My son's birthday is on January 1st and trying to find a party idea year after year is a challenge. This year I thought what a better way than a bonfire/smore's party for his age group of kids (11/12yr). I ordered his invitations off of the internet. They were perfect. They were a picture of a fire with a marshmellow being toasted. On each invitation, I told each child to bring their own flashlight. The kids wanted to know for days why they needed a flashlight, but I never let them know what I had planned. When the kids arrived I had a huge bonfire going in our backyard with chair sitting around it. Decorating and Food: I had the best time coming up with the decor. We have a poolhouse so that's where all the decorating was. With a smore's party, what a better way than to have a smore's buffet set up for the kids. I knew they would enjoy building their own smore's from different cookies, mellows and candy bars. I draped my bar with burlap and decorated with trays and camo. I used mega marshmellows, caramel, frutti tutti's and choc. swirl. I had cookies-n-creme, reeses cups and hershey bars to choose from. Choc. graham crackers or reg. graham crackers were their cookie choice. I hung lanterns above the bar and a sign that said smore's buffet" above the buffet. The kids enjoyed toasting their marshmellow outside and then coming inside to build their smore's!  It was going to be very cold that night so I knew hot chocolate would go over very well. So I also made a Hot Chocolate Bar on the other side of the room. Very similar to the smore's bar. I had borrowed one of those things from our church that plugs in and keeps the water hot. I put packs of hot cocoa in a basket for them to fix their own. For the toppings I included bowls of white chocolate chips mini choc. chips can of whip cream sprinkles and mini colored marshmellows. The kids kept going to the hot choc. table all night and not a single pack was left. I served hot dogs (which the kids had to go outside and roast their own winnie) doritoes popcorn and chips. Can drinks they got out of the fridge. I also had picked up some glow in the dark straws from Walmart for their drinks. They thought that was "cool". Birthday cake I got from a local bakery that had a huge bonfire on top of it. Kids were so full from everything else I had lots of cake left over. Entertainment: What's a bonfire if you don't have a game of truth or dare around it. So I had prepared questions a week before hand for the game. I kept it fun but innocent as I could. Not many of them had played it before so they got lots of laughs from it. To my surprise just about all 20 kids chose "dare" the first time around. After the game I broke the kids into even groups and they played a scavenger hunt that I had prepared for them to use with their flashlights. I had made different clues that led to different places. When they would reach certain clues they would have to do a task before they could get their next clue. The clues had them searching all over my yard next door at my mother-n-law's yard and in the woods behind our houses. All you could see were a bunch of lights in different groups everywhere and they sounded like groups of ants scattered around. They had the best time running back and forth trying to figure it out. Everything with that age group is such a competition.  The last task they had to complete on the scavenger hunt before a team was declared the winner was to make any animal out of the marshmellows and toothpicks I had included in the bag. It was neat seeing what ideas they had. One of the teams made a giraffe one team tried making a deer and the others made snakes. The party finally ended on a note of them dancing in the pool house. We plugged up the ipods to our radio and they danced to The Cupid Shuffle and other pop songs. They were getting jiggy with it. Overall the party was a success for the parents and the kids too. The parents enjoyed making their own smore's and roasting their winnies for hotdogs. My son is ready for his next party."