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As a parent, throwing your child a birthday party is one of the most enjoyable jobs you’ll ever have. Sure, it takes a lot of work, but few things compare to the look on your child’s face as they walk into a wonderland of your own creation.
We’ve put together a guide to help you find some winning kids’ birthday party ideas, dial in your food and decoration choices, and overall plan your best bash yet.
General Party Themes for Your Child’s Birthday
While some birthday party themes lend themselves to a specific age range, quite a few fun birthday ideas can be tweaked to work for first birthdays through your child’s teenage years.
1. Tea Party
Finger sandwiches, thrift store teacups, and pretty dresses — oh my! Have everyone dress in their Sunday best (maybe with an alternate outfit for play time after snacks) and come ready to enjoy an adorably elegant afternoon get-together with this child’s birthday theme.
2. Garden Party
Your backyard or garden will be your venue, but the rest of the details are up for interpretation. We love the idea of gardening activities that double as party favors (everybody planting flowers in tiny take-home pots, for example), and a cake covered in Oreo crumble “dirt” and colorful gummy worms.
3. Cowboy Party
You provide the 10-gallon hats, pony rides, and casual ranch grub like burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and baked beans. Guests provide the uber-cute kiddos dressed in the suggested denim and overalls.
4. Star Wars Party
Just like the movie franchise it’s named after, this party theme is timeless — though you could adjust the title to May the Fourth Be With You and have an extra special 4th birthday party. Encourage guests to come in costume and use lots of galaxy-themed décor to set the mood for this birthday theme.
5. Circus Party
Whether you’re having a three-ring circus for your soon-to-be three-year-old or just want to treat friends and family to peanuts and crackerjacks, a circus party offers all-ages fun that’s easy to DIY.
6. Pirate Party
ARRRR, we hear there’s a birthday kiddo in these here parts! Dress everyone up in pirate hats, eyepatches, fake mustaches, and temporary tattoos. Play some sea shanties as background music and offer mini treasure chests filled with candy as party favors for the kids.
7. Camping Party
You can take this birthday theme literally and invite some friends on an actual camp out or stage a faux camping party in your backyard complete with tents, a small bonfire (or tabletop flames) for s’mores, and stargazing after the sun goes down.
8. Tropical Party
This is a fairly wide-ranging theme. You can recreate your favorite tropical destination in your backyard, hold a luau, have a pool party, or host the party at an actual beach. Incorporate kids party games like volleyball and frisbee, have a sandcastle-building contest, and prioritize handheld snacks.
9. Avengers Party
Avengers, unite! Bring some of the Marvel universe to your kiddo’s birthday with superhero costumes and decorations inspired by the likes of Iron Man, Black Widow, Thor, and The Hulk.
10. Butterfly-themed Party
It’s easy to find butterfly-themed décor to bring this party idea to life, but you can make your event extra special by having your kiddo raise caterpillars (you can buy the kits online), and release newly hatched butterflies at their birthday party.
11. Wonderland-themed Party
You don’t want to be late for this very important date. Recreate Alice’s adventures, perhaps centering on the Mad Hatter’s tea party. Your kiddo can dress up as a character and guests can wear their own Alice gear or perhaps come as other fairytale characters.
12. Baseball Party
Fire up the grill and dust off the pitcher’s mound — this children’s party theme is sure to be a home run. Have a little baseball or softball game with players wearing custom jerseys sporting the birthday kiddo’s name.
13. Picnic Party
Host your picnic party at the park, with big blankets spread out for guests to lounge on while they eat sandwiches, chips, and cupcakes. After lunch, take turns flying kites or have a water balloon fight.
14. Mermaid Party
Gather all the seashells, mermaid tails, and teal, purple, and blue balloons you can find. Consider on-theme snacks like goldfish crackers, sliced "octopus" hot dogs, sand dollar cookies, and deep-sea lemonade (regular lemonade with butterfly pea flower herbal tea or food coloring added).
15. Dino Party
Dinosaur inflatables, giant cutout footprints, a table where kiddos can dig for “fossils,” and a giant dinosaur egg pinata are just some ways you can make your kiddo’s dinosaur-themed party a huge hit.
16. Pajama Party
Don’t worry, you don’t have to host a dozen kids for an actual sleepover just to have a pajama party. Daytime pajama parties can be just as fun, with kids swapping stories while sitting in their sleeping bags and watching an afternoon movie in a darkened living room with popcorn, cake, and ice cream at the ready.
Kids Birthday Party Themes by Age
Pair these age-specific party themes with gender-neutral birthday invitations for a celebration you’ll remember fondly for years to come.
1st Birthday Party Themes
First birthdays are incredibly special. Here are a few ideas for first birthday party themes you and your little one will love.
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Fun to Bee One: Let the humble yet mighty honeybee be your inspiration for this fun party theme. Offer lots of honey-flavored treats (only for friends aged 1 or older!), decorate with bright bee banners and cutouts, and see if you can source a honeycomb pinata for an extra-exciting activity. Friends will be buzzing!
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What a ONEderful World: This theme offers a global take on a first birthday. You can stick to all things Earth, including blue, green, and white balloons and pictures of our lovely planet, or go more universal with all the planets and celestial objects like the sun represented as well.
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One in a Melon: Perfect for summer birthdays, this theme uses every kiddo’s favorite fruit as a core decorative element. Watermelon balloons, watermelon-print napkins, cubed watermelon for snacks — you get the idea!
