How to Throw a "Jaws" Theme Party
Just imagining the theme music to "Jaws" can send a chill down your back and make you fearful of stepping into the water. However, you don't have to limit your "Jaws" experience to a DVD; instead, throw a "Jaws party." And best of all, you don't even have to have a pool. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Aquamarine table cloths
- Green streamers or garlands
- Aquarium decorations
- Toy rubber sharks
- Boogie boards
- Surf boards
- Photos of "Jaws" characters
- "Jaws" DVD
- Indoor fountain or aerator
- Index cards--various colors
- Printed pictures of sharks and other sea-life
- Fish for frying or shark steaks
- Gelatin and fish shaped molds
- Cheese balls
- Cupcakes
- Assorted candies
Instructions
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What to Do for Your Party
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Decorate for your party. Set up the tables with aquamarine table cloths. Imitate seaweed by draping the table cloth with green streamers or garland. Randomly place aquarium decorations such as small divers, coral, plastic fish, treasure chests and shells on the table top. Around these, strategically lay down some toy rubber sharks. Put the leg of a diver in the mouth of a shark. Position another shark as if it is circling around the coral hunting for the fish; put the fish on the opposite side of the coral as if it were hiding from the shark.
Around the edges prop boogie boards and surf boards. On these drape more "seaweed." Hang black and white photos of actors from the movie on the walls. Use an indoor fountain or an aquarium aerator for background water noise or play "Jaws" on a television in the background.
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Make your party fun by playing games. Set up the first game by making or purchasing a large shark-shaped paper mache piñata. Fill the piñata with small toys (rubber sharks, squirting fish, rubber ducks, sand shovels) and theme candy (small packages of gummy fish and chocolate treasure chest coins).
To play the game, each party member takes three turns striking at the piñata with a large stick until the piñata breaks. Make sure the batter is blind-folded. When it breaks, instruct everyone to grab up as much loot as they can.
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Play another game: the shark toss. To prepare for the game, cut and paste pictures of assorted fish, rafts, scuba divers or anything a shark might eat onto 20 index cards. Cut and paste pictures of sharks onto five index cards. Make these cards a different color than the fish cards.
Begin playing by first spreading the fish index cards out on the floor. Stand about five feet from the cards and toss a shark card with the goal of landing on a fish. If your shark lands more than half on a fish, pick up the fish and take another turn. If your shark does not land mostly on a fish, put the shark on the discard pile and the next person takes a turn. You win one of two ways: by catching the most fish or by the other person running out of sharks.
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Feed the crowd. Serve theme-based food, starting out with a fish fry, or better yet, grill shark steaks. Shape gelatin deserts using a fish-shaped form. Mold cheese balls into sharks with green olives for eyes and a cut-out wedge for a mouth. Insert a triangular shaped cracker, so it points out of the back. This is the shark's dorsal fin. Put the "shark" on a tray and sprinkle fish shaped crackers around it.
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Set up dessert; get creative with cupcakes. On each cupcake place a jelly bean. This is the head of a swimmer. Use narrow strips of licorice cut into small pieces for the arms, body and legs. Cut a wedge out of gummy candy or break a candy wafer in half. Push this into the top, so it looks like a dorsal fin "following" the swimmer. Put frosting onto the cupcakes to add to the scene; use your imagination.
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Tips & Warnings
For adults, make the party more frightening by making a visit to a Halloween store for body parts. Insert these into the mouths of large inflatable sharks.
If you have a pool, by all means, take the party outdoors.
Clear the area of people when the batter is swinging at the pinata.
References
- Photo Credit shark 2 image by cherie from Fotolia.com
