Thread: Outdoor party help

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This is my second year hosting a party and I would like to have it outdoors this time. Last year it got too crowded in my kitchen/living area and did not work out well. I have a nice sized back yard considering I am only going to have about 20-30 people, but I have no idea how to stage anything! It is a carnival theme, so I already plan to use a couple canopies to create areas for a fortune teller and side show. How could I create a seating/eating area that flows well? What would a good prop be to focus seating around? Thanks for any advice or tips, I know I can always count on you guys and gals at the forum here for ideas and inspiration!

You could use hay bales as bleachers as if they are watching a show...someone on here made a tight rope and rigged skeletons on it...that would be kind of neat. Or maybe the bodyless person/thing (they did this at a carnival here...girl born with a snake body...all they did was hve someone sit with their head thru a hole in a small table...wrapped a fake snake around her head and then position mirrors around it...if you tilt them toward the ground...it appears as though nothing is under the table). I would go to Dollar Tree and get plastic tablecloths, you could use thes to make "big top" tents over the facade of your canopies ( you could even cut them to make banners). They also have tickets and popcorn containers. Do Games...that always takes up space...ring toss, darts, etc. Balloons lots and lots of balloons, someone can even be handing them out (Tempt your Fate game). Go simple with the food...corndogs, popcorn, caramel apples, etc.

I would get the bubble multicolored lights and hang those up. Someone found them last year at big lots for a good price. They would look cool strung around with your tents. For a central focul point, maybe a scary clown prop giving out rotten candy. I loved the one Spirit had out last year. Also got to have the creepy carnival music. They have it posted here some where. And also the bubble fogger! People love those.

We did a carnival theme a few years ago for the same number of people ages ranging from 3 to 85. We started in the late afternoon and went into the night so I had to have a few ideas to keep people busy. We set up booths for games and about a half hour before the party I gave my daugher foam board and told her to make up names for the games. Eyeball Toss (ping pong balls with eyeballs drawn on them to toss into little fish bowls); Tic Tac Severed Toe (9 bushel baskets tacked to a board and you had to toss bean bags to get three in a row); Headless Horseman Hand and Foot Toss (Two cauldrons and feet and hands from the Dollar Tree); BOO-sketball (we had a basketball net and threw basketballs painted orange with nose and mouth); Dead End Cemetery Mini Golf (set up golf in a cemetery setting); Darts thrown at black and orange balloons (forgot the name); orange funnels (from WalMart) nailed on a board with a cup underneath and you had to throw water balloons to hit the nail, break and fill the cup (also forgot the name); Skulls (small ones from Dollar Tree and I strung a styrofoam hoop up. You had to throw the skulls through the hoop); and a few other games. Lots of throwing but it was all I could think of that was simple and relatively cheap.

For food I had three booths: Old Salty's Dirty Water Dogs (hot dogs) and fries; Granny's Sweets (Jars of candy, cupcakes, pumpkin pies, etc; and Doctor Jekyll's Elixir "Eat, Drink and Be Scary" (snow cones, gatorade and jello (all hot greens and yellows).

We also had a BOO-tique where people could paint tee shirts and pumpkin carving and a walk through scare at night.

People just milled around and I had tables and chairs set up on the deck if they wanted to sit.

Great game ideas. I saw some of the multi-colored round lights at Albertsons today on a deep end of the season discount.

I just posted a link for this thread for two others threads that are similiar. It is a shame it is not all together. Ther are some EXCELLENT ideas on all three.

Here's the link to the new one today:

Dark Carnival Circus Sideshow