Coolest Birthday Party Ideas for an Awesome Sports Theme Party

On this page you’ll find lots of great general sports kid birthday party ideas that can be tweaked to fit virtually any sports theme. If you’re interested in specific sports, we’ve created these pages for the following specific themes – Baseball, Basketball, Football, Olympics and Soccer.

There’s no need to browse around forever trying to find the best deal on Sport’s party supplies. Just compare between these supplies which cover pretty much the best Sport party supplies out there:

Sports Invitations

One of the best birthday party ideas for invitations is to create an “official” sporting event ticket/invitation. Just print it out with all sorts of sports-related graphics and remember to “perforate” the edge (and even write “void if detached”).

You can easily perforate with a sowing machine that has no thread or with a utility knife. Write something like:

“Admit One”, give the date, time, stadium (address) “Row” and “Seat”, etc. RSVP: Coach (you of course) – “a failure to RSVP may result in a technical foul!!” Ad words like: “Come ready to compete!”, “Score big with [your kid’s name]!”, “Be an ALL STAR”, and more.

Admit One Invitation

You can get ticket envelopes at one of the Ticket-Master outlets and address each invitation to “All Star [kid’s name]”. Encourage the kids to bring the ticket to the party so that when they come you can rip off the side and give them back the stub.

If you want to focus on one sport, you can make your invitations look like the type of ball that is used in that sport.

Sports Decorations

The sports birthday party theme works well outdoors (in your yard or a nearby park), but you can also use the birthday party ideas for decorations that are described here for an indoor sports party as well.

To start off, use your kid’s favorite team’s colors for the color scheme and hang bunches of colored balloons around the party area.

One of the best birthday party ideas is to make your own sport balloons by drawing on them. For baseballs use a red pen on a white balloon, drawing the stitching. For basketballs use a black marker on orange balloons, for a soccer ball use a black pen on white balloons, etc.

Hang signs around the party area that say: “Bleachers”, “Locker Rooms”, “Restrooms”, etc. Also, set up a first aid station with band-aids, bandages, hydrogen peroxide, a water cooler, etc.

Make paper cutouts of footballs, bats, rackets, hockey sticks, gloves etc. Disperse all sorts of sport-related props and toys around the party area, such as balls, mitts, bats, sport cards, etc. Hang up posters of famous sport figures and of different sports.

If you really want to be creative, one of the best birthday party ideas is to blow-up a picture of a famous player – poster size (some Kinko’s and other copying stores can do this) and put it in the party area. You can also cut the face out so that the kids can put their own face in it for great picture-taking moments (great to send with thank-you notes).

Consider making your own popcorn, cotton candy, and peanut stands out of PVC pipes. It’s quite simple. The stands should be five feet tall. Glue clothespins all around and hang small bags of popcorn, candy, etc. You can also extend a line between branches and hang the bags from there.

Use real sports props to decorate the table. You can tie helium balloons onto trophies, medals or other props for table centerpieces. If you have chairs instead of benches, hang sports pennants down the back of each chair to add more color. Decorate the table with sports cards (either bought or handmade). For instructions on making your own sport cards look in the Ice-Breaker activity section below.

One of the coolest birthday party ideas for setting the sports scene (if you are not too picky about your lawn) is spray painting or using chalk to mark the field.

Cool Ball Centerpiece idea Submitted by Laurel D. from Auckland, New Zealand: A nice idea for a Sports-themed centerpiece is to take old sports balls (can be a football, soccer ball, basketball, etc.), cut them in half (sideways), and then you can make a flower arrangement in them (you can stuff them with flowers, flags on sticks, curled ribbons, etc.).

Sports Icebreaker Activities

As the kids arrive, provide face paints and let them color their own faces with their favorite team’s colors. This is one of coolest birthday party ideas to get the kids into the party mood. Also, hand out pins, sport sweatbands for the wrist and forehead, tube socks, and take your pick from many of these great sports items.

If you’re planning to have team activities, let the kids draw a piece of paper from of a sports helmet to signify which team they belong to. You can also hand out colored shirts or/and baseball caps for each team. On the back of each shirt you can use fabric paint to write the kid’s name and a number of their choice.

Once everyone has arrived have the kids come up with a name for their team, make up a team cheer, decorate a team banner, etc.

Sport Card Making

Turn to the Internet to collect pictures of sport stars and print them out. Also print out a short paragraph about each star. Give the kids multi-colored lightweight cardboard (cut them beforehand to be the size of a card) and let them choose which player they want. See if they can match each person’s life information with their picture. Give them glue, glitter, stickers, etc. and let them make and decorate their own sport cards. You can then play a game seeing how much everyone knows about each player.

Signed Ball

This is one of the best birthday party ideas for a keepsake gift. Take a ball of choice and have everyone at the party sign it as they arrive. This is a great way to keep a nice memory of the great party.

Sport Players

Here’s another excellent activity that gives the kids a chance to use their drawing and imagination skills. Use big white butcher paper and have someone outline each kid (they can be outlined in any kind of pose). Then hand out crayons, markers, etc. and let them go wild turning themselves into their favorite player.

