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Hobbit Birthday Party. Ideas welcome!

anagum The Shire Feb 4 2013, 6:14am Views: 1802 Hobbit Birthday Party. Ideas welcome! Hello! Heh, this is my first time posting here and it's a NEW thread, of all things. Better that than lurking forever, right? I am turning 24 in about two days and I plan on having a birthday party with around 10 guests, the theme being a generic hobbit event (not necessarily connected to the movie). My initial idea was to make everybody wear costumes (as I'm wearing a lady hobbit one myself. So excited!), but seeing as how that's not nice on everybody's wallet, I've decided to simply color code everybody's clothes, brown, yellows and reds belonging to those who want to be hobbits, and blue, purples and whites, for those who want to be elves (so you can have more variety?) Although I've been rolling with the idea for days now and I have a few weeks left to plan, I'm still very unsure of how everything is going down and I was wondering if anyone has had any experience doing this before and for some pointers! Whether it was a pre-The Hobbit party or some other LOTR-related festivity, how did you pull it off? What kind of activities did you incorporate? Appropriate music? Appropriate dancing? Considering everybody there is going to be around their 20s or older, I'm kind of at a loss on what could be entertaining and hobbity, and not have it be borderline childish. As for decorating, I'm thinking it'd be cool to have the living room spruced up so that it looks rustic and natural (maybe adding flower pots, books everywhere, tree branches, comfy cushions and dim lighting). I've found some inspiration online, but does anyone have any advice on this front, as well? As for recipes (this has been the funnest aspect to research), I'm planning on serving fruit wines, pumpkin soup, bread and cheese, sauteed mushrooms, potatoes, pork pies, apple tart and seed cake (everybody better be hungry, haha). Any advice here is welcome too! So, penny for your thoughts? If this turns out to be half as fun as I envision it in my head, I might just post some pictures.

grammaboodawg Immortal Feb 4 2013, 5:48pm Views: 1360 Howdy and Welcome! What a great idea :D I love it! I think your idea of colour-coding costumes for people to enjoy is very good. You're right, it can get expensive. You could also give people the option to wear their own costumes or use what you'll have available. There may be a few geeky friends who would LOVE to put together a costume or have one already. Music: you could use parts of the soundtrack and maybe have some rustic folk-music highlighting hobbity instruments (if your going with Shire-theme), then maybe some Elvish music (harps, flutes & such), and some harsh metallic/drum music for Mordor-esque music. You could listen to examples online then borrow the desired cds through your local library's interlibrary loan. That would give you versatility and keep the cost down. Food: I think you're on the right track! I'll dig through my files and see if I can offer up more suggestions. We do tend to talk about food a LOT here ;D You could make some lembas (out of shortbread recipes), Rings (donuts), and some turkey or chicken drumsticks, etc. Decorations: There again... very good ideas! You could also put out some of those LARGE pinecones that are always around at Christmas time. Maybe some stores still have some lying about. Hobbits tend to have a lot of herbs and garlic hanging from the ceiling to dry, and they like flowers, too. Bag End is always my inspiration. Please let us know how your plans are coming along... and YES to PICTURES!! First draft of TH:AUJ Geeky Observation List - updated list coming soon I'm SO HAPPY these new films take me back to that magical world!! TIME Google Calendar TORn's Geeky Observations Lists (updated soon)

Magpie Immortal Feb 4 2013, 6:22pm Views: 1372 thoughts The Alamo Drafthouse does a trilogy showing many years and I think they offered a Middle-earth menu. It might be worth doing a search for that. also, we had a thread a while back that asked for suggestions for a kid's party. I made some but I think they were more kid oriented than adult so I'm not going to search for it but the original poster could try a forum search for any past conversations. (points to button at top of page) While coming up with suggestions for that older thread and while looking for ideas for Christmas gifts, I did some searching on google for party ideas, food and crafts using Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, Tolkien, and Middle-earth as search parameters. There was some interesting stuff. Decorating cookies as round hobbit doors was popular. :-) And, I'm kind of new to the whole Pinterest thing but it might be worth going there and doing some searches for party ideas using those Tolkien search terms above. When I entered the Show Your Hobbit Pride competition, I went back and read the chapters in LOTR describing Hobbits (including the foreword, if that's what it was called). I'll throw these out for consideration - go back to the book for more details: gardening, flowers, pipeweed (bubble pipes?), smoke rings (you can buy and maybe rent machines that make smoke rings), mushrooms, cabbages and taters (for decoration in a basket or maybe colcannon). there are a bunch of English cheeses with the word 'shire' in them. Look in any store that carries a good selection of imported cheeses. Any English cheese would be good. ale (I don't know that ginger ale would be particularly English but root beer maybe?) as far as costuming... if I engage in 'dressing in costume' it's usually by suggesting something connected to the theme. At a Tolkien halloween party, I just wore a silky vest that looked kind of Elvish to me and pulled my hair back with a vaguely Elvish looking clip... leaving strands in front of my ears on each side. For a Alice in Wonderland theme ball, I wore a regular ball dress but I painted the tips of a silk rose with red, shiny fabric paint... making sure it looked gloopy and drippy, as if it were brushed on with a big brush... then I made a drip that I fastened onto my dress with a tacky (removable), fabric glue. I can't tell you how many people thought it was a real drip! A few people came dressed up in provocative clothing and declared they were 'tarts'. So, it might be just as much fun to let people come up with creative ways to dress to the theme. A scarf, a vest, furry feet. And not get too caught up in full costumes. LOTR soundtrack website ~ magpie avatar gallery TORn History Mathom-house ~ Torn Image Posting Guide

