80's Party

I'm back again with another party idea.  I did an 80's party one year especially for Sammy!  She is an 80's freak and I wanted to entice her to make the 18 hour trek to see me, and I knew an 80's New Year’s party would do the trick!   (And it did!)  So, here we go!

We did an 80's Big Hair Band party ~ I knew someone who had an 80's Guitar Hero -  Heavy Metal (I call them big hair bands... KISS, Poison, Rat… bands like that) and I had them bring over their game so we could have a Guitar Hero contest.   ~ As always, everyone had to dress up in something 80's ~ Sam and I went Madonna(esque) others went heavy metal, a few others went grunge, my husband rocked out the Members Only jacket and guess jeans,  and I even had a couple show up as Smurfs! ~ Yep.  You read that right.  As I've said before, sometimes just watching your friends & guests walk through the door in their costumes is more fun than the actual party!

80's Themes:

* 80's Big Hair Bands - have everyone come as their favorite Heavy Metal singer/band

* Madonna  -  have all the women dress up like Madonna.  She had a ton of different looks in the 8o's... pick one and have them all dress up like that.   Or you can just have everyone dress up in different types of Madonna(esque) attire.

* Mesh together all the different styles of the 80's and rock out to all of them!

Menu:

* I recommend having everyone bring one food that they loved in the 80's - make sure to monitor this because you could get everyone bringing Little Ceasar's Pizza & crazy bread (I had this happen!) and you'll want more variety than that!

* Otherwise, pick the basic food that you loved in the 80's - for us it was Tombstone pizza, Doritos, Little Caesar's pizza, Little Caesar's crazy bread, and Ding Dongs

Costumes:

Women:

* anything neon is good!

* rubber bracelets - lot's of them - multiple colors

* jean jacket

* put a lot of "flare" on them!

* big hair!  Huge!  ~ find some colored hairspray (Spencer's in the mall is the place to find this)

* neon nail polish

* lots of makeup... blue eyeshadow is a must!

* ripped jeans or short skirts (if you wear a skirt make sure to have the fishnet stockings or legging's with colored socks!)

* neon fishnet (fingerless) gloves (Spencer's is also a good place to find these)

* big dangly earrings (if they're neon so much the better)

Men:

* black jeans (make sure to roll them tight at the ankle)

* jean jacket

* mullet wig

* comb in back pocket

* Converse hi-top shoes

* big hair wig if you want to rock it out

* wear one glove and a red and white jacket

* parachute pants (if you don't know what these are you're not ready for an 80's party)

* Members Only jacket (my husband actually found one of these at Goodwill)

* wear some Polo cologne

* wear two short sleeve polo shirts at the same time... make sure to turn the collars up!

* get some friends together and dress up like KISS (that's always a good time!)

* The possibilities are endless with this.  Go crazy, have fun with it.  If you actually grew up in the 80's like we did, you might actually have some of this stuff still in your closet.   (Sam still had numerous Swatch watches!)  If you can still fit into your 80's clothes, good for you!  (*Though you suck and I'm jealous!) 

Music:    
Don't forget the music!!  Make sure to have some 80's music playing in the background at all times.  Pick your favorites and put them on repeat!!

Another idea is to play your favorite 80's movie in the background.  Anything by John Hughes should suffice.

I hope this helps you have, you know, like, a totally awesome 80's party!

~Cathy