Black Light Party Ideas

Coming up with these black light party ideas was so much fun!

In fact, it's almost funny how excited we got each time we learned of new things that glow in black light!

The biggest excitement came from something incredibly simple. Tonic water. Did you know that it glows in black light?

I mean, really glows! It is so awesome!

We used it in some really cool ways...like surrounded our "head waiter" with glasses of it, as you can see in this picture. (Our black light party was a Halloween party, if you're wondering why in the world we had a head on our table)! :)

To see what else we did with it, and to see the rest of our really fun ideas, take a peek below!

Black Light Party Ideas: Invitations

Since our party was for Halloween, these skeleton invites were absolutely perfect! I love the "black light" vibe that they give.

Be sure to note on the invitations that everyone should come dressed in clothes that "glow"...white and neon colors are PERFECT!

You can also make your own black light invites with black paper and neon paint pens.

There's no need for the ink to be black light reflective because the average person doesn't have black light in their house, but the neon colors against the dark paper will give a black light effect.

Black Light Party Ideas: Decorations

Of all the black light party ideas that we came up with, we had the most fun with the decorations.

There is just something so very cool about watching everything glow!

Here's what we did:

• We replaced all of the light bulbs in the party room with black light bulbs. Make sure you have enough bulbs to light things up, and remember, any other light that you have in the room will take away from the glow effect that the black lights provide.
• We covered all of the walls of the party area with black plastic, then decorated it with black light streamers (that we found at Claire's) and black light silly string. For added fun we ripped the streamers into pieces and used them to spell out words and make pictures on the walls.
• We covered the ceiling with glow in the dark spider web, which also glows in the black light.
• I found a great flowy, semi-sheer fabric at the fabric store that glowed fabulously in the black light. We draped it over styrofoam heads to create ghosts and hung them from the rafters. They were sooo cool and spooky! We saved one of the heads to use as our "head waiter," as seen in the pic at the top of the page.
• A ghostly backdrop was hung behind the "head waiter." It didn't glow, but it's coloring and shadows fit in perfectly. You can see it in the background of the pic at the top.
• Glow sticks were cracked and put into white balloons just prior to the party and scattered around the floor for a fun glow.

Black Light Party Ideas: Games and Activities

• Tonic Water Pong: This is played just like beer pong, but with glowing tonic water instead of beer. We covered the table with glowing orange fabric, and used clear cups so we could see the glowing liquid in the cups.
• Glow Necklace "Horseshoes": Cover horseshoe poles with neon tape. Toss glow necklaces to play "horseshoes" with a black light twist.
• Neon Silly String War: Silly string is so much fun...and it glows! Have cans sitting around everywhere and let people go crazy with it whenever the mood strikes. The teens love this!
• Decorate T-shirts: Provide neon black light paint pens (I've read that highlighters also work, but I don't know that for sure), and decorate shirts. My daughter and her friends had a blast with this!

Black Light Party Ideas: On the Menu

Food for a black light party can be a little tricky because there really aren't many foods that glow.

We were lucky enough to learn before our party that tonic water glows, so we added it to jello and made jello jigglers.

We tried green and orange jello...the green jello glowed and the orange did not. You may have to experiment with colors to see what works.

Tonic water has a very bitter taste, so instead of substituting the entire recommended water amount called for in the jello recipe, use half water and half tonic water.

We couldn't even taste the tonic water at that rate.

We also served white cupcakes (my daughter and her friends decorated these skeleton cupcakes).

Since I couldn't come up with any other party foods that glow, I covered our food table with glowing fabric and served typical party food.

The fabric added a "glow" to the entire table.

For fun, glowing drinks, add tonic water to Mountain Dew or select sports drinks like Gatorade. I've also read that Red Bull glows, but I'm not sure how much Red Bull you want to give to a party full of teens!

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