Make Lifelong Memories with These Fun Birthday Party Activities for Kids
Regardless of age, celebrating a birthday is always a momentous occasion. Some researchers suggest that celebrating birthday parties dates back to ancient texts found in a region of southern Mesopotamia, long considered the site of the earliest known civilization. Modern society continues to enjoy birthday celebrations, especially when it’s centered around the young ones in our lives.
If you’re a parent, sibling, or loved one of a child, knowing how to plan an awesome, unforgettable birthday party for kids can feel overwhelming. Whether they’re in their “terrible twos” phase, heading toward their teenage years, or somewhere in between, incorporating some fun activities always helps to make any birthday party more exciting.
We’ll take a look at some fun birthday party activities for kids that you can use when plotting your next celebration. When you add a few fun activities, a creative theme, and some unique decorations to the mix, everyone has twice the fun, and the birthday boy or girl will have fond memories to last a lifetime.
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Get Creative with Arts and Crafts
Kids love to make art, whether they’ve just entered the toddler phase or they’re already in middle school. Gather guests around to participate in some carefree arts or crafts activities they’ll enjoy. The best part of these artful birthday activities is that everyone can take their creations home as a souvenir of this special day. Consider these ideas to bring the art of creativity into your child’s birthday party.
- Set up a tie-dye station (outside), where everyone can make their own tie-dyed clothing. Use plain white socks, T-shirts, or caps that everyone can tie-dye in their favorite color combinations for wearable art they’ll love.
- Jewelry-making activities are a popular favorite for little girls. Provide guests with an assortment of colorful beads, pendants, and other accoutrements that they can use to make custom jewelry. Have everyone string them onto elastic for easy-to-wear necklaces and bracelets.
- Make every guest a VIP of the party with their own custom-made crowns. Use heavy construction paper or paper plates to cut out crown shapes, then have the kids decorate them with fluffy feathers, stickers, markers, and rhinestones.
- If you have a lot of cardboard boxes lying around, use them to make sturdy, handmade picture frames. Party guests can decorate their frames with paint, colorful glitter, stick-on rhinestones, felt cutouts, and more.
Celebrate the Big Day with Sugary Fun
Of course, there’ll probably be some cake and ice cream at your child’s birthday party, but why not make things even sweeter with some sugar-themed activities? Gather everyone around to play a few rounds of Candyland, a popular board game that many parents still remember from their own childhoods. Feel free to make your very own DIY board game and use wrapped pieces of candy as the game pieces (players can eat their pieces when the game is over).
For party hosts who want to think outside of the traditional cake and ice cream box, set up a custom ice cream bar with all of the fixings. Include favorites like chocolate syrup, candy sprinkles, whipped cream, and pineapple. You can also do a delicious donut or cupcake decorating activity to replace the standard birthday cake. Use pre-baked plain goodies and let everyone decorate and eat theirs for a unique way to end the day in sugary style.
Decorate this candy-coated celebration with cheerful pastel colors reminiscent of a candy shop or hang giant candy wrappers made of foam from the ceiling for a festive, confectionery backdrop. Cover the table with a sweet treat-themed tablecloth and include matching cups and plates to tie it all together.
Host a Backyard Fun Birthday Party
Older kids may enjoy spending time outside during your birthday party, especially during the spring or summer. If you’re hosting a party for a boy’s birthday or if you’ve got rambunctious guests, it’s a fantastic way to get all of that extra bottled-up energy out of their systems before opening presents. Try a few of these outdoor activities for a kids’ birthday party that will keep everyone entertained.
- Set up a soft backyard obstacle course using pillows, hula hoops, and pool noodles. Always make sure that the kids are under adult supervision when playing outside.
- Host a “field day” themed birthday party and organize events like a balloon waddle, a sack race, or the classic egg and spoon game, where kids use plastic eggs or beanbags and balance them on a spoon as they head toward the finish line.
