80's Surprise Birthday Party

[StephanieGravatt]

My sister-in-law and I are trying to plan a 1980's birthday party for her husband. We've got our costumes pretty much completely bought, but after that we're drawing a sort of blank.

I'm in charge of making the birthday cake, and I was gonna make it Pac-Man. We were planning on having an 80's music mix playing, and 80's movies in the back room. We also have the 80's scene-it we can play.  We're having trouble trying to find foods to make. 'Cause a food wasn't really associated with a decade...at least not ones that we can readily get. No one wants to drink New Coke. LoL!

[nikimac]

How old is he?  If he's in his late 20s or early 30s, then a throwback to his favorite kids'/junk foods would be best.  Definitely chicken nuggets, PopRocks, Otter Pops, juice boxes (or better yet Squeeze-Its if they still make them), fruit wrinkles, Combos, Fruit Roll-Ups, and Jell-O Pudding.  If you're going with grown-up food, then yuppie-ish stuff like sundried tomatoes on crustini, mini quiches, frozen yogurt, French bread pizza, wine coolers, oat bran cookies, sushi, and Shasta sodas. 
I threw an '80s prom party and we just danced to the music, played trivia games, and took photos with a 21 Jump Street-ish backdrop all night.  It was great.  Definitely make people dress up, and have some accessories ready to convert him to '80s style once he gets there.

[StephanieGravatt]

He's going to be 27. And I've already had my husband dress up in the costumes we're thinking about putting him in, they're about the same size. What did you make the backdrop out of?

[nikimac]

Well I'm 27, and if I was getting the party, I'd definitely want the kids food!  I made the backdrop out of a painted drop cloth and hung it up on a wall, but my favorite thing to make for parties are mugboards - the old boardwalk-style photo ops where you stick your face through a hole in a funny picture.  There are soooo many '80s options for that one, but I think some funny ones could be ET's face as he's in the bike basket in front of the moon, a video game character like Donkey Kong, some Ghostbusters, Captain Planet, or Inspector Gadget.  I've made those from both big cardboard boxes and plywood (but you need a saw for that, versus scissors/X-acto knife for cardboard). 

[StephanieGravatt]

Well I'm 27, and if I was getting the party, I'd definitely want the kids food!  I made the backdrop out of a painted drop cloth and hung it up on a wall, but my favorite thing to make for parties are mugboards - the old boardwalk-style photo ops where you stick your face through a hole in a funny picture.  There are soooo many '80s options for that one, but I think some funny ones could be ET's face as he's in the bike basket in front of the moon, a video game character like Donkey Kong, some Ghostbusters, Captain Planet, or Inspector Gadget.  I've made those from both big cardboard boxes and plywood (but you need a saw for that, versus scissors/X-acto knife for cardboard). 

I love the mugboards idea!!