When the time comes to plan your next party for the holidays, summer, a birthday or a school event, the best place to start is to plan a themed event. Some of the best themes include Halloween, Winter Wonderland, a pirate party, a carnival and country and western.
Going with a theme will make party planning much easier and the party much more fun for guests. But it’s important to find just the right theme. You need to plan a themed event that will best entertain the people on your guest list and make it fun, enjoyable and memorable.
To get your creativity flowing, we’ve provided the following list of ideas and some entertainment you can provide to make the party that much more fun, including some popular holiday event rentals.
Halloween
No holiday lends itself better to a themed event than Halloween. The combination of ghosts, monsters and all things supernatural gives you tons of decorating options. You can even pick themes within the theme, focusing on vampires, werewolves or mummies. As for entertainment, one idea is The Mausoleum, a one-of-a-kind haunted slide that will take your Halloween party to the next level.
Christmas/Winter Wonderland
You can’t go wrong with a classic like a Winterland Wonderland party around Christmas. Decorations can include tinsel, lights, candy canes, inflatable snowmen, reindeer and a Snow Globe that provides the perfect party pic opportunity (about 12 people can fit inside). You’ll want eggnog, some good Christmas music and maybe a classic like “Miracle on 34th Street” or “It’s A Wonderful Life” playing in the background.
Springtime/Easter
A spring party held around Easter gives you the opportunity to throw an Easter Brunch (with some eggs, muffins, crepes and potatoes), an Easter Dinner, and an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. It’s a great time of the year as we put the winter months behind us.
Beach Party/Luau
Perfect for a school party. Throw on the beach music and get together some beach-themed decorations, food and drink. The games are one of the most important aspects of a beach party, including water slides, dunk tanks, volleyball and a beach-themed treasure hunt for kids.
Country and Western
It doesn’t get more American than this. A country-themed party needs to have decorations that reflect the beauty of the West as well as items such as old cowboy hats, cowboy boots and inflatable cactus. For food, you can’t go wrong with burgers (invented in Texas) and barbecue. As for entertainment, there’s one perfect choice: a mechanical bull ride to test the skills of all the party guests. And if a bull isn’t your thing, you can get the mechanical ride with a different attachment such as a shark, wild hog or alligator.
Carnival
Recreating a midway will bring back everyone’s memories of going to the carnival as a kid, and that’s a good thing. You’ll want to supply plenty of midway carnival games and also cotton candy, popcorn, corn dogs and other carnival food. You’ll want to have some thrill rides, too, like a Zorb track, Cyclone Swing, Leap of Faith Climbing Wall or bumper cars.
Pirate Party
With a pirate party, you know right away that nautical-themed decorations, some Caribbean-flavored items and a Jolly Roger or two will set the stage. A treasure hunt is a great idea, too, as our party favors in small treasure chests.
Giant Games
Did you know you can rent giant board games and center a party around them? This is the type of party that will provide tons of friendly competition as teams go up against each other in games such as Giant Jenga, Inflatable Snooker, Giant Jacks, Giant Dominoes, Giant Checkers and Giant Chess. Everyone will remember a party where they got to play games as unique as these.
Safari/Jungle
For a safari party, you want decorations that put the emphasis on the “wild” in wild animals – elephants, lions, tigers, snakes, hippos, etc. Games are key for this kind of party, too, especially for the little ones. Ideas for the smallest of kids include:
- Catch the snake’s tail. Everyone gets in a line, touching the waist of the person in front of them. Then, the first person tries to catch the last person in line without breaking any link in the “snake.”
- Lucky monkey. The names of safari animals are placed in a hat. Kids pull a name one at the time and must act like the animal they pull – unless it’s the monkey, in which case they get a prize.
- Scavenger hunt. In this case, the hunt is on to find little figures of safari animals, each with its own prize.
Hopefully, one of these ideas will connect with what you want to do, no matter the size of your party or the age of the people attending. Plan a themed event and you will be able to better focus on throwing your best party ever.
