Birthday party theme ideas and photos by: Margaret from Farmington Hills, MI
For my son’s birthday, he wanted a Pirate party.
There are a few good birthday party theme ideas for invitations; what I did was printed them on an almost yellowish type of paper (so it would look old…without having to soak in coffee or tea to stain it); I then burned the edges to make it look worn. On one page I wrote out the party invitation, on the second page, using the same type of paper, I drew my own pirate treasure map to get to our house – and the treasure had a big red X to mark the spot. On the back of the map, I wrote out instructions how to get to our house from the 2 major directions people were coming from. At the bottom of the party invitation I wrote “X (just the X was in red) marks the spot! Don’t forget to wear yer Pirate garb and join the fun!!”
On my front door I put a big red X made from poster board. My husband, 3 kids and myself all dressed in pirate costumes. I made a sign for the front yard that said “Pirates Beware!!” with cross bones at the bottom. I used old scrap wood we had in our garage and craft paint. This is one of the easier birthday party theme ideas to carry out.
Treasure Chest and Pirate Party Decorations
For decorations I used many birthday party theme ideas I read about from this website. I found lots of pictures online from Pirates of the Caribbean , and other pirates and put them on our hallway walls and all around the house. I made a big treasure chest from an empty cardboard box and glued some black table place mats with gold trim on them all around the box, filled it half way with newspapers balled up, covered newspapers with a few sheets of shiny gold tissue paper and filled with lots of costume jewelry and had 3 big silver plates from the dollar store to prop the lid up and one in the middle.
Pirate Party Homemade Mural Decoration
I made a mural in our living room (one of the birthday party theme ideas I do every year, each time I change it according to the theme of the party). The mural was of a big pirate ship in the water going towards an island with a palm tree and a big black X to mark the spot for the treasure. There was also a big rock that a mermaid was sitting on and an adult mermaid and child mermaid in the water. Water was a plastic table cloth, ship was purchased at a party store, tree, island and rock were made from brown packaging paper, leaves made from poster board and mermaids printed from the computer – then cut out.
I bought 2 big glass bottles with corks in them from the dollar store. On one, I made a label that said “XXX”; on the other I wrote a letter “from a stranded Captain”. On the dining room table, I had a treasure map tablecloth with a small chest in the center over-flowing with chocolate coins and plastic blue and pink “jewels”. I made portholes out of craft rings. I think they are meant to make floral wreaths, but made perfect portholes. I taped pictures on the other side and taped them to our walls (as if we were in a ship looking out). We had torches on both sides of our walkway leading to our front door and a big Jolly Rogers pirate flag on our flagpole.
Pirate birthday party theme ideas for foods: Everyone ate – some foods were Pirates Blood (red punch), Goldfish, Shrimp and pizza. We then passed out nametags with the same # on the front and back for all the adults. The back part of the sticker went into small treasure chest for a “lottery” game-where the adults win a gift.
After everyone ate and all the guests arrived, the kids formed a line to receive Pirate clothes – bandana, red sash, and eye patch. Then stood in line again so they could get a tattoo and either a scar or beards and mustaches – done with make-up.
Pirate birthday party theme ideas for games: “Pass the Package” – I used 7 kids shoe boxes. The first box is wrapped, play the music, when it stops that child opens it and inside is another wrapped box and so on- until you get to the smallest box – which I had a “pouch” of chocolate coins for each child that played.
Pin the X on the Treasure Pirate Party Game
We then went back in the house and played “Pin the X on the Treasure”. I made a big treasure map similar to the one for the invitation. I made red X’s for each child with their name on it. Then we had a treasure hunt. Each child received a small swatch of wrapping paper. Everyone’s paper was different – that was their clue to what their gift was wrapped in.
I then told them a story about how my husband “Rotten Beard” – (I got the name from Lazy Town ; and my husband grew a beard for the party) – took and hid all the treasure in the yard and now if they want their share, they must go hunt for it and they now had “their map”.
After that, was the piñata (which was a treasure chest). We sang happy birthday and cut the cake. The cake was an island with pirates and a ship and cross bones all around the cake. As everyone was eating, my son opened his gifts. We then did the adult “lottery”. My son pulled about 8 different #’s and those guests received a Pirate themed gift-wrapped in gold paper.
When the party was over and as the guests were leaving, the children received their parting gifts (goody bags) – which included a pirate hat (from Long John Silver’s), a map, a telescope (made from a paper towel roll wrapped in black paper and glued, then I painted cross bones and scull on each one and put colored cellophane over one side for “glass” and glued that down), a sack of chocolate coins and 7 gold coins – all inside a red treasure chest. I learned to give the goody bags at the end of the party – less mess for clean up.
This turned out to be a great party; my son really enjoyed it! I hope these birthday party theme ideas can be of help to others.
