New Year's Eve Party Supplies, Party Favors and Themes!
Hottest 20 New Year's Eve Party Themes
Try some of the following 20 hottest New Year's Eve Party Themes for your
upcoming New Year's Eve party.
Shop for New Year's Eve Party Supplies:
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1. SILVER & GOLD EXTRAVANGZA
– This night should sparkle and glitter. For invitations, use black invites
with silver or gold glitter pen details. Encourage guests to dress
in gold or silver. They go can head to toe or have at least one sparkly
accent piece on (bow tie, boa, vest, etc). Offer your guests pieces of the
Gold Starry Night or
Silver Starry Night party kits. Its got everything you need in one kit
- hats, tiaras, noisemakers and leis. Glittery curtains, huge inexpensive "chandeliers", draped
gold gossamer, and zillions of silver and gold balloons everywhere! Purchase several cans of silver and gold spray paint, and cover anything and everything (not living) in your theme colors. Cover disposable cameras, serving dishes (even inexpensive plastic can be sprayed), old chairs…the possibilities are endless.
Serve an elegant menu and garnish
food with edible loose-leaf gold, and cover dessert in tiny edible silver and gold balls. Serve dry snacks and appetizers in
metallic top hats turned upside down. Sheer glitz and glamour, this party will shine and sparkle in the memories of your guests.
2. FUTURISTIC BASH
–This theme is inspired by all the movies and TV shows that gave us glimpses of what the future might hold. Star Wars™, Star Trek™, The Jetsons, War of the Worlds, Alien, etc. Encourage guests to dress in their own sci-fi vision of the future, one of their favorites from
a movie or TV show, aliens, spacemen, or astronauts. Create the illusion of a night sky filled with stars and planets.
Cover your walls in black seamless paper or polyvinyl, or stars background paper. Both can be quickly transformed into outer space, the Milky Way, the Bridge of the Starship Enterprise, or another galaxy altogether. Decorate with lots of glittery stars,
a meteor shower, glow in the dark items, glow in
the dark paint, and special effects lighting. Strobes, lasers, black lights… Serve food in acrylic or glass dishes, with large geometric shaped pieces of metallic corrugated paper underneath for a futuristic look. For fun, but not as a staple on your menu, include some freeze-dried ice cream, Tang™, and other astronaut type foods.
3. DECADE DO-OVER/SOMEWHERE IN TIME
– Celebrate the many trends of the past century and reminisce the good old days! Allow guests to choose which decade they would pick to "do-over" if given the choice. This party is a dress-up affair. Make sure that your invites clearly spell out the dress code with wording
such as, "Please come dressed in attire that matches the decade you would most like to re-live."
The outfits and the explanations of why that particular time period was chosen will provide terrific entertainment. This is an easy theme to decorate. 50's,
60's, 70's, Hollywood items (glamour and glitz), gangster hats, etc.…choose a variety of items and just make sure that you have acknowledged every decade. Make use of items that you already have at home, or can borrow. An old army uniform, a jukebox, antiques or dated furniture. Have music from all the different time periods on hand.
Have each guest bring a dish of food representing their favorite decade (be specific in asking for appetizers, salads, or dessert). You provide the main course…from your own favorite time!
4. BLACK TIE
– Tried and true, and a huge success for millions of New Year's Eve
parties. Add as much elegance and as many little special touches as you can
to make this one stand out. Send out elegant invitations and let the party
get started in style!
5. MASQUERADE BALL
– This dress theme party is for all things extravagant and elegant.
Mail out printed invitations, or mail out inexpensive metallic masks with a hand written or computer generated tag attached with all the details of the party as your invitation. Request
that guests customize the masks to match their party attire, and wear them to the party.
They can embellish them with feathers, tulle, rhinestones, paint, sequins, etc. Award prizes for different categories…biggest, most creative, best match with attire. For
a stunning effect, have guests dress in black-tie formal wear. Decorate with elegant gilded mirrors, plenty of draped and swaged gossamer to cover walls and table edges, elegant silver or gold chandeliers, plenty of candlelight, and even some Mardi Gras
items. The harlequin pattern works perfectly in this theme. A string quartet or harpist would be the perfect musical accompaniment to this party. Serve a formal sit down meal, complete with place cards and
good china. A Venetian "flavored" meal works perfectly with this theme.
