Coolest Rubber Ducky First Birthday Party Ideas for an Unforgettable 1st Birthday

Here are a tub-full of ideas to help you throw the coolest rubber ducky first birthday party. It’s an awesome (and very popular) theme for both an outdoor and indoor party.

There’s one item you’ll be needing for sure… a whole bunch of Rubber Duckies.

Here are several really cool duck party supply kits for your to compare:

Either glue on wiggly eyes or with a permanent marker draw an eye (or two, depending on if it’s profile or up front) and color the beak orange.

You can then write on one of the sides “Splish, Splash! Rubber ducky and friends are having a bash!” And then on the other side “(baby’s name) is turning one! And if you come that will make the party lots of fun! So waddle on over, (date and time), to the (your last name) Bathtub located at (your address). And don’t forget to give us a quick RSVQuack (phone number).”

Make the rubber ducky first birthday party invitation even more interesting by creating a “flippable” wing made from yellow construction paper and glued or taped on. Write underneath it so that the receiver needs to flip over the wing to see the party info.

Here are a few more printable Rubber Ducky invitations you can print out:

Another cute idea for a first birthday party invitation is to take a picture of your baby in a little bubble bath with LOTS of yellow rubber duckies.

And, if you’re hand delivering the invitations, you can take “real-life” rubber duckies and write the birthday info on them.

Rubber Ducky Decorations

This first birthday party is an excellent theme to have outdoors, with lots of water, inflatable pools, tubs, etc. But you can also create a great bathtub atmosphere if the party is indoors.

Your color scheme should be yellow, orange, blue and white (for water). This includes balloons, streamers, etc. You can also put up, hang, and disperse clear balloons all around the party area so that it looks like it’s overflowing with bubbles.

The tablecloths can be of any color from the color scheme. For example blue tablecloths with yellow plates or the opposite. With plates, you can also alternate between colors, for instance white and yellow. You can do the same with cups, napkins, cutlery, etc.

Take real rubber duckies and put them all around the party area as well as on tables, chairs, etc. For table centerpieces put rubber duckies and hang some helium balloons on them. You can also put each rubber ducky in little aluminum buckets to resemble old-fashioned bathtubs.

And, here’s a really cool idea for this first birthday party theme: Use bubble wrap as place mats.

Another great rubber ducky first birthday party idea is to find a sponge shaped like a duck (or make your own by cutting it out – use the printable designs above), dip it into yellow acrylic paint, then stamp it all over your tablecloths and on papers you hang. You can also cut out lots of yellow duckies and hang them around the party area.

Put shower curtains in front of or in back of doors and around the party area. Also prepare tubs with water, pools, tubs with colored balls, tubs with balloons, etc., and make sure there are always lots of rubber duckies floating around.

You can even make a bubble-tent by putting up a camping tent and filling it with clear balloons, Styrofoam balls, colored balls and rubber duckies. It’s a great place for the babies to play.

In the background play music such as “Ernie and his rubber ducky”, “Rubber ducky, you’re the one”, “Do the Rubber ducky”, “Splish-Splash”, etc.

On the floor, walls, and on the path leading to the party area you can tape duck feet. Click on the duck feet for an enlarged image you can print and then trace onto yellow paper.

You can also make all kinds of signs saying “duck crossing” wherever there are footprints. Here are some great free printable Ducky decorations:

Icebreaker “Ducktivities”

As the guests arrive, you can hand out plastic shower caps, slippers, rubber ducky soaps, etc. And, of course, hand them their own rubber ducky to keep them company throughout the party.

There are usually kids of many ages – especially at such a first birthday party where mostly family and close friends are invited. So here are some activities to get everyone – old and young – into the rubber ducky mood.

Rubber Ducky Hats

To make these, you’ll need yellow sun visors, regular yellow hats or even just neon party hats. Out of orange fun foam you can make duck bills and glue them onto the visors or hats. You can then glue googlie eyes and yellow feathers to top it off.

