How to do… a Perfect Pirate Themed Party!

So it’s party time again and your little or not- so- little one wants to have a pirate theme for their birthday party. It’s a really fun and exciting theme with lots of possibilities. We’ve got some top ideas for you here…

Location Ideas

Luckliy living in the Middle East you could plan to have your pirate party on a beach and pretend you are on a deserted island for the party. Or you can have in your back garden or inside your home- that’s what is great about a pirate party- you can hold it anywhere! All you need is a little imagination and some props.

Invite Ideas

You can make the invite to look like a Pirates Map or a treasure map- use tea bags to make the invite look old and stained… don’t forget X marks the spot of where the party is! Get some gold chocolate cins to put in with the invite too for that extra touch.

Costume Ideas

Make sure everyone knows it will be fancy dress and adults should join in the fun and get into fancy dress too if they are staying for the party. You can buy some great ready- made costumes or have a go at making yourself. Pirate costumes are very easy to make. Find some old clothes like striped T shirts and jeans- big and baggy works best. You can rip and tear them to make them ragged. Accessories are key to this look- get an eye patch, a colourful scarf or sash, a bandana, a sword, even a parrot or peg leg if you’re feeling adventurous!

Decoration Ideas

Get an old chest or tea crate type box to use as a treasure chest- you can put this in the party room with the goody bags in for giving out later.

Raid your Hallowe’en collection and see if you have any skeletons that could be used too. You can put a pirates bandanna or an eye patch on them to give them a more pirate feel!

Get hold of some netting- either garden or fishing netting and decorate with skulls, bones, plastic swords, anchors- you can drape the netting in the room or use as a table decoration and scatter the other elements around the area to create that pirate- feel.

Use streamers and balloons etc. in red, white and black colours and if you can’t find a skull and crossbones flag in a party store you can make one yourself with some black material and white paint.

See if you can find some plastic or blow up parrots and scatter those around the party area too.

Game Ideas

Pirate Treasure Hunt

Hide small gifts or chocolate coins throughout the party area and draw a map with their locations on and have the children run round and find the hidden stashes. You could have one main prize and have some harder clues to lead to that point- if you are having the party outdoors you could even bury the treasure!

Pirate Costume Race

Divide the children into two groups have a race to put on the pirate dress up items like a hat, hook, eye patch, vest, plastic sword, jacket, boots etc. Have the kids line up in their two groups and when you say go, the first child runs down to the items puts them on and then runs back. They remove the items and give them to the next person in line to put on. This continues until everyone has put on the items at least once. The first team to have everyone dressed up as a pirate wins.

Cake Ideas

You can have almost anything made as a cake these days so think about having a pirate boat, pirates hat, a treasure island, a parrot or a treasure map themed cake. Skull and crossbone cup cakes are also a fab idea!
 

Most of all have fun! With a little preparation and some imagination you can have a perfect pirate party!