See our Masquerade Ball theme for more
info!
6. CARNIVAL/MARDI GRAS
– Create an atmosphere to make your guests feel they are either in New Orleans for Mardi Gras or in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for Carnival. Send feathered masks with a hand or computer generated tag containing all the details as your invite, or save the feathered masks to use as a party favor, and send out imprinted Mardi Gras
invitations. Encourage guests to pull out their tall headdresses, feathers, sequins, or even tiny bikinis for the brave and brazen! Plenty of beads, vibrant and striking colors, loud music (Samba, Cajun, Soca, Jazz and Blues)…a hot and steamy way to bring in a new new year.
See our
Mardi Gras theme for more information!
7. STREET PARTY
– Join together with your neighbors in planning a huge street party for New Year's Eve. Involve every family in the planning, and assign each family a "job".
Or form a committee and collect a preset amount of money from each family for the
party. The collective pot should be big enough to pay for all the events of
the evening if a few families are pulling the party together. This is an ideal party to have if you would like to have your children involved, but would still like to have them retire at a reasonable time, so you can
enjoy a more grown up party. They will be close enough to walk home, and you can even share babysitters at a specified home. Take sleeping bags along! On the big night, cordon off an agreed upon section of the road.
Purchase or rent 8' banquet tables, and cover them with plastic tablecloths, and lots of balloon bouquets. Fill them with mounds of delicious foods. This can either be a potluck or a catered affair, just have plenty of food on hand! Fill several plastic tubs with ice, and add plenty of beverages. Tie balloons and streamers to anything that doesn't move for a festive look. Rent a moon bounce, dunk tank, duck pond, Velcro wall, or
sumo-wrestler mat, and a good Karaoke system. Hire a magician, a clown, or balloon person. Set up an obstacle course, have sack races, and play other traditional family games. Hire a DJ, or just ask the neighbor with the best stereo equipment and CD collection to be in charge of the music for the evening. When the kids retire to bed, turn up the music and dance in the street…a guaranteed blast. Even though orthopedic surgeons
despise them, enjoy the moon bounce without the children around. It will make you feel like a kid again! At midnight, nothing but a great fireworks display would be appropriate. Sound your horns and noisemakers, and have the time of your life!
8. AROUND THE WORLD
– Host an International party that features several ethnic cuisines and celebrates the ancestry that has brought us to this point in time! Send out little globes, antique maps, or international flags with hand or computer generated tags detailing the plans of the party as invitations. Ask guests to wear costumes representing the country of
their ancestry. Decorate with multi-colored balloons, travel posters, and flags from various countries. On dinner tables, place lighted, dripping candles in Chianti bottles. Arrange flowers in German beer steins. Place Chinese lanterns, chopsticks, and wooden cricket cages on tables. Hang Mexican sombreros, piñatas, and huge bright tissue flowers from ceilings. Paint a huge rock shamrock green, and label it as the "Blarney
Stone". This theme works great as a Progressive Party, or as a potluck dinner. Serve a meal with each course representing a different country or continent, or a buffet of appetizers from all over the world. Remember special loved ones from the past, while you look forward to all that the New Year will bring.
9. PROGRESSIVE PARTY
– You can use this party to spread the joy of having a party around. Several couples or families can host this event. A progressive meal is one in which guests travel from home to home, eating one course at each stop. The joint hosts/hostesses get together to plan the affair and that can be half the fun! Design the invitation to look like a
tri-fold restaurant menu or a treasure map, and even include pictures of each host family (easy with access to a color copier). Let guests know which course they will enjoy at each stop, and include a map if necessary. A great idea for New Year's Eve would be to rent either a few stretch limousines, or a trolley. Check the options in your city, so that everyone can travel together. Combine the Progressive Party with another theme,
and then have each home decorated in colors matching the theme. The progressive dinner is easiest if five host couples share the responsibility, but can be combined to reduce the number of stops. Ideally, the dinner would work in the following manner:
1st home – appetizers and cocktails
2nd home – soup and salad
3rd home – the main course
4th home – dessert and coffee
5th home – fruit, cheese and liqueurs (easiest preparation)
The last home would also be the ideal stop to ring in the New Year. To pass the time till midnight, play a few games, have fun music to dance to, and get the party horns and hats ready for the big moment!
