Thread: What will your 2012 party theme be?

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Originally Posted by Stochey

My theme next year will be Zombies! Its really hard for me to picture my decor though... I don't think I will be living where I currently do so I have no idea what the house that we will hopefully be renting will look like... its frustrating!

That is very difficult when you can't picture your space exactly! Maybe start planning things that you know you'll have no matter what, like how you want your tabletop/decor to look. I love zombies - should be a great theme!

Hahaha :-) My next theme too!
This year's was Movie Monsters, my hubby's idea. I had planned on only having parties every other year, and all of the work that went into movie monsters reminded me of exactly why I wanted every other year parties!! My halloween hating, video game loving son asked if I could please do something cool next time for halloween like zombies. I've already started to have a million different ideas for decorations and invites.
Its going to be hard to wait 2 years to have this party, but I need a year off, I really love decorating, and throwing the party, but I miss having time to take my little girl out halloween shopping, taking the kids to the pumpkin patch, and carving pumpkins......

Well… I was going to skip next year but I don’t want to disappoint anyone. This year’s party was a blast! I ended up with only 40 people (out of 80 invited) for my Carnival of Horrors Murder Mystery party. People are still talking about it. I will post pics soon, waiting for others’ photos. Next year I’m getting a photographer- LOL.

Next year my theme will be “Slashback to the 80’s” and no murder mystery. My décor will all be focused around Slasher films and everyone will need to be a character (TV, movie, music, and politician) from the eighties. I already have Jason and Ghostface and I bought costumes and masks for Freddie, Leatherface, Chuckie and Michael Meyers. I have dummies I’ll just dress up. I’m also going to have slasher movies projected on the wall. I’ll be setting up a dance floor and getting a DJ- this is a must! Contemplating playing a version of Tempt Your Fate and I could just dole out the responsibilities of it to the DJ and bartender. I have many people on the lookout for 80’s themed toys and novelties (My Mom is the garage sale queen). I’ve already started creating slasher movie posters using http://www.blockposters.com/ . I figure if I start now, it’ll be a lot easier for next year.

I'm really loving all the themes you guys have/had for your partys. For this upcoming halloween party I'm going with a game board theme.
I'm going to go as the patient from the classic operation game but I'll be a zombie and have things like rat poison,slit wrist,acid,razor blades,black widow spiders. I'll probably make the costume out of felt.

I was so excited to see this post, because I'm also thinking about next years party...but wondering how you switch things totally up when you have so much $$ invested in the props you have. This year was my 6th party, and each year we added a few things, mostly my decor is spiders, skeletons, more gorey looking stuff, nothing cutesy...so how could I switch it up from a River Road Mortuary theme to something different with the stuff I have? I feel stuck!

Originally Posted by marigolddesigns

I was so excited to see this post, because I'm also thinking about next years party...but wondering how you switch things totally up when you have so much $$ invested in the props you have. This year was my 6th party, and each year we added a few things, mostly my decor is spiders, skeletons, more gorey looking stuff, nothing cutesy...so how could I switch it up from a River Road Mortuary theme to something different with the stuff I have? I feel stuck!

Great question! I know some people have the budget, time and creativity to do a completely new party theme every year, from scratch (I saw pictures from an egyptian-themed party on this forum that blew me away). Budget being my biggest restriction, I've come up with the following plan:
-Each room of my house is a different theme, and these themes stay the same year after year. For example, "Hell's Kitchen" (devil-inspired kitchen), haunted living room, Dia Del Los Muertos office, etc. I'll add a little to them each year so guest have something new to look at, like this year I bought the tall snake candelabra for the haunted living room.
-The exception is my vaulted entryway and connecting d dining room. I'll decorated this space a little differently every year to match the party theme. I've only had three parties so far, so I decorated this space with "classic Halloween" items (see picture). For next year's Nightmare Before Christmas-themed party, I plan on putting a giant vinyl decal of spiral hill on the dining room wall and hanging Christmas decorations in orange, silver and black.

By doing this, I can use the majority of my props/decorations year after year but still have room for a new theme. I suggest just changing up one room in your house each year. Other ways to incorporate a new theme might be your invitations, names for your food, table decorations, subtle lighting changes (green lights for a swamp/bayou theme, red lights for a vampire/devil theme). I'm sure all of the creative people here have other ways to incorporate their theme without breaking the bank!

One thing I do to kind of change things up but still use old props is to sort of reuse themes in smaller ways.

For example,
A couple of years ago I did a spider theme, I bought a $40 big spider and a $30 hanging web guy plus lots of smaller tarantulas and stuff. I also had lots of body parts that I wrapped in the web. This year I did a vampire theme but I did my entry way in spiders. I used the big spider above the front door with web everywhere and the hanging web guy nearby. The body parts that I had wrapped up in the web two years before, I put in my bathroom this year hanging with fishing line... with a red light and bloody gel stuff on the mirrors... as kind of a vampire meat storage room thing...

That works for me at least!

I agree with Stochey, you try to take your current props and think of ways to change them up for your current theme. I try to stick with the staples - skeletons, spiders, rats, etc... you can usually reuse them with any theme. Last year, I had a spider's lair in the bathroom so this year (a witch's theme) the spider became the witch's pet. Next year, I'll be doing a Scary Tales party so I came up with the premise that all the fairy tale creatures live in a charmed cottage that an evil witch has put a hex on. This way I'll be able to reuse my witch display and still have it fit in with the theme. And you can always put a costume on a skeleton for an easy theme change.

Another way to change a theme cheaply is with material. Buy lace curtains and tablecloths at yard sales, the black or gray creepy cloth from Dollar Tree, and cheese cloth in bulk, which you can tea stain or dye green. You may not use all of it every year but it will alter the look of your place easily; last year I used a lot of lace and covered the furniture with sheets. This year, I used black creepy cloth everywhere, a totally different look.

Buy black picture frames at thrift shops and for each theme you can replace the prints with pictures from online. For a one year prop, try to use cheap materials. For a Voodoo on the Bayou party, I made a 3 foot Mardi Gras mask out of a foam core board, a little paint, a little glitter and I had a disposable prop that had big impact.

For serving pieces, platters, bowls, etc... I buy everything in black, this way I know I can use it every year. For the witches party, I went with a purple/green/black color theme but next year I'll use orange/white/black. I'll just have to change out the flowers, candles, ribbons, add some orange accents and I can cheaply change the look of the table.

My theme next yr. is a Zombie Baby Benefit with 2 non perishable food items as entry fee....then I'll donate them to the local food bank. Going to pick up babies @ yard sales and bloody them up. Have them in a playpen and sitting in a highchair and maybe behind some bars for the least "tamed" ones...hee hee Have my wording done for the invite but not sure how I'm going to present it yet.

Originally Posted by rockplayson

For this upcoming halloween party I'm going with a game board theme.
I'm going to go as the patient from the classic operation game but I'll be a zombie and have things like rat poison,slit wrist,acid,razor blades,black widow spiders. I'll probably make the costume out of felt.

Very creative! It's a theme that gives people a wide variety of options for costumes - they could be a piece from the game, like the mouse from Mousetrap, or a character, like "Colonel Mustard" from clue. If you go as the Operation Man, you have to come up with a way to "buzz" if people try to touch you!