Theme Parties

Don’t you love a theme party, Possums?

I’ve told you about the Super Hero Party. Some other’s I’ve been to in the past include:

Bad Taste. You have to dress in worst possible taste. Bring out all those clashing colours and the flairs, body shirts, big hair wigs, and paisley minis that have gone completely out of vogue. You will be amazed at how much fun you can have slipping into it just for a night. This sort of party is bound to get off to a great start. Everyone is laughing from the beginning. Just pass them all a champagne cocktail as they enter and bingo!

P-Party. You must choose to come in or as something starting with P. This is pretty easy, if you put your mind to it. I went as puss-in-boots.

Murder Mystery Parties. These are a little more complicated. The host gives you a character, related to a story line from a game in which you must divulge certain clues as the night progresses, piece these together with clues from other people and work out Who done it! You need to sort out your costume before you go, so that you look the part. I went to a 1920’s style of Murder Mystery Party, like a scene from an Agatha Christie novel or something. Local op-shops are a great resource for costumes. I found a dreadful bright yellow number in the 1920’s style and just added some bling-bling to for effect, and practiced my Charleston.

Cuisine-Inspired Theme Dinner Parties. I have a couple of girlfriends whom I have known since high school. I refer to our regular get togethers these days as Gang Nights. The Gang includes hubbies and all of our children. We take it in turns to host theme dinner parties. The way it works is, the host and hostess choose a country or a theme to which they will plan the menu. Then everyone has to dress up to follow the theme. When we had our Greek Night, the host and hostess dressed as Nana Mouscouri and Denis Rousos. When we hosted the Fiji Night, we dug a huge hole in our back yard and made a real hungi. I cooked recipes suggested by the friendly Fijian at our local Coles supermarket that included fish in coconut milk and sweet potato wrapped in banana leaves at the bottom of the pit. We’ve been doing these theme dinners for many years now and have been around the world at least twice, so we have started to include other themes like Comfort Food – everyone had to come in pyjamas, and World Cup – everyone had to come in team colours.

Pride and Prejudice Dinner Party. The hostess invites all her friends who she knows have been obsessively watching the BBC series of Pride and Prejudice. She tells them which character they have to play and they have a responsibility to dress accordingly. The correct music is sourced and at some point in the night, participants are expected to dance. I’ve forgotten what that style of dancing is called, but its a bit like progressive dances where you do repetitive moves and swap partners (I think you know what I mean). The best part of the night is not so much replaying the script, but seeing what the characters get up to in the new setting. If the odd classic line from the book/series is tossed in at opportune moments, this generally brings the house down, especially those delivered later in the night when everyones a bit pissed.

The last big party I hosted was a Winter Party. This was a Just-for-the-hell-of-it Party with no special dress requirements. We had it in winter, had the fire going, a trio of musicians for entertainment and people stayed for ages. All through the night people were expressing their surprise at how much fun they were having. The general consensus was that we throw way too few parties these days, compared to our younger years.

Our local friends were the last to leave. They walked home, each taking a traveler with them. I laughed as I waved to them heading off in a large rowdy group, and upon their insistence, vowed to host another Winter Party the following year.