See more Progressive party tips here!
10. GROWING A BRILLIANT NEW YEAR
– If you are environmentally concerned about what the future will bring, this theme will work
for you. Works best in a moderate to warmer climate. For invitations, attach a computer
created or hand written tag containing party details to a package of seeds, or to a small garden implement. Let your guests know that they
will be planting a brighter future, and ask them to dress appropriately. Purchase seeds, bulbs, tree seedlings, bushes or trees, along with potting soil and implements prior to the night of your party. Make arrangements to show up at a special park, neighborhood school, home of a neighbor in need, or travel from home to home of each of your guests. Plant the trees or flowers, and photograph the group with your handiwork. When you return home, serve hot soup or stew and a salad bar with a bounty of vegetables. Use well washed plastic flowerpots in different sizes as serving dishes for all the salad bar items. To serve the lettuce, nothing but garden trowels will do! For place cards, paint little clay flowerpots in colors to match your theme, and
write guest's names on them with a paint pen in a complimentary color. Either fill with potting soil and an individual blossom, or fill with something sweet! Try filling the pots with chocolate pudding, top with Oreo™ cookie crumbs (the soil), and finish with a silk or non-toxic flower. After a satisfying meal, and a few games, pass out the perfect favor for the mark you have left on the planet…massage oil tied with raffia!
11. HOLLYWOOD NIGHTS
– For this theme, you can take many cues from the Silver and Gold theme, but add a glamorous Hollywood touch! Black tie attire required! Use our great clapboard imprinted invites to let guests know they'll be treated like movie stars from the moment they walk up the red carpet (Use red seamless paper or polyvinyl), and into your party. Guests
can come dressed as their favorite movie star (Possibly Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Mary Tyler Moore, Rita Hayworth, Merrill Streep, Clark Gable, Rock Hudson, John Travolta, Mel Gibson…or maybe even Danny DeVito), or just get decked out in their dream "Oscar" outfit. We have a huge selection of Hollywood decorations to choose from, and favors galore to match your theme. Serve an elegant buffet and the best champagne
you can afford, make an easy Hollywood Square cake for dessert, and dance the night away…amongst and under the stars!
See our Hollywood theme!
12. TROPICAL LUAU
– Wishing that you could escape to a tropical paradise to celebrate the coming of the New Year? Bring the island to your home instead! Check out our Luau party tip section for lots of great ideas for this party!
Luau tips, recipes and supplies are here!
13. BEACH BASH
– If some of your most memorable moments of the past year were spent on a beach, try this awesome theme! This party will be especially popular for those of us who don't live close to the beach, or who will be stuck in the middle of some pretty nasty weather to ring in the New Year. Check our nautical/beach party tip section for some terrific ideas!
14. TACKY PARTY
– Looking for a way to avoid all the trappings of a glitzy New Year's Eve, and really surprise your friends and family? Throw a tacky party…where everything is as gaudy and tasteless as it can possibly be. Think back to "All in the Family", "Sanford and Son", "Alice" (remember Mel's Diner?) and any other show or real
life tacky family you've ever known for inspiration. The invitations should be tacky (misspelled, smudged, crooked) and mailed in recycled envelopes with the old address scribbled over. Guests should dress in the tackiest outfits they can muster…garage sales and thrift shops are perfect for this purpose. Greet your guests on the big night wearing a ratty nightgown, faded robe, curlers in your hair, loud makeup, etc. An absolute
must for this theme is that the food be "POT LUCK". If your circle of friends will not find great humor in your choice, or if they don't often have the opportunity to "fancy dress", save this great theme for another occasion. Decorating can be equally as tacky. Mismatched dishes, silverware and glasses (some with lipstick smudges already in place), toilet paper rolls on the table in place of napkins, jars of
condiments right on the table…forget everything you ever learned about civilized living. For favors or game prizes, pass out enema kits, mouthwash, and tablets for gas pains. No tacky party would be complete without a huge "velvet Elvis" painting on the wall, and lots of plastic yard ornaments. The only concession you should make is when the clock strikes midnight, go with the traditional horns, hats, and singing of
"auld lang syne"…and then say goodbye to all that was tacky and trashy about the past year!
