Many teens love parties, and while these events can be fun, they can be very difficult and complicated to organize, even if you are just inviting a few guests for your party. Fortunately, there are several tips and ideas that you can follow so that you will have a much easier time planning and organizing an event for teenagers. Here are 20 great ideas for throwing parties for teens.
Create a Potential Guest List First
The very first thing you may want to do when planning out a party for teens is to create a potential guest list. Making a guest list may look easy, but if you only have a budget for accommodating only a few guests for the party when you have lots of friends, then you will encounter problems regarding who to invite and who to leave out from the guest list.
It may take hours or even days to create the final guest list for your party as you decide the people you want to invite. If it is going to be a birthday party, it would be better to put family members and your closest friends on the guest list first, but if it is going to be a regular party, then you are free to invite just your friends for the event.
You Can Host the Party at Home
If you want to save money for the party, you can just host the event at home. By having the party at home, you won’t need to rent an event place anymore, which can cause plenty of cash even if you are just renting the place for one day. A home party feels much more fun and intimate, especially if the guests are close to each other.
You Can Still Rent an Event Place if You Are Inviting Many Guests
While a home party would be better with only close friends and family members as guests, it wouldn’t really be ideal if you are going to invite many guests to the party. If there are many guests for the event, you will find out that your home may not be able to accommodate them all. So, for big parties, it would be much better if you can hold them in an event place that can accommodate more people.
Search for an Event Place that Has Good Reviews
When you search for event places online, you will find dozens of different event places near you or within your city. Because of how many event places there are to choose from, it can be difficult for someone that doesn’t know much about these places to decide which one to rent. But there is a way to make your decision easier, and this is through reading reviews online. Through reviews, you will find out more about different event places, from their features and amenities to their pros and cons.
Choose a Theme for the Party
The next step is to choose a theme for the party. There are many parties for teens that don’t really have specific themes, although it is much more fun to have one in order to differentiate the event from regular parties. There are many themes to choose from, and you can read more below for the different themes that we can suggest for teen parties.
Host a Movie Night
One of the most popular themes for teen parties is movie night. As the name of the theme already suggests, movie night consists of watching several movies, eating popcorn, and enjoying the company of friends in the movie room or living room. A movie night is one of the simplest party themes since all you really need is a smart TV, a streaming app for movies and TV shows, and some snacks.
Rent a Movie Theater for the Party
If you want to level up the movie night, you can rent a movie theater so that you and your guests can enjoy a private movie party. Once you rent a movie theater, you may have a choice of watching the latest movies available at the theater, or you can just host a marathon of past movies. A private movie theater party is fun for teens that love watching movies, and the added “privateness” of the party would enable them to enjoy the movies with friends or family members without the need to be mindful of strangers.
Host a Board Game Party
Another simple party theme is the board game party. This type of party has guests playing different kinds of board games, from simple ones like Connect 4 and Snakes & Ladders to the more complex ones like Monopoly, the Game of Life, and Catan. A board game party is enjoyed by groups of friends that are close to each other, and teens would usually like to play board games with friends at home.
Much like the movie night, the board game party is relatively simple since you only need board games, tables, chairs, snacks, and drinks. However, the board game party can be customized to become a much bigger event where you can host a tournament to see which guests are considered the best at playing specific board games.
In addition to board games, you may also check out our Guide to Picking Fun Games for Parties for more ideas and recommendations.
Organize a Pool Party
If you are going to be hosting a party in the summer, a great theme for the event is a pool party. The pool party is a theme where guests can enjoy swimming in the pool with friends or family members while also being able to enjoy delicious food and drinks that are perfect for the summer. A pool party is typically more expensive to organize than a movie night or a board game party, and it will be pricier if you are going to rent an event place with a pool. But, for the summer, nothing beats a pool party because of how fun it is for the guests.
Invite Friends to an Outdoor Camping Night
If you and your friends like camping and gathering around a bonfire, then you should host an outdoor camping night. This party theme is just like any regular camping night, wherein friends will have tents for sleeping and bonfires for cooking food or for providing light for the camp. However, an outdoor camping party can consist of extravagant food items and even games and activities for your guests. You can host the outdoor camping night outside your home, or you can rent a nearby camping site for the party.
