Fun Toddler Party Ideas to Set the Mood

There is tremendous flexibility in decorating for a toddler’s birthday party. You can keep things simple with a handful of traditional decorations like helium-filled balloons and streamers, or you can select a theme for your child’s party and bring it to life with themed decorations. Here are a few standard tips that you can implement to set the mood for a basic party or a theme party:

• Hang or float bunches of balloons throughout the party area. Twist together streamers in the same color scheme as the balloons, and hang them along the walls and doorways of the main party area. For a fun touch, you can also hang long strips of streamers in a row across each entryway into the main party area, creating curtains for your guests to pass through as they come and go.
  
• Decorate the walls of the party area with letters of the alphabet and numbers cut from construction paper, wall cutouts, or pictures of your toddler’s favorite characters cut from magazines or printed from the Internet.
  
• Play popular children’s music, or the soundtrack from your child’s favorite movie or TV show.
  
• Set up a special spot for the guest of honor to sit for pictures and/or story time. If one is available, use a child-sized chair, and decorate it with balloons, streamers, pictures of your child’s favorite cartoon characters, or anything else your child likes.
  
• Block off a bit of the main party area, and turn it into a giant play pen stocked with age-appropriate toys and/or toddler party art supplies, such as crayons and blank paper. You can use this space to entertain your little guests in between activities, or as an area where they can cool down after playing more active games.
  
• Make a playhouse out of a large refrigerator or furniture box. Decorate it to compliment your chosen theme or to look like a miniature of your own home. This can be incorporated into the designated play area or another part of the party area.

Tasty Treats for Toddler Birthday Parties

When it comes to food, you can serve theme-related treats like animal crackers for an animal party or sea water (i.e. apple juice with blue food coloring) for an ocean party. Either way, minimally-messy finger foods are best for toddlers, so consider things like:

• Animal Crackers
• Apple Wedges
• Baby Carrots
• Bagel Bites
• Berries
• Cheese Cubes
• Cupcakes
• Cut Veggies
• Goldfish Crackers
• Grapes
• Ice Cream Cups
• Juice Boxes
• Mini Cookies
• Olives
• Pear Wedges
• Pigs in a Blanket
• Pretzels

Note: For more theme-specific food ideas, make sure to check out the “Plan a Theme Party” section of our Party Planning page.