Pizza parties provide a great venue for catching up with friends and family in a relaxed environment. But some of the nostalgia can start to wear off if everyone always knows what to expect at your parties. Instead of simply ordering some pies from your local pizzeria for your next get-together, add a new level of excitement to the event with these unique theme ideas:
Serve Oversized Slices
Purchase large blowup furniture that can be used for relaxing in the yard by both kids and adults alike. Buy oversized lawn games to enjoy and offer up huge slices of pizza to your guests while they rest between game play. Your slices can be made individually, or you can just cut a medium to large sized pizza in four slices to get a big effect. To make sure people get the pizza in their mouths instead of on the ground:
- Provide forks and knives for easy eating.
- Make sure that the crust is pliable enough to fold in half for eating.
- Don't pile toppings on too high to minimize the chance of them falling off while they're eaten.
Short, thick pieces or pizza are easier to handle and eat than longer, thinner pieces when they are being eaten by hand instead of with utensils.
Feature Personalization Stations
There are a myriad of ways to recreate the traditional pizza so that it fits into categories like appetizers and desserts. Consider setting up a few different stations so that everyone can make their own personalized pizza varieties. Here are some ideas:
- Make a dessert pizza station by putting cinnamon in the basic pizza dough and offering toppings like caramel, chocolate, licorice bites, cocoa chips, and crushed candy pieces.
- Create a bread stick station with topping options such as garlic, salsa, guacamole, cheese, and pesto.
- Feature a salad station by offering up lots of fresh greens and pizza toppings to toss them with. Bell peppers, olives, pepperoni, cheese, and mushrooms are a good base of options. Offer tomato based sauces to top the salads with.
You do not need any traditional pizzas if you're going this route. In fact, you'll probably find that the pizzas aren't as popular as your personalization stations.
Hold a Potluck
Asking every guest to bring their own pizza to the party can result in a lot of uneaten slices at the end of the event. But there are many ways you can get your guests involved in the production of the event. Here are some ideas:
- Ask everyone to bring their favorite board game to share.
- Request side dishes from each guest to complement the pizzas you feature.
- Get everyone to bring their favorite refreshments so you don't have to worry about soda or wine.
A potluck style party will take some of the pressure off of you when it comes to getting all of the supplies or entertainment together.
Feature Contests
Pizzas can get messy, therefore they can be a lot of fun to have contests with. If you can spare a couple of extra pies during your party, try one of the following options:
- Hold an eating contest with the leftover pizza near the end of the event.
- Instead of a cake walk, hold a pizza walk during the party.
- Hold a dance contest—the winners get to take home a pizza.
Contests will keep the pizza party lively while helping you get rid of the extra pizza you won't need when the event is over.
Each of these theme ideas bring something different to the table. Some are great for outdoor events while others are perfect for a more intimate setting at home. Mix things up and try a different pizza party idea each time you have one. Click here for info about great pizza.
