Party decoration
Flip your party room upside down and upside down! Anything you can modify to make it look the wrong way will make the right impression! Flip the chairs so they face the wall. Take pictures of the back of your family’s head and put them in frames around the room. Instead of decorations, place ketchup bottles and salt and pepper shakers along the mantelpiece, and why not copy your book spines onto a sheet of construction paper and stick it over your TV screen?
This is where you can really let your imagination run wild – the sillier the better!
party outfits
On your backwards invitations, tell guests to come to the party dressed backwards! They can wear their shirts and pants inside out, twist a baseball cap the wrong way, and even make cardboard shoes to tie to their heels. How many other backwards clothing ideas can you think of? Glasses on the back of the neck? Gloves on the feet? Or even underwear on the outside?
Superman would fit perfectly!
party games
Even party games perform poorly at this party! Award points before starting each activity and take them to the winners at the end!
BACK. You’ll need access to a turntable to create the music for this game, or if you have a CD player with line-out capability, you can load the songs onto your computer and use Windows Sound Recorder to change it.
Divide your guests into two teams and give each group a pen and a piece of paper. Now, play pop song snippets that run backwards and see if players can guess what they are. Clues to the title of each song by displaying images of the artist or giving your guests a choice of three possibilities. After each song from back to front, give the children a few seconds to look back, and then write their response. They will touch their hands and snap their toes!
REVERSE! A wrong game filled to the brim with giggles! Make a set of cards that list everyday tasks, such as eating breakfast, getting up, or ironing clothes.
Pick one player at a time, show them a random card, and then they have one minute to act out the activity, backwards! For example, if they were getting up, they could start by pretending to undress, dirty their teeth, put on their pajamas, get into bed, and fall asleep. The other players would have to guess what the activity was supposed to be! Continue playing until everyone has tried their hand at mixed mime. For even more fun, add activities for two, like delivering a wardrobe or buying a box of cornflakes. Crazy and upside down!
WRAP THE PACKAGE. I tend to shy away from traditional party games as kids have played them over and over again, but this was too good to miss!
Players sit in a circle, with one child holding a prize. In the center of the circle are several sheets of wrapping paper. When the game begins, the guests pass the prize from one person to another in complete silence. After a while, play a music CD – this is the signal for the person who currently has the prize to take a piece of paper and wrap the gift inside! Stop the music and the partially wrapped prize is passed around the circle again! Keep playing until all the wrapping paper has been used up. The winner is the person who adds the final sheet. They keep the prize and all the paper!
food party
Can food be the other way around? Eating upside down sounds like a tricky business, but try these twisted treats that will have your guests rubbing their backs in satisfaction!
SILLY SANDWICHES! Why not serve the sandwiches with the fillings on the outside?
Put a piece of bread between two slices of ham or slide a cracker in the middle of a couple of slices of cheese! This is one party where jam sandwiches are best left out!
CRAZY CUTLERY. It’s not so much a food idea, but a way to serve it! Try eating silly ice cream with a knife and fork, or pass out cups of cake for your guests to enjoy!
party bags
As the party draws to a close (or should it be the beginning?), hand out party bags with the gifts on the outside. Tape pens, pencils and toys to the outside of your gift bags and leave the inside completely empty. You’ll keep them coming back for more! Or is it forward for less? Or should it be…
