Five Alternative Themes for Parties at Halloween

Traditional Halloween parties seem to all go the same way. There’s bobbing for apples, drinking cider, jack-o-lanterns adorning every table and lots and lots of orange and black. Been there, done that. Try something different this year for your Halloween celebration and have an alternative Halloween party your guests will be talking about for years to come!

Celebrity Party
Whether it’s Lady Gaga or Michael Jordan, everyone has a favorite celebrity they would love to be if even just for a day. Help your guest’s dreams come true by having a celebrity-themed Halloween party! Roll out the red carpet for your guests as they arrive, and be sure to take lots of pictures in true paparazzi style. Have elegant hours devours prepared, popular music and be sure to give away Hollywood awards for the best celebrity look-alikes. This theme can be done with adults and/or children and is especially good for the party host who wants to steer clear of anything scary for their Halloween party.

Vampire Party
There’s no doubt that vampires have reached insane levels of popularity over the past couple of years, and Halloween is the perfect time to throw a vampire party- no humans allowed! Make sure your guests grab their white vampire fangs and prepare for a night of fun with fellow vampires. Set the mood with organ music or have your favorite vampire movie playing. Send your guests home with candies covered in Halloween favor wrappers they won’t find anywhere else! Depending on how much you get into the vampire and blood theme, this party is still probably best for adults only.

Halloween Hoedown
Not everyone is into the spook and gore of Halloween, so why not throw a non-threatening Halloween Hoedown? Greet your cowboy-hat and boot-wearing guests at a barn entrance  and direct them to the fun inside. Play your favorite country music and leave plenty of room for line dancing. Guests old and young will get a kick out of glass boot mugs they can take home to remember the party throughout the year. This non-threatening Halloween theme will leave your guests feeling light-hearted instead of spooked out.

Decade Party
Hulahoop back to the 50’s. Flashback to the 80’s. Take your Halloween guests to a decade they haven’t visited in years. The key to this party is your groovy music CD.  Play favorite songs from your chosen decade and watch your guests reminisce about old times. Have friends and family bring pictures of themselves from past decades and put them into a box as they arrive. Display the pictures and see if your guests can pick each other out from the wall of photos. Your peace sign danglers fit any retro party and leave your guests feeling like they’ve gone back in time.

Wild about Halloween
Unleash your inner animal at a safari-themed Halloween party. Guests of all ages can dress as their favorite animal, or make things really interesting by telling people what animal they have to dress up as! Decorate your venue with animal print party balloons and literally make everything – from the invitations to the giraffe print cups – in the animal print of choice. Play a game of animal charades and watch your guests fall over in laughter as they watch each other imitate wild animals.

Let your October imagination run wild with unique, Halloween theme parties!

Plan a Halloween Themed Fundraiser

Do you have an October fundraising event? Work a Halloween theme and Halloween party decorations into your fall fundraiser this year. Bring something fresh to annual fairs and festivals with newer products such as personalized bottle labels, or try one of the more unusual fundraising ideas below.

Say Boo with Your Booth
For an indoor Halloween themed carnival fundraiser, check out the Radiant Halloween balloon arch from Halloween props. The arch helps you create a happy, festive entrance that is rated “E” for “Everyone.” As always with our Radiant arches, you have balloon color choices. If the fundraiser really must be geared more generally to fall, select candy corn or autumn leaf colors instead of orange and black.

For festival and tailgate fundraising, set up a fuss-free outdoor canopy. Be sure to weight the corners adequately to stand up to errant autumn breezes.

Hang a custom Halloween banner across the top of the canopy and sell bottles of blood-red soda with personalized Halloween bottle labels and matching Halloween candy bars.

Plot a Scavenger Scheme
A road rally is a scavenger hunt on wheels, and it is becoming a popular fundraising event. It’s a cute idea as a fundraiser for a transportation-related cause, such as a school bus trip or Meals on Wheels, and highly amenable to a Halloween theme party. Donations are collected as registration fees.

Just for fun, pick a theme with a mascot or conveyance that gets around: witches and brooms, vampires and bats, headless horsemen and jack-o-lanterns. Plant thematic Halloween party favors and props – especially wearables — on the scavenger list; and keep up the theme on snack tables for the gathering afterward.