Sport Collage

This is a great way to get those artistic juices flowing before the party gets underway. Collect all kinds of sport magazines and newspapers, give the kids scissors and glue, and have them cut out and paste their own sports collages. You’ll be surprised how interesting these can come out!

Homemade Sports Cakes

Check out the cool Sports theme party cake ideas on coolest-birthday-cakes.com, the Web’s largest gallery of homemade birthday cakes. You’ll find thousands of cakes submitted by visitors like yourself with photos and how-to tips.

Sports Party Food and Drink

Birthday Party Ideas for Food

For lunch time you can have the kids go to the area assigned and labeled as the “cafeteria”, where you can have a long table set up with stadium-type food. You can buy simple foam food trays and foam cups, lids and straws, and have each kid go through the line and choose their goodies.

You can also rent hot dog, popcorn, cotton candy and snow-cone carts and stands.

ALL STAR Hot Dogs and Corn Dogs: You can set up a condiment bar. Have hot dogs, buns, mustard, ketchup, relish, onions, chili, cheese, pickles, etc., and let the kids make their own ALL STAR hot dog.
Grand Slam Chicken Wings: A finger lickin’ meal!
Home Run Pizza
Energy food (in other words VEGETABLES and dip)
Strike Out Nachos and cheese
Ball sandwiches: Make PB&J (and other) sandwiches and cut them out with a round cookie cutter.
Spaghetti with meatBALLS
Mini Pizzas on mini bagels (then cut the vegetables / pepperoni into baseball, footballs and basketball shapes)
Soccer Field: Gaucamole platter with piped sour cream

Birthday Party Ideas for Drinks

Gatorade
POWER Shake: This recipe serves eight people. Take a cup of smooth peanut butter, four ripe bananas, and six cups of frozen yogurt. Cut bananas into pieces. Place a fourth of each ingredient in a blender (this is to prevent overflow). Whirl until smooth, and duplicate steps for the left over ingredients. Pour concoction into glasses and serve (if you want it more like a drink and less like a shake use nonfat milk instead of frozen yogurt).
Fruit Smoothie Quenchers: Choose fresh fruit, such as strawberries, bananas, pineapples, oranges, grapes, etc. Whirl fruit in a blender and once liquefied add one quart of frozen vanilla yogurt and six ice cubes. Then blend again with raspberry ginger ale and pour into a punch bowl (for a thinner mixture, add more ginger ale).

Tip: Use a huge enamel tub and fill it with ice. Then put all kinds of soda cans, bottles, colorful plastic-covered popsicles, fruit juices and energy drinks.

Birthday Party Ideas for Treats

Peanuts!! Almost every sports game gives out peanuts (don’t forget to put empty containers for peanut shells).
Energy bars
Cracker Jacks
Churros (long cinnamon sticks sold at sporting events)
Soft-baked pretzels
Snow Cones
Cotton Candy
Sport-shaped cheese crackers (available at supermarkets)
Corn-nuts
Fruit Bars, Granola Bars, and other healthy treats.

Another one of the tastiest birthday party ideas for treats is to let the kids make their own sundaes. Put out a sundae buffet with different types of ice cream, whip-cream, sprinkles, fruit toppings, chocolate syrup, etc. and let the kids build their own sundaes.

Tip: You can serve many of the treats in upside-down batter helmets or different sport hats.

Sports Party Favors and Thank-Yous

You can put party favors in large plastic drink cups (just like ones you get at sporting events). Some birthday party ideas for items you can give out are little Gatorades (or other power drinks), wristbands, Frisbees, hula hoops, sport squeeze balls, whistles, sport cards, cracker jacks, power bars, sport stickers and any other sports related items.

Thank-You idea Submitted by Amanda E. from Belleville, Ontario:

I had a large laundry basket full of sports equipment and clothes: tennis rackets, baseball bats, basketballs, gloves, soccer balls, footballs, different sports attire, etc. (you name it, I had it!). Each kid dressed up as an athlete of their choice and I took their picture. After the party I developed the pictures, wrote a nice thank you note on the back of the picture and mailed out to each child. It could also be nice if each kid takes the picture with the birthday child!

Sports Games and Activities

Here are some nice and inexpensive medals to give each kid at the end of the games. Team games can get very competitive, so just remember that at the end – everyone wins!

Here’s an entire page with the coolest Sports party games, such as Dress-Up Relay, Ping-Pong Bobbing, Water Balloon Volley, KneeBall Relay and more. You should also read these VERY important tips to help you survive (and enjoy) game time!

Your Sports Parties and Ideas

Some of our visitors have gone the extramile and written up their complete Basketball birthday party ideas with photos and everything they did. We call these stories “Party Tales” and they serve as a great inspiration! Take a peek at other people’s Basketball theme Party Tales and you’re sure to find lots more outstanding Basketball party ideas:

If you’d like share your complete party with us, then once your party is over, send us your own PARTY TALE and we’ll create your very own theme party page and photo gallery that’s hosted on our site! (Family, friends and just about anybody will be able to find inspiration from your child’s birthday party and comment on YOUR ideas!)

Kid Birthday Parties › Kid Birthday Party Ideas › Sports Birthday Party Ideas