Lock and key party

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A lock and key party is a form of party in which the guests, as they arrive, are given locks (females) or keys (males). The goal of such a party is for the patrons to find which key goes into which lock. It is often used as an ice breaker activity as it provides an excuse for otherwise shy persons to talk.

[edit] Key party

A swinger variation of this, usually referred to as a key party, and popular during the 1960s and 1970s, involved all the male guests throwing their car keys into a hat, and at the end of the evening, the female guests each picked a set of keys at random, going home with the owner of the keys they chose. The motion picture The Ice Storm depicts such an event. The 5 November 2006 episode of popular TV series Cold Case focused on a gathering of this type as well. Also, in the movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, starring Jim Carrey, there is a very quick moment at a holiday party where a woman is holding out a jar and people are dropping keys into it (it’s the part where Cindy Lou is asking about the Grinch and the two women who raised him are recounting the night he first came to town as a baby). The upcoming movie Key Party, featuring Seth Meyers, features a key party as the central theme. The 8 February 2007 episode of "ER" featured a comparison of a new kidney transplant program to a key party. The 15 February 2007 episode of "My Name Is Earl" has a flashback scene in which Earl’s father attempts to initiate a key party.