# Theme ideas needed for a party. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 25, 2002, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776 "2002-07-25T15:32:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776/21 "2002-07-26T15:44:20Z")
This won’t help you a bit, but I have to share the most fun adult birthday party idea I ever heard of. For a friend’s birthday, we decided (for some reason that completely escapes me now) that all her birthday gifts had to be stolen. There were, of course, rules: you could not steal something new from a store (i.e. shoplift) nor could you break and enter - in other words, it had to be semi-legal stealing. Among her gifts: a complete flatware service for four with the word “Denny’s” on the handles, a standing Marlboro ashtray from the lobby of the Biograph theatre, a road sign that read “Ducks Xing”, a highway sawhorse complete with blinking orange light, and plastic letters that spelled out her name, snitched from one of those marquee signs in the lobby of an office building. For the record, I have been very inspired by this thread, and am now planning MY Halloween party! ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776/22 "2002-07-26T17:32:33Z")
I went recently to a “Vernissage”. Great theme for a cocktail party/mixer. Everyone has to R.S.V.P. beforehand with some kind of homemade unsigned artwork. These are displayed at the party venue. Some guests act like they’ve been invited to a real gallery and walk around pretentiously appraising the “art”. Some take great pains to do something amazing and some just draw happy faces in pencil on an 8 1/2" X 11" piece of paper. You have conversation starters everywhere and it helps people to walk around and socialize without forcing guests to wear a funny costume or invest a lot of time if they don’t want to. Regardless, often the crappier “artworks” are surrounded by strangers lavishly praising the “artist”. Quite funny. It’s also fun to try to match the “artist” and the art. ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776/23 "2002-07-26T21:00:06Z")
Ugly Shirt Party - everybody’s got one in their closet. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776/24 "2002-07-26T22:06:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Labdad \* > \*\*Best theme party I ever went to was a “Come as a character from a Beatles song” party. There are so many to choose from! > > Three of my friends’ costumes simply consisted of nametags reading “Vera” “Chuck” and “Dave.” I went as the fireman from Penny Lane. Another went as “the man from the motor trade.” And on and on… \*\* That’s a great idea. I could always take a hammer, spraypaint it silver, and go as Maxwell Edison… 😃 I’d just hate to see what Mean Mr. Mustard has to wear… If somebody wanted to do “Helter Skelter” would they have to dress as Charles Manson? Lots of fun possibilities here. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2002, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776/25 "2002-07-27T07:26:30Z")
Well, if it’s around Labor Day, you could hold a “Communist Party” (Get it?)…red buntings on the walls, a big art deco style portrait of you above the buffet, a birthday cake under glass, shaped like a certain waxy mummy… ---
**Author:** ![Broken\_Doll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbce88/32.png) [@Broken\_Doll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broken_Doll)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2002, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776/26 "2002-07-27T17:11:44Z")
Two words: DRAG QUEENS! You’ll have a faaaabulous time, dahhling. ---
**Author:** ![Sue\_Duhnym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2002, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776/27 "2002-07-27T20:02:34Z")
Hubby and I were invited to a Jimmy Buffett party last year. You had to come in Parrothead regalia or dress as a character from a song. Hubby was going to dress as a cheeseburger and I was going to go as paradise but we ended up having a work thing that night and had to back out. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2002, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776/28 "2002-07-27T22:34:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CaptMurdock \* > **I’d just hate to see what Mean Mr. Mustard has to wear…** Actually, one of the guests **did** come as Mean Mr. Mustard. For his costume, he just stuck a ten pound note up his nose and called it a day! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Peta\_Tzunami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b487fb/32.png) [@Peta\_Tzunami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peta_Tzunami)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2002, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776/29 "2002-07-28T23:04:29Z")
I like the suggest about having a “white” party. After all, the old rules of dress were you couldn’t wear white after labor day. It could be as simple as people wearing the color, or people could comes as their favorite “white” object such as vanilla ice cream or even Barry White. I notice communist party, but not if anyone had said labor party…people come dressed in uniforms – even something as simple as a nametag could become a costume for the fun-challenged? Dream job party sounds like fun too. Or maybe a combine a few of the ones mentioned for a Stereotype party? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2002, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776/30 "2002-07-29T00:05:35Z")
Labor Day party? Why not have everyone dress up as pregnant women? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2002, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776/31 "2002-07-29T00:56:18Z")
In college, I shared a house with two other women. Most of our parties were theme parties. One of my favorites was a Prom Queen Party. You know how most women have several old formal dresses they’d never thought they’d wear again? Well, here’s the chance. And the possibilities are endless. I was an 80s prom queen; we had several 50s prom queens; a few very sexy drag queens, etc., etc. Most of the guys came dressed as faculty chaperones, though, making for an interesting dynamic. It was so much more fun than the real prom, too: we could all legally drink, so we didn’t have to sneak shots in the girls’ room, there was none of the stupid clique-stuff that makes high school so horrible, and everyone was the Prom Queen! ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2002, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776/32 "2002-07-29T01:22:10Z")
Bare as you dare party. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theme-ideas-needed-for-a-party/120776.md?page=1)