See Tacky Party Theme for more tips!
15. BON VOYAGE
– Think Titanic for this theme! If the dream cruise you wanted to be sailing on wasn't in the budget this year, choose this fun theme. Imagine yourself wrapped in luxury and opulence on the high seas, standing on the bow of a grand ship. Dress for dinner in black-tie attire, or informal cruise wear, and ask your guests to follow suit. Our imprinted
Titanic invitation will set the perfect tone for your party. Decorate with all things nautical! Start with our Ship's Rail. Use puddled blue gossamer on the floor as your ocean, and add little white balloons as bubbles. Life preservers, nautical netting, porthole cutouts, Maritime anchors, and a captain's wheel will add authenticity to your luxury liner. Hang sea gulls from the ceiling at different heights, mixed in with groupings
of white balloons (clouds). Our Gob Hats and Captain's Hats make perfect favors, as you throw streamers off the rail to say goodbye to the past year. Dance on deck to big band sounds, and set sail for an awesome evening.
Our Nautical theme cannot be beat!
16. RETRO THEME
– Why not choose this hot party theme for your New Year's bash baby? You'll find lots of inspiration in our
60's/70's Retro party tip section!
17. ROCKIN' IN THE 50'S
– It was a rockin' and rollin' time, and for many the happiest days ever! This is one of the most popular party themes of all time, and hosting a 50's party would be a great way to bring in the New Year. Try our imprinted Sock Hop invitation, or purchase old 45's, and attach new "labels" to them spelling out the details of your
party, and send them out as invitations. Ask guests to dress in 50's style. Poodle skirts, clam diggers, cardigans, and bobby socks for the girls. For the boys…leather jackets, or "letter" sweaters, white t-shirts and tight peg-legged blue jeans…and lots of hair gel! Our 50's store carries loads of great decorating items. Add some hula-hoops, and Bazooka™ gum, and some great music hits from the 50's! Create your own
Malt Shop, and serve burgers, hot dogs, fries, malts, and floats. Check out our 50's party tips for lots of suggestions to make this a party that Elvis or the Fonz could be proud of!
See all of our tips for a great Sock Hop, here!
18. ASIAN FANTASY
– Celebrate in Asian style! Send our special imprinted black and red fan invitation, or use wooden chopsticks with a tag attached and tied with red satin ribbon as the invitation. Set a mysterious tone and your guests will anxiously await the big night. For high drama and big impact, use black, red and gold as your theme colors. Encourage your
guests to dress Asian style. The women can dress as Geisha or can wear beautiful kimono, or dramatic silk dresses, and the men can dress in black tuxes. Our 18' long Imperial Dragon hung from the ceiling can serve as the focal point of your decorating, along with our Giant Dragon Fans. For table decorations, put twisted willow branches into tall simple vases, use real miniature bonsai trees, or team inexpensive Japanese lanterns
along with mini fans in black and red. As an alternative, spray-paint take-out cartons red, and fill them with live Japanese looking plants. Spray paint wooden chopsticks gold, and insert them into the "planter." Gold confetti and fortune cookies sprinkled on all empty surfaces will complete the dramatic look. Tie napkins, with chopsticks laid on top, with a piece of red or black satin ribbon, and then add a white orchid.
