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Step 1
Check your Christmas decorations supplies in the garage for strands of red Christmas tree lights (or outdoor lights.) Don't have any? Ask around...someone at work, a friend or neighbor is bound to have a strand or two. These look FANTASTIC when hung about the vampire's lair or the overall party area if your guests will be coming as vampires.
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Step 2
For a large group of guests that are comfortable and familiar with each other, there is a particularly ruthless game I've renamed Coven. The rules are simple, but it gets interesting VERY quickly. Take the number of guests and divide them by three. Now take that many cards from three suits of a card deck, beginning with the ace. For example, if you have 18 guests (18 divided by 3 = 6), then take the last six cards (ace, king, queen, jack, 10 and 9) of three of the suits (spades, hearts and diamonds) and make a pile out of these 18 cards. If you had 36 guests (36 divided by 3 = 12), then take the last 12 cards from three of the suits. Whether or not you are playing will depend on how evenly you can divide the party guest number by three. It is important that the number of participants is evenly divided by three. Once you have your stack of cards, pull everyone together and explain that the simple rule is that the first complete coven of vampires to form wins. A complete coven is a successive series of cards, regardless of suit. For example, everyone gets a card and you yell GO! The first group of guests that has one of every card in their coven, wins. Now, what is so challenging about that? Well, wait till you see how many different covens start to form...then wait till you see covens begin trading members to try and complete their covens. It becomes a strategic battle to exchange coven members! This could also work for vampire hunting parties if you've chosen the other vampire sub-theme.
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Step 3
For a darker, more macabre activity (which works best with groups of guests who know each other), have each guests draw another party guest's name out of a hat to write a eulogy for (as they are all the undead...) Now, at first you might think that this would be a real 'downer' of an activity...however, what you'll find instead is that it will be very uplifting as each guest thinks of kind words to say in 'rememberance' of the other party guest. Make sure to limit the eulogy to one minute (or less) depending on the number of guests present.
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Step 4
A neat little trick is to serve a clear drink (i.e. Sprite, 7-up, sparkling water, etc.) with koolaid ice cubes. As the ice cubes melt, their flavor mixes with the drink. Serve the ice cubes separate from the drink and drop them in the glass just before serving (for best results). Nothing like a little blood to get the party started, eh?
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Step 5
When covering tables, before you purchase that cheap, black plastic sheeting tablecovering, consider first visiting your local fabric store (or Wal-Mart in the fabric/craft section) and see what they have on the dollar/yard clearance table. Sometimes you can find the perfect fabric material to cover your table(s) that will be a step up from the typical 'kid vampire' party.
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Step 6
Blood can be a messy business...but it's all a part of the vampire theme. One way around the more gruesome side of it is to use red felt. Cut 'spill shaped' felt pieces and place them on tables for centerpieces. They can either be placed randomly or underneath a main centerpiece in the same way that a doily
