I need some fun, creative ideas! A few months back, we decided it would be fun to have a "Hatesgiving", if you will... basically a big Thanksgiving-ish celebration with our friends, where we all get together and have a Thanksgiving dinner, drink, listen to some music, and just appreciate our friendship. Instead of holding hands and naming off all the things we are thankful for, we get to gripe about what we hate, and at the end we are going to break plates. I think it will be super fun and funny, but I need some more ideas on the "Hatesgiving" theme. I was thinking of decorating with black balloons and streamers... maybe listening to Linkin Park, ha ha! Any other suggestions??
**Added: LilPiggieToes, I totally agree! One of my fondest memories as a kid was what we called "Gripe NIght". It only happened once, but after dinner one night, my parents allowed us kids to gripe about whatever we wanted. I remember how gleeful we were to complain about what was bothering us, without repercussion. Nobody had hurt feelings at the end; it was just great to get it out of our system! And thanks for the tarp idea too.
Thanks for all the great ideas! We are excited for our party. I guess I do not see the point of view of this party being sick. Truly, the party is about celebrating our friendships. We are all positive people and love life. That being said, sometimes we like to be silly, and definitely this will be a fun, silly party. Will let y'all know how it goes :)
**Added: We had our party yesterday and it was a great success. The best part was preparing for it all week, though! Kids made placecards (traced their hands on brown paper to make "turkeys" and drew mad faces on the turkeys). We made our own pinata and that was a lot of fun! The kids painted it as a mean monster. They made a big cute turkey (with a mad face) for the front door and we found some ugly ceramic turkey centerpieces at the 2nd hand store. decorations were black crepe paper and we drew funny faces on white balloons with black permanent marker. At the party we played a game where everyone wrote down a pet peeve and then we had to guess who wrote it- whoever guessed the most correctly won a prize. I made "misfortune" cookies with funny messages inside, those were a huge hit. Ate a huge Thanksgiving feast, broke the pinata, had a bonfire where we burned things that brought bad luck (one gal burned an old lease where the landlord refused to give her deposit back, kids burned a picture of their least favorite dinner). We broke plates over a tarp outside at the end and that was super fun! Thanks for all the ideas and helping me make this a fun, memorable party.
How about a Pinata? What is more aggression releasing that beating a paper mache whatever with a big stick??
Am I the only one who finds this odd? LOL?
A white elephant gift exchange would be fun - things that are totally cheesy (Chia Pets, Snuggies, etc.) or 'fun' toys at an adult oriented store!
I was totally going to suggest a pinata, too. Maybe fill it with little plastic shots of booze (plus lots of chocolate...). You may have started a nationwide trend here...
THAT IS AWESOME!!! At the end of the school year I would burn my assignments. Perhaps you could have a "cleansing" ritual of getting rid of items that brought bad times or bad news.
Do you have a firepit or grill.I would have everyone write down what they hated or disliked what they hate about themselves their significant other then all get to toss them into the fire watch them burn instead of reading them outloud.Decorating in black is good..,have candles all over instead of real lighting.As a tip for the plate breaking either invite the friends to bring over their disliked plates or get them from the second hand store or Dollar Tree that way you won't feel guilty later having spent lots of money on just breaking platesThis outta be FUN I hope you have a great turn out..
Fun foods add black food coloring to whatever you serve
ADDED:What a great way to release all the negative that surround us as it builds in our mind body & souls...After this you'll be greatful what you have released & be a happier person then focus on truly the positive & wait again for next year to come to have this celebration again..For the pick up on plate breaking lay a huge tarp down break them on that easy clean up than tossing them all over the place plus it can be done outside
How about personal voodoo dolls...not necessarily of people but of stuff you want to exorcise from your life. You could print off/copy off some funny blank dolls have everyone decorate their own with all the baggage they are carrying around (or even make small, simple dolls everyone can decorate with fabric pens). You could put that extra cellulite on the legs and poke a pin through it, that tummy flab might get an extra poke...or if you are happy with yourself and want to turn your aggression on your boss or bad neighbor decorate it on behalf of them.
Additionally...my friend has a "Goddess Fest" every year where women are worshipped. The only requirement is that you bring something to share (a hobby, a talent - we have seen everything fronm aura readings to massages, food, or even picture, or a craft). We do whatever we want the entire day... the oddest was when one of my friends decided to go upstaris in the niddle of the party and just take a bubble bath.
Maybe even a pet peeve competition. Have everyone fill out slips of paper with their pet peeves and then vote on "most annoying, most common, most dnagerous whatever."
You could award the best gripe with a wheel of stinky cheese or maybe some nonparishable gag gift that represents the gripe fest. How about a stuffed or glass turkey. Probably on clearance in all the home stores right now. It could be the Turkey award. Then make this an annual event. Every year the turkey award will be passed to the new winner.
With all due respect, this sounds like a very sick idea.
yikes - not a clue. Wouldn't want to focus on the negative more than I already do. I'm trying to teach my kids to think about the positives in life so their mind will be fixed on the good stuff. Everybody's got their bad stuff to deal with it, some more than others. I wouldn't go out of my way to celebrate it - but maybe celebrate how you work around it.... like, as you mentioned, appreciating all the good friends. I do like the breaking plates idea - but who has to clean up and how do you make sure you get all the shards of pottery or glass?
You should serve all the really wonderful food that's really bad for you like pizza, bagels, chocolate cake, pasta alfredo, and like 20 kinds of cookies. =)
I just had to respond- I think this is a fun/funny idea. If you were a negative person, you probably wouldn't be having parties, and probably wouldn't have any friends to invite!!!
Just wanted to say that- also, have you seen the Seinfeld with Festivus? This sounds a lot like that. They have the airing of grievances, feats of strength, things like that. If you don't know Seinfeld, ask anyone who does and they will know exactly what I'm talking about!
You already got great ideas, and I'm not clever like that. The only thing I could think of is to have everyone write down their pet peeves and put them in a hat. Someone draws them out one by one, and everyone votes on who they think that one belongs to.
Have a great time!!!
