Game Night Homecoming Theme Ideas

Don’t let this Homecoming drag on into the night. Keep the guests active and entertained with a game night theme!

Size It Up

Instead of cluttering up the room with tables and chairs to put board games on, why not simply make the guests pawns in the game? Take classic board games and make them life-sized! Checkers, chess, and parcheesi are all classic board games and are easy to set up and learn. For some more complicated games, however, try life-sized monopoly or the game of life (for those guests who want some intellectual aspects to their larger-than-life games). Games like these keep the guests moving and having fun all night long.

Heave Ho!

Host a tug-of-war competition! Set-up is as easy as a rope and some mats. Have your guests face off against each other to claim eternal glory as the strongest team in the school. To have everyone get involved, build a tournament bracket of all the guests. This makes winning even more glorious!

Relay Some Fun

An event that has been repeated for years is the relay race. Relay races encourage cooperation and teamwork without sacrificing fun and entertainment. Some popular ideas include balancing an egg on a spoon that is in their mouths, having a blindfolded person be guided through an obstacle course by someone who isn’t blindfolded, and having an activity at a station and having the person complete the activity before moving on to another station. Encourage school unity with relay races that get guests to interact with friends, acquaintances, and strangers alike.

The Ball Is In Your Court

A simple yet fun game to play with your guests is a game called handball. Handball is very popular in Europe and is played in high schools across the United States. The reason for its popularity in high schools is its simplicity. All you need for set-up is a ball, two goals, and some space. A basketball court size is the ideal size needed to play this game. This game, although simple in  nature, requires a reasonable amount of effort and can keep the guests playing for a long time. Here are the rules for clarification (the more technical rules do not have to be followed in order to play the essence of the game):

Slice and Dice?

A fairly new form of physical activity that has emerged is a sport called Live Action Role Playing (or, for short, LARPing). This is where two (or more) people use padded weapons (swords & shields) to land blows on each other. If your guests have had their fill with all the other fun games at your event, this activity is where they can try something new and exciting.

Keep your guests active and entertained with creative and diverse games!

Entice Alumni to Attend Your Homecoming Week

To college and high school students, homecoming means an important football game and a dance, with a few other activities throughout the week.  To alumni, homecoming means a walk down memory lane with a visit to their old school.  More often than not, alumni either forget about homecoming week (because they’re told too early and not reminded) or they simply don’t want to go.  Change that! This year, don’t just remind your alumni that homecoming week is approaching, make them want to attend at least one (if not each) event during the week.

Mail a Homecoming Week Event Outline

Once you make sure you have current addresses for your alumni, put together a flyer with a schedule of events that you have planned for your homecoming week.  If the events are not 100% set in stone when you put together the schedule, make sure you clearly label the schedule “tentative.”  Then, once your homecoming week is planned, send a finalized schedule of events for your alumni to use—maybe when everything is official and final, your elusive alumni will attend a few events during your homecoming week.

Go Digital with Your Homecoming Week Events

Because everything else is going digital, why don’t you create a digital schedule of events for your homecoming week?  All your students are on Facebook, Twitter, and other social network sites, so why not create an “event” on Facebook?  Invite your students and encourage them to invite any alumni they might know, whether siblings, parents, or older friends.  Create an album with a few wall photos—the school mascot, maybe a photo of the football team and a photo of the cheerleaders.  Update these photos, as well as the overall event page, at least once a week.   You can also post pictures of the decorations as you set them up for the events throughout the week.

Depending on the event you’re decorating for, you’ll want to look for banners, a variety of spirit supplies (such as megaphones, buttons, and pom-poms), homecoming dance background materials, and many other things.  You could hang banners at the entrances to your school to get your students pumped up for homecoming week.  You can also hand out small favors to all your students during your homecoming week—in this case, try candy-related favors.  Your students will thank you.  Other fun favors to hand out to your students during homecoming week are imprinted footballs and basketballs, though these would probably be better handed out at the end of the school day so your students aren’t too distracted.

The culmination of homecoming week is almost always a dance.  Why not invite your alumni?  Then they can feel like they’ve gone back to high school and they’ll be able to watch the crowning of the homecoming court and experience all of it.  There are many ways to entice your alumni to attend at least one event during your homecoming week, you just have to choose which ways you want to use.

Homecoming Dance Favors & Fun

The Homecoming dance is coming up fast! By this time you’ve got your theme idea, and what kinds of Homecoming supplies you’ll need to rock it. Next step is to choose just the right Homecoming favors to complete the evening.

Album & Frame Favors
Album favors and frame favors suit Homecoming naturally, because they’re ready to receive posed photos and candid shots from the event. Look for theme designs or keep it simply elegant in black, gold or silver.

Take your Homecoming favor browsing beyond albums and frames to examine other possibilities. Photo cubes are fun and affordable. Key tags and even clocks have room for photos and feed your practical side as well.

Edible and Consumable Favors
Candy, gum and other edibles are perennially popular but have other advantages, too. Containers and other packaging allow for a high degree of customizability to your theme and individual event, and the cost ranges widely so you’re sure to find many suitable options for your budget that will also have a look that’s one of a kind.

Design chocolate and candy lollipops for a Candy Land Homecoming theme, caramel popcorn for a Carnival dance, and elegant mint tins for City, Black Tie or other, more formal Homecoming themes.

Of course, you don’t have to be a zombie to understand that edible favors for a Halloween themed Homecoming dance are a no-brainer!

Kick up personalization another notch by selecting candy jars or cookie tins in a theme design and then filling them yourself.

Look for other consumables such as soaps, lip balms and drink mixes.

Favors that Double as Décor and Tableware
Many customized edible and other Homecoming favors absolutely deserve a place at the table. You can place them on top of – or alongside of – place settings, or as part of your centerpieces (as we’ve shown with the Mardi Gras lollipops).

Another option is to wrap up Homecoming favors and favor combos in swanky swag bags, eye-catching thematic totes or custom keepsake tins that add a dressy touch to tables.

Imagine also the sparkle you can bring with carefully selected glassware favors and custom candles.

Don’t Forget the Favor Finder
The Favor Finder is fun and easy to use. Whether you’re already halfway to a Homecoming favor decision or could use a bit of help narrowing down the selection, Favor Finder will help you reach the perfect result for your event, theme and budget.