Throwing a party is always fun, especially if you’re working to a theme and decorating your house and setting a dress code is the best way to procrastinate from studying. So, if you want to throw a party but can’t think of a theme, we’ve come up with eight ideas to get you started.
This party is a great idea if you want everyone in costume. The themes requires your guests to dress in the outfit of their favourite decade. Whether that’s lycra and leotards for the eighties or a noughties emo outfit, as long as they fully commit to the theme, you’ll find yourself guessing at everyone’s outfits all evening.
This party lends itself to a great playlist with plenty of throwback songs. You can even turn it into a guess the year drinking game with each new one that you play. If you’re feeling super organised, before the party you could gather clips from old movies and make everyone guess when the movie was released. Sort of like a pub quiz, but turn it into a drinking game for more fun.
This one may sound a bit risque so you’ll have to make sure that your guests don’t get the wrong impression, but it can actually be an opportunity to get seriously creative. You’re guests must make their own outfit out of anything they can find, just not clothes. It can be binbags, cardboard boxes or even masking tape but whatever they choose it’ll be super fun to see them turn up in their creations.
The rest of the party doesn’t have to be set around this theme and it suits being a pretty normal student party. However, if you want to bring the theme back in later, you can always award the person with the best creation before everyone leaves.
Murder mystery parties aren’t a typical student activity but, if you’re trying have a slightly more sober and put together night then they’re perfect. In most cases you’ll need to spend a little bit of money on buying the murder mystery kit which will include characters scripts and any extra clues. Other than that, the rest is up to you.
Each guest will be assigned a character before the party so that they can prepare a costume and they must turn up in character. Whether they’re a gangster with a foreign accent or a posh but ageing former actress, everyone must both look and act the part.
This is another theme perfect for a boozy, student style party, requiring little preparation other than a cool costume. The idea is that everyone comes dressed as something that shares a first letter with the first letter of their name. So if you’re a Katie you could come as a kettle, a Peter could come as a pilot, a Tess could come as a tiger and so on. The more creative and bizarre the better, so long as everyone can guess what you are.
Though that’s really all the preparation this party requires, you could also invent some drinking games around the theme e.g. go around a circle and name animals that start with an A and the first person to hesitate or repeat drinks.
If you’re looking for a more concrete theme that’s not just about costumes, and absolutely love to decorate, then why not base the party around your favourite Netflix show. Our personal pick would be Stranger Things because there’s so much you can do.
Of course, everyone can dress as their favourite character but you should also give your house a makeover. No Stranger Things party would be complete without the iconic fairy lights but you could also introduce missing posters for barb with your friend edited into them, or Will’s crayon sketches that feature your squad instead of monsters from the upside down.
A high school stereotype party is a super fun theme that involves dressing as a caricature version of your high school self. Whether you were a nerd, a plastic or maybe the class clown, whip out your old uniform and turn it into something fun for this occasion.
Again this party doesn’t require much else other than the costumes, but it is a good opportunity to play the music that was around when you were at school for a fun throwback. However, the best way to incorporate the theme later on is in the food. Why not serve typical school snacks that you used to buy from the cafeteria. Square shaped pizza slices anyone?
Harry Potter is an obvious party theme. Everyone knows either the books or movies and everyone has a special place in their hearts for it. So, send out your invites Hogwarts letter style (though maybe don’t use owls), and get your friends dressed up as wizards.
A Harry Potter theme is really good if you’re the kind of person to love decoration and planning. You can make all your drinks look like potions, bake sorting hat cupcakes (each is a different colour inside to sort you when you bite in), and set up Potter themed party games. This might be the ideal night if heavy drinking isn’t your thing and you’re looking for a more chilled out time.
As it is coming up to Halloween, this list would be incomplete without a nod to our absolute favourite holiday. No matter who you are, you’re bound to be part of a Halloween party this year so why not host one yourself?
Dressing up is an obvious first step to making your party spooky, but there are plenty of other things to do as well. Make red cocktails using cranberry juice to look like blood, cover your walls in paper bats, and have ‘trick or treat’ candy out for your guests.
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