Beach Theme Party Decorations

Where's your beach party going to be held? 

If it's at the beach... the sun, sand, and sea are the main attractions. Just bring lots of sand toys, beach balls, and pails and shovels for the children, plus beach umbrellas, extra beach towels and beach chairs. Colorful balloons always add to the party atmosphere, and they can serve double duty by helping guests find the right spot on the beach. When guests arrive, hand everyone a lei, and have fun beach music playing on a portable sound system.

If it's in your backyard... Create your own mini beach by filling a wading pool with sand and sand toys. If you already own a sandbox, use that instead. Build a simple sandcastle and leave sand toys for the guests to play with later. Scatter lots of beach balls throughout the yard or hanging from trees, and hang extra bathing suits on a fence.

Decorate your garage door to resemble a beach scene. First draw various parts of the beach on poster board and then attach them to your garage door. Include the ocean and some sand, plus a surfer, a dolphin or a shark. You could even cut out a surf board shape and lean it against the door. Use sidewalk chalk to draw giant letters spelling out “Beach This Way” and an arrow pointing to your yard.

Fill the yard with beach umbrellas, lawn chairs, and beach towels. Add a sand pail filled with a few bottles of sunscreen, and play fun beach music on a portable sound system. Give each guest a flower lei as they arrive.

For indoor and outdoor parties at home... Start with a beach-themed table color. Sprinkle the center of the table with sand, sea shells, and plastic sea animals. Add a bit of sparkle with glass rocks. You will want a small mound of sand in the middle to offset the beach cake (see below) . Finish off your decorations with a few beachy balloons, beach-themed party banners, or beach piñata. Pop a Beach Boys tape in and you're ready to go.

Beachy party favors become cute table decorations when you fill small plastic buckets with inexpensive play sunglasses, plastic lifeguard whistle, shovel, small bottle of suntan lotion, carton of fishy crackers or some colorful sea shell candies. Write the child's name on one side, in permanent marker, and you have a place setting as well.



Beach Party Food Ideas

Either picnic food or a barbecue menu would be perfect for a beach party. Sandwiches, hot dogs, or hamburgers are all good choices to feed your hungry guests. If your party will be at a beach, check in advance with the local town hall to be sure you can bring a barbeque grill onto the beach.

Make little signs for each food item with a beach theme name like Sandy Beach Burgers, Hang Loose Hot Dogs, Surf’s Up Salad, Fun in the Sun Fruit Kabobs and Catch a Wave Chip and Dip. Serve the chips or cookies in clean, new plastic sand pails, and use clean sand shovels as serving spoons for salads. Fill paper cups with fish-shaped crackers or other small treats and place an umbrella straw upright in the middle. Be sure to bring lots of water and other drinks in a cooler to keep the children hydrated throughout the party.

If the party is at home, fruit smoothies served in tiki cups are a great way to help the children cool down and stay hydrated in the hot sun. Try our Banana-Strawberry Smoothie that kids and adults love. Here's what you'll need:

• 2 Bananas
• 2 Cups of Strawberries
• 1 Cup of Milk (Note: If you're using frozen strawberries instead of fresh, reduce the milk to 1/2 cup.)
• 1 Cup of Frozen Yogurt
• 
  
  Slice the bananas and strawberries, and put them in a blender with the milk and frozen yogurt. Blend on high until smooth. Pour into glasses, add a fun straw, and serve! If you're looking for more summer drink ideas that will take less time to whip up, consider virgin Strawberry Daiquiris and virgin Piña Coladas made from store-bought mixes.

One way to tie in the beach theme with a food item is to serve a vegetable platter that looks like a beach ball. Start with a bowl of dip at the top of the platter to create the top circle shape on a beach ball. Next, use carrots and slices of red pepper to create the dividing lines between each section of the ball. Then fill in between the dividing lines with slices of cucumbers for a green section and cherry tomatoes for a red section.

Another cute idea is to serve each guest a Mini Beach Cup made from pudding and crushed cookies. First spoon vanilla pudding into a clear plastic cup and sprinkle crushed vanilla wafers on top as “sand”. Place a gumball on the sand as your beach ball, and a teddy bear cookie under a small drink umbrella to complete the beach scene.

For a party at the beach, it’s easier if you plan to buy ice cream for the guests from a frozen treat vendor. And if your party is at home, either popsicles or an ice cream sundae bar are a sure hit with kids. You can create your own Ice Cream Cart by setting up a table with cones and ice cream at one end and a variety of toppings in serving bowls at the other end. Guests can "order" their scoops of ice cream from an adult, and then add their own toppings. Don't forget the whipped cream and cherries!

Beach Theme Birthday Cakes

No birthday party is complete without a birthday cake! And wouldn’t your child love a cake that mommy made herself? Wait! It’s not that hard to turn a regular cake mix into something special. Here are two different ways to create a beach birthday cake using just a few decorations:

1. Beach Cake – Create a cake that looks like a beach scene by icing half of a 9”x13” cake with blue icing and the other half with white icing. Draw a rippled edge between the two halves to create a wavy shoreline. Crush graham crackers, and sprinkle them over the white frosting to give the appearance of sand. Set a miniature toy boat on the ocean side of the cake, and use different colors of decorator icing to draw seashells and tiny crabs on the shore side. Use gumballs as miniature beach balls and a few small drink umbrellas to add the finishing touches.
2. Fish Cake - Start with any flavor cake baked in a 9”x13” cake pan. Let it cool and remove from pan. You’ll need two colors of frosting so that the fins and tail are a different color than the body of the fish. A green body with yellow fins would look good, but choose any two colors that you like. You’ll also need Necco wafer candies to make the fish scales, one chocolate sandwich cookie for the eye, and a small piece of red licorice string to create a smile.
   
   Cut the cake as shown in our drawings and arrange the pieces on a cake plate. Frost the body of the fish in one icing color and frost the fins and the tail in the second icing color. Then put the cookie eye and the licorice string mouth in place. The last step is to arrange the Necco wafers over the body of the fish to resemble scales.