- Plan a lawn games tournament with silly, fun-filled games like giant Connect Four or Jenga, cornhole, or the classic ring toss game. If you have enough room, try setting up your very own backyard miniature golf course.
- Come up with a fun scavenger hunt game and hide answers to the clues throughout your yard. As the kids find each item on the list, reward them with a small prize.
- Water play with sprinklers and splash pads is always a hit during the summer. Give the water sponge toss game a try, where kids use an assortment of wet sponges and toss them into buckets to score.
- Keep things simple with a fun backyard picnic. Spread a large picnic blanket on the lawn and serve warm-weather favorites like delicious deli sandwiches, potato chips, and freshly baked cookies or ice cream.
A Day at the Movies
There’s nothing quite like getting together and enjoying a great movie with friends. If your birthday boy or girl is a film buff, invite guests over for a fun movie-watching birthday party. Choose an age-appropriate movie that kids love, whether it’s a classic Disney cartoon, a beloved Pixar film, or something else that children in their age group might enjoy. Depending on your setup, you can watch the movie outside on a large projector screen or in the living room. Set up some big bean bag chairs for a comfy spot where kids and parents can sit back and enjoy the show.
Of course, no movie is complete without some crunchy popcorn. Rent a popcorn machine and serve this salty snack in red and white popcorn tubs (extra butter is always optional). If you’re feeling generous, you can also hand out small cardboard containers filled with the kids’ favorite candies. A good alternative to watching a movie is playing a movie-themed trivia game, setting up a red carpet for a fun photoshoot, or decorating the birthday venue around your child’s favorite movie.
If the birthday kid is a fan of Harry Potter, transform the space into Hogwarts castle. Perhaps your child loves the movie Frozen, and they’d love to have a wintry, Elsa-themed party. You can never go wrong with a colorful Disney movie-themed party complete with a pair of Mickey or Minnie Mouse ears for every guest.
Hit the Beach
If you live anywhere near a beach, this is a birthday party activity for kids you can’t miss. There are plenty of fun, exciting things your guests can enjoy during this party, as you’re surrounded by sun, waves, and sand, like splashing about in the water and making sandcastles. Host a sandcastle building contest and hand an award to the best in show. A new beach towel, some flip-flops, or a pair of sunglasses are all great prizes.
For those who can’t make it to the beach, you can still create a cute beachy-themed kids’ birthday party at home. Design your beach party invitations with cute graphics like whimsical mermaids, fanciful flamingos, or shimmering seashells. Make things festive by decorating the party using bold, beachy hues like aqua blue, bright sunny yellow, and beach ball red. Set up a simple pirate treasure hunt game, where you hide an assortment of small objects in a sandbox in your backyard and let the kids dig around to find them to win the game.
If you do decide to celebrate on the beach itself, make sure you provide all of the essentials, including sunscreen, beach umbrellas for shade, and an assortment of beach toys. Make sure everyone stays hydrated by handing out colorful water bottles as party favors.
Make Her Feel Like a Princess
Celebrating the birthday of your little princess is always a thrilling moment. You can create plenty of exciting and fun birthday party activities for the princess in your life based on her age. If she’s reaching the “double digits” (10 years and up), host a pampering spa and manicure day where she and her friends can paint their nails and make homemade bath bombs. Send everyone home with a little gift bag filled with some cute, age-appropriate accessories (think flavored lip balms and small bottles of bubble bath) they can enjoy at home.
Go all out and set up a full-on, adorable princess-themed party. Decorate everything with pastel hues of light pink and pearly white. Dress up the table with a gold or silver crown centerpiece and fancy decorative teacups and plates. Design your invitations using themes with classic icons like castles, carriages, butterflies, swans, or pink unicorns.
Set up a closet filled with cute dresses, sparkly costume jewelry, and other princessy accessories. Your guests will have a blast as they prepare to get dressed for the midnight ball. Once they’re done, take lots of photos for an adorable memento.