Otaku-sempai Immortal Feb 4 2013, 8:48pm Views: 1414 Hobbit Party Games? From The Annotated Hobbit: - Darts: Self-explanatory. - Quoits: Rings are pitched at a stake, the object being to get the ring around the stake. Alternative: Horseshoes. - Shooting at the Wand: A narrow slat is used as an archery target. - Bowls: Played on a smooth lawn with weighted wooden balls. Alternative: Bocci. - Ninepins (klittles): Like tenpin bowling but with only nine pins set up at the end of an alley and bowled at. How 'bout assigning hobbit names to the party guests and handing out appropriate name tags? 'There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.' - Gandalf the Grey, The Fellowship of the Ring (This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on Feb 4 2013, 8:50pm)

tennie75 Lorien Feb 5 2013, 4:26am Views: 1367 Don't forget that most Hobbity of birthday traditions Mathoms, that you will give to your friends instead of receiving gifts from them! And, of course, you must tell them that you know less than half of them half as well as you would like, and you like less than half of them half as well as they deserve. Oh - and fireworks!!!! ****************************************** Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.

Nira Lorien Feb 5 2013, 5:50am Views: 1344 Fun! I'll try to think of more Apples, Lembas, po-ta-toes, bacon, sausages, nice crispy bacon, cheese, seed or honey cakes, ent-draught water, tea, Miruvor ;), beer. Give every friend a gift. Must play that great music from the movie during Bilbo's party- "Flaming Red Hair" Play one of Dominic Monaghan's made up games: Cup, Nudge, Tig. Play hot-potato with a gold ring. Hide a gold ring and whoever finds it gets a prize. Hobbits like yellow and green colors! hang lanterns Must have a Party Tree If mailing invitations, use a red wax stamp "Why, to think of it, we're in the same tale still! It's going on. Don't the great tales never end?"

anagum The Shire Feb 10 2013, 4:04am Views: 1312 Aaaaah, so much stuff to work from! :D @grammaboodawg I'm actually making some parts from costumes (hobbit skirts, vests, etc.) so that people who want to can put them on, so we'll see how that goes! Yes to hobbity music! I'm thinking of putting together a mix for the ambiance (based on some Irish and other Celtic folk music), and you're right! Harps and flutes are perfect for the elves too. Haha, donuts as rings! Didn't think of that! And you gave me such a vivid mental image for the decoration....I'm inspired! I'll have to figure out how to make dim lighting though that doesn't look too blatantly modern. Artificial candles? Haha. @Magpie: I'll check out that Middle Earth menu! Mmm, and yes to Pinterest! My invitations actually came from there. Also, so so many ideas and inspiration. Bubble pipes sound so fun! And yes to the vegetables in baskets. I'll try to look for English cheeses, provided they're not too expensive in Latin America. Ooh, root beer sounds like a good alternative from wine. And thank you for the costume suggestions as well! @Otaku-sempai: Thank you so so much for all of the Hobbit party game ideas! A lot of these sound fun to play outside. @tennie75: Hahaha, my brother keeps insisting that I give mathoms instead of getting presents. :P I think I'll have to come up with some little trinket to give away to the guests. Fireworks sound cool! @Nira: It cannot be a Hobbit party without Flaming Red Hair. :D I didn't know Dom had made up games! Is that in the behind the scenes stuff in the DVDs? I love those ideas! Lanterns actually sound like a really good alternative for dim lighting. Hm... Thank you all SO MUCH for all of your ideas and suggestions. You really have made me a million times more excited about this party than anything else. I will try to see if I can report on how it all went! Until then, cheers! /lifts ale pint

Magpie Immortal Feb 10 2013, 4:16am Views: 1415 gramma is the queen of trinket gifties my favorite from her? ... a white rock with a G rune on it. Easy peasy. charms denoting items from the books could work if you have access to charm/bead stores: spiders, dragons, bees (Beorn), bears, wolves (wargs), ring, sword, leaf, foot, key buy small wood boxes from craft stores (for painting) and paint a hobbit door on it a white handkerchief - you could 'embroider' BB on it. origami black butterflies games: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSbt7n09YJM LOTR soundtrack website ~ magpie avatar gallery TORn History Mathom-house ~ Torn Image Posting Guide (This post was edited by Magpie on Feb 10 2013, 4:17am)