A Red Themed Valentine's Day Party

Valentine's Day is traditionally a holiday for lovers, but that doesn't mean you can't throw a party for all the couples that are close to you. It's a great idea, where you can cement the bonds of friendship and at the same time toast the wonders of romance. Do it right and you'll have a get-together that'll be bandied about for months.

The natural theme for a Valentine's Day party is to have everything revolve around the color red, the color of love. If you've declared the party a potluck, make sure all attendees bring food with a red motif. This can result in a lot of creative and smile-inducing results. Of course, you'll have the obvious fare, such as red velvet cake, lasagna or stuffed tomatoes. But surely there'll be unique dishes, involving strawberries, cranberries, beets, radicchio and who know what else. The food will be good and entertaining at the same time. And of course, the red wine will be flowing freely.

There is no end to the entertaining ideas you can come up with for a Valentine's party. Bear in mind the personalities of your partygoers, knowing ahead of time whether you can employ racier games and contests or need to use tamer entertainment. You might want to start a drinking game where a person imbibes whenever another partygoer kisses them. This can really loosen things up as surely some guests will inevitably get adventurous and heighten the merry atmosphere.

You can prepare gift bags of various types of undergarments (lingerie, bras, fishnet stockings, maybe even a jock strap) where couples have to take turns trying to guess what's in the bag. They grope around inside the bag and then make a list of what they think the contents are. Once you've gone around the room, empty the bag and then tally who has identified the most items correctly. Naturally, of course, the winning couple gets to keep the bag. No doubt, this will lead to plenty of red faces and lots of giggles, but it will certainly raise lots of smiles, albeit perhaps embarrassed ones.

If you're feeling a bit sarcastic about Valentine's, then you can poke a little fun by using heart-shaped pieces of cardboard tied to inflated balloons and then let your partygoers take a shot at breaking a heart. There surely will be a lot of laughs and perhaps some introspective conversations about past relationships.

For party planners with ambitious goals, a scavenger hunt is a perfect way to up the ante of fun at the party. You can compose lists of Valentine-based items, such as Hershey's Kisses, roses, or silly Valentine's cards, that each couple must find. You can even try having the women compete together against the men for a battle of the sexes.

Throw in some odd requests, ones in which a digital camera is useful, where the combatants need to hug, kiss or give romance input to a complete stranger. You may be amazed at the ingenious methods some of your guests come up with to win this game.

No doubt the more your party guests are familiar with each other, the further you can take the amusements. You might try an old-fashioned game of "Truth or Dare." If nothing else, your friends may learn things they didn't know about their partners. Just keep the atmosphere light and airy and you'll have a Valentine's Day that will go down as one for the ages.