Planning a Pirate Theme Birthday Party

Looking for a great theme for your child's next birthday party? Then why not try planning a pirate theme birthday party? For tips and suggestions to make planning a pirate theme birthday party keep reading.

Planning a Pirate Theme Birthday Party: Invitations

To make some great invitations for a pirate theme birthday party all you will need is some printer paper, twine, tea, a lighter, and a pen.

Take a piece of printer paper for each child that will be invited to your child's birthday party. Dip each piece of paper in tea to make the paper look like old parchment. Then, once the paper has dried a nice shade of brown, carefully burn the edges. Once all of the paper is prepared, write the message below on each sheet, filling in the blanks, then roll it up and tie a short piece of twine around the scroll.

Shiver me timbers! It's time to celebrate ____'s Birthday again!
Show up in shipshape to swab the deck at (your address), on (date of party).
We'll be leaving port at (time party starts) and will return to port with our booty at (time party ends).
Call ___-___-____ to let Cap'n know you'll be there matey.

Planning a Pirate Theme Birthday Party: Decorations

To decorate the pirate theme birthday party area you can use the traditional pirate colors of red, black, and white. You can hang a pirate flag with a scull and cross bones on the hall, hang red, black, and white streamers all over the room, and place fake sculls and treasure chests on the snack table. You should have no problem finding these items at a party supply store in your area or online.

Planning a Pirate Theme Birthday Party: Food

Pirates aren't known for being very civilized so when it comes to the food you should choose things that can be eaten with the childrens' hands. Chicken legs, grape juice in goblets, torn chunks of french bread, and Goldfish crackers.

A candy table is a great way to incorporate the pirate theme and allow the children to make their own goody bags to take home with them. You can put gold coin chocolates, red M&Ms (rubies), Hershey kisses (silver), and other such candies on the tables and give each child a draw string pouch, which can be found at OrientalTrading.com to put their candy in.

Planning a Pirate Theme Birthday Party: Activities

There are some great pirate coloring pages on the internet that can be printed out for the children to enjoy. You can also have the children make their own pirate telescopes so that they can look out for other pirate ships and land by having them cover empty paper towel tubes with paper and stickers.

The best activity for a pirate theme birthday party is a treasure hunt. Give the children a treasure map that you created before the party. The map should have them navigating around the house or backyard looking for "buried" treasure. At the end of their journey they might discover the birthday cake or mini treasure chests filled with prizes. Make sure that the treasure map isn't so complicated that they give up in frustration before they find the treasure, but also make sure that it will take them more than 2 minutes to find the treasure.

Planning a Pirate Theme Birthday Party: Cake

There are many different ways that you can incorporate the birthday cake into the pirate theme. You can draw a treasure map onto the top of the cake with frosting, you can turn a sheet cake into a pirate flag by drawing a scull and cross bones on top of the cake, or you can make a pirate ship cake. For ideas on how to make a pirate ship cake visit http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/kid-cakes.html.

I hope these tips and suggestions will help make planning a pirate theme birthday party easier and will have the children excited about the party from the time they receive their invitations until the time their parents pick them up to take them home.