Rent a Trampoline Park
Trampoline parks are arguably some of the most popular attractions today for kids and teens, so they may also be the best ones to rent for parties and special events. Renting a trampoline park can be quite expensive, but if you have the budget, renting it will certainly be worth it. Because of how big trampoline parks usually are, you will be able to invite many of your friends to your party.
Book a Hotel Room for a Staycation Party
Staycations are another popular form of partying with friends. In order to have a staycation, you would need to book a hotel room, and you would have to stay there for the entirety of your booking. Throughout the staycation, you can already host a movie night or a board game night with your friends while inside a hotel room. Staycation parties are typically more fun if you book a room in fancy hotels or hotels that are located in popular vacation spots.
Plan a Murder Mystery Night
A murder mystery night is a fun party theme that friends who love mysteries and detective stories can enjoy. What’s great about murder mystery night is that guests can role-play different roles in the story, with the host sometimes being the detective itself. In order to solve the case, there would be several guests that will act as assistants to the detective, and they will help in solving the murder.
While creating mysteries for the party can be quite difficult and would require days and sometimes weeks of planning, you can already find plenty of murder mystery stories online that can be applied and played on murder mystery nights.
Have a Painting Party
If you and your friends love crafting different kinds of artwork, then you will all enjoy a painting party. The painting party can be done at home, as long as you and your guests have the materials needed to create art, like canvas boards and various colors of acrylic paint. But there are also art studios that you can rent so that your guests will already have everything they need to paint. In addition, art studios also have a much bigger space to accommodate more people.
Organize a Regular Birthday Party
If you don’t want extravagant themes for the party, then you can just organize a regular birthday party that has decorations, tables, chairs, a birthday cake, and delicious food. A regular birthday party is not as expensive as renting a trampoline park or a movie theater, although it is not as simple as outdoor camping nights or living room movie nights. However, it is just the appropriate and traditional way to celebrate someone’s birthday.
Send Online Invitations to Guests
In the past, physical invitations were abundant since guests would feel more special for being given an invitation and being invited to someone’s party. In today’s era, physical invitations are not practical anymore, as you can just easily invite people through email or through online chat. But you can also make online invitations more special by sending guests an image of your digital invitation card.
You can design an invitation card on your own using design programs or apps, but you may also hire a designer to create a fancy invitation card for you. You can then send this digital invitation card by attaching it to an email or by sending it through chat.
Create a Food Menu Suitable for Teens
After you have decided on the theme of the party, you should start to create a food menu that is suitable for teens. Similar to kids, most teens don’t really have a taste for fancy food, so you can just create a simple menu that consists of simple food items like fries, hotdogs, burgers, nacho chips, and more. In addition, teens also aren’t as picky as kids, so you wouldn’t have trouble making a menu without asking the guests for their favorites or preferences a few weeks or months before the party (although you should take note of their allergies).
Just Rent Pieces of Furniture for the Party
Chairs and tables are staples of regular birthday parties and many types of parties and party themes. While you can buy party tables and chairs in bulk, you would most likely have problems with storing them in your house or garage after the party and in the future, as they are often too bulky and they take up too much space. To prevent these issues from happening, you should just rent these pieces of furniture through party rental businesses. By renting chairs and tables, you can save more money in buying these pieces while also saving space in your home.
Provide Souvenirs to Your Guests
To make a lasting impression on your guests after the party, you should give them souvenirs that are related or connected to the theme of your party. If you are hosting a movie night, it would be great if you would give them toy figures or snacks related to the movies you have watched, and for murder mystery nights, books with mysteries or detective stories are perfect as souvenirs.
Make the Party Engaging
In order to make the party more fun for you and your guests, you should make it as engaging as possible by creating conversations with guests and organizing games and activities during the party. No matter what theme your party is, you can add more games and activities to engage the guests during times when you are doing nothing. For example, for movie nights, you can organize a trivia game that has questions related to the movies you have watched. Make the party engaging so that the event will be more enjoyable and memorable.
And those are just some of the best tips and ideas we can offer when it comes to hosting a party for teens. Follow the tips and ideas we provided so that you can host the best and most fun party for you and your guests.