Here Are 8 Ways to Throw a Great Oscar Party

Don’t just settle for chips and salsa. This year's crop of Oscar hopefuls lends itself well to cleverly-themed decor and refreshments.

Here are few ideas to get you started, inspired by the Best Picture and Best Animated Feature nominees.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Turn your snack table into a Wes Anderson tableau.

Atop a vibrant red tablecloth, arrange your dishes neatly and symmetrically. Adorn with charming bric-a-brac such as old keys, postcards and perfume bottles, available at most antique stores. Behind your table, hang a replica of the movie's MacGuffin, 'Boy with Apple,' which can be purchased online.

It would be très élégant to serve your guests Mendl's Courtesan au Chocolat, the pastry that factors into 'Grand Budapest's plot. There are recipes online, but cupcakes will do in a pinch. Pack each in a little pink box and wrap with a blue ribbon: Perfection.

Finally, provide fake mustaches for your guests – or draw them on with eyeliner – in honor of the film's hirsute cast.

The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything

Celebrate two biopics about brilliant English scientists at once!

Apples are your go-to ingredient here. Not only do they appear in 'The Imitation Game' (Benedict Cumberbatch, as Alan Turing, awkwardly bonds with his colleagues over them), they're also relevant to 'The Theory of Everything': Like Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne), apple-bonked physicist Isaac Newton was an alumnus of Cambridge's Trinity College, and an apple tree, said to descend from Newton's own, grows outside its gates.

Dip red apple slices into caramel; green apple slices go well with brie. For drinks, offer hard cider and/or non-alcoholic sparkling cider. Imbibe and let the theories flow.

'The Imitation Game' also lends itself well to activities, as the film's storyline focuses on crossword puzzles and of course cryptography. There are websites where you can design your own crossword puzzles and cryptograms. Fill them up with Oscar trivia to help your guests pass the time during those long commercial breaks.

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Kids may prefer to honor the Best Animated Feature hopefuls. For 'HTTYD2,' taste the wonders of dragon fruit.

Also called a pitaya, this sweet, juicy fruit grows on certain cacti. Slice the dragon-like shell in half, scoop out the flesh (which can range from plain white to a stunning magenta), chop it into chunks, and serve in a small bowl or within the shell halves themselves. This exotic import can be hard to find, but many gourmet grocery stores carry it, as do Asian and Hispanic markets.

Otherwise, try some Viking- and dragon-themed snacks. Nordic nibbles include hearty fare like meatballs and fishcakes. Those with a sweet tooth can feast upon Swedish fish (the Swedes weren't really Vikings, but whatever) or even jelly beans, which you can call "dragon eggs" and separate by color into "nests."

Big Hero 6

For this animated nominee, turn your snack table into a mini San Fransokyo: Japanese rice candy is commonly available in Asian markets, and rice crackers should be in your local supermarket's Asian foods aisle.

For decor, official merchandise is easy to find, or you could inflate some white balloons, decorating each with a black marker to look like Baymax's face.

Boyhood

Serve something that took as long as 'Boyhood' to make: A bottle of 12-year-old Scotch.

Whenever 'Boyhood' wins an Oscar, everyone takes a respectful sip. (It would be criminal to slam back shots of 12-year-old Scotch.) Not into booze? Then ask each guest to bring a snack that they loved in their own boyhood/girlhood. You can also offer up Texas-style BBQ and queso dip.

Birdman