70's Party ideas

Robin remembers how to
Party 70's Style!

From these pages... I am often asked,
"How do I give a 70's Party?"

> (Click here for 70's party foods.)

I have been putting off doing this page for years as I am conflicted about the answer... because in setting up and decorating the party, one has to basically parody the 70's. It won't be how we actually lived it.

Also, my personal memory of a "70's party" was 40 teenagers in an abandoned house, several of cases of beer (Natty Bo, Shlitz) and whatever snacks we bought at 7 Eleven. LOLOL!!!!!! Everyone over 40 just cracked up, you know you did!  ;)  You remember!!!

Fast forward 30 years... So now people want to do a "70's" style party, and they want to wear afro wigs, disco clothes and need help finding three inch high heel platform shoes with gold fish swimming in them. We didn't all look like pimps back then! Plus, Disco was NOT the whole decade, it was just 3 years of it.

Often, we just wore 'regular' clothes, like jeans (hip hugger), T-shirts with funny sayings on them and sneakers. In the 70's a lot of gatherings and parties were informal, unless you were going to a wedding or funeral.

OK, now that I got that off my chest, how do you throw a 70's party? Here's some ideas I came up with if I were going to do one.

Here are some ideas in no particular order:

  • Play 70's music, of course! If you don't have a large 70's collection, but you have XM Radio, they have good selection of classic 70's... if you belong to AOL, you can access XM Radio for free. To get an idea of 70's Music Take a peek at the screen shots of the 70's music list from my Ipod --->

  • For older groups, play 70's Trivia games and give away prizes:
    Go online and grab quesions for free from the net  or buy this DVD "Party Time Trivia".

  • For atmosphere, have a 70's movie playing the background, sound down: like Saturday Night Fever or Rocky, see 70's movies page here:)

  • The dance moves in the 70's were "anything goes" until the disco craze hit in the late 70's then we had dances like the Hustle, Night Fever Line Dance, Bus Stop, Four Corners, The Bump (my favorite) & more!.. Here's a link out to a video that teaches 70's dances: Molly & Roni's Dance Party! 1970's Disco Mania! Video

  • If it's for a birthday party and you're going to bake a cake, you could always make a round cake with yellow icing and draw the "Smiley Face" in black icing. The 70's were colorful, lots of different colored streamers and balloons...

  • If you want to go crazy with the theme factor, kisshave everyone dress up as a famous 70's character, it could be a character from TV or movies or a  rock band:  My ELVISchoices?  Rockers KISS, Elvis, Sandy from Grease or Rizzo, John Travolta from SNF or from Grease, Farrah Fawcett as a Charlies Angel, Billy Jack, The Godfather, Rocky (The fighter) or Rocky from Rocky Horror Picture Show (one of my favorite cult movies), Annie Hall, Butch Cassidy, a Star Wars character, Jaws (lol) Bo Derek from 10 (if you want to wear a bathing suit to a party!)  Go look at my movie lists and take your pick.

  • Make home made "Pet Rocks" as party favors.  ;)

DECORATIONS:  

Have fun and party like it's 1975!!!


also see ---> 70's Party Foods!!!

Send me your 70's Party ideas!