It was my husband, Scott’s, birthday last week. Late December birthdays are so hard! They always seem to get wrapped up into Christmas or NYE so I try to make his really special! This year I decided we’d head back to the 80’s but have it all 80’s video game or TV show centered to make it more masculine! It was seriously so dang fun and really time consuming. For hours, I looked up SO many popular 80’s food items to make sure they were accurate as well as all the characters used on the food tags. I also made all the signs, banner, centerpieces and food name tags and those were a lot of work too but all in all it turned out Like Totally Rad! Plus, most everyone played along, dressing up in their best 80’s attire. Check out the details below!
I got most of my color inspiration for the party out of this Pac Man banner so lots of yellow, pinks, turquoise, red and I added some bright green through out as well. I used black quite liberally because it really popped out those bright colors!
Above the food table I made the Pac Man birthday banner…who hasn’t played Pac Man?!? This is will be available in my Etsy store really soon!
For the main dish you can NOT have an 80’s party without thinking of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! So we ordered a bunch of different pizzas from a local place and it was fabulous! Even more so because I didn’t have to cook. Hey…who remembers this poster?! It’s from the D.A.R.E program, hello blast from the past!
We had some people with food allergies so I made food tags explaining what was in each pizza and found these tiny bright pink laundry pins to use as a holders for the cards
We had classics like Pepperoni and Cheese but the other 4 were tailored to adults because how often can you eat intricate food with your kids? Also, these are some of the first TMNT figurines that my mom saved from when my brothers were growing up!
We got them from Firehouse Pizza, they’re seriously incredible and they have a few different locations through UT and ID. Here’s their website
For sides we had Doritos, both Cool Ranch and Cheese, because did you know they came out in the 80’s?! Holla to my Care Bears in the back…the ones from my childhood, yay Mom for saving them
And just a simple green salad, which did not come out in the 80’s but Gumby sure did! Who else watched him?!
And drinks. Purple Rain was grape juice, Sprite, and Pineapple Juice. It was a crowd favorite. Hopefully, everyone knows not to get Gremlins wet…
After dinner I had everyone do a candy trivia game to name 80’s candy. They played in couples and it was hilarious. They were all stuck on the last one but eventually a couple got it. They won a bag full of 80’s candy (Bottle Caps, Air Heads, Runts, Lemon Heads, Blow Pops, etc) Contact me if you’d like the game and the answers
Then we all voted on costumes. Andy won, I’m so bummed I cut off his shoes in this picture! They made the outfit. He won a DIY tie TMNT fleece blanket and a collection of 80’s movies
Then it was time for dessert. Scott did my paint splatter backdrop. We used an old white flat bedsheet and cheap paint in a collection at Michaels
I kept dessert really simple and more of a grazing feel since I knew the pizza would be pretty heavy. So sugar cookies with neon frosting
Various flavored Pop Rocks, Brielle tried one pack and it blew.her.mind! Haha, her eyes got huge and when she opened her mouth to exclaim alarm she heard them crackling and quickly shut her mouth. Then she just kept slowly opening and closing her mouth to hear them crackling! Seriously, get some of these for your little kids
We did a tower of cupcakes instead of a cake, it was nice to have such small servings and have the variety of chocolate or vanilla
Who remembers Cosmo Brownies?!
And no 80’s party is complete without Pixy Stix
My sweet friend, Ali, came to my rescue and created this darling topper for me. It was so crazy last minute when I asked her but she totally came through and it fit in absolutely perfect with the rest of the theme. Check out her amazing etsy shop here
Table set ups. I alternated yellow and turquoise plastic tablecloths. The zebra print runner is actually wrapping paper I found on clearance!
The entire place setting is from Oriental Trading, it’s actually what inspired me to have it video and TV game as the theme
I found these old TV and computer graphics and Photoshopped in old video or TV games inside the screens. It was so much fun reminiscing about which ones we played like The Oregon Trail above or Duck Hunter below
Mario Bros
Pac Man. All of these will also be included in my Etsy shop for purchase. I’ll link it once it’s up
We had a little area where we kept the winning prizes and the favor bags. I scoured the Internet finding relevant things to Scott that happened the year he was born and made this sign
He’s huge into software, computers, space, etc, so these were all right up his alley!
These are what we gave in each favor bag. They all came from Oriental Trading as well
And some of our favorite people that I was able to get pictures of
What a tubular night it was!!! Happy Birthday Babe!
