Unique Costume Party Ideas

Aug 13, 2011 by admin

Costume parties can be incredibly fun and entertaining. Guests can let their imaginations run free to choose ideas from almost any area of time, culture, or location. A typical costume party can include people dressed as historical figures or aliens from the future, popular television characters or popular music icons, natives of Borneo or geishas of Japan.

Some people are creative enough to dress up as exotic animals or inanimate objects, like food or furniture. The ideas are only limited by one’s imagination.

Costume Party Ideas from Popular Culture

To make the party even more lively, come up with a theme. This helps guests to narrow down the field of ideas. Remember the toga party in Animal House? That’s about as narrow as you can get.

In the TV show The Gilmore Girls, a character throws a Quentin Tarantino party, where guests came dressed as characters from any Tarantino film. This idea can be broadened to include characters from any favorite film, from The Flintstones to Star Wars. Your theme can be television characters or musician or celebrities. For the younger set, choose a theme based on your child’s favorite book, toy, TV show or movie. A Harry Potter party is a fun idea for any age.

History Can Be Fun

Another great idea can be to choose a decade from the recent past. A sock hop makes a great party, with the women in poodle skirts, bobby socks and saddle shoes, the men sporting cardigans, skinny ties and penny loafers. The Roaring Twenties is another great era to choose for a costume party, with jazzy flapper dresses and long beads for the women, baggy pants or knickerbockers for the men.

To go further back in time, try a Renaissance theme, or even a prehistoric theme featuring animal skins and bone accessories. With any historical theme, it’s fun to have appropriate music and food to complement your historical era.

Unique and Unconventional Costume Party Ideas

The Piano Party. Hire a pianist to play lounge music, and ask your guests to come in their dressiest clothes, evening gowns and tuxes. Serve fancy hors d’oeuvres and martinis.
Back to the Future. Let your guests come up with ideas of what folks will be wearing next century. The host can try to conceive of what food, music and decorations might be appropriate 500 years from now.
Aquatic Party. This is a great summertime theme. Have your guests dress up in anything to do with water: bathing suits and water wings, sailor suits, a shower curtain and bubble bath. If you don’t have a pool, buy a children’s wading pool for your backyard. Play Beach Boys music.
Book Club Party. Plan a get-together with your fellow readers and dress up as your favorite author or character from literature. Alternatively, narrow the theme down and celebrate your favorite book by dressing as its characters.
Christmas in July. Christmas is the merriest theme of all, with so many costume ideas. Dress up as Santa or his elves, a reindeer, an angel, a gingerbread cookie, or decorate yourself with tinsel and go as a tree. There’s no need to restrict yourself to December. For some radical fun, do this during the summer.
Outrageous Dress Party. This one is easy and fun. Ask your guests to dress up in the most outrageous outfit they can find. All they have to do is reach into their closet for the most colorful shirt they have to go with the most ludicrous pants, the silliest hat, the most ridiculous shoes, and the weirdest accessories they can find.
Cat Food Commercial. One woman decided to base her birthday party on a Friskies Cat Food commercial, the one where the cat takes a boat ride in a colorful world of flowers, rainbows and fish leaping about. Her guests came dressed as fish and cats, and her decorations included rainbows, flowers and the wooden boat.