Top Five New Year’s Eve Party Ideas

" Fancy dress costumes and Halloween Costumes to buy from the UK´s number one online store "

Guest Blog by Steph Wood

New Year’s Eve is generally a time for throwing the most outlandish, extravagant parties. But with so much to look forward to as we turn the page into 2012 (and say goodbye to the insanely newsworthy 2011), this year’s New Year’s Eve parties are going to be something special. Here are some theme ideas to get you started:

5 – The Titanic New Year Party In 2012, James Cameron will seal the fate of 3D film by giving the fifteen year-old Titanic an extra dimension in the spirit of Avatar (i.e. leaving the plot as a two dimensional, over-long bed of nails for us to sit on). Aside from the fact that 3D desperately needs championing in its twilight years, the timing is of course to do with 2012 being the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the actual Titanic, one of the most tragic maritime events in history. A Titanic-themed New Year’s Party will therefore carry a lot of weight this year (ohohoho). This would be a black-tie / period dress affair in opulent surroundings with a little more swank and sophistication (and absolutely no Celine Dion). Ragtime and waltz music ought to give the evening an appropriate air, and a violin-lead version of Auld Lang Syne is mandatory. Suggest serving drink without ice-cubes to prevent ‘hilarious’ ice-cube throwing incidents.

4 – The Presidential Election Party
Usually, Politics is one of those unsafe topics that you leave at the door when you go to a party. But with 2012 being a United States presidential election year, the chance for a political parody party is there… so long as you’re in any country but the US, of course. Unhappy with the outcome whatever happens (and convinced of much said outcome effects them), the rest of the world can have a good laugh in the company of Obama masks, drunken women with Michele Bachmann haircuts and that one Nixon who looks for any excuse to say ‘I’m not a crook’. Weave some socio-political commentary into the evening. Provide two punchbowls that are visibly different, yet taste exactly the same. Encourage guests to ‘occupy’ seating areas. Organise an elaborate drinking game where you elect a friend to drink a shot: the most drunk candidate gets to make a triumphant speech at midnight. Everyone wakes up with severe regrets the following day.

3 – The British New Year Party
Of course, the British shouldn’t let those colonial upstarts have all the fun. In fact, they jolly well ought to remind everyone that 2012 is their year: London gets the Olympics and Queen Elizabeth II clocks up sixty years on the throne. This lends itself to a British themed new year’s fancy dress party: costumes of Olympic and royal figures especially welcome. Extra kudos will be attained for dressing as figures from the Queen’s self-proclaimed ‘horrible year’, 1992. Andrew and Fergie, Charles and Diana, Anne and Mark Phillips… a wearable and entirely cumbersome model of Windsor Castle aflame. Plenty of ways to have fun.
Broadening the theme out, you’ll invite fancy dress for any number of major British figures. James Bond would be particularly apt, since it’s the fifty year anniversary of Dr No’s release next year. The Rolling Stones formed in the same year, making their music a must for the party, but a more general new year mix of clunky Brit-pop and terrible girl groups. References to tea, black cabs and red phone boxes will be met with a disapproving look. References to bad dentistry made outside of the United States will not fly.

2 – The Traditional New Year Party
Scratching my head to come up with another theme related to 2012, it dawned on me that actually, themed parties aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, I hate fancy dress parties and am only really enjoying the idea of everyone else suffering my ideas. So, why not have a party that’s a little more traditional, yet straightforward?
‘Traditional’ isn’t just a cop-out for saying ‘do what you did last year’, though. If you end up going to a club and drinking a lot in the same situation you enjoy every single week, that’s not quite what I have in mind. As a neighbour, the Scottish ‘Hogmany’ has many appealing elements: singing Auld Lang Syne, and visiting you neighbours at midnight with a ‘first footing’ gift. Keep things especially Scottish with shortbread or a luxury whisky decanter (and bottle of scotch whisky). Alternatively, mimic the Japanese and have a ‘forget the year party’ to bid farewell to the woes of 2011. Or just drink so much that you forget your name. Hmm…

1 – The End of the World Party
Going with the most obvious party idea may be somewhat uninspired, but ultimately you want a theme that everybody is going to understand and that won’t result in your guests having to explain their costumes for fifteen minutes. Besides, being able to put ‘Let’s party like there’s no tomorrow’ on the invitations has got to be a plus. Oh, and there’s no use leaving it until New Year 2013, because you’re going to look desperately out of touch after a year of failed apocalypses. Well, unless you’re walking an ashen wasteland trying to lighten the mood with your mutant pals, in which case, party on.

Encourage your guests to interpret how the world will end on December 21st 2012. Will it be a crazed general with a finger on the nuclear button? Will the dolphins rise up and drive us into the oceans? Will the dead rise up from the earth and take over? Will a Bruce Willis look-alike fail to drill through a giant space rock and return to find your apocalyptic party? The possibilities available to you when dress up to re-enact the end are, err… endless.

And what music will they play at the end of the world? Common sense says it’ll be something heavy, but if you want the authentic experience of the end of days, just play this year’s X-Factor winner again and again.

Steph Wood is a copywriter and blogger, currently working for Forever Crystal wine accessories and looking forward to the upcoming celebrations.

New Year in Top Five New Year’s Eve Party Ideas