Hosting a Murder Mystery Dinner Party is Fun and Easy

If you have ever played Clue as a child, you have probably thought about having a murder mystery dinner party sometime or other as an adult. They are so much fun and all over television and the movies.

The fact that there is a mystery involved tends to draw lots of people to these parties and since everybody has a common goal – to solve the mystery – everyone has a fabulous time at the party.

What is a Murder Mystery Dinner Party?

During a murder mystery dinner party, a person invites several guests to a real dinner party. There is real food involved, but sometimes people wear costumes to these parties. Depending on what you want, obviously costumes are optional, but great fun.

Once arriving at the dinner party, everyone eventually finds out (that is if they didn’t already know) that they are suspects in the murder. The only thing is, somebody is guilty and everybody wants to find out who it is.

At the same time, the guilty person knows they are guilty and have to play along. Hopefully, you will have a reasonable actor to play the “guilty one”!

There are different clues that guests have to follow in order to find the truth.

As a host, you do not in fact need to know who the guilty one is. If you plan on playing yourself, there is a often a way of not knowing in advance who the guilty one is, so you can be fully involved in the game yourself.

How to Plan a Murder Mystery Dinner Party

Many people start out on the murder mystery party by picking up a kit. These kits are widely available and contain basically everything a person would need to know for the story. The kit usually contains items for everyone, including a story about what happens and then a packet or kit for everyone containing the individual clues and things they would need to play the game.

As many people as can play, are as many people as should be in attendance at the party. Needless to say, it is important to get a firm RSVP for these things. Imagine what would happen to the party if the murderer never showed!

Prize or No Prize, These Parties are Fun

Many party kits contain a prize or a suggestion of one for the winner, but the more interesting parties usually have other prizes, like movie passes or a free dinner somewhere. It doesn’t have to be anything big, but everyone likes to win something and that could only increase the fun at your murder mystery dinner party.

Having or going to a murder mystery dinner party can be a lot of fun, but it certainly isn’t your average party. If you are planning one for you and some friends, try and only invite people of whom you are fairly certain will come and add something to the game.

Poor sports sometimes slip through the cracks, as do flakes and neither of those adds to the fun of the party.

Thai Dinner Party Ideas

Anybody can throw a dinner party, and it shows; many dinner parties end up being boring, lame or awkward, despite the best (if misguided) intentions of the hosts.

Sometimes, to throw a great dinner party you have to think outside of the box and do something that everybody else hasn’t done yet.

Leave people talking about it the next day and inviting themselves over again, and you’ll know that you’ve done a great job.

A Thai dinner party is a unique way to achieve great results.

What is a Thai dinner party?

A Thai themed dinner party is exactly what it sounds like. Creative, exotic Thai dishes are served.

You can decorate your house accordingly and create an atmosphere that is reminiscent of Thailand or Thai restaurants.

You can take a Thai style dinner party in any direction you want. It could take on a luau style of theme, or it could become a more formal affair.

What are the key elements of a Thai dinner party?

Most importantly is, no surprise here, the Thai food that you will serve! Get creative and get authentic, never cop out and serve something you can pick up in a box in your grocery store’s international foods section.

Thai food offers a lot of pleasing elements and can combine spicy, sweet and sour flavors.

A great idea for a first course is a soup

Lemongrass based soups or coconut and curry soups or just a few of the many different, great Thai soups.

From there you can serve more appetizers, along the lines of wontons or even skewers.

Main courses can include fish and seafood, as well as chicken, beef or other meats, often served with noodles a la pad Thai.

Spicy peanut sauces and curries are typical sauces and rice can be served in separate bowls so that people can take as much or as little as they want, while choosing whether or not to combine the rice into the main entrée itself.

If you’re up for it, you can try to create your own spiced or creative ice cream flavor for a desert.

Or make Thai iced tea, serve traditional Thai beer or spice up a classic drink recipe, such as a mojito.

Really, the Thai food is the most important aspect of this kind of dinner party. The food is easy to prepare and the sky is limit, get as creative as you can possibly be!

Atmosphere is also important for a Thai style dinner party.

Candles and incense can used for ambience as can silk clothes or wall hangings. You could hang a colored cloth on the wall – make it bright and visually appealing.

Use exotic, brightly colored flowers such as orchids as centerpieces or spread them throughout the house as decorations.

Think about Buddhist themes, statues and overall simplicity and elegance. Bamboo and woods are other popular Thai accessories.

As mentioned, a Thai dinner party can go in any direction you want it to. If you have a great backyard and great weather, you can play some tribal music, serve tropical drinks and party.

To go more formal you can carefully pick excellent wines to match the spiciness of Thai food and relax with slow paced, stringed Asian music.

Either way, this is a great way to change up the routine and show your friends how the dinner party is really done!