Bubble Fun

Prepare your very own glycerin-enriched bubble mixture (here’s the recipe), and make a few bubble-making instruments out of household items such as clothes hangers, empty bottles, etc.

Homemade Rubber Ducky Cakes

Take a look at all the coolest homemade Rubber Ducky birthday cakes.

Here are a few more ideas:

Rubber Ducky Bathtub Cake: Make blue Jell-O as directed in instructions (but only use 3/4 of a cup of cold water) and pour into prepared pan. Then refrigerate (uncovered) for an hour or until it completely sets.

After this, make a cake from one cake package in a long oval pan or rectangular pan which later you can make into an oval by cutting off little parts of the edges.

Once the cake cools put it on a cake board. Then hollow out about half an inch from the top of the cake (make sure to leave at least 3/4 inch for thick walls as a border) and then freeze the cake.

Once the cake is cold, spread white icing over the sides and border of the cake with a palette knife – now you’ve got a tub.

Then take the blue Jell-O with a spatula and pick up long slabs to arrange in the hollowed-out center of the cake (ripple a bit to resemble water).

You can then take some small rubber duckies (possibly a mother and her 3 little duckies) and put them in the “water”.

Duck Ice Cream: Take one large scoop of ice cream and put it in a cupcake liner (yellow ice cream such as banana or lemon is best). Then take a smaller scoop of ice cream and put on top. Use two chocolate chips for the eyes and two almond slivers to make the beak. Freeze until ready to serve.

Rubber Ducky Party Food and Drink

Ideas for Rubber Ducky First Birthday Party Food:

“Quakers”: Basically any type of crackers :-), whether it be animal quackers, quackers and cheese, etc.
Duck feed: For this you can fill little aluminum pails with any type of dry cereal, nuts, etc. The kids’ll gobble this down! (don’t forget to make signs on the pails saying “duck feed”).
Duck Wings: just regular chicken wings
Duck-shaped peanut butter sandwiches (use a duck cookie cutter to cut the bread in duck shapes)

Rubber Ducky First Birthday Party Drinks:

Put lots of soda cans and bottles in a baby’s plastic washtub, cover with ice and sprinkle rubber duckies.

Duck Pond Punch: For this drink you can use any kind of blue punch. Remember to have clean rubber duckies floating in it! And, you can also float clean plastic leaves and flowers to resemble lily pads. For a nice aqua color, mix blue color-changing Cherry Kool-aid with Sprite and toss a few dollops of lime sherbet just before serving.
Yellow Ducky Drink: In other words. lemonade. You can also add the fluorescent Gatorade to intensify the yellow color.

Rubber Ducky Party Favors

Anything DUCKY is good for your rubber ducky first birthday party! Whether it be rubber duckies, stickers, party bubbles, necklaces, soaps, sippy cups for babies and toddlers (on which you can put rubber ducky stickers), bubbles, sponges, anything yellow (gum in yellow package for older kids, yellow rattles, etc.), animal crackers, duck water-filled teethers, etc.

You can make these first birthday party goody bags out of bubble wrap by cutting a large rectangle, folding in half, gluing the edges together, and putting all the goodies inside. You can also put all the goodies in yellow or clear buckets.

Games and “Ducktivities”

As with the icebreaker activities, the games are also for a variety of ages. Here’s an entire page with the coolest Rubber Ducky 1st birthday games, such as:

Duck Hunt
Rubber Ducky Tub Game
Pin the Ducky
Duck Calling Contest
Soap Catch
and many more (including visitor-submitted game ideas)…

You should also read these VERY important tips to help you survive (and enjoy) birthday games time!

If you have a duck pond around your house (or possibly a zoo or barn), you can always take everyone out to feed the ducks.

Your Rubber Ducky Parties and Ideas

Some of our visitors have gone the extra mile and written up their complete Ducky party story with photos and everything they did. We call these stories “Party Tales” and they serve as a great inspiration! Here’s a cool Rubber Ducky theme party…

Share your kid birthday party ideas here…

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