Brunch is probably the favorite meal of college students, and there's no questioning why. It mixes everyone's favorite breakfast and lunch, and sweet and savory dishes to create the ultimate meal to start a weekend or banish a hangover.
Because brunch is always such a fun experience, millennials and grown adults alike have shifted away from dinner parties and toward having friends over for a midmorning meal.
One way to make your brunch get-together unique is by having a theme. Not only can it help you put together decorations and a menu, but it allows your guests to get involved with costumes. Any themed brunch is sure to be full of delicious food, cocktails, and lots of fun, but here are some ideas to kickstart your creativity.
Color Coordinated
From decorations to food to guests' outfits, this theme can get pretty involved. One fun idea would be Lemon and Lime, with citrus-driven dishes and margaritas. Or Black and White outfits and decorations with red dishes, like red velvet pancakes and Bloody Marys.
Pancake Party
While many people think of pancakes as a breakfast food, they can be evolved in many ways to create a well-rounded brunch. Try making a variety of sweet and savory variations so each guest can try several kinds. Or, have each guest bring a different flavor of pancake to make it easier on you.
90's Brunch
You don't have to travel to London and win tickets to have a fun 90s-themed brunch on Sunday. Just gather some friends, gather lots of temporary tattoos and glitter, and blast throwback music. When everyone gets hungry, you have the perfect excuse serve all of your favorite childhood dishes.
BYO (Build-Your-Own)
This may seem more than a little obvious, but the best way to make everyone happy at a meal is to let them have exactly what they want. That's why a build-your-own themed brunch would be so successful. Let your friends build their own yogurt parfaits, omelettes, and Bloody Marys.
Go Green
This theme can be interpreted in several ways. Start off with all green decorations and outfits, then top it off with an environmentally-conscious menu. Try using vegan recipes to show your friends that you don't have to miss out on delicious food when not eating animal products.
TV Show Inspired
From "Game of Thrones" to "Friends," any show on TV can make for a fun brunch theme. Steal dishes from episodes and have friends dress up as their favorite characters. Then, you can eat and binge-watch to your heart's content.
Cookoff
This is the perfect theme for anyone with competitive friends. Pick one brunch food and one boozy brunch drink, then divide your friends between the two. Everyone can bring their own version of the dish and, at the end, a vote will decide the winner of each category.
Pick a Country
Mexico, Italy, Spain, Cuba — there are so many directions that you can go with this theme. Steal some of the most popular breakfast and lunch dishes from your country of inspiration in addition to a signature cocktail or two. Decoration can be as simple as a map or flag on the table.
Bite-Sized
This brunch theme is a fun excuse to try a little bit of everything. Making each dish bite-sized makes for easy serving and clean up. Try making pancake kabobs and muffin-tin egg cups for a little sweet and a little savory.
Disney Everything
Bring out everyone's inner child, no matter how deep down it is, with this theme. Assign everyone a disney movie, or let them choose their own, for outfit and menu inspiration. You'll barely have to do any work yourself if everyone brings a disney-inspired dish along.And you have an excuse to re-watch your favorite childhood movie.
Sure, Sunday brunch is a fun meal to eat out. But when you host your own, you can choose the menu and go all out on a fun theme. You'll save money and impress your friends with any one of these boozy brunch themes. So, it's about time to get planning.