Summer's here and the living is easy…and what better way to celebrate with your family and friends than to throw the season's best poolside bash? Whether you're hosting an adults-only fete or a party for your children, you need fresh themes to reel in your invitees, hook, line, and sinker. Herewith are 10 great pool party plans to entertain crowds young and old-choose the one that's right for you!

Great Fun for Grown-Ups

1. Celebrity Pool Party

So you couldn't coerce Brad Pitt to attend your backyard bash? You can have an A-list party anyway — with a little help from your friends.

Invitations: Let your friends know that they cannot show up to your party as themselves.

Dress:The idea is for everyone to dress up as their favourite celebrity — but request that your guests R.S.V.P. the character they intend to impersonate ahead of time so you don't end up with multiple Marilyns and even more Jimmy Deans!

Décor: Christmas lights or patio lanterns are a pretty, inexpensive way to brighten any poolside without the garish gleam of harsh neon or fluorescent lighting that celebrities hate. Make sure to place a couple of disposable cameras on the guests' tables so that they may play paparazzi and shoot one another when the mood strikes them.

Games: Have a hula-hoop contest by finding a couple of hula-hoops and seeing which of the two celebrities can gyrate their hips like Elvis longer. And, using quiz cards that you've taken the time to think up in advance or borrowed from other board games, pit two celebrities against one another in a battle of the brains.

Music: Hits only, preferably by some of the stars in attendance-ask each guest to bring a couple of their favourite CDs to play at the party. Madonna, Sinatra, Elton John, Donna Summer, U2, The Beatles, Culture Club, Wham — you name it, any decade goes.

2. Tastes of The World Potluck

No one will be able to resist this party, since the food alone will offer out-of-this-world favourites from nations throughout the globe.

Invitations: Explain the theme of this party as one of limitless cultural diversity.

Dress: Ask each guest to select a country and sport that country's traditional costume.

Décor: This is your chance to really go wild. Choose at least three disparate countries, and decorate according to each one's traditions. If you choose, for example, France, Mexico, and Japan as your 3 countries, you could provide berets and baguettes, castanets and sombreros, and tables low to the ground with bamboo shoots and chopsticks, respectively, to thematically put your guests in the party mood.

Games: Any game goes! Play Mahjong, checkers, board games, soccer, and pool-related activities like water polo.

Music: Select music appropriate to the countries you've chosen to represent. So if France, Mexico, and Japan are your choices, alternately play complementary tunes that will resonate the themes you're highlighting: French accordion music or songs by Charles Aznavour, Edith Piaf, or the Amélie soundtrack, then salsa or mariachi music, and finally new-wave Japanese fusion or even karaoke singing to bring the house down!

3. Fantasy Island Pool Party

Throw a Fantasy Island Pool Party to make even Ricardo Montalban and the late Herve Villechaize proud!

Invitations: Advise each guest that for the duration of your party, they will enter a twilight-zone land where time and space warp to hark back to a place where fantasies were no longer the stuff of daydreams.

Dress: Been hankering for an occasion to wear that Hawaiian-print shirt you've stored away all winter long? So have your guests; advise them that this is that special occasion they've been waiting for.

Décor: Create an aircraft walkway out of cardboard boxes and tinfoil, and upon arrival to your pad, greet each guest outside the walkway, letting them know that you will be their host for the evening. Then, enlist a pretty female friend and a gorgeous male friend to "lai" each guest as they cross the barrier through which, you must remind them, all fantasies become possible.

Games: If your crowd doesn't think it's too risqué, play truth or dare. If they do, play "guess the other guests' fantasies" by having each guest write one secret fantasy on a piece of paper and reading them all aloud. Each person writes down who he thinks supplied any given fantasy. At the end, the guest with the highest number of correct guesses wins.

Music: Play a mix of traditional Hawaiian music, rock, and anything by Perry Como.

4.White Night

This is the sophisticated variation of the toga party - everybody wears white.

Invitations: Send out invitations for this fancy do - preferably white on white.

Dress: Explain that instead of formal black tie, you've opted for a cooler, whiter shade of pale for this mid-afternoon/evening function.

Décor: Strew white flowers around the pool area, and craft a couple of votive candles and floating orchids as decoration.

Games: Twister® is a great game to play when everyone is wearing the same colour, as it's that much more entertainingly disorienting. Night croquet is a fun lawn game, which you could illuminate in the garden with well-placed white candles.

Music: Play the soundtrack from the movie The Party, sultry jazz, or compile a CD of songs that carry the white theme, like Michael Jackson's "Black or White", or anything by Average White Band or Barry White.

5. Under The Stars Secret Singles

Invite all your single friends to your pool party. Sound easy? The trick is to stealthily invite only single friends so that when the game is up - and your friends realize what you've set up - any guests who click instantly will know that their object of interest is available also.

Invitations: Invite your single friends to "a secret potluck party." If you keep the invites strictly dedicated to singles, none of your married friends can make you feel guilty post-party for not inviting them. Mum's the word on what the "secret" is about the party…you'll let your guests figure this out for themselves.

Dress: Suggest casual chic.

Décor: Engage whatever precautions you'd take and preparations you'd make for a large house party. Placing candles by the pool is a gentle lighting reminiscent of romance and first-date lighting that everyone will appreciate. Games: Spin the bottle was fun once-upon-a-time…why not try to revive it? Other daring games to play are truth or dare, or, if your guests are brazen enough, strip poker.

Music: Again, ask each guest to bring a CD they like if they're so inclined, and pass off the DJ duty to various guests throughout the evening.

