Party Themes for Teenagers

Planning a party for a teenager can be fun if you plan ahead and concentrate on a theme. Themed parties are growing increasingly popular among teenagers. The party themes below can be used on any age group, including adults.

Decorations could include:

• Grass skirts
• Coconut bras
• Sunglasses
• Coconut cups
• Tiki torches
• Umbrella straws
• Garland flower leis
• Sea shells
• Palm Trees
• Gilligan sailor hats
• Flip flops
• Bring in some sand, particularly if you've been thinking of adding some sand to your yard

My thoughts: This is extremely popular with girls. The grass skirts worn over bikinis with flip flops is fun. My daughter has had several Luau parties with great success. You can find all sorts of party decorations at Wal-mart or the Dollar Stores.

Decorations could include:

• Pirate hats
• Pirate eye patches
• Parrots
• Invitations in a bottle
• Treasure chest with gold coins and beads
• Palm trees
• Goblets and fake wine bottles
• Fake gold coins or foil candy coins
• Fake telescopes

My thoughts: I would take brown plastic table clothes and create a portion of a ship. You could include a plank.

Decorations could include:

• Plastic/cardboard/vinyl records
• Peace signs
• Pyschodelic colors
• Bellbottomed jeans
• Tye-dyed fabrics
• Lava Lamps
• Incense
• Long-haired wigs
• Bandanas in your hair
• Flowers in your hair
• Beaded curtains
• Blow up guitars for the Woodstock feel

My thoughts: This theme provides lots of leeway to be a hippie and say things like "groovy" and "right on" and "peace". Kids love it. We have even had tie-dye parties where the kids bring a white t-shirt and we dye them at the party.

Decorations could include:

• Flags
• Banners
• Balloons in red, white & blue
• Curling ribbon
• Stars
• Cutouts of Uncle Sam, Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, ex-Presidents
• Eagles

My thoughts: This makes a great summer party near the fourth of July. The availability is good then for anything red, white and blue. In keeping with the theme you can serve foods that include fresh strawberries, blueberries and Cool Whip.

Decorations could include:

• Strings of jalapena peppler lights
• Tissue paper flowers
• Cactus
• Sombreros
• Brightly colored tablecloths
• Maracas

My thoughts: This party is fun and allows you to serve fun finger foods like tacos and nachos where the guests can make their own. The colors are simply beautiful and look good in the summer or the fall.

Decorations could include:

• Beach towels
• Beach umbrellas
• Drinks with umbrella straws
• Flip Flops
• Beach volleyball
• Sandcastles
• Sea shells
• Buckets and shovels for playing in sand
• Kiddie pools for playing in
• Lawn chairs
• Tiki Torches
• Palm trees
• Sunglasses
• Cutouts of the sun

My thoughts: Probably the easiest theme party, but definitely for the summer. This is a favorite of boys and girls.

Decorations could include:

• Poker chips
• Shapes of card suits (diamonds, clubs, spades and hearts)
• Cut-outs of slot machines
• Visor caps
• Playing cards
• Red and black decorations
• Dice
• Paper money

My thoughts: I think this type of party appeals to boys more so than girls.

• Stopwatch (I'm late!)
• Mad Hatter hat
• Cutouts of all the characters
• Playing cards
• Red and black decorations
• Tea cups (you can buy really cheap plastic teacups and decorate them yourself)
• Beanie hats with flags or propellers like Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum wore
• Decorate cupcakes with "Eat Me" on them
• Place tags on the cups saying "Drink Me"

My thoughts: We did this for my daughter's 16th birthday. We actually created a rabbit hole at the entrance with black and brown plastic. We punched holes in an entire deck of oversized playing cards and hung them from red and black curling ribbon from different heights all over the dance floor of the hall we rented. We created cutouts of all the characters. We created life-sized cutouts of Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum that they could stick their own faces through for pictures. We got three dozen plastic coffee cups from the dollar store and hand painted them to look like antique tea cups. Each cup had a tag on a string attached to the handle that said "drink me". We had cupcakes with red and black lettering that said "eat me". We had red and black napkins that were in the shape of the suits (diamonds, hearts, spades, clubs). Everyone loved it!

My thoughts: The decorations are rather difficult on this one. Many times people just use the same type of decorations used in the Mardi Gras Theme. I would personally rather use a different color scheme if I was doing it. I'd lean towards a vanilla cream, burgundy, golden brown, etc.

My daughter recently attended a 16th Birthday held as a Masquerade Ball. She chose to make her mask and then borrowed a friend's older sister's old prom gown. This is a great opportunity for prom gown dress-up for girls not yet old enough to go to prom but can fit older friends' dresses.

Decorations could include:

• Masks
• Gold, green, purple beads
• Gold, green, purple decorations
• Streamers
• Comedy and tragedy masks
• Feather boas
• Silly hats

My thoughts: This can be a fun party if you're found of the color scheme. This party is geared towards girls.

Decorations could include:

• Cowboy boots
• Cowboy hats
• Bandanas
• Cactus
• Cutouts of saloon doors
• Barbed wire
• Horses
• Cutouts of barrels
• Hay bales

My thoughts: I think girls and boys both like this one. It is also a good party idea in the fall or winter where other party ideas are more suited for the summer.

Decorations could include:

• Clowns
• Cutouts of lion tamers, master of ceremony, animals
• Elephants
• Serve popcorn, peanuts, animal crackers and cotton candy
• Balloon animals
• Clown noses
• Balloons
• Create a bigtop tent with red and white tablecloths draped from the ceiling

My thoughts: I actually saw this theme at a office luncheon party. They took red and white table cloths and alternated them and starting in the center of the room, the draped them to the end of the room making the illusion of a circus tent. It was so simple, yet so elegant. The hosts and hostesses wore clown outfits and had bicycle horns. They had the little circus boxcar boxes of animal crackers all around the tables. There were bright colored balloons everywhere. It was so festive. Some teenagers may feel this is too kiddie...but we were adults having a ball with it.

Decorations could include:

• Leisure suits
• Disco ball
• Polyester shirts
• Colorful party afro-style wigs
• The Village People (cop, Indian, construction worker)

My thoughts: I personally think the 70s theme party is more about the music than the decorations. It really is a dance party theme. The 70s had such great dance music like anything by the Bee Gees, KC and the Sunshine Band, Donna Summer, etc.

This is a great party idea if you happen to have the outdoor unrestricted area to do it and the right weather conditions. With my daughter having an early November birthday, it is always difficult to predict the weather. Year before last we had a Bonfire party. I bought the wire hangers for roasting marshmallows and weiners. It actually turned out warmer than we expected so the kids didn't sit around the fire like we thought they might. They really only ventured over to it once they wanted to roast a weiner.

Since my husband is from England we incorporated The 5th of November Guy Fawkes Bonfire celebration into her party and explained a little British history to the guests. Each of them then got a scarecrow I had purchased in the after Halloween sales and burned it in the fire. For more about this tradition, click here.

The kids told ghost stories and just generally gossiped about school events.

Please remember that an open flame needs to be strictly supervised by a responsible adult and extinguished completely.