Posh Preview
Send glitzy invites requesting attendees' award-winning presence. Print your message on white card stock, back it with red paper, and wrap it in gold paper sealed with a red star sticker.
Best Direction
Let guests know they've arrived. Spotlight the front door with an Oscar-like statuette (a gold spray-painted mannequin wearing a bow tie) and a plywood billboard announcing the event.
Flashing Lights
Capture superstars such as Elvis, Audrey Hepburn, and Marilyn Monroe as they make their way to your red-carpet shindig by stationing camera-toting paparazzi around the entrance.
Set Design
Create Oscar-worthy centerpieces by squaring off statuettes and balancing American beauty bouquets tucked into plates filled with florist's foam. Create the statuettes by spray-painting male dolls gold.
Golden Treatment
Glitzy pumpkins fit right in with other glamorous gold accents. Simply coat a pumpkin (real or plastic) with gold spray paint and allow the traditional Halloween accent to become a shining star of the night's décor.
Movie Magic
Decorate walls with motion picture posters showcased in thrift-store frames that have been upgraded with gold paint. Rent a popcorn machine to generate movie-theater aromas and serve buckets full of popcorn.
Action!
Turn your foyer, kitchen , or dining room into a concession stand with no-cutlery-needed movie-theater treats. Highlight the area with a director's clapboard. Cut out the classic shape from black foam core. Transfer computer-generated letters with white graphite paper and color the words with a white paint marker. Add a foam core hinge for fool-the-eye dimension.
Sweet Tooth
Set up a candy station to evoke movie-going memories. Load up a multi-bin hardware storage unit with Raisinettes, Lemonheads, Hot Tamales, Junior Mints, and other movie theater classics.
Hurray for Holly-Weenies
Hot dogs turn fabulous when garbed in formal attire. Wrap wieners in black paper and accessorize with red card-stock bow ties held together with red brads.
Best Supporting Role
Use purchased metal film reels to house custard cups filled with tantalizing dips, spreads, snacks, or condiments.
Eating Action
Hang salty hot pretzels on a coffee-mug tree and set them near the dips and dogs. The secret to easy homemade pretzels? Refrigerated breadsticks.
Starstruck
Use glittery, star-enhanced toothpicks to underscore your leading lights theme.
Nostalgic Potions
Evoke images of Tinsel Town's gilded age by serving pomegranate martinis in your classiest crystal. Use premade drink mixes to keep things simple.
Dressed to Impress
Gussy up bottles of bubbly in felt tuxedoes embellished with bow ties and gold-brad buttons. Display them atop a red-velvet tablecloth that echoes the hue of the VIP red carpet at the party's entrance.
And the Winner Is...
Honor your guests by presenting awards throughout the evening. Present each winner with one of the trophy centerpieces. Print labels that proclaim category winners: best dressed, most convincing impersonation, and most likely to be a paparazzi target . Play charades and give best actor and actress awards to the outstanding thespians. If you have a gregarious crowd, ask each winner to give an acceptance speech, guaranteed to elicit even more laughs.
Swag Bags
Send friends home with fun favors that simulate Oscar presenters' swag bags. Fill clear takeout boxes with plastic cell phones, watches, bracelets, and jewelry-boxed Ring Pops. Place a disc of downloaded Halloween tunes in a tin case as a souvenir.
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