceiling. Oh, and played the bird sounds from the movie for effect and the movie was playing in the family room. But we still put out many of our other Halloween props and decorations. Afterwards I sold the posters, costumes (including a cage with love birds) and black birds on ebay.

Our haunt is another matter. As much as I'd like to change the theme, it stays essentially the same with some tweaks and additions...enough to make it interesting and add a new jump or two for the initiated.


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## Muffy (Sep 25, 2006)

ChrisW.........Yes we do keep ours the same but then we do add a little & I'm forever buying more. Last year I came across a lady who was selling all her stuff from those gals that wear the purple/ red things. The senior women. She was on the side of the road selling stuff & Jer saw a grass catcher he was interested in. I stayed in the car looking at her other stuff. The more I sat there the more I thought about what I could do with her stuff. Then it came to me to put those things on skeletons & stick them in the cadaver cafe. She gave me a really good deal on them when I told her I put on a haunt for the community kids.

Also I have so much small stuff, things you would want to look at, so I figure they only see it once a year. altho we do a different scene in the garage every year.
Gonna try real hard to change things 2015, I have so many unfinished projects & stuff I bought that has never made it out of the boxes.

Absolutely loved your birds!


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## natascha (Jul 21, 2004)

Awesome Muffy, A Cadaver cafe full of Red Hat Society Ladies!! I Love it!!!


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## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

2005 Halloween Fun (very kid friendly)
2007 Halloween Fun
2009 Oleander Hills Cemetery and Scavenger Hunt
2011 Oleander Hills
2012 Oleander Hills
2013 Nuclear Fallout
2014 Tortuga Tavern (pirates)


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## Paint It Black (Sep 15, 2011)

2014 - Tombstone, Pop. 0 (Western theme)
2013 - The Midnight Carnival
2012 - Shipwreck Cove (Pirates)
2011 - Medieval Nights
2010 - Skeleton Luau
2009 - Skeleton Wedding
2008 - Dead End Cemetery
2007 - Dead End Cemetery
2006 - Community Kids' Halloween Party

Going to try to re-use most everything for future themes. This year, for instance, we will reuse a lot of the pirate and luau stuff for our Forbidden Tiki Island theme. But we are also making a few new props just for this year. Except for the huge community kids party we held, our parties are small - just for our kids, grandkids, and some friends.


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## Zoemorgan2 (Aug 4, 2011)

2009 Kids Halloween Haunt and Games ( kids only party)
2010 Murder at Haven Manor - Murder Mystery
2011 Carnevil of Horrors - Murder Mystery
2012 Slashback to the 80s
2014 Universal Monster Mash Family Reunion
2016 - will be ... Live from NY It's Saturday Night Dead


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## SullivanScarefest (Jan 17, 2015)

2012 General Halloween w/a bit of a Zombie focus
2013 Had to skip due to birth of second child 
2014 Insane Asylum & Manor
2015 Will be Psycho Circus & Sideshow


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## Linnie23 (Sep 29, 2013)

Any suggestions for SNL Halloween Party? Would you mind telling me what you did? I know it was a while back, but I would love your input


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## bettyboop (Jul 24, 2010)

Sure, I would love to share some things that we did for the SNL party.
We live in Las Vegas so this is the invitation that was mailed to our guests.








Our guests were very excited with this theme. We have different generations and the SNL theme was perfect for everyone. 




































As I think of more things, I will post then.



Linnie23 said:


> Any suggestions for SNL Halloween Party? Would you mind telling me what you did? I know it was a while back, but I would love your input


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## Linnie23 (Sep 29, 2013)

Thanks. Did you serve anything special or decorate anything different


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## Linnie23 (Sep 29, 2013)

Would you share your ideas for saturday night live


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## Linnie23 (Sep 29, 2013)

Would you share what you did for your SNL party ideas


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## bettyboop (Jul 24, 2010)

I sent this really cool skit with a Save the Date email that goes out usually at the end of August. It is really funny.
Beware of Adult Content: http://www.hulu.com/watch/41410/satu...loween-special

We cater our party and here is the menu that we served. Some things are passed one at a time and others are at buffet stations. Guests can choose any or all of the items. And they are passed throughout the first couple of hours.
I Googled different well known characters and use them on place cards that labels the food that is at buffet stations.

“Larry the Lobster”
Lobster and Crab Parfait with Dijon Remoulade

“Down By The River”
Dover Sole Fish Tacos

“Samurai Delicatessen”
Salami, Mortadella, Soppressata, Prosciutto
Roasted Peppers, Olives, Provolone

“Buh Weets Bean Soup”
Pasta Fagioli

“Gotta Have More Cowbell”
Gorgonzola Dolce & Baked Goat Cheese
Fresh Baked Kalamata Bread & Rosemary Flat Bread

“Schweddy Balls”
Parmesan Risotto Balls with Spicy Marinara

“Cheeburger – Cheeburger”
Slider and House Made Sea Salt Chips
Aged White Cheddar, Arugula, Bermuda Onion, Heirloom Tomato

“Da Bears”
BBQ Bacon Wrapped Shrimp with Bleu Cheese Slaw

“Dick in a Box”
Bananas Foster Station




Linnie23 said:


> Thanks. Did you serve anything special or decorate anything different


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## Linnie23 (Sep 29, 2013)

Thank you so much. Can't wait to start planning.


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