Thread: How do you conduct your costume contest?

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This is only our second year throwing a party, and we did not have a contest the last go round. I'm wondering how all of you veterans out there conduct your costume contests.

More specifically:

How do you actually set up the voting? Slips of paper with peoples names on them? Blank pieces of paper where people just write which costume they think is best?

When do you tally the results and hand out prizes? At all of our parties, people tend to come and go throughout the night, with a core group (about 20 ppl) that are there for the entire thing.

Any other details that may be helpful are greatly appreciated. Our party is this Sat. the 22nd!

Last year we had all the guest determine the winners of various categories with applause and cheers! Basically my wife and I determined who had what type of costume (in other words WE determined what category their costume fell into-funniest, scariest, sexiest, and most original) the guest were wearing and lined them up in the living room. We then simply went down the line with our hands over their heads and asked the others to applaud and cheer for whom they thought was the best costume for that category. The loudest cheer was the winner (determined without bias by my wife and myself). In the event of a tie we sent off the losers and repeated the process with the two individuals that were deadlocked. We had over 50 guest so there wasnt to much in the way of bias included in the voting process! This worked out great as we really didnt develop a system of voting in the first place and had to come up with one on the fly! It was also really cool to see the guest come together and participate in an event that required the entire group (Yes-it got very loud in there!). As far as people coming and going, I suppose this would work once your party is at maximum capacity. The prizes were a trophy and goody bag with Halloween stuff that wasnt revealed until AFTER the winner was determined.

That sounds like the funnest and easiest way to do it. I like the idea of having all the guests participating together. This year our party is also in conjunction with my hubby's 40th b-day so we will have a few different groups of folks that don't really know each other very well, and some not at all. (i.e. few co-workers, some family, and of course the usual hard core partiers) and I've been a bit concerned as to how they're all going to mingle together. I think this would help get some people chatting and find some common ground with one another without it feeling forced.

This really sounds like the best way to do it.

Problem solved! Thanks CycloneJack !

we got some cute prizes at Target. A skull head bottle opener and bottle stopper, bloody shot glasses, and bloody can koozies.

we are doing prizes for both costumes and game participation. If we have prizes leftover, we'll just do them as door prizes We have nice gifts but have them 'camouflaged' so we can play 'Chinese Xmas' with them.

We hand out ballots a few hours into the party. The guests can write down who they think has the best costume. If they don't know the person, they usually just describe the costume. We collect the votes and announce the top three. The winner gets a trophy. I usually spend too much money on the party and can't afford good prizes, so I made a trophy about five Halloweens ago and it comes back to the party every year. We always get some funny votes too, when guests are a little buzzed and have trouble describing costumes.

Each judge counts as three votes (2 if a smaller party)... Then everyone else is entitled to one vote so it can be anyone's win...

We print ballots and have a box for them. Line on ballot for best male and female costume. We have guests vote and ask that they vote once, not for themselves, and not for us (the hosts). My wife and I go into another room and count them up around 10:30 or so. We used to get all wound up if there was a tie or something, but a few years back we dicided, hey it's our party, if there is a tie we decide.

We give a $50 gift cert each for Home Depot and Bath and Body Works. We also give a "Hosts Award for Best Particiapation" to someone of our choice, might be another favorite costume, or best dancer, whatever.

I pick categories and pass out ballots and have people fill in the ballots and leave in a decorated box. This way, more people can win and no one will only vote for themselves.