A Theme Makes Party Planning Fun & Easy

When planning a party come up with a theme first. This will make your job of planning the event that much easier. A theme will allow you to stay focused, keep your colors, food and the decorations all coordinated. You can then incorporate games, prizes and goodie bags or party favors using the overall party theme.

Baby Shower Themes

Pink or Blue or Yellow

Coordinate everything for the Baby Shower in a color that reminds the guests of the gender of the new baby. Use lighter and darker shades of the color to create a more interesting color palate.

Mom-to-Be Shower at the Spa

Hold the shower at a local spa or have the spa brought to your home and then spend time together having facials, manicures, pedicures, waxing, etc. If this is not the first baby then bring gifts especially for the mom-to-be, gift cards to her favorite restaurants, her favorite woman’s boutique, spa certificates, baby sitting coupons, etc.

Fortune Teller Baby Shower

Bring a psychic or palm reader to the shower for entertainment. Let each of the guests write questions to be asked of the psychic such as “Will this be a multiple birth”, “Will the new little one be a future President?”, “What foods will the baby like best?” Make a record of the answers to be put in the baby’s keepsakes.

Scrapbook Party

Have each guest create a special page to go into a Scrapbook for the baby that you can send the Mom-to-Be home with. This Scrapbook will be something Mom can record all memories of the new baby in and will become a family heirloom in years to come.

Create a Baby Memory Capsule

Using a large (popcorn size) tin or large decorated box create a Memory Capsule for the baby to enjoy forever…include events throughout the year of the baby’s birth include newspaper and magazine clippings with world events, new discoveries, top songs, top movies, cost of milk and other items. Search the internet for space and medical discoveries that are taking place. Include videos; CD’s all things that signify the baby’s birth year, birth month and birth place.

Favorite “Pregnant Foods” Shower

Have each guest guess the Foods that the Mom-to-Be has craved during her pregnancy. You can then create your menu using some or all of the foods and/or combinations of foods the new Mom-to-Be enjoys.

Birthday Parties

Men and/or Boys Birthday Parties

Sports themes are always a hit with the male gender. Focus on their favorite sport or favorite team. You can use the team colors as your overall color design. Centerpieces can be created using football helmets, balls, pictures of favorite players. You could also use a sports trivia theme and focus on stats or famous players.

Women and/or Girls Birthday Parties

Beauty and fashion are usually big hits with the gals. Center your party around a makeover event with a cosmetician offering makeup and hair suggestions to all the guests. A personal shopper or wardrobe consultant could be the entertainment. These skilled professionals will put together a presentation showing the latest fashion trends, accessories and colors for the upcoming season. Creative centerpieces could feature shoes and/or handbags. Send everyone home with a goodie bag filled with lip gloss, nail polish, lotion, eye shadow, etc.

Children’s Birthday Parties

Cartoon characters make create an instant theme for young children’s parties. Sponge Bob Square Pants, Blues Clues or your child’s favorite character is sure to bring a smile to your son or daughter’s face. Have a cake made with the same character featured on the top. Compose goodie bags for each child to take home filled with Sponge Bob stickers, candy, small toys, pencils, coloring books etc.

Birthday Parties for Teens

Using your teen’s favorite star would make a fun party theme. If their favorite is a movie star you can pick up ideas from the star’s most recent movie or even play the movie during the party. Have the guests arrive dressed as their favorite star and give out awards for the best star likeness.

General Birthday Parties

Focus your party around the birthday person’s interests. Maybe the honoree has a passion for classic cars, travel, history, the theater, opera, classical music, gardening… let your imagination be your guide in tying together centerpieces, table settings, invitations and colors. Ask the guests to bring gifts that coordinate with the theme for an added bit of fun.

Birthday Parties for Pets

Many pet stores and pet boutiques offer to set you up with the complete “Party Paraphernalia” needed to make Fido’s birthday special. Ranging from invitations requesting that your little pet’s friends attend to doggies’ birthday cakes, party hats, party plates, bowls and treats for all the canine attendees. Remember if your pet is invited to a doggie birthday party they should arrive with a new toy or some special treats as a delightful birthday gift for the birthday pet to take home.

Holiday Parties

New Year’s Parties

Use traditional hats, noisemakers, balloons and confetti for a fun filled evening of dinner and dancing. Or celebrate New Years as it is celebrated in another part of the world and serve traditional dishes from that same country. Play a game of trivia focusing on events from the past year and then award prizes to the couple that gets the most correct answers.