BFF Birthday
If you (or your child) prefer to keep things low-key on their birthday, plan a special day for them that involves just one other person: their best friend. Ask the birthday kid-of-honor to make a list of some things the two can do together on their special day. Maybe the dynamic duo would love to spend the day at the local roller rink or bowling alley, or perhaps they’d prefer to hit an arcade for some video games, pinball, Skee-Ball, or Laser tag.
Ask the birthday person to pick their favorite restaurant and bring their best bud along for a delicious lunch or dinner at their number one spot. If you’re celebrating a girl’s birthday, perhaps offer a bit of money so the pair can go on a fabulous shopping spree. For boys, a day of go-karting, paintball, or shopping for trading cards or video games can be a great way to celebrate.
Some kids prefer to acknowledge their birthdays in less obvious ways, and this is a wonderful option that lets them celebrate with the person they like most without all the extra fanfare. It makes their big day feel extremely special when they get to share some of their favorite foods and activities with just one close friend. Alternatively, ask your child if they’d prefer to have a small sleepover or backyard camping night at home with just a few select friends. It’s yet another fun and easy way to celebrate their big day without overdoing it.
Build Memories with a LEGO Party
Kids of almost every age adore playing with LEGO bricks, and it’s an awesome activity you can easily add to any birthday party theme. Look for small, individual LEGO sets you can give to each guest that they can build during the party or to give away as a favor when the party’s over. Incorporate LEGO into the theme by having a LEGO building contest where different tables are set up to try to build a bigger project. The team that finishes first wins a prize.
Go all out by designing a LEGO-themed birthday complete with matching décor. If you want the guests to really get creative, consider separating some of your own LEGOs by color into bins and letting them build an assortment of items straight from their imaginations.
You can even create a simple LEGO brick-shaped birthday cake covered in colorful frosting. Find Jell-o molds shaped like LEGOs for a colorful, chewy snack that kids adore. Sweet and crunchy LEGO candy is another delicious goodie that makes for a great favor to go with this popular party theme.
Level Up with a Video Game Party
The popularity of video games isn’t going away. It’s always been a favorite for kids of all ages since the 1980s. If your child adores gaming, this is a perfect way to celebrate their birthday with fun party activities, unique video game-themed invitations, and more. For the decorations, use bold and bright colors that resemble hues from popular games like Super Mario Bros. or Minecraft. Hang banners that have video game-inspired wording, like “Game On!” and hang oversized printouts of some of their favorite video game characters for a playful pop.
As for some fun video game birthday party activities, set up several screens or projectors so the kids can play a few video games or take part in a tournament during the party. If you’d prefer that they didn’t spend the entire time looking at screens, arrange some more physical games, like musical chairs with a “bomb,” a scavenger hunt where the guests must find hidden coins or stars, or a Mario-inspired mushroom relay race.
For the food, serve delicious munchies like salty chips and sweet mini candy bars, order a few pizzas, and make some yummy controller-shaped cookies. Green fruit punch makes for a fun drink, or you can give out bottles of juice or Gatorade decorated with video game-inspired labels. Make a cake shaped like a game controller or decorate a simple sheet cake with your child’s favorite characters.
Make it a Birthday to Remember
Whether it’s a pink princess theme, an outdoor obstacle course, a day at the beach, or a cozy movie night, these exciting kids’ birthday party activities are sure to please even the pickiest child. Coming up with a theme that the birthday kid will love is almost guaranteed to ensure that they have a party they’ll never forget. Aside from the food, activities, and decorations, remember to design special invitations centered around this special day. At Greetings Island, you’ll find a fantastic assortment of customizable invitation templates for every occasion and every age. If you want to get extra-creative, try out our awesome invitation maker to design an incredible invite to a party that the special child in your life will cherish always.
Photo by: Getty Images, Corina Rainer, frank mckenna, Alexander Grey, Sandra Seitamaa, Vlad Hilitanu, Adi Goldstein on UnSplash
