Vampire Love Affair

How to host a True Blood or vampired themed party

The up surge of vampire fans over the last few years has spurred new fun foods, gifts, party themes clothing and more. I am more than happy to admit that I am a vampire story fan. My fandom is not new though, more than 30 years ago I became hooked on the mystic and coolness of vampires with my introduction to the book Interview With a Vampire by Anne Rice. I’m a fan of the Twilight books, though not so much the movies. It was not until True Blood that I became inspired to create vampire themed party foods, favors, candy wrappers, t-shirts, mugs, popcorn wrappers and party buckets. Since my guest and I had great fun bringing in season three of True Blood complete with foods, drinks and party favors, I thought I’d share our menu and favor design ideas.

1) Create the mood for your party. I went with red light bulbs in the living room lamps, a black table cloth for the table, black plates and eating utensils. I found these great “You’ve Been Bitten” invitations on Pinterest, you can always design your own using your own themed pictures or words. Decide ahead of time if you want your guest to come in their own vampire themed creations or if you will pick a theme from a particular book or show.

2) Choose the food theme for your party, this will make it easier to create your menu or give your guest food ideas if you are doing a potluck. For my True Blood season three party I went with a Louisiana food theme, which was great as it made it easy for my guest to find potluck food ideas to bring.

3) Choose what style of beverages to tie in with your food theme. I chose to do all blood/vampire themed drinks. All the guest at my party were over 21 so we did drinks with alcohol, like vampire slushies, vampire glamour Jell-o shots and the non-alcoholic Tru Blood beverage.

4) Theme your table decorations to fit your party. There are so many places that have ready table ware complete with the right colors, crazy favors and centerpieces.

5) Be sure to give your guest themed gifts to take home and remember your party by. I created vampire themed candy wrappers, blood dripped martini glasses and bundled them with bottles of the Tru Blood drink.

Some suggested food ideas:
1) Vampire Kissed cupcakes
2) Cajun Shrimp
3) Fried Green Tomatoes
4) Cajun Spicy Meatballs
5) Vampire Glamour Jell-O shots
6) Vampire vodka Slushies

Guest take homes
1) Blood Shot Martini Glass Favors (each included the eye of a shape shifter, fangs, vampire tattoos and a mini bag of blood)
2) Bite Me Bar- Custom vampire themed candy wrappers done up just for my party
3) Tru Blood beverage – can be found on HBO.com

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Tina D. Fermin is the owner of Vampire Love Affair.com which is a TD Gift Solutions, LLC website. Tina is also a big fan of True Blood and other vampire themed books and movies. Be sure to visit her blog often for vampire themed party ideas, food ideas , T-shirts, cups, water bottles, aprons and more all themed with quirky or cool sayings related to vampires.

I used these “blood shot” martini glasses as a party favor for a Tru Blood seasoning opening party I did a few years ago. Your guest gets a great take home or they can use the glass during the party and then eat the bloody candy rim!

The bloody dripping rim is made from the same recipe you would use to make hard candy.

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Supplies:

A candy thermometer (can find at your local grocery or craft store where they have candy making supplies
Wilton Christmas Red frosting coloring (or red of your choice)
Light Karo syrup
White sugar
Water
A couple of tooth picks or a plastic knife
Plastic martini glasses (Find them at Walmart, party supply stores, The Dollar Store, craft stores).
Wax paper

Mix Ingredients:
1 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Karo Syrup
1/2 c. Water
Directions: (Caution, this mixture is very hot!)
Combine sugar, syrup and water. Cook without stirring to hard crack stage – which is 300 degrees F. Use a toothpick or the end of a plastic knife to add a few small scrapings of the frosting coloring. I wanted my red to be a deep/bright red, so I just kept scooping in a few scrapings of the coloring with the plastic knife till I got the color I wanted.

Turn off heat if you are only doing one or two glasses, turn the heat to low if you will be doing more than two. While the mixture is still hot, dunk the top of the cocktail glass deep into the mixture then pull is out immediately. Begin to slowly turn your glass clock wise to create the blood drips. Flip the glass right side up to cool and set it on wax paper. Embellish with curly ribbon and other tasty treats to create a magnificent party favor!

:: How To Host A True Blood or Vampire Themed Party

:: Blood Shot – Bloody Dripping Martini Glass Favor