Oscar Party Ideas 2012: Playlists, Decorations and Food to Celebrate the 84th Academy Awards

If you're not part of the exclusive crowd that will be attending one (or several) of these Oscar parties on Sunday night, have no fear.

Host your own Oscar party.

With two full days to go before Billy Crystal takes the stage at the 84th Academy Awards, there is plenty of time left to put together a party playlist, whip up some decorations and of course, prepare some simple and delicious Oscar themed food for your party.

Fan of The Artist? Play an Oscar-themed game of charades (a la Modern Family) before the 7 p.m. start time, or during commercial breaks.

Here are some other ideas for your very own Oscar party.

The 84th Academy Awards airs on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST, live from the theater formerly known as the Kodak.

The Oscar Pool No Oscar party is complete without a pool. Moviefone always has a great printout of the nominees, as do the folks at theoscarpool.com.

In addition to simply picking your winners for a money prize (and other variations), why not have a list of questions like:

How many times will Billy Crystal say the words 'George Clooney? (Zero / One / Four / Eight)

Will Meryl Streep's acceptance speech -- if she wins for Best Actress -- go over or under 1 min and 30 seconds? (Over / Under)

How many different outfits/suits will Billy Crystal wear on stage? (One / Three / Five)

Will the Oscars broadcast beyond 11 p.m. EST? (Yes / No)

How many times will George Clooney be shown on TV? (One / Three / Four)

Will presenter Melissa Leo swear on stage this year? (Yes / No)

And so on.

The Oscar Playlist You don't want your guests arriving to a quiet party or the noise of the red carpet fashion critics (sorry, Joan Rivers). Pre-game with an Oscar themed playlist or two.

Not a fan of Trent Reznor's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo soundtrack? Take your guests to Hawaii by way of the soundtrack to The Descendants. (Both available on iTunes and Spotify). Spotify also has the seven songs nominated for Best Original Score this year compiled into a nice little playlist.

The soundtrack to The Artist by Ludovic Bource on its own is also a great accompaniment to your own Hollywood party.

If you are brave enough to spend a few hours compiling your own playlist, here are some themes to work with:

Best Original Score winners of the past decade Steven Spielberg/John Williams collaborations - a complete history Any song with the word Hollywood, as suggested by the Huffington Post in 2010. A Meryl Streep themed playlist, featuring all the theme songs from every major film she has made. A selected number of songs (or all) from AFI's 100 Years . . . 100 Songs.

The Decorations No need to be super fancy here. If you have some expendable change, decorate your bland walls with print outs of all the Best Picture nominees this year.

You can do the same with the other major categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature.

Or pay tribute to the animals we've been talking about all season long: Uggie from The Artist, Cosmo from Beginners and Joey from War Horse.

Uggie from The Artist at the Golden Globes red carpet in January. (PHOTO: REUTERS / Mario Anzuoni).

Posters and wall decorations aside, spice up your table setting with objects from some of this year's best in film: mini trees, plants or dinosaur figures (The Tree of Life), a baseball or two (Moneyball), a Cole Porter record (Midnight in Paris), keys (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close), leis (The Descendants).

The Food As inspired by the films nominated for Best Picture, one could go Hawaiian (The Descendants), French (Midnight in Paris, Hugo,), or opt for burgers and fries (a stretch, but an allude to the stadium food in Moneyball).

If you're only serving snacks, have a go at finding edible treasures from countries nominated for Best Foreign Language Film this year: chocolates for Belgium (Bullhead), poutine for Canada (Monsieur Lazhar), mini kebabs for Iran (A Separation), hummus for Israel (Footnote) and kielbasa with mustard for Poland (In Darkness).

For party hosts living in New York City, Eleni's Bakery will once again feature their And the Oscar Goes to cookies, decorated with the faces of the Best Actor and Best Actress nominees, as well as cookies featuring familiar objects from the films nominated for Best Picture.

The Drinks The folks at Epicurious have come up with a comprehensive list of dinner menus inspired by the Best Picture candidates. For drinks, they have suggested:

Pinot Noir for The Artist Blue Hawaiian for The Descendants Sweet tea for The Help Milk for Hugo Champagne for Midnight in Paris (and really, any alcoholic beverage sipped by the film's characters) Sodas for Moneyball Iced tea for The Tree of Life English stout for War Horse)

While the list did not suggest drink option for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, we'll go with juice, since Thomas Horn's character drinks several juice boxes in the film.

Happy Oscars!