Rockin’ 80s Party Ideas!

If you’re under 20, you missed the 80s. Bummer! The 80s rocked!

Oh, don’t have cow, man ‘cause the totally awesome news is that you can have an 80s party. These 80s party ideas are like a time machine … all you have to do is believe.

Start by watching some great 1980s movies for inspiration. The most popular 80s movies are:

• Sixteen Candles

• Ferris Buellers Day Off (20th Anniversay Bueller Bueller Edition)

• Breakfast Club-Flashback Edition(kind of boring but wasn’t Judd Nelson hot?...He was then!)

• Wargames-25th Anniversary Edition

• Say Anything-20th Anniversary Ed

• Flashdance

• Footloose

• Dirty Dancing

• Weird Science

• Brat Pack Collection

Luckily, many of the movies have dancing scenes in them so you can pick up the coolest 80s dance moves: the robot, the cabbage patch, and the moon walk. Oh, and you’ll need to practice playing an air guitar and sliding across the dance floor on your knees.

Let everyone know well ahead of time that you’ll be having an 80s party. All your friends will be talking for weeks about what they’re going to wear.

What to Wear to an 80s Party

What to wear to an 80s party is the big question. And the “big” answer is “big” hair. The bigger the better. Tease it, spray it, glue it if you have to. Create a tidal wave of bangs that stand up on their own. Don’t forget the bright green and blue eye shadow. It’s a must.

Seriously, let's get to the 80s costumes. You already know that leg warmers and tee-shirts off one shoulder were big. Here are some other 80s outfits that will rock.

Just like today there were “bad boys” and “crazy girls”, preps, and jocks. Figure out what theme you’re going for and gather the 80s costume to match. Here are some popular choices:

80s costumes for the guys:

• Oversized jackets with shoulder pads
• Parachute pants
• Skinny ties
• Cuffed jeans (pull the cuff of your jeans tight around your ankle, fold the excess fabric over, and roll your jeans up one or two times. They stay tight around your ankles)
• Large horn rimmed glasses
• Polo shirts, not just one … two! Layer pastel the shirts, and stand the collars straight up.
• “Miami Vice” sports jackets
• White linen pants
• Converse high tops

80s costumes for the girls:

• Leg warmers
• Off the shoulder tee shirts
• Shirts with crinoline
• Lace gloves
• Long strings of pearls and crucifix necklaces
• Neon clothing
• Colored socks with silver pumps (gag me with a spoon!)
• Large plastic earrings
• Sideways ponytails
• Dresses with bubble skirts
• Huge bubble sleeves
• Metallic Dresses

80s Party Ideas for Food

80s Party Food is simple. The 80s started a candy craze like no other. Pop-rocks, Pacifier Lollipops and candy necklaces made their way in the history books! You can even purchase real 1980s candy in a party pack if you want the authentic stuff.

Check out Candy you ate as a kid® in assortments by decade. Fresh candy from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s… still available after all these years.

Other party food ideas include creating cakes around 80s icons. Take the video game Pac-man, for example. Create a Pac-man cake by baking a round cake and cutting a pie shaped mouth out of the cake. Ice the cake in yellow. Then make cupcakes with white icing and display the cupcakes in a row as if Pac-man is about to eat them!

Another 80s icon was the Rubic cube. A Rubic cube cake is simple. Bake a square cake and cut it into 9 smaller squares. Ice the top of each square with a different bright color to mimic the look of the Rubic cube.

More Great 80s Party Ideas

This article was written by my friend Jennifer of www.themed-party-ideas.com. She lives to party! Find more great 80s party ideas, printable party games and creative party theme ideas on her site.

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Return from 80s party ideas to rockin teen parties


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