Six Spectacular Children's Birthday Party Themes

Still searching for a theme for your child's next birthday party? Look no further! We've got a theme that's sure to delight daredevils, superheroes, and fashionistas alike!

1. Fear Factor Party

   This birthday season, we dare you to bring Fear Factor directly into your home, challenging children to face their fears in grosser-than-gross stunts of your own making. Decorate the party with yellow and black balloons, streamers, and caution tape. Be sure to scatter plastic bugs throughout the house for good measure. The afternoon's entertainment can be composed of a series of fun challenges. If you want to follow the traditional format of the show, challenge your “contestants” to a series of both physical and mental tasks. Create an obstacle course in your backyard for the physical, and then follow it up with a “gross foods” mental challenge. Divide the kids into two teams, and give them a pair of dice—the number they roll corresponds to a plate of food that they must eat. Use real foods like vegemite or sardines, or get creative—serve “chocolate-covered slugs” (chocolate-dipped green beans) or “goat eyeballs” (peeled grapes). Continue the theme with your main menu, serving “worms” (spaghetti) and chilled drinks with plastic spiders frozen into the ice cubes. The grosser, the better! The kids are sure to sing “Great big gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts...” before the day is through!
   Suggested Favors: Personalized Goodie Bags (filled with gummy worms), Framed Polaroids (of challenges), Personalized Life Savers, and “Fear Factor Survival” certificates for each child.

2. Backward Party

   Create a backward party that lets kids be as silly as they want to be for the day. Start by sending invitations that open backward—or you can write the pertinent info in reverse so that guests must read the invitation using a mirror. Encourage guests to come dressed backward, letting them interpret this dress code in whatever way they wish. Shirts may be turned inside out and buttoned-down the back, sunglasses might be worn on the back of heads—some may even wear their underwear over their clothes! The crazier, the better! Before the party, turn your home “inside-out” by turning pictures and vases upside down. Hang an “Exit” sign on the front door, encouraging guests to enter by walking back to the rear entrance. Upon arrival, greet them by saying, “Goodbye, it was nice having you.” Start the party by opening presents (gift first, cards last) and then serve (upside-down) cake and ice cream, followed by the main course. Kids love to eat dessert first! End the party with fun games like Twister, a backward relay race, and play backward songs where kids try to guess the tune. And don't forget to sing “You to birthday happy” to the birthday boy or girl before the afternoon is over!
   Suggested Favors: Birthday Chocolate Candy Bars (Personalized Backwards), Framed Pictures (of kids doing headstands and other backward poses), Chocolate Puzzles, Inside-out Favor Bags (filled with goodies), Personalized Fortune Cookies (with backward messages)

3. Circus Party

   Create an invitation that looks like a ticket stub, “admitting one child” to the circus that will soon occur in your backyard. Announce the amazing feats that will take place—like children consuming outrageous amounts of junk food, and of course the death-defying Candle Blow by your child. Alternatively, you can write the invitation onto a balloon with permanent marker, then deflate the balloon and mail it into an envelope with confetti. Decorate with colorful balloons and streamers and create ticket, game, and food booths using cardboard appliance boxes. A tent makes a great addition as well. Serve hot dogs, snow cones, lemonade, and Cracker Jacks. For an added treat, consider renting a popcorn or cotton candy machine. Set up a face-painting station and a table with bubble supplies. Blow up long balloons for kids to make their own balloon animals. Hang mock circus pictures around the party (rubber man, bearded lady, etc. with the kids' images superimposed on them). You can even place shiny sheets of mirror paper on the walls to look like silly mirrors. Ask each child to bring their own “circus act” to the party, and then step right up to enjoy the show!
   Suggested Favors: Mini Gumball Machines, Mini Candy Dispensers, Personalized Chocolate Lollipops, Confetti Poppers

4. Superhero Party

   Create an invitation using ominous headlines cut from various newspapers, “calling all Superheros” to come together to capture a team of evil villains that have recently escaped. Or, you can create an invitation that resembles a comic strip with speech bubbles offering the pertinent party information. Everyone should come dressed as his or her favorite superhero, ready to save the day. Have extra capes, gloves, and masks on hand for any underdressed superheroes. Hang images of action heroes around the room, along with signs that read “Pow!” and “Bam!” Have the superheroes compete in an Olympic test of their powers with various relay races. Serve a superhero sandwich along with Gatorade or some other homemade “energy drink.” Good is sure to defeat evil before the day is over!
   Suggested Favors: Personalized CD (with action-themed songs), Collapsible Cup Favors, Personalized Cookies, Personalized “Little Notes” notebooks

5. Pirate Party

   Ahoy thar, matey! Here's a surefire way to guarantee a swashbuckling good time for all. Start by creating treasure maps on brown newsprint—X marks the spot for your party's location. And if you want to make it truly authentic, burn the edges, roll the map, and slip it directly into a root beer bottle for delivery. Request for pirates to come dressed in proper gear. Or, you can make each child's pirate transformation into the party's main event by having a selection of eye patches, hats, tattoos, fake blood, and beards available as they arrive. Decorate by hanging fishnets (filled with shells, fish, and other oceanic items) around your house and yard. Scatter plastic skeletons in pirate gear throughout the party for added effect. Create a personalized pirate ship from a cardboard appliance box, and have each child pose onboard for a picture. This party lends well to a scavenger hunt that ends with the discovery of buried treasure. You can make a treasure chest by spray-painting a Styrofoam cooler black and filling it with a selection of chocolate gold coins, colored bead necklaces, and small toys. Serve hot dog “pirate ships” with a toothpick flag placed right into the ship, or serve fish sticks and macaroni—always a favorite. If guests don't have a good time at this party, they'd best walk the plank.
   Suggested Favors: Mini Metal Sailboats, Personalized Lifesavers, Personalized Chocolate Coins, Personalized Beach Themed Cookies, Bag of Shells, Flip Flops

6. Makeover Party

   Bring fashion week from New York and directly into your living room! Send invitations in the shape of high-heeled shoes or purses, “calling all models.” Take a “before” Polaroid of your guests upon their arrival, and then direct them to the hair and make-up stations. You may even want to hire a manicurist for the afternoon. Models should change in your pre-made “dressing room” (complete with dresses, heels, boas, and tiaras). Add overpriced tags to the dresses for true authenticity. Set up a station for them to make their own jewelry. Decorate with flowers and pictures from fashion magazines. When the models are ready, have them show off the season's hottest fashions on the catwalk in your living room. Hang beads or metallic curtains over the entryway, so that each model can make her much-anticipated entrance. Don't forget to take each girl's “after” picture when the fashion show is over. And then it's time to celebrate with a special meal—fruit skewers and dainty sandwiches (cut in fun shapes with cookie cutters). Let the girls toast their performance with “grown-up” drinks like sparkling apple cider and alcohol-free fruit daiquiris. Next stop Paris!
   Suggested Favors: Paper Hand Fans, Paper Parasols, Miniature Handbag Sachets, Monogrammed Petit Fours, Personalized Cosmetic Bags (with nail polish and lip balm inside), “After” pictures in Photo Frame Place Card Holders