9 Dinner Party Theme Ideas Your Guests Will LOVE!
A dinner party can be a lot of fun to throw. Maybe you just love hosting and entertaining, or maybe you just got a new house and are looking for fun “housewarming” ways to make your new house feel like a home. And a dinner party is always a great option! However, there are so many menu options out there that nailing down something specific can be overwhelming. But that’s where a dinner party theme comes in! Throwing a themed dinner party is an excellent way to narrow down your options and have tons of fun. With a specific theme involved, suddenly the menu comes together easily. The decorations and music playlist practically choose themselves. Everyone has a great time enjoying the novelty of the themed experience apart from everyday life.
If you’re looking for dinner party theme ideas your guests will love, here are some of our favorites!
- Build your own pizza
- Taco Tuesday – street tacos
- Ethnic
- Hawaiian luau
- Seafood boil
- Wine and cheese
- Brunch
- Historical time period
- Movie/book/story
1. Build your own pizza
Forget trying to secure several tables for all your friends at the pizzeria! One dinner party theme that’s interactive and tons of fun is to host a build your own pizza party! This one isn’t only fun, but easy to throw together. All you have to do is provide the ingredients, including plenty of classic and exciting toppings. Then your guests make their personal pizza themselves! You will all have fun perfecting your own combination of ingredients or coming up with wild combinations that might turn out to be new favorites! Your guests can be satisfied with a pizza that’s perfect just for them, or have fun swapping slices with other guests’ pizzas they want to try!
2. Taco Tuesday – street tacos
Taco Tuesday is already established as a weekly tradition for many people. So why not make it a dinner party theme? A taco party is another interactive, fun, and easy dinner party to throw. Your guests will all be satisfied because they can create tacos with just their favorite ingredients. At your taco dinner party, you can provide any range of toppings and ingredients from classic street tacos, fajitas, Tex-Mex, or even some creative fusion taco options!
3. Ethnic
If you’re looking for a straightforward dinner party theme that can be as simple or elaborate as you want, make your theme based on a specific nationality or ethnicity’s cuisine! Enhance your ethnic dinner party theme with music specific to that culture playing in the background. You can also serve wine or other drinks specific to that region, decorations that reflect the nationality’s origin, and maybe even have your guests come dressed in attire that reflects that country’s fashions!
Choose a go-to classic like Italian Night with familiar Italian dishes. Or try a cuisine that’s exciting and perhaps new for you with something like Moroccan Night. You could even make your dinner party centered around one specific food from a culture like varieties of Asian dumplings or dim sum, or something more interactive and maybe even a new experience. Hosting a party where your guests get to make their own sushi, make their own spring rolls, or gather for a family-style Korean barbeque might be something they’ve never done before. Or an interactive culinary classic like a Swiss fondue night that’s always a crowd-pleaser. It’s not only fun, exciting, and delicious, but educational as you learn more about the culture, too!
Here are some ethnic dinner party theme ideas to try!
- Italian
- Moroccan
- Mexican Fiesta!
- Japanese
- Korean
- Thai
- Asian Fusion
- Cantonese
- Mediterranean
- Ethiopian
- Georgian
- French
- And SO many more!
6. Hawaiian luau
If you’re wanting to take advantage of the summer weather while you can, choose a dinner party theme that translates well to your backyard like a Hawaiian Luau. A backyard Hawaiian Luau is always fun to throw or attend and it is easy to find lots of decorations to make it extra festive. This dinner party theme can make you and your guests feel like you’re on vacation in paradise while in the comfort of your own backyard. And with hearty foods like teriyaki meats, comforting rice, homestyle macaroni salad, and lots of sweet fruits like pineapples, none of your guests will go home hungry! And, of course, a mai tai, pina colada, or both is a must.
7. Seafood boil
Another great dinner theme idea that translates well into your backyard is a classic seafood boil. Spread out a disposable tablecloth over a large table and hand out some bibs, and enjoy lots of laughs and conversations as you and your guests get messy while cracking open some crawfish and indulging in succulent shrimp. Include other favorite sides that are fun to chomp on like buttery corn on the cob and some iced tea, beers, or other fun cocktails and it’s a party! A seafood boil is simple to throw together, and although it’s messy the cleanup is easy. Just throw everything onto the tablecloth, roll it up, toss it, and call it a night!
8. Wine and cheese
If you’re wanting a dinner party theme that’s a classier affair, throw a wine and cheese night and invite some friends over. Creating an exciting charcuterie board or grazing table of a variety of cheeses, meats, breads and crackers, spreads, fruits, and other savory and sweet treats that are fun to snack on and pair well with a few different wines to try can be an extremely creative and rewarding process. A charcuterie board might not look as hearty as a full dinner with several courses, but it’s deceptively filling. Your guests will enjoy each other’s company and conversations while sipping wine and munching on combinations from the table at their leisure, and leave full and satisfied with plenty of food and friendship!
10. Brunch
Everyone loves brunch. And what’s not to love? Eating breakfast foods not at breakfast mixed with lunch options as well, getting buzzed on endless mimosas, and all with your favorite people! Whip up some pancakes and chicken and waffle sliders, set up a DIY mimosa and/or bloody mary bar, and invite your friends over for a brunch-themed dinner party that’s sure to be a blast!
11. Historical time period
If you and your friends are history buffs, consider a historical dinner party theme. Choose a specific time period and prepare a meal like people enjoyed in the past! Have your friends arrive in costume from that time period and select music reminiscent of that time for a fuller immersion experience! It could be like bringing the Texas Renaissance Festival to your own home! Some fun time periods to try might include:
- Renaissance
- Regency
- Roaring ‘20s
- Civil War era
- Victorian
- Classical
- And so many more!
12. Movie/book/story
Do you have a favorite movie that you absolutely geek out over with your buddies? Or the same with a specific book or story? Then a movie or book dinner party theme is something you definitely need to try! Invite your friends over to excitedly enjoy foods mentioned in or specific to the story. This can be region-specific, such as in Eat, Pray, Love. Or interpretive of foods mentioned in fantasies such as “butterbeer” from Harry Potter or “lembas bread” from Lord of the Rings. There are also countless options here if you and your friends are Disney fans! If it’s been a while since you planned a trip to Disney World and you need a Disney fix, throw a Disney-themed dinner party that’s sure to be a magical time for you and your guests!
Help your guests feel even more a part of the story with decorations representative of specific scenes, the soundtrack (or music from the time period or region of the story) playing in the background, and encourage them to come dressed as characters from the movie or story! And then, of course, encourage your guests to stay and watch the movie, book adaptation, or a reading of the story together for a themed night your guests will never forget!
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