I am a sucker for theme parties. I love dressing up and going out with my friends while wearing insane outfits. Throughout all of my partying years, I have been to a fair number of theme parties and tried a million different outfit ideas. While I am a huge fan of trying to have a great time no matter what I am doing, some themes were just not fun. But some themes were incredible. Below is a list of my favourite party themes to inspire you to do a theme party the next time you host!
Anything but a cup
This one is pretty self-explanatory, basically, you can have your drink in anything but a cup. Some of my favourites I’ve seen are a shampoo bottle, a Windex bottle and a pylon.
Game show night
This one is great for a smaller party/get-together. Basically, this involves you and your guests playing pretty much any game show; you can find a whole bunch of them online! Some of my favourites are deal or no deal and jeopardy.
PowerPoint night
This one was trending on TikTok for a long time and for good reason cause it’s hilarious. Basically, everyone gets a topic (the stranger, the better) and has to create a PowerPoint to present to the group on their topic. Some suggestions for topics I’ve loved are rating your friend’s yearbook photos, who is most likely to get the final rose on the bachelor and when everyone in the group peaked.
Who said it
My roommates and I have been working on this one for three years now. Basically, when one of us says something dumb or funny, we write them down and create a list of quotes. We are going to put all these quotes in a slideshow at the end of this year and make our friends guess who said it. If you get it wrong, you take a shot (or a sip depending on how drunk you want to get).
Blacklight/rave party
For this party, switch out your lightbulbs for black light bulbs and tell everyone to wear clothes that glow in the dark. Hand out some glow sticks. It’s incredible!
Anything but clothes
This one is the same idea as anything but a cup except with your clothes. You can wear anything you want but not the proper clothes. Wrap yourself in construction tape, and wear a garbage bag or wrapping paper. Go wild, anything goes.
Vegas party
For this one, tell everyone to dress up fancy like they are going to a Vegas casino. Pull out some poker or blackjack. You can kind of do whatever you want with this one but it’s Vegas so go big or go home.
Fright night
Dress up as your biggest fear. This one is not for the faint-hearted.
Red flags
For this one, everyone gets a red t-shirt and writes the biggest red flag about them on it.
Little white lies
Similar to a red flag, but with this one, everyone gets a white shirt and writes a lie about them on the shirt.
Foam party
This one requires having a bit of a budget for the party but if you have a budget, I would so recommend it. Get a foam machine and blast it and throw a foam party. A lot of the time, foam parties are in a pool but you could probably do them on land too.
Everyone has a different theme
Essentially with this one, tell a different theme to every person you invite to the party. Everyone will show up dressed differently and it’s pretty funny to see the confusion on everyone’s face.
Dress as your ex
In a very revenge-style way, tell everyone to dress as their ex in the most mocking way they possibly can. If someone doesn’t have an ex, an old talking stage, situations or even a crush is good too.
Favourite fictional character
With this one, it could be your favourite TV character, book character – even a video game character. As long as whoever you are dressing up as does not actually exist, anything goes.
CEOs and office hoes
This one is for all the BBA kids out there. Essentially the whole point is to turn your business clothes into a party outfit. Whatever you can do to make the outfit unprofessional, do it.
Pajama party
This one is a cute one for smaller parties or for a girl’s night. Tell everyone to wear their pyjamas and do all the little slumber party activities you would have done when you were a kid.
Graffiti Party
I think this one is so fun. Everyone gets a white t-shirt and wears pants they don’t care about. There are markers everywhere and you can basically write all over everyone else.
Roaring 20s/Gatsby
I’ve never actually been to one of these parties, but I’ve always wanted to go to one. Basically, this party is where you go all out. It requires a bit of budget but with this party, you dress as a flapper, pour some champagne and put on a show.
Dad party
I saw this one on TikTok and thought it would be hilarious. Basically, everyone dresses up as any kind of dad they would like.
Your favourite Chris
Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine, Chris Evans or another Chris. Pick a famous Chris, dress the part and everyone at the party can compare Chrises.
First letter of your name
For this theme, you can choose to dress up as anything you want, as long as it starts with the same letter as your first name.
Become your friend
For this theme, everyone needs a partner. You need to dress up like you think your partner would or wear something your partner constantly wears and then act like your partner throughout the night (don’t be mean about it though, it’s meant to be fun).
Your favourite meme
This one is pretty funny; you get a lot of throwbacks to the vine days. Basically, pick a meme or person from a meme and dress up as them.
Snow pants or no pants
For this theme, you either wear snow pants to the party or no pants and walk around in your underwear (there are some loopholes to this though, like wearing a skirt). Basically, you just cannot wear normal pants.
Spring breakers
This one is especially good if you do it when it is very much not spring. Everyone shows up in their swimsuits in the middle of the winter and acts like they are headed to Miami beach.
Come dressed as your favourite body part
I asked my roommate for her favourite party themes, and this is what she said. She also said the theme would be even better if you did cover everything but your favourite body part. I’m not sure I would actually recommend doing this theme and I don’t think my roommate has ever actually been to a party that had this theme.
Favourite celebrity/celebrity scandal
This one is pretty iconic. Bonus points if you wear a bald cap or fake boobs or something. Another approach to this is to dress up as a celebrity scandal or big event, like Kanye when he interrupted Taylor’s VMAs speech.
Seven deadly sins
This one can be a very easy theme if you picked a sin like lust or greed, but I think the theme could be even more iconic if someone went with wrath or sloth.
When I grow up
This one is a great theme for university students, especially those trying to figure out what they are going to be. Pick your current career goal and dress the part for the party. Or you can also pick something wild that you will probably never become and convince people that that is your goal all night, like a stripper or a cremator.
Stoplight party
This last one is pretty basic but super fun, especially if you are looking to meet someone. Basically, with this party green means you are single, yellow means it’s complicated and red means you are taken. You can either tell everyone to wear their colour or you could give out cups or glowsticks as they come in.
Over my four years of university and even back in high school, these have been some of my favourite party themes I’ve been to. They all made for a really good time, and it was super funny to see the outfits and ideas that people came up with! Hopefully, this list has given you some fun ideas for the next party you host and you and all your friends will have a fabulous time!