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Berry First Birthday: Another fruit-themed party idea, this one involves all kinds of berries. Some parents even put their kid in a bathtub filled with fresh strawberries for a special first-birthday photo shoot.
Friends and family will be eager to help you celebrate your little one’s first year of life, so send out your invitations for your child’s first birthday early and ask for RSVPs so you can plan accordingly.
2nd Birthday Party Themes
Your baby is 2, and that means twice the fun, twice the excitement, and twice the possibilities — plus some pretty cool birthday theme ideas.
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Two Cool for School: It’ll be a few years until your munchkin is ready for kindergarten, but you can have some fun ahead of time with décor that emphasizes numbers, letters, shapes, and other education-related ideas.
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Taco Twosday: You’re never too young for Taco Twosday. You’ll need all the fixins for a taco bar plus relevant treats like cactus margaritas for the adults and ice cream tacos for the kids.
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Two Wild: Animals, animals, and more animals! Focus on jungle and safari-related creatures like lions, tigers, zebras, and rhinos. Decorate your homemade cake with animal cookies and use lots of leafy streamers to turn your home into a rainforest.
3rd Birthday Party Themes
Threenagers can be hard to handle, which is why these themes focus on ideas that offer plenty of distractions and room for interpretation, so the party itself speaks to your kiddo’s newfound preferences.
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Three-I-E-I-O: Old McDonald had a party, and it was full of barnyard fun! It’s time for all the pigs, cows, chickens, horses, and goats to come out to play. Hay bales to sit on, gingham tablecloths covering all surfaces, and lots of farm-inspired food, like country pies, fresh veggies and dip, and “fresh” milk and cookies.
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Three Rex: The most fearsome dinosaur that ever lived meets the most adorable three-year-old that ever was.
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Young, Wild & Three: This theme is all about boho charm with an optional edge courtesy of animal print. Include lots of wildflowers, lush greenery, and sparkle bits with gold balloon lettering and shimmering streamers.
4th Birthday Party Themes
Here are a few more birthday party ideas that cater strictly to soon-to-be four-year-olds.
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Say Bonjour to Four: Greet your baby’s next year with a French fete. This is a more sophisticated party theme, with Parisian treats like macarons and petit fours sharing space with pink-and-black striped décor and cutouts of the Eiffel Tower.
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FOURever Sweet: Candy, candy, and more candy! Plus desserts, of course. From food to décor to even your kiddo’s outfit, everything should be based on donuts, cakes, cookies, and candy galore.
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SCORE! <NAME> Is Four: Dedicate your little one’s birthday to all things sporty. Mix and match teams, sports, and stadium-appropriate snacks and offer lots of opportunities for pint-sized guests to kick and hit some balls.
Children’s Birthday Party Invitations from Truly Engaging
At Truly Engaging, birthday party invitations start with expert-designed templates and finish with your unique customizations. Check out these templates and start brainstorming for your child’s birthday ASAP!
1. Confetti Delight
Pretty polka dots dance along the top of Confetti Delight, a playful design that combines block lettering and a large picture frame for the perfect balance of professional and personal.
2. Dapper Lil’ Guy
Dapper Lil’ Guy is a template made specifically for little boys celebrating their first birthday. The striped color scheme can work with a number of different themes ranging from Under the Sea to Jungle Party.
3. Young & Wild
The perfect invite for a three-year-old’s party, Young & Wild helps kiddos usher in their third birthday with a boho-inspired design full of fun and whimsy.
4. Crafty Cutie
How about a birthday party that’s all about making stuff? Crafty Cutie is a DIYer’s delight, with a kraft paper-like background, washi-tape graphics, and other eye-catching elements that will get potential guests excited about scrapbooking or whipping up some paper art on party day.
5. Royal Whimsy
Use this sophisticated and sweet Royal Whimsy invite to ask friends and family to come celebrate the prince or princess in your life. This design works for a royalty- or fairytale-themed bash, but it would also be cute paired with a tea party theme.
Food Ideas for Your Child’s Birthday Party
When possible, it’s a good idea to match the food for your child’s birthday party to the party’s theme. That means funnel cakes and cotton candy are right at home at an amusement park birthday. But it’s okay to keep things simple, too.
Serve budget-friendly items like pizza or a sliced-up party sub. You can still reinforce the theme through specialty desserts and drinks or by using character-patterned tablecloths, napkins, plates, and cups.
Some people like to have their events catered. If catering is a bit too expensive, you can spruce up store-bought items on your own, adding themed toppers to grocery store cupcakes and pouring iced tea into fancy pitchers.
Make Your Child’s Birthday Special with Matching Party Supplies
Party supplies play an essential role in setting the scene for your chosen birthday party theme. Items like colored streamers, hand-painted or printed signs, backdrops, banners, and balloons help create an immersive experience that transports guests to the beach, the jungle, a Parisian café, or even the Jurassic period.
You can source party supplies online, but you may be surprised at how many items you can find at your local dollar store, thrift store, and craft store, too. Use your imagination and art skills to put your own stamp on any birthday decor ideas you get from the internet.
Find Your Inspiration with Truly Engaging Birthday Party Invitations
Your Truly Engaging children’s party invitations will be the first glimpse guests have of the theme you’ve chosen for your child’s birthday party. Let the template’s design elements inspire your plans for décor, food, games, and even what your child will wear on their special day.