Summer Party Theme: Go Medieval!

Recently, a friend asked me for summer party theme ideas for her daughter's birthday. I had a few suggestions, but my favorite was the medieval party that I threw for him last summer. When I told my friend about it, she was excited. She had found her summer party theme. It's really easy to do and can be loads of fun for the kids - and even the parents, too.

My son loves knights and armor. He loves to sword fight with me, and he thinks that there is nothing better than slaying dragons - unless he's tamed one and is ready to go for a ride. So, even though his birthday is in November, I decided that it would be fun to have a summer party with a medieval theme. It wasn't really a birthday party, but I made it clear that it was a party and that he wouldn't get one for his birthday. Then we started planning.

Medieval Summer Party Theme Invitations

I loved doing the invitations for this party. You can print them on paper that looks and feels like parchment. Use medieval looking font, like Lucida Calligraphy. Or try a couple other fonts. You can tear the edges if you want, but I enjoyed carefully burning the edges (outside of course!) instead. Then I rolled the "announcement" up and tied it with a ribbon. My son thought it was so cool. He delivered the invitations to the invitees separately, at their homes. He even said "Hear ye!" at a couple of the houses. (It was so cute.)

Craft: Shield with Coat of Arms

I encouraged costumes at this summer party, and most kids were excited for the theme and to wear some sort of "medieval" clothing. (The girls especially. I've never seen so many "Disney Princess" dress-up outfits in one place.) We sat at the table and I had them make shields with a coat of arms. I cut out the shields and covered them with foil beforehand. These were used in the jousting tournament prior to the feast. I had different graphics of different animals (dragons, lions, unicorns, eagles, griffins, etc.) and weapons and construction paper available. The kids colored and cut out pictures they liked and made stripes with the construction paper. Each child had his or her individual shield.

Activity: Jousting Tournament

The jousting tournament was fun. I bought some of those chocolate gold coins to give out as awards for "feats of bravery." The cardboard rolls from wrapping paper made great "lances." Instead of having the kids fight each other, I set up targets for them. Balloons hung in bunches on trees around the yard were targets. I also had a "moat" made of a small wading pool. They had to jump the moat and then climb the tower (really the slide on the swing set) and then slid down, trying to hit all the target balloons on the way.

Food: Royal Feast

I set up one of my long folding craft tables outside to hold the royal feast. This was made up of summer fruits: berries, watermelon and pineapple. Since no party is complete without cake, I also had small strawberry shortcake for each child to eat. We drank punch from goblets to keep with the theme. These were fun to make as well, and I had my son help out. We bought some of those clear plastic goblets at the dollar store, and also some of those fake jewels from the craft shop. Then we glued the jewels onto the goblets to make them look fancy for the kids. The kids loved them. They all wanted to take their goblets home. (I let them.)

I am glad my friend is going with this summer party theme for her daughter's birthday. That way I can still have all the fun, but without as much of the work.