DINNER PARTY WHERE GUESTS WORK

Dinner parties can be great fun.

However, they can be relatively expensive, tiring for the hosts, and even a great rush to make all of the preparations in a timely manner.

One theme which can be a help, is a dinner party where guests work. This will not only relieve the hosts of carrying out all of the necessary arrangements and work, but also make it more enjoyable as a team.

There are many ways in which you can hold a dinner party where the guests work.

All it requires is a little imagination to make the dinner party a memorable occasion.

You could hold a dinner party whereby your guests all bring a dish with them. This will also ensure that each guest has a type of food that they like at your dinner party, as guests are unlikely to bring something that they do not like themselves.

Of course, it is not necessary that all of your guests bring food.

There are certain guests that can bring the refreshments. By doing this you will not only alleviate a little work for yourself as the host, but it will be a total surprise for all of your guests, as they will not know until arrival as to what food to expect.

It is important of course, to inform guests as to whether you have an invitee with a food allergy of some sort, so that every person is catered for.

You could also have a dinner party whereby one guest hosts the appetizers in their homes, the next guest hosts the first course, next guests hosts the second course, and another guests hosts the dessert.

It could be a very long dinner party! But should be great fun and a include a variation of foods. It is a perfect way to socialize.

If, your guests live quite a long distance apart, then you can carry this theme to one home only. Your guests can still prepare the different courses and bring them along to your home, and serve them as they would if they were in their own homes.

Another way in which you can hold a dinner party where guests work, is to give every guest a certain amount of money, for example $10 or $20. Your guests then go to the market and purchase whatever kind of food they desire for that amount of cash.

Then they all meet back at you house, and make a dish with the use of cookery books, or simply by using their own known recipes.

If you have more than six guests, then it is recommended to split them into groups.

Another way is to purchase the ingredients that you think you will require, and when the guests arrive you can all decide together what can be prepared with those ingredients.

You can then get the guests involved with the preparations of food, drinks and the setting of the table.

By involving guests with the cooking you will also enhance the period of eating. Guests will always make comments about how well they peeled the potatoes, or how creative their garnish looks.

Sharing tips and insight with each other will help you and your guests to learn a great deal about what works with certain foods and what doesn’t.

Whichever type of dinner party where guests work you decide to hold, you are sure to have a very enjoyable evening with lots of fun.

Dinner Party Ideas

I really like dinner parties, both going to them and giving them for other people.

It’s great to spend time with friends and enjoy conversation over a good meal, but dinner parties are so much more fun, I think, if they’re a bit “different”.

So I’ve put together here, a few dinner party ideas.

Use them to get your imagination working and make your next dinner party, stand out from the others, in your friends’ memories.

1. National Theme
This idea involves picking a nation, for example France, Italy or Thailand, and using that to theme your entire party.

The more adventurous the better, but also the more tricky to pull-off! So perhaps play fairly safe and choose a nation that has a strong culinary tradition, that people are reasonably familiar with (such as the three examples I’ve given).

A national theme should make it much easier to plan your party. Not only will it help you with the choice of food or course, but it can also decide the decoration, the music and the dress of your guests, if you like!

2. Musical Band Or Genre
Dedicate your dinner party to a particular popular music band or genre, for example Led Zeppelin, the Eagles or the “New Romantics”.

Play the music at your party and get your guests to dress up as band members.

For fun, you could name the food dishes you serve after the well-known songs or personalities. And for entertainment, how about a karaoke competition based on the music of the band or genre?

3. Guest Courses
If you know that some of your guests enjoy cooking, why not ask them to prepare a course?

They could prepare something in advance and bring it along, or they could prepare a quick dish during the dinner party.

Perhaps ask one guest (or couple) to do the starter, while another does the desert. It should be fun and it will take some of the pressure off the host.

4. Hire A Chef Teacher
This dinner party idea will cost money, but if you’re wanting to impress some guests, it might be just the thing!

You can hire experienced chefs who will come to your home and cook a special meal for your guests. Additionally, they will explain about the food, it’s background and culture and demonstrate how the dishes are prepared.

The host also avoids the usual work in the kitchen.

5. Role Play Dinner Party
Invite your guests to come dressed as particular characters.

You may also brief them as to the part they should play and give them special information they must only reveal in certain circumstances.

There are many role play games you can buy that do all the preparatory work for you. These provide role briefing sheets for each of your guests and directions as to how to play the game.

6. Particular Food Themes
You can base each course on a particular type of food, for example cheese or chocolate. Your challenge as the cook is to come up with different tasting and interesting dishes, that will get your guests talking.

Hopefully, expressing their surprise and enjoyment!

Summary
I hope these dinner party ideas will help you to plan your next one. Try to be a little different each time. Your guests will appreciate it more and have something memorable about your dinner parties.