Birthday Themes for Children

Each year we need a different theme for our child's birthday party. Children love seeing familiar faces and funny characters. Make your child smile by including one of these themes for their special day.

Balloons

Balloons are a must have for every child at their birthday. However, why not make the entire day revolve around balloons. Hire a clown or other character to make balloon animals, hats, swords, flowers, and all kinds of things for each child. Have them make up one of each item per child attending before the children arrive. This way your house is full of balloons when people walk in. The balloon animal artist can stay around and create new things and repair ones that get popped as needed for the party. Get lots of helium and Mylar balloons for the ceiling, you can even make a balloon arch for people to walk under. There are so many ideas with this. Let your imagination go wild.

This is great even for older children ages 10-14. Do not use this theme for babies or toddlers under 3 years old because balloon pieces can cause a choking hazard. Keep pets away from the party action for the same reason.

Costume

Okay, so it isn't Halloween. Your children will still love to get dressed up. Let the children choose their own costumes or pick a theme. Say everyone is going to wear a prom dress or tuxedo, you take photos of them together with the birthday girl, get them developed, and hand out "prom pictures" for the kids to take home as a favor. Roll the theme into the decorations and food. Get a DJ, clear out your living room for a dance floor, and grab the punch bowl.

You could use this theme for teens as well as toddlers. Try a Winnie the Pooh costume party and get your friends to wear pink for Piglet, grey for Eeyore, Yellow for Rabbit, Brown for Owl, Orange for Pooh, etc... Hand out the ears and paint faces at the party to complete the outfits. Serve Pooh themed cupcakes. Cupcakes make it easier on little hands and less cutting for you. Bake white cupcakes, place a tiny bit of food coloring into the batter before pouring to make it orange (like Pooh), then decorate with white icing. Place a Pooh figure on each cupcake for the child to take home.

Art Project

Let's make memories to cherish forever this year on your child's birthday. There are so many ideas you could do with this theme. First, you need to specify on the invitation to wear clothes that can get messy because you will be making something to bring home. If you have a younger child you could create a great hands and feet project. Take a piece of poster board and cut it into 4 pieces, in the middle of each piece of poster board write the child's name and the year before the party, when each kid arrives trace their hands over their name on the poster board and their feet under the name. Use a marker and let them pick the color. After having birthday cake later the children can glue hard pasta, beads, sequins, and color the poster board to take home.

Older children could make picture frames. Take pictures of the birthday kid and each guest posing together and have the photos developed during the party. Let each guest make a picture frame to hold their new photo. The local craft store has foam and wooden picture frame craft kits. You can paint the picture frames, glue things on them, or let the kids color with markers. Remember to write the year and each child's name on the frame. Put the photos in each frame and send the memories home with your guests.