How to throw your own parties

• Clip Show: Each attendee comes prepared with something five minutes or shorter to share—a song, a movie clip, a YouTube video, a poem, a humor essay, etc. Draw numbers and then everyone presents in that order.

• Come as You Were party: Pick a landmark year (e.g., 1933 for the repeal of Prohibition) and dress up as a major public figure from that time.

• Pancakes and Mimosas party: A classier alternative to kegs and eggs.

• Rehab party: Everyone comes dressed as their favorite train-wreck star.

• You’ll Wear It Again party: Get your girlfriends together to finally give those lavender bridesmaid dresses a second wear.

• Rubik’s Cube: Everyone starts off wearing an item of clothing from all six colors on the Rubik’s Cube. Swap pieces with other attendees so you end up wearing only one color by the end of the night.

• Traffic Light party: Available singles wear green, people confused about their availability sport yellow, and those in a relationship don red.

• ’Stachio Bashio: Guys grow mustaches, gals draw them on their fingers.

• Bad Art party: Display people’s amateur sketches and papier-mâché creations on the wall and serve wine as if it’s a gallery opening.

• Around the World: Serve a different regional drink and snack (e.g., ouzo and spanakopita for Greece) in each room or, for a roving cocktail party, each apartment.

• CEOs and office ho’s: Another misogynistic bash with a corporate bent.

• Mad Hatter ball: Crazy headwear galore.

• Martin Luau King party: Celebrate MLK day by wearing Hawaiian shirts and leis, drinking mai tais and watching King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

• Halloween in July: Because once a year isn’t enough.

• Middle-School Dance party: Side ponytails encouraged.

• Come as Your Favorite: Michael Jackson song, Quentin Tarantino movie, Kevin Bacon film, narcotic, method of birth control…the possibilities are endless.

• My State Is Better than Your State: New Yorkers are all from somewhere else, right? Dress up as something to represent your home state.

• Time Machine party: If you had a time machine, when would you most want it to stop? Dress up in the mode of that era.

• A Is for…: Pick one letter of the alphabet and have guests dress up as something that begins with that letter

• No Clothes party: Fashion an outfit out of anything except fabric—hello, trash bag dress!

• Offensive T-shirt party: Think along the lines of MILITANT MUSLIMS ARE THE BOMB

• ’80s Prom: Take Polaroid snapshots of the people at your party dressed in cheesy gowns and tuxes, serve punch and channel a John Hughes movie.

• Mad Hatter ball: Crazy hats galore.

• Horned ball: If you’d prefer to sport horns on your head.

• Wheel of Fortune: The names of a guy and a girl randomly get picked out of a hat, then they spin the wheel and do what it lands on.

• 40s party: Hardly as classy as the decade—only serve 40-ounce beers or malt liquor.

• Black & Light ball: Rent a black light and wear fluorescent or white clothes and anything else (nail polish, fake eyelashes) that will glow.

• Golf Pros and Tennis hoes: A preppy take on pimps and ho’s—guys dress in golf gear, women in skanky tennis attire.

• White Trash bash: String Christmas lights up with duct tape, serve cheese in a can, buffalo wings, cheap beer and moonshine; dress like you live in a trailer park.

• Naughty or Nice Christmas party: Provides balance to an ugly holiday sweater gathering by introducing sexy red lingerie.

• Through the Looking Glass: Alice in Wonderland theme

• Cheese and Chocolate party: Guests bring a dish containing one or both of those ingredients.

NEXT Party timeline: Friday night at Pranna
Too lazy to go out on the town? Follow from home as we explore a midtown bash.

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Parties in New York City
Where to find them, where to throw them and where you won't look like a jerk if you're dressed to the nines.