How to Host an Elmo Theme Birthday Party that Rocks

The grand success of my 1 year old daughter's birthday party inspired me to share this with all of you. My daughter is a die hard fan of Elmo since she was 6 months old. Even at this tender age she used to point to the picture of Elmo when asked to do so. At 11 months she could run around with her new Elmo toy all over the house. After a careful thought we decided Elmo theme will be the best theme for her. It is a good idea to have a theme which your kids love.

Elmo theme is a very popular theme for a birthday party. You get many ideas over Internet and then you have to improvise based on your interests and situation and also the budget. These days sky is the limit when it comes to the supplies for theme party. You can do a lot based on how much you want to spend. This is how we did it.

1. Elmo theme birthday party Invitations

We kept the theme a surprise so we didn't send Elmo invitations. We simply added balloons of red blue and yellow color to the online invitation we sent through Evite to our friends and family. If you want you can stick Elmo stickers to card stock and make handmade party invitations.

2. Elmo theme birthday party Cake

The most important thing in a child's birthday party is the cake. One should spend some extra time in being creative about the cake as that's the focus of the party. Since, in out party there were kids as well as their parents who were coming we tried to make it interesting for both. After some research we found the best economical and tasty option at Sam's Club. With a few special instructions we could get the cake we desired. It was an immediate crowd pleaser. We ordered a full sheet cake surrounded by cupcakes. The base was a chocolate cake and had layering of fresh cream. The top decoration was Elmo's face and the cup cakes had a very attractive red icing with decorations on top. The sheet cake and cup cakes were assembled like one piece.

3. Elmo theme birthday party Decorations

For decorations we purchased from various places but mostly from Factory Card and Party Outlet as they had the best collection in our area. We bought a birthday banner where we could write our daughter's name using self adhesive paper alphabets in various colors. We also bought Stickers of Big bird, Cookie and Elmo along with the numeric one to be placed near the birthday banner .The streamers were red, blue and yellow in color. Balloons were red blue and yellow in color. The quality of the balloons was really good. We blew those ourselves using the balloon pump we had already. In addition to that we bought Happy birthday, Elmo and 1^st birthday gas balloons on the very day of Birthday. Birthday party hats and Blow outs were of Elmo theme as well. There was a special first birthday hat for my daughter.

4. Elmo theme birthday party Party ware

Since our menu was starters, cake and complete dinner. We bought character plates for kids. Red and white plates for starters for grown ups and then white dinner plates for grown ups. Napkins were white and red. Cups were red and white. Table cloth was simple white with balloons printed in blue, yellow and red. Cutlery was regular white.

These are easily available at Wal-Mart and Factory Card and Party outlet.

5. Elmo theme birthday party Games

Keeping in mind it's an Elmo theme party we kept three main games for the kids.

The kids were in the age range of 1 year to 8 years.

Pin the nose on Elmo: This game is available to buy. It has a big poster of Elmo and has 12 nose stickers. You might make more if there are more kids. Luckily I had only 12. You can use any orange circle sticker for this. Stick the poster on the wall at a height which is easy to reach for the youngest child in the party. Blind fold the child if 2yrs old and above and tell them to stick the nose sticker at Elmo's nose. The one who sticks the closest gets a prize. For those 2 yrs and younger do not blind fold but let them stick it.

Mere sticking is fun for them.

Elmo Says: Tell all the kids to make a circle around you. Now you have to say various things and tell the kids to imitate that. Those who do something different keep getting out. The one who is left at last gets the prize. It can be like find 2 yellow balloons, find a kid named Oscar or make a group of three. These could be a good ice breaker if you add find Sam's Dad.

Toss Dorothy's in the Fish Bowl: This is for kids 3 years and older. I took a big transparent party bowl. If that's not available you can take a carton box and decorate it with Elmo theme paper as well. Make Dorothy Fish at home using Orange Socks. If you can't find orange socks you can use any orange cloth. I used my daughter's 6 months old orange skirt and tied it with rubber band at one end. Turned it over and filled it with red kidney beans leaving enough space to tie another rubber band to make tail fin. Glue wiggle eyes, easily available in Craft stores like Michael's. Using a washable marker draw the fish mouth. Cut two orange fins from a self adhesive foam sheet and stick them.

It made a good size fish and was a welcome change from the usual ball kids throw at parties. Keep the bowl on the floor and mark a line about 3 feet from the bowl. You can make it farther for bigger kids. Give each kid 3 chances to put the fish in the bowl. Those who put maximum number of times get the prize.

6. Elmo theme Birthday Party Favors

I had packed all party favors in packets which were blue, yellow and red. They had name tags on them. Made the tags at home by punching a square card stock at the corner and tied a ribbon through that to the bag cord. Stuff those bags with red, blue and yellow tissue paper. The gifts inside were age appropriate. Notes of caution though, if you happen to buy Elmo favor bags make sure you check the size. We bought and opened all in one go, only to find they are too small. Solid color blue, yellow and red from Wal-Mart worked just fine. I included Elmo stickers and Elmo coloring pages in all party favors along with other things.

Music also played a crucial part in the success of the party. We had lots of baby songs and some Elmo videos. Easily available from public library or can find it on Amazon.com
All guests especially kids enjoyed the party and still talk about it whenever we meet.