My little party planner
Making parties easy!
Disco party
Dancing is a favourite activity with both kids and adults alike.
Get those bodies moving and have a disco party. Enjoy these simple ideas.
The invitation
Nothing beats a funky disco invite like a record or CD. For a great invitation at your finger tips, visit the Creative Little Stars website where you can download and print your own - just like this picture!
You can also get the whole matching set of drink bottle labels, cup cake wrappers and food labels.
Enjoy!
Decorations
Dress up the entrance with a big sign saying Jack's disco or whoever the party holders name is. Use plenty of glitter, neon pens or metalic paper.
Add a streamer door curtain for extra disco flavour - if you can get a metallic one, even better!
Inside, disco balls and coloured lights are fabulous if you can get them. If you can't get your hands on disco lights or disco balls, then make use of the Christmas lights instead! If you can, dim the room light to add emphasis on the coloured lights. Another idea is to replace the every day light bulbs with coloured or ultra violet light bulbs. The ultra violet light makes everything white turn fluro purple. Very cool!
Metallic streamers or balloons are fun too. They come in a range of colours and also look great.
The key thing here is to make plenty of dance floor space. This way guests can really let themselves go and show off their moves.
Tip: Make sure to move all trip hazards or breakable items. Ensure the floor is level and that there are no windows or glass wall pains that crazy dancers can run into.
Dress ups
Have a dress up box for guest to use while at the party with glitter hats, sequin skirts, beaded necklaces, funky glasses, and coloured hair pieces that can be easily clipped in the hair. This is always very popular and huge fun.
If you can't supply these then encourage guests to come dressed in their funkiest gear.
If it's dark enough at the beginning of the party hand out glow sticks. If not these can also make fun take home gifts for the party bags.
Dance games
Limbo dancing
Using a rope or wooden rod held between two points (usually two volunteers hold one end each) you have your players line up and go under the rod without touching it.
Start with the rod being held quite high (say the neck level of most players) making it easy for everyone to duck under it. After everyone has gone under the rod once, it is lowered, increasing the difficulty slightly. As the rod gets lower, more people touch it accidentally. Touching the rod immediately disqualifies the person that touched it. The process is repeated with the rod getting lower and lower each time until there is only one person left. They are the winner. The game usually doesn't end there as when it is very low, you can also have fun jumping over it!
Note: Broom sticks can be used if you don't have a wooden rod. Even a length of rope or string. If using rope or string, you can tie it at one end so you only need one volunteer to hold it. You just need to retie it at each level). If you can decorate it, even better.
The Dance challenge
This is a game if stamina, skill and creativity. This is were players are given dance 'challenges'. These include things like whoever who can dance the fastest/slowest, who can dance on one leg, who can dance while keeping their hands on their head; with a funny face; while lying on their back; with one hand up; one hand down and so on. Keep the challenges coming until there is a winner.
Dance with hula hoops
Using a couple of hula hoops, have a hula hoop dance challenge. The challenge can be just to see who can keep the hoop off the ground longest or (space permitting) you can ad some tricks like who can spin it on their arm, neck or leg. The winner of each heat goes to the next round and challenges the next player. Keep going until everyone has had a turn.
Tip: keep you eye out for the hole hoops with coloured light in them for extra disco fun.
Spot light dancing
Starting with the party person holding the spotlight, they shine it on a guest and yell out an item such as a dog and the person in the 'spotlight' has to dance fast and furiously as that item as best they can. The dancer is then given the torch to spotlight someone else. If they don't try to dance, or stop dancing, they are out.
Musical statues/bumps
In this game, everyone dances while the music is playing and as soon as it stops they must stay perfectly still (statues) or drop to the ground (bumps). Starting with a parent or older sibling as the judge they see who is the last to drop to the ground or who doesn't stay still. Whoever that person is, is out and they also become a judge. This continues until there is only one person left who is the winner.
Dance with ribbons
This is a particularly good one for little girls and it's so easy. Cut lengths of crape paper streamer or ribbon and let the girls/kids dance with them in each hand. If you have enough room, tie the streamer or ribbon to the ends of sticks (make sure there are no sharp ends) so they can use them like the rhythmic gymnasts do.
Conga line
A Conga line is when everyone stands in a line with their hands on the person's hips in front of them. Usually the birthday person is at the front and the lead the Conga line wherever they want. Everyone follows behind dancing as they move around.
Popular dances for parties
If you have trouble remembering these dance moves then check out the videos.
Tip: make sure you have all your music ready on your playlist.
- Macarena
- Hokey pokey
- YMCA
- Monster Mash
- Rocky Horror- just a jump to the left
Other activities
- Karaoke
- Temporary tattoos
- Face painting
- Crazy hair using colored hair spray, sparkly curling ribbon and pipe cleaners for extra twisty decorations
Music
Put a playlist together before the party by selecting some popular dance tunes and some old favourites. Ask your party person what they like to hear to ensure they have their favourite tunes covered.
Resources: Video how to put an iTunes playlist together
Some fun selections include:
- Disco duck
- Blue Suede shoes
- Murder on the dance floor
- Michael Jackson
- YMCA
- Macarena
- Hokey pokey
- Monster Mash
- Rocky Horror- just a jump to the left
Food
Decorate the table with a sparkly centre piece or the mini disco balls you can pick up at discount stores. Add food lables to tie in with the theme as below:
- Hot dogs go perfectly for this disco. If serving kids, rather than having the full size frankfurt, use the mini size ones or chipolata sausages instead and cut the regular hot dog buns in half. They can always come back for seconds.
- Serve with tomato and BBQ sauce to keep it simple
- Meat balls are also great (also known as: Disco balls)!
- Regular potato chips
- Pop corn (emphasis on POP of course)
- Water
- Cordial
Cake
Make sure you have sparklers on the cake!
Try this fun cake - complete with hidden disco balls inside!
This is a really easy cake and gets a great reaction when cut.