If it’s your little one’s birthday then you want to plan something special to celebrate. Having a themed birthday party can really get everyone into the spirit of things and create lovely memories and photos. I believe that all of these themes are suitable for both birthday boy or birthday girl, as I don’t believe in birthday themes that are gender specific!
If you’re not sure if you want a birthday party or not, perhaps because your family is quite small, or because you think it will be overwhelming, then consider these low key birthday ideas – places you can celebrate together that don’t require party planning.
Right, let’s get on with some epic birthday party theme ideas!
First Birthday Party Theme Ideas
To set up a full theme you will want to match your
- Invitations
- Cake
- Food
- Tableware – cups, plates, serviettes, tablecloth
- Balloons
- Entertainment
You should be able to find printables for decorations as well for pretty much any theme, such as these free superhero birthday party printables!
Dinosaur Birthday Party Theme
A lot of kids love dinosaurs and would love a dinosaur themed party. Dinosaur themed party accessories are available on Amazon or from any party store, whilst you can create a background of grass and the jungle. Look at this amazing setup from Mini Me and Luxury – she gives a full description on her blog post. She created a theme with pretty much everything, from the table settings and decorations, to chair covers, to the food, party boxes, balloons and even had a dinosaur pinata!
Under the Sea Birthday Theme
The ocean is a popular theme and will work well for children who love the sea and ocean animals in general, or for those who are fans of movies such as Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid. There are a lot of ocean related props and songs available, so entertainment such as singing and dancing should be easy to arrange. You could also pair this theme with a visit or a party at a local Aquarium. Something About Baby had an Under the Sea theme for her son’s first birthday party and she cleverly strung up balloons in nets and made an amazing ocean themed cake!
Unicorn Birthday Party Theme
Unicorns and rainbows, once considered rather girly things, are now perfectly acceptable for both boys and girls (in my opinion, anyway!). Making a unicorn themed party means lots of colours and sparkles, but there’s really a lot of flexibility and resources here for you to choose from. Red Ted Art has some great ideas for a unicorn themed party, including rainbow fruit skewers, unicorn cookie decorating and lots of unicorn craft ideas.
But just look how amazing this cake by Bellas Bakery is! I want it for my own birthday…
Popular Book Themes
It’s amazing when children connect with books and enjoy reading. You can create a birthday party theme based around a favourite book or character and this will encourage their love of reading even more! Here are just a few ideas for popular book themes:
The Hungry Caterpillar
Stick Man
Beano
Or for an older fan, how about a Beano themed party? Red Ted Art cleverly made a Beano themed cake, complete with old Beano annuals as gifts, with Beano printed bunting and game!
I think it goes to show that whatever your children’s book-ish loves are, you can theme a party around it and create some lovely memories for them.
Popular Movie, TV & Game Themes
If your son or daughter has a favourite entertainment, whether that’s a movie, TV show or similar, then you can create a theme around that! Here are a few ideas:
Frozen Birthday Party Theme
How about a Frozen birthday party theme? With this being one of the most popular Children’s movies of all time, there’s no end to Frozen decorations you can buy. But you can also use a theme of white, grey and blue – frozen ice and snow, which will allow you to decorate and accessorise with lots of flexibility. You’re definitely going to want the soundtrack and a singalong, and this makes for a fantastic fancy dress theme as well.
Moana Birthday Party Theme
A Hawaiian themed birthday party is easy to create with generic decorations – colourful bunting and table sets, grass skirts and pineapple bowls. You can bring the theme of the ocean here too, with beach accessories and boating decorations. For entertainment you can have the movie or soundtrack playing, and organize dances and karaoke to the songs. You can buy Moana figures as toppers for the cake, which Michelle from All Things Baby and Me has set on a blue frosted ocean base.
Lego Birthday Party Theme
Lego isn’t just a toy anymore (it’s a way of life.. no, really..) it’s also video games and movies. It’s gone from being extremely popular, to even more popular, so there’s no doubt a lot of kids (and adults!) would like a Lego themed birthday party. Lego is brightly coloured, so you don’t need specific themed decorations, but can use primary colours and then Lego figurines as decorations, cake toppers and party favours. For party bags, you can either print, draw or trace lego faces on yellow bags. For entertainment, you’re going to want lots of Lego to play with, as well as arts and crafts, but you could also play the soundtrack to the Lego Movie and have dancing and singing. The songs will be stuck in your head for eternity though.
Lego Themed Birthday Party photos provided by Mum of 2 Point 5.
Pokemon Theme
I’m not sure if Pokemon counts as a Game or a TV show or even a movie theme these days, but it definitely has a lot of fans, both with older adults who remember playing the games twenty years ago, or with younger fans who might enjoy the thrill of Pokemon Go. There are lots of party decorations themed around Pokemon available.
Photos from Motherhood Diaries, who created a Pokemon themed birthday party for her 7 year old, complete with event planner!
Iggle Piggle Birthday Theme
For little ones who love In the Night Garden, what about an Iggle Piggle birthday theme? This cake by Scandi Mummy is absolutely amazing!
Sesame Street Party Theme
Sesame street is all about bold primarily colours that really pop – with plenty of Sesame Street merchandise available for decorating. You can use a lot of educational props with a Sesame Street theme, with things like alphabet and counting blocks, making it ideal for younger birthdays such as a first, second or third birthday.
Disney Minnie Mouse Party Theme
This is a theme that is really simple to make – but looks amazing and really captures the essence of Minnie and Mickey Mouse. The red and white table clothes and accessories are the perfect mimic of Minnie, and the cute party hats with ears attached are adorable.
First Birthday Party Bags
As someone who is concerned about the environment and interested in cutting down the waste and plastic that my family uses, I think that the traditional party bags of yore, filled with plastic tat that gets thrown away after a few hours play, should be a thing of the past. These days you can make relatively inexpensive party bags that are actually entertaining, educational AND contain items that aren’t contributing to our throwaway culture – here’s my guide to zero waste, eco-friendly party bags.
So there we have it, these are my children’s birthday theme ideas. I hope they’ve given you some inspiration – if you have any ideas of your own, let me know in the comments!
1 Comment
I really appreciate your ideas and i would like to say thank you for sharing these great tips.