Annie Greer walked into a room full of Cowboys and realized she was the only Indian. Dressed in a feathered headband, face paint and a bright red shirt, Greer, Boulder, Colo., senior, quickly became an easy target for the darts shot by all of the Cowboys in the room. Luckily, she had a bow that fired arrow darts, so she fought back despite the overwhelming odds.

Theme parties are a way for students to break up their typical weekend routine and do something different with their friends. They also allow people to connect over a common interest, says Sharon Brimmer, creator of the party planning Web site themepartiesnmore.com. Many themes, such as decades or pop culture, bring back memories, and this nostalgic aspect helps people come together, she says.

When picking a theme, it helps to look around and think about options that are easy to carry out, Brimmer says. Books, movies, colors, pop culture, seasons and time periods all make for good theme ideas. Resist the temptation to be lazy and use cliché themes, such as the toga party, that have been done too many times already. Let your mind wander and choose something that is personally interesting. As long as people are excited about it, the party will be a success, she says.

“Anything and everything can be a theme,” Brimmer says. “It just depends on the mood or message you want to convey.”

The “Cowboys and Indians” party had a rowdy mood, but Greer says every theme party she’s been to has had its own atmosphere. She’s attended “‘80s Prom,” “Anything but Clothes,” “Tacky Christmas Party,” “Black, White and Shiny” (a New Year’s Eve party), “Nerds” and “Eurotrash” parties. Most of the theme parties have let her and her friends act like kids again, especially the “Nerds” party because everyone was asked to bring something for “Show and Tell,” she says. One of her favorite parties was “Anything but Clothes” because everyone got really into it and had creative outfits, she says. One of her guy friends wore only strategically placed stickers, and two of her girl friends wore feather boas.Greer wore wrapping paper.

“It was fun to see what everyone came up with,” she says. “Every time one of our friends would walk into the party we would all crack up because of what they were wearing, especially when one of my guy friends walked in wearing a trash bag as a man thong.”

It’s important to have a theme that both sexes can dress for that’s out of the ordinary but not too specific, Greer says. The “Eurotrash” party she went to was a bad theme because no one understood what they were supposed to wear. Most people just wore clothing that clashed, Greer says.

Joe Slattery, St. Louis junior, agrees that the theme needs to be creative but easy enough to dress for. Slattery and his three roommates hosted “Rumble in the Jungle,” “CEOs and Office Hos,” “Naked in the Snow” and “Play in the Hay” theme parties last year. It took some trial and error and a lot of effort to plan and host a successful theme party, but Slattery says the theme parties were more fun than other house parties they had because their friends got more involved.

The only party they had problems with was “Play in the Hay.” For decoration, Slattery and his roommates covered the floors of their house with hay. Some of the guests were so allergic to the hay that they had to leave the party, and it was a mess to clean up the next day.

“The hay was bad news, but we still joke about it,” Slattery says. “The band that played still refers to it as the ‘Black Snot’ party because of how it affected people.”

One of their more successful parties was “Naked in the Snow” because it was easy to dress for. Most people showed up in swimsuits or underwear and wore snow boots, scarves, gloves, goggles and hats, Slattery says. Some women see theme parties as an excuse to come scantily clad, but Slattery found that more girls dressed up for their parties when the theme wasn’t blatantly sexual.

“Some girls take themes in a sexual way regardless of whether it’s ‘Pimps and Hos’ or not, but if the theme is more random, such as our ‘Play in the Hay’ party, girls will still dress sexy but they won’t feel put on the spot,” he says.

Terra Cummings, Sioux Falls, S.D., junior, says she prefers random themes to those aimed at making girls wear skimpy clothes. Theme parties are better than regular house parties because people get into character, play a role and get to wear something they don’t wear every day, she says.

“I’ve never gotten dressed up for a theme party and had a bad time,” she says. “They’ve always been hilarious and fun.”

Cummings has attended “Ugly Sweater,” “Prom,” “Pairs” and “Wear the Ugliest Thing You Can Find” themed parties. For the “Wear the Ugliest Thing You Can Find” party, Cummings and a friend came up with the theme while shopping at thrift shops on Massachusetts Street. They kept joking about buying odd and hideous items of clothing and decided that it would make a good theme, she says. One of Cummings’s girl friends wore a purple jumpsuit, and one of her guy friends drew himself a fake mustache and wore mechanic overalls and a mullet wig. Not many people showed up because they planned the party only a few days before, but Cummings says it was still fun because she and her friends really got into the theme and took plenty of silly pictures together.

Although Cummings enjoyed the theme parties where all the guests were her close friends, she says that large theme parties are an easy way to meet people and are less awkward than regular house parties.

“Everyone has the same vibe at theme parties, so it’s not intimidating to approach strangers when they’re wearing ridiculous outfits,” Cummings says. “You always have something to talk about and everyone is at the same level.”

As for the uneven battle between the Cowboys and Greer, the two sides fought with plastic toy weapons and chased each other through the host’s house. They had to stop because they ran out of darts and were laughing too hard to continue. Other Indians eventually arrived and evened out the costume distribution, but Greer says she didn’t mind everyone else ganging up against her. Everyone dressed up and had a much better time playing than if they were just standing around drinking. That’s what makes theme parties fun and successful, she says.