Top Party Theme Ideas for 2020
Springtime is right around the corner and full of new opportunities to host some fun events for family and friends! Below are some of my favorite party themes for 2020!
Top Party Themes for Adults
“When I Grow Up” Costume Party
Do you remember what your five-year-old self aspired to be? An astronaut? A dinosaur? A grocery store clerk? Invite your guests to dig into their childhood imaginations with a costume party allowing them to dress up as their childhood dream career! Keep up the nostalgic theme by serving cocktails in “Capri Sun” drink pouches and childhood favorite snacks, such as pigs in a blanket, mini bagel pizzas, and Dunkaroos.
Go for Gold! Olympic Games Party
The 2020 Olympic Games are just around the corner! Celebrate with a backyard-barbecue style gathering with loved ones. Spray paint some hula hoops or foam rings to make your essential Olympic ring decorations. Punch up the festivities by allowing guests to participate in “events” like potato sack racing, hula hooping, and corn hole for gold, silver, and bronze metals! For menu planning, choose between an all-American barbecue spread or pay homage to the origin of the games with some Greek souvlaki, gyros, a refreshing Greek salad, and spanakopita.
Desert Oasis Pool Party
Celebrate the return of warm weather with a cactus-themed pool party! Decorate with mini succulents, inflatable cacti, neon-colored oversized sunglasses, and a bit of sparkly sand. Your cocktails and menu can incorporate southwest and Mexican flavors, with prickly pear or frozen lime margaritas, an easy to prep taco and nacho bar, and homemade fruit purée popsicles. Don’t forget the cactus inflatables for the pool!
Top Party Themes For Children
Butterfly Garden Party
Butterflies, roses, and daisies galore! Celebrate the best parts of springtime with a butterfly themed garden party! Use nature as your event space, as this type of party thrives best outdoors in your garden or any place where there is grass or greenery. Decorate with pastel balloon bouquets and your favorite blooms, and allow your little ones to help create decorations by making tissue paper flowers. An English tea party-themed menu works perfectly with this theme, so easy miniature cucumber sandwiches, mini cookies, and pastel-frosted cupcakes are an easy way to feed your guests. Bubble blowing, hula hooping, and dancing with ribbon wands are all inexpensive and easy activities to provide as entertainment.
Patriotic Soldier Party
Ten-hut! Allow your junior party guests to imagine navigating through treacherous terrain and working as a team to complete a mission at a patriotic soldier-themed party. Encourage your guests to don their best camouflage outfits, and decorate your space with vines, leaves, nets, and large plastic plants. Balloons, tablecloths, and table settings should come in all shades of green, brown, and tan. Keep easy-to-eat, nature-themed dishes in mind such as “dirt and worms” chocolate pudding, freedom fries, and trail mix. Set up fun activities that foster teamwork like a backyard relay race, tug of war, kickball and red rover.
“Imagine Dragons” Imaginary Pet Party
Invite children to a party celebrating their imaginary pets! Dragons, unicorns, and dinosaurs are on the guest list at this party, so be sure to prepare a dining table with extra pet seating! Using food coloring and a bit of powdered sugar, you can create “unicorn food” rice crispy treats and “dragon chow” trail mix. As an activity, cover an art table with butcher paper to allow kids to use crayons, markers or finger paints to create a portrait of their pet.
InstaTube Content Creative Party
Social media influencers are modern movie stars! Allow your junior and pre-teen party guests to celebrate with a little bit of “New Hollywood” flair! Using poster board and cardboard boxes, create photo booths, unique backdrops and props for your guests to use while taking silly pictures and videos throughout the party. Decorations can include giant balloons, pool inflatables, goofy wigs, giant sunglasses, sparkly boas, and confetti poppers— anything a young internet star would love to pose with for the ‘gram. Your menu should also feature all of the latest Instagram-worthy food trends like beautifully decorated cupcakes and cookies, tasty tacos, and over-the-top charcuterie boards.