Serve a large variety of Chinese carryout food, (order plenty of variety-appetizers, soups, beef, pork, chicken, and seafood dishes, steamed and fried rice, and noodles) and transfer the food to either black and red enamel serving dishes, or Oriental looking porcelain. Borrow or purchase an Oriental tea set for an authentic feel. Serve jasmine tea, Japanese beer, warm sake or plum wine. As a never to be forgotten favor, send guests
home with coolie hats, and our mini Oriental party boxes filled with homemade fortune cookies—personalized with your own warm good wishes for the New Year!
More Asian party theme ideas!
19. WILD, WILD WESTERN NEW YEAR
– This theme is so hot, even brides and grooms are choosing it for wedding receptions. If you are looking for a casual, upbeat, please everyone theme…look no further. Check out our Western Party Tip section where you'll find tons of ideas to make your party a rousing success, and please the entire posse!
Wild West party tips!
20. "FAVORITES OF HISTORY": SPORTS HERO, INVENTOR, MOVIE STAR/MOVIE, EXPLORER, SUPERHERO, LEADER, OR MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSON IN HISTORY, ETC.
– Celebrate some of the most influential figures in history with a theme centered around your guests' favorites. Consider the main interests of your group of friends, and the activities or hobbies that you
most often select to participate in together. Choose one of the "favorite" themes listed above, or come up with your own ideas, and build the rest of the party on that specific theme. Ask guests to dress as their "favorite" choice, and come equipped with some interesting trivia about who they are for this special night. Celebrate those who have helped shape the modern world, while preparing for a bright
future sure to be full of new "favorites". Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
Sports Heroes
– Mohamed Ali, Michael Jordan, Peggy Fleming, Chris Everett, Magic Johnson, Dan Marino, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Knute Rockne, Mary-Lou Retton, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Florence Griffith-Joyner, etc. Serve "ball-game" food – hot dogs, nachos, chips, popcorn, and soft pretzels. Play a sports trivia game, and decorate with lots of pom
pons, imprinted cheer phones,
stadium cups, and imprinted spirit sports balls. To make an easy sports centerpiece, set a cheer phone down, and glue a spirit ball to the narrow end. Cover tables in sports confetti, and have some life-sized cutouts of sports heroes standing around. Use real sports equipment that you have at home to complement your decorations. For example, a football or a batting helmet will make a great balloon weight. This night was meant for
some competitive games, and some Olympic worthy.
Inventors/Explorers – We take so much for granted today as technology changes so rapidly. Take the time to celebrate those who forever changed our destiny with their contributions. History has brought us so many firsts…the automobile, the television, the telephone, the first man on the moon, airplanes, cures for deadly diseases…and so many conveniences we take for granted today…the
personal computer, the cell phone, call waiting and caller ID, and the Internet! Pay tribute to: Louis Pasteur, Henry Ford, Neil Armstrong, Bill Gates, Wilbur and Orville Wright, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, etc. Have guests dress up as their favorite, and come prepared to share some interesting trivia. Award prizes for the "most creative", "most in character", "best trivia", etc. Cover one
large wall with our seamless paper in a color to match your decorating scheme, and recruit a talented friend (or yourself) to paint a timeline showing what inventions happened when. Play a trivia game challenging guests to match inventors' and explorers' names to their invention or discovery.
Movies
– Rather than going with a standard Hollywood theme and recognizing your favorite actor or actress have guests dress as a character from their favorite movie. A Toga wearing party animal from "Animal House", stunning Scarlet O'Hara from "Gone With The Wind", oh-so-sweet Sandy from "Grease", Maria VonTrappe from "The Sound of Music", Holly
Golightly from "Breakfast at Tiffany's", dashing Clark Gable from "Casablanca"…a fantasy evening celebrating some of the best movies ever made. Decorate "Hollywood" style, and play music from favorite movie soundtracks all evening.
And don't forget that even as the host or hostess, you should absolutely enjoy yourself and reap the rewards of your good planning. Choose a theme that you are excited about, and take pleasure in the little moments of satisfaction you'll encounter along the way. With love and heart leading your planning, this big night is sure to be
a memorable event for those dearest to you.
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