Plan a Murder
This type of Halloween fundraiser can come formal or informal, costumed or not, but one thing is clear: Halloween adds an extra shiver to a murder mystery party.

Select a murder mystery kit from the many available online, and then come to Shindigz.com for the setting decorations. Whether your murder is committed in a 1920s Chicago speakeasy or at a fancy masked ball, you’ll find beautiful themed decorations and plenty of assistance.

Complete the look by outfitting the players in accessories and Create-A Costume pieces from Halloween Costumes.

Thrill the World
If you can plan a Halloween fundraiser for Halloween weekend 2011, consider a tie-in to Thrill the World, a global celebration of zombie unity and of Michael Jackson’s video, “Thriller,” expressed through dance. Visit Thrilltheworld.com for more information on the dance and to officially register your event.

Participating organizations are encouraged to use their events to support charities. Raise funds via “Thriller” dance workshops, costume contest entree fees, or a donations-at-the-door monster bash decorated with Halloween party supplies such as our smashing cemetery and zombie silhouettes and new Beware Zombie tableware.

Props & Sets for Phantom of the Opera

There have been a number of stage and screen incarnations of Phantom of the Opera since the initial publication of the novel. One of our favorites (besides the 1925 Lon Chaney horror film, natch) is the visual feast served up in the 2004 movie based on the Broadway musical. For events with this fresh yet classic theme, Shindigz party decorations can help you replicate the luxe feel and romance of Phantom for a stage play, Mardi Gras masquerade or Phantabulous fundraiser.

For nearly all Phantom intents and purposes, we recommend pieces from the Music of the Night theme kit, shown at right. This kit features a tall gated entry arch and columns that evoke Gilded Age edifices along with a freestanding pipe organ prop of show-stopping size and design.

Suggest a hint of the cold subterranean chambers below, if you like, by covering walls or stage background with a flagstone-patterned flat paper or a stone wall dungeon backdrop from Halloween decorations (in fact, for a truly macabre take on this theme, you might use wall torches and other add-ons for a version of the torture chamber described in the novel).

Add drapes of reddest gossamer, leaving peeks here and there of the “stone” if you are using it, and cover tables with the same fabric. Then, go for the gold with glittering 3-tiered chandeliers, tableware, chair sashes and as many of our Music of the Night gold pillar candle props as you dare.

Trim the Night candles to various heights for centerpiece trios and for groupings on serving tables, pedestals and floor. Don’t be shy about mixing the props with candelabra, single tapers and other pillars to coax out maximum drama (for flame-free zones, select models from our LED candles collection!).

Invitations, banners and other customized printing for your Phantom event are quick and easy when you shop the Mardi Gras party supplies store. Of course you can match the distinctive mask of the Music of the Night promotional banners with Custom Creation invitations and tickets, but we also like the colorful Masks & Swirls design for this theme or production so do take a peek at that one, too!

Decorate Walls for Maximum Halloween Impact

As you decorate for a Halloween party or other haunting reason, you’ll be tending first to the large surfaces of your party area such as walls and ceilings. In particular, there’s a good chance you can maximize the theme impact – while conserving floor space for guests – by selecting large, theme-matched decorating pieces and materials that lie flat upon the walls.

One way to start is to cover a wall or two with a material that suggests a setting. For example, a brick wall-patterned flat paper decorating material can be embellished to create a dungeon, while a rock wall pattern can support a haunted castle theme.

Another option is for this purpose is a photo mural or illustration used as a backdrop. Ours come in paper, cardboard and vinyl and are available in various sizes. You can personalize them, too.

Scene and room setter ensembles, such as our Halloween Insta-Theme kit that portrays a haunted graveyard, allow you to select the components and add-ons you want to include.

Use our large wall graphics singly or in groups to complete your Halloween decorating.

One of the best parts about Halloween walls from ShindigZ Party is that, with a little care, you can re-use just about everything. It’s a great value.

We hope you’ll check out our walls and other Halloween party décor soon!