Okay, so, saving my pennies, throwing a party for new years. Thing is- while i have lots of interested folks who want to show up, my planning skills are in the lacking.

Suggestions?

Planning on having:
alcohol provided, beer isn't (BYO for that)
Drinks, snacks, no real "meal" but more than chips n crap. Y'know, party food - wings, whatever.
Couple of movies to choose from.
There's lots of game systems at my house, although that might not be good for a big group.
Decorations, of course.
TV for watching the actual new years stuff.

I dont want folks to get bored, but I dont want to try "too hard" to entertain them either.
What else should i have/do?

Oh, FWIW- most of my friends are grad students, or young professionals - none of them are interested in really wild parties. hence the lack of lets just play poker and have a keg (I let other ppl throw those)

[Edited on December 1, 2006 at 1:25 PM. Reason : .]

12/1/2006 1:24:16 PM

sounds like its going to be the gayness

12/1/2006 1:27:52 PM

^ Then what would you do instead?

This is lounge, not chit chat.



[Edited on December 1, 2006 at 1:31 PM. Reason : .]

12/1/2006 1:31:07 PM

make sure you have music. im not a big fan of parties that don't have atleast some kind of music on in the background. it just makes things more comfortable.

12/1/2006 1:37:57 PM

^ Thanks, I'll be sure to do that!

12/1/2006 1:39:22 PM

music isn't even necessarily the case.

I've tried to sell this idea before, but not many people believe me. Just play a recording of crowd noise. It'll make a party of 15-20 people seem like 200 really quickly.

12/1/2006 1:46:29 PM

Drinking games!

-flip cup
-beer pong
-asshole
-dick the dealer

etc...

I hang out with (and am a) young professionals and they all still enjoy those.

[Edited on December 1, 2006 at 1:48 PM. Reason : of course, you need beer for these activities...well its better at least]

12/1/2006 1:46:54 PM

make sure you get party favors.......likes the new years hats and the horns and confetti (sp?) and of course, campagne and those campagne cups from party city if you don't have real ones

12/1/2006 1:47:35 PM

Great suggestions folks. And thank you countrygirl, I completely forgot about champagne!! (or confetti!).

12/1/2006 1:49:42 PM

You really can't go wrong with fire.

12/1/2006 2:33:35 PM

If the party seems to be getting dull, like say before the midnight buzz starts up, I'd start taking off my clothes.

12/1/2006 2:38:26 PM

last party i had where it was a mix of adults, young professionals and students i had food (chips and salsa, fruit platter, veggie platter, wings, sausage dip), music on in the background...the good company that was there was what made the "entertaining" easy...people mingled in the den and kitchen...people on the back deck were playing drinking games and whatnot. it was a good time.

with the right people, you don't really need to entertain at all--they'll entertain themselves. just make sure you have plenty of alcohol and food that everyone will enjoy.

[Edited on December 1, 2006 at 4:23 PM. Reason : ]

12/1/2006 4:22:59 PM

No beer seems kind of wrong....

But yeah as a professional host for my first few years at NCSU , background music is a must (volume should be just ABOVE where you think it is ok before anyone gets there), music depends on your type of people & your type of party, a premade alcoholic drink of some sort (ie. punch) to go along with the "make your own" drinks, drinking games are not a necessity -they will create themselves if people want to play - just be prepared if someone asks for ping pong balls, a deck of cards, an area to play, a table that you don't mind beer getting spilled on, etc... And I think lighting is key, figure out what mood you want to set (maybe turn off most lights for the ball drop at midnight)

That's all of the top of my head. You can try to make up your own party games based on the type of event... but I don't recommended it.

12/1/2006 5:44:27 PM

dont invite underage drinkers!

12/1/2006 6:15:26 PM

I've never planned entertainment for a party, people just entertain themselves. It helps that my parties were always free jelloshots and everyone was plastered.

12/1/2006 6:56:11 PM

An easy entertainment trick is to buy a few of the worst tabloids you can find. They are funny and all you have to do is leave them sitting out.

jello shots! here is my reliable and favorite recipe. blue and green jello are always favorites. yellow too, but pineapple not lemon.
buy bathroom cups (the little plastic 3oz ones), jello, and cheap-ish vodka
make jello with one pack to one cup boiling water. wait until the jello soup isn't hot and add 2/3 cup of alcohol. I use a turkey baster to get it into the cups (1/2 full). put in freezer but when they have set move them to fridge, and serve with plastic spoons.
They are cheap, can be done the day before, and people are always a little impressed.

12/3/2006 6:32:10 AM

Quote :

"Drinking games! -flip cup -beer pong -asshole -dick the dealer"

12/3/2006 7:05:48 AM

all of the parties i go to with my grad school friends have beerpong. it is a necessity.

12/3/2006 1:11:42 PM

lemonade liquor keg and you wont have to entertain anyone - theyll all be drunk enough to entertain themselves and you...just dont make it too strong or shit gets broken

12/3/2006 1:57:21 PM

Ditch the movies. You need music.

If you have a good group of people, you don't need to do anything besides inviting them and giving them drinks. And get some beer.

12/3/2006 2:06:29 PM

- Get a keg or two of decent beer (depending on how many people you think are coming)

- If you're going to do food, do it decent. Wings, chips and dip, veggies and dip, wine and cheese possibly, etc.

- Music. I usually have a "party mix" on my ipod when I have get-togethers. It's about a 4 or 5-hour playlist of shit that everybody knows and either likes or doesn't hate. Put in a lot of old school rap/hip-hop/R&B. Even people who don't like that type of music will be screaming the words to the song as the liqour keeps flowing.

- Get a couple bottles of cheap champagne. At least enough so everyone has a glass when it hits midnight. You should be able to get some plastic champagne flutes at the grocery store too.

- Liqour...that's up to you. If you've got money and feel like doing it, stock a decent liqour bar. I'm slowing building up a pretty good liqour bar. If you don't already have one, I wouldn't do it for just one party unless you plan on entertaining a lot. And if you're going to do the keg, then don't worry about it.

- Do set up a beer pong table. Young professionals/grad students or not...everybody gets into beer pong even if they've never played it before. Flip cup and other games can also be played on a beer pong table.

- Decorations...don't go crazy, but put some stuff up. Hang a banner or two or maybe put up a gay disco ball or something. Go a little cheesy, but not too cheesy.

- Ask a good friend to go around asking people to chip-in. I always ask a friend to go around and say..."Are ya'll gonna chip in?? I think John spent a decent amount of money on this, so I'm gonna give him ten bucks." You probably won't get everything covered, but it'll help.

12/3/2006 2:26:50 PM

keep them entertained after the ball drops with old school video games


make sure your fridge is well stocked

[Edited on December 3, 2006 at 6:09 PM. Reason : ...]

12/3/2006 5:55:36 PM

I'd be interested in seeing how a Wii would function, everyone can play no matter how much of a n00b they are and people seem to enjoy watching.

12/3/2006 7:02:52 PM