Valentine’s Day Parties

Have a costume party in February and have the guest dress as “famous lovers”. You can spend the evening guessing who everyone is, award prizes for best, most creative and worst costumes. Serve special “romantic” food especially the food that is reported to be aphrodisiacs to add additional romantic spice to your party.

Fourth of July

The backyard barbeque is probably the most popular of all July 4th celebrations but you can give your barbeque a new twist by adding some non traditional foods. Serve kabobs with a wide assortment of foods for each guest to compile their own individual skewers: beef, lamb, pork, chicken, shrimp, mini hot dogs, cherry tomatoes, mini carrots, cauliflower, squash, onions, peppers, tiny red potatoes and have an assortment of different basting sauces for a fun culinary experience. Add some additional fun by putting out all those old fashioned backyard games: horseshoes, bad mitten, croquet, bocce ball, wheelbarrow races, one legged races, etc.

Memorial Day

A favorite with most of us since it traditionally marks the beginning of the summer season. We usually look forward to something outdoors but in the Chicago area many years it’s just too cold for an outdoor picnic so why not bring the picnic indoors. Move your dining table out of the room and put the red checkered tablecloths down on the floor. Add little pots of spring flowers with little flags inserted into the center of the flowers and use them as centerpieces. Serve hot dogs, baked beans, coleslaw and all the trimmings. Put some John Philip Sousa music on the stereo and enjoy!

Easter

Even adults enjoy an old fashioned Easter Egg Hunt so why not have the traditional Easter Egg Hunt for the whole family. Rope off a section of the yard for the kids, a section for the teens and a section for the adults. Fill plastic eggs with different goodies for each age group, jelly beans for the kiddies, M & M’s for the teens and some Godiva or other upscale dark chocolate for the adults. Provide baskets for everyone to gather their eggs in and have prizes for the most eggs found, the fewest eggs found and no eggs found in each age group. After the Easter Egg Hunt enjoy a brunch with different flavors of quiche some fruit salad and a delicious coffee cake.

Passover

Assign each member of the family a role in the Passover Seder. There are some wonderful plastic “plaque” bags you can purchase for the kids to add a little fun to the traditional religious service making the Seder meaningful for all ages. Let the kids help set the table while you explain the significance of each of the dishes.

Mardi Gras Party

A spring time favorite is Mardi Gras. Even if you can’t travel to New Orleans for this annual tradition stage your own version of the popular festival at home. Costumes or elaborate masks are a must for all your guests, stings and strings of bright beads to hang around everyone’s neck when they arrive. Dancing, eating and drinking are all the part of Mardi Gras celebration. With some research you can find many movies with Mardi Gras scenes as well as the tradition stepped in this famous annual non-stop New Orleans fest.

Graduation

Spring time is the annual time for graduation parties. The grad you are having the party for deserves a special celebration for all their hard work and many accomplishments. Invite the family and close family friends as well as classmates of the graduate. If your grad has a favorite teacher or professor it is appropriate to invite them as well.

The graduation party should focus on the grad…their plans for the future, their successes and achievements. Congratulatory speeches and toasts are all in order, be sure to allow everyone a chance to toast the grad and offer their individual remarks. Use the school colors for decorations and serve all the graduates favorite foods. Stacks of books arranged in varying heights can be used to place bowls of food on. Mortarboard cut outs can be used as placemats. Be sure to sing the school song and have everyone sign the grads yearbook before going home.

Bachelor and/or Bachelorette Parties

Bachelor’s and Bachelorette’s enjoy spending an evening or weekend, as tradition dictates, to celebrate the end of their single life. A day of golf followed by dinner at the golf club or a weekend trip to Las Vegas is great fun for guys. Gals love a weekend at a luxurious spa or a shopping spree in New York. Renting a limousine with a driver for a night on the town will solve the problem of who’s the designated driver and you can party while riding in the limo. If a quite dinner at a neighborhood restaurant or a slumber party with lots of chick flicks to watch is perfect for your Bachelorette friend or if tickets to a sporting event while you enjoy hot dogs in the stands or a friendly game of cards is the perfect send off for your Bachelor buddy remember a special evening or weekend centered around the activities your Bachelor or Bachelorette truly enjoys is what this event is all about.