Top Girl’s-Night-In Party Themes
Tokyo Teahouse Japanese Garden “Spa”rty
Put a spin on the normal garden party by throwing a Japanese tea party! Japanese gardens are places of beauty, serenity, and connection to nature. Invite your best gal pals over for an afternoon of relaxation and girl chat. Decorate with a few bonsai trees, miniature plants, and origami birds. Gather some pillows and sit around a coffee table while sharing green tea, sushi rolls, chilled Udon noodles and fragrant ramen bowls. Sip chilled wine or a refreshing green tea cocktail, while calming meditation music plays in the background. To kick it up a notch, prepare homemade face mask treatments, sugar scrubs, and foot soaks for your guests to try at the party or take home as favors.
Pajama Jam Slumber Party
Elevate a simple girls’ night in by throwing a nostalgia-fueled sleepover pajama party! Invite your guests to arrive wearing their comfiest pajamas, and spend the night playing silly games such as cards against humanity, taboo, “Truth or Dare,” “Never Have I Ever,” or “Would You Rather”. Mix up a signature cocktail for the occasion, like a vodka-infused sangria, a batch of spicy mango margaritas, or some whiskey ginger twists to get the party going! Munch on chocolate-covered potato chips and salted caramel cupcakes or have a create-your-own pizza bar with lots of toppings. Enjoy staying up all night chatting with your bffs!
Around the World in 80 Milliliters Wine Tasting Party
Take your wine night into international territory with an “Around the World in 80 Days” themed event! Decorate your space with neutral colors like rose gold and light tans, grays, greens, and blues. Stock up on different colored globes and maps, and use passport stamps for your wall decorations and party invitations. This event will need to feature wines from all over the world for your guests to try 80 milliliters (approximately 3 ounces) at a time. Set aside a few bottles of wine for a fun blind wine tasting game that will put your guests’ palates to the test! French cheeses, Italian arancini, Greek spinach puffs, California street tacos, South African Peri Peri chicken skewers, and Argentinian empanadas are just a few of the bite-sized items that you can serve your guests. If possible, serve one dish for each country represented in the wine selection. Only your imagination is the limit!
Top “Just Because” Party Themes
Roaring ‘20s in 2020 Party
Urbanization, innovative cocktails, and women’s liberation are just a few of the things the 1920s and 2020 have in common! Throwback to an exciting decade in American history with some 2020 twists. Decorate your space as a top secret speakeasy, and send your guests a secret password to enter the party. Invite your guests to wear their sassiest fringe dresses, feather boas, and zoot suits. Kick up your gin rickeys, old fashions, and highballs with some 2020 flair in the form of jalapeño-lime rickeys, smoked-lemon “new” old fashioneds, and a ruby red highball. Get creative with your party playlist by choosing songs that sample music from the 1960s and earlier. Have an old-school dance competition, giving an award to whoever busts out the most historic dance move.
“Viva Las Phoenix” Party
Phoenix, Nashville, Dallas, or wherever you call home is the perfect place to throw a Las Vegas Vacation themed party! Let your imagination run wild with a Vegas buffet-style menu, featuring a collection of all of your favorite luxury foods (or your guests’ potluck contributions)! You can decorate your entire space with a casino theme, or separate your space into a casino, pool party, Bellagio & Roman statue garden party, and Flamingo themes. Guests can play traditional casino card games, or you can prepare a Las Vegas themed trivia game for everyone to play together. Create a playlist with the upbeat hits of the Strip’s most famous acts, and be prepared to party the night away!
“Retro Gaming” Party
“Retro Gaming” is how the youngest generation refers to video games like Tetris, Mario Kart, Space Invaders, Sonic the Hedgehog, PAC Man and every other Nintendo game of old. Allow your guests to take a walk down memory lane with a “Retro Gaming” party by encouraging guests to dress up as their favorite retro game character or in their favorite video game-themed tee. Serve “gaming fuel” as your menu with junky foods like “Pac Man” mini-pizzas, stuffed mushroom caps, and stackable cheese sticks in abundance. Mix vodka, energy drink, a splash of lime, and a few drops of food coloring to create a “Mario Kart Gasoline” cocktail or serve up some “Princess Peach” sangria. Table favors can include low-tech video games like mini-solitaire, snake or Minecraft.