Cool Enough for Kids

1. Olympics for Charity

It's never too young to introduce your children to the idea that charity begins at home. Involve your children in choosing a good cause that is important to them, and donate all the funds amassed to this selected cause once the party is over. The kids will compete in your own brand of Olympic games, and will show their Olympian spirit of sharing with those less fortunate than they.

Invitations: Let parents know the party's theme and purpose, ask each child invited to come prepared to play games for charity and bring a small, affordable, designated amount of small change, like $5, to put towards the charity.

Dress: Get kids to wear comfortable clothing and to pack swimming trunks so they can participate in all the fun activities.

Décor: Strew streamers about, but save money on the décor, since you'll be spending it on the prizes to award at the end of the party.

Games: Ask your kids in advance of the party which games are most popular with their crowd. Try racing four kids at a time to do pool laps or widths, and then racing finalists against one another, Olympic style. At the party's end, remind attendees of the cause they supported, and serve generous loot bags; each child who participated has learned a valuable lesson meriting a take-away reward.

Music: Even music can be a game, especially when incorporated into a safe, poolside version of musical chairs. Instead of requiring that kids run from chair to chair, strategically place chairs around the pool and get each kid to walk slowly around only their designated chair until the music stops. At that point, the child must sit on an air-filled balloon until it pops (no hands allowed!). Replace the air-filled balloon at each elimination round, until you are down to two players; at this point, alert the kids that the final-round balloon is water-filled…

2. Treasure Island

Hark all young maidens! Watch out all ye young pirates — the Captain's a-sailing to capture his gold!

Invitations: An X-marks-the-spot invitation will be sure to impress the fun quotient of this party to all manners of pirates-in-training!

Dress: Let invitees know that they're free to dress up as pirates or maidens or sea-captains-eye-patches and all.

Décor: Bring out a chest — or make a great fake by covering cardboard with tinfoil - and stuff it with the loot bags each child will receive at the party's end.

Games: Finding secret treasure can extend to games; organize an old-fashioned treasure hunt by dividing the children into teams and giving them clues to seek out, which will lead them to other clues and eventually lead them back to you to dole out the prize for the first team to complete the treasure-hunt.

Music: Your best bet for a children's party is to consider the type of music they are listening to at that stage of their lives — and play those sure-fire crowd pleasers. If you're uncertain, ask a couple of your kids' friends to bring their favourite party album.

3. Purple Punch Pool Party

This party is as democratic as you can get — everyone is equal, providing they celebrate the spirit of purple!

Invitations: Request that each child celebrate the occasion by wearing at least one purple item of clothing.

Dress: Besides showing up in purple gear, pair the kids in teams of two, then have a face-painting contest with washable purple face-paints.

Décor: Hang purple streamers and balloons around the pool and party areas to show your true colours. Serve purple punch, made with grape juice, and decorate the punch bowl with purple grapes.

Games: Offer a piñata that you can craft yourself and stuff with purple candies and inexpensive favours like purple nail polish and purple plastic toys; it's easy and fun to make a few days in advance by covering a few balloons with newspaper, waiting for it to dry, then collapsing the balloons and filling with purple-coloured loot. Try a giant grape-shaped piñata-just clump the balloons together into a cluster shape! Introduce one rule and stand strictly by it once the bulk of the goods have fallen exposed: that the kids share the mauve spoils fairly with one another.

Music: Depending on the attending children's ages, play music best suited to their tastes. If you'd like, write a note on the invitation for each child to bring one song or album they'd like to hear played.

4. Toga Time!

All kids like to dress up, and this fun and creative party enables them to set their inner artist free.

Invitations: Invite your guests to a good, old-fashioned toga party — with a twist. Recommend old bed sheets or draped curtains that must not be white, but ones that can be destroyed — you must stress this caveat.

Dress: Forewarn guests' parents that their children's togas will not return in the same condition as they arrived.

Décor: Have vines — real or fake — and wreaths to crown each guest made out of real leaves or shredded garbage bags woven around pipe cleaners. Have a camera on hand to capture the festivities on film forever.

Games: Have a toga-decorating contest. Dividing the children into teams, provide each group with a set of coloured markers, paints, glue sticks, and sundry craft supplies like buttons, sequins, ribbons, popsicle sticks, and swatches of fabric. Tell the kids to come up with a name and theme for their group, and tell them to create costumes to present to the rest of their peer attendees to judge.

Music: Poll your children pre-party for some dance-friendly tunes all the kids can groove to in their new post-contest garb.

5. Christmas in July

Kids of all faiths and nationalities love the idea of Christmas, whether they observe it or not. This summer, serve up a non-denominational Christmas party that will warm their hearts and lift their spirits 'til the real thing arrives.

Invitations: Advise your children's parents of the theme of this party in advance and ask each guest to bring a wrapped, handmade gift that the child had created in advance of the party.

Dress: Ask your guests to wear — what else? — their red-and-green Christmas best. And make sure to remind them to tote their bathing trunks!

Décor: Bring Christmas outdoors with mistletoe, a pine tree (this is the perfect time to pull out the plastic), lights, ribbons, and any other ornaments and decorations you usually pull out for the cold season.

Games: Play Secret Santa by piling all the gifts into one area. Then, write numbers in ascending order on individual pieces of paper for the number of gifts brought. Ask each guest to select a piece of paper, and when their number is up, they get to choose the gift of their choice to take away with them and unwrap at home.

Music: This is where you can really have fun, since you can unleash all the tunes you normally store away to showcase annually. Kids love singing along to songs that they know, and will get a kick out of chiming in for a round of "White Christmas" in hot weather by the pool! The animated TV characters Alvin and The Chipmunks have a great sing-along album that younger children will especially enjoy.