Pirate Birthday: Party Planning Guide
Written By Penny Warner.
Yo-ho-ho, it’s a pirate party for ye swabs! Climb aboard the Jolly Roger Pirate Ship – we're headed for Pirate's Cove for a hearty party with our mates.
Invitations
- Invite your mates with a treasure map invitation, so they can find their way to Pirate's Cove. Mark all the guests' homes along the way with a red X, and add familiar sights with creative
names, such as Peg-Leg's School, Hangman's Park, and Treasure Chest Café. Personalize each invitation with a red dotted line from that guest's home to the party place. Tear or burn edges of the paper, and dip it in tea to make it look old. Then roll it into a scroll and place inside an empty plastic soda bottle to create a "message in a bottle" and mail in a tube or padded envelope. - Include an eye patch, bandana, pirate necklace, gold coin gum, or other pirate accessories to wear or bring to the party.
What to Wear
- Ask guests to come dressed as pirates, or provide pirate costumes and accessories for guests to wear when they arrive, such as pirate eye patches, plastic pirate swords, costume or candy jewelry, gold earrings, bandanas or scarf hats, phony mustaches, pirate hats, pirate hooks, or complete pirate costumes that include shirts, belts, and headbands.
- Take each guest aside and give them temporary tattoos, then draw on three-day beards with a black eyebrow pencil.
propped on bricks. Fly pirate flags around the room. Set out cardboard treasure chest boxes filled with jewels, gold coins and candy. Fill the room with black pirate balloons and a giant blow-up octopus. Cover doorways with black crepe paper streamers for secret entries.Games & Activities
- Walk the Plank. Set an 8-foot, 2x4 board on bricks, a couple of inches off the floor, and have the pirates try to walk across without falling into the "shark infested waters." Make the game more challenging by having guests walk backwards, sideways, hop, with no hands, with weights on their arms, over an obstacle, or blindfolded.
- Have a Treasure Hunt. Hide bubble gum gold coins around the party room and let the pirates hunt for them. Or make up cryptic clues they have to decipher before they can find the treasure. Or give them compasses and have them follow directions to the treasure in "paces."
- Make your own treasure chests with a Treasure Chest Craft Kit, then fill with candy and jewels. Send treasure chests home as a party favor.
- Play "Pin the Eye Patch on the Pirate" while wearing two eye patches!
- Pass out small balls or other pirate novelties and let kids have a tossing contest into a cut-out shape of a crocodile's mouth.
- Rent a pirate movie, such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan, or Hook.
Refreshments
- Pirates eat with their fingers, so offer finger foods such as fish sticks, Goldfish® Crackers and small tuna sandwiches.
- Serve fish and chips fresh from the sea!
- Treasure Chest Cake. Frost a rectangular cake with chocolate frosting, then cover it with candy jewelry, gold coins, and colorful sprinkles. To make the "lid," frost the cake pan (washed and dried) and set it at a 90-degree angle next to the cake.
Favors
- Give guests lots of pirate loot such as gold coins, jewelry, eye patches, costume parts, flags, pirate suckers, pirate bubbles, pirate gummy candy, treasure chest dipping candy, gold bubble gum coins, gold nugget gum, sticky skulls, plastic swords, pirate stickers, pirate pencils, pirate teddy bears, pirate telescopes, plastic shark pens and other clever pirate novelty toys.
Thank Yous
- Mail pictures of your pirate guests in frames decorated with gold coins, stickers and eye patches.
Helpful Hint
- If the kids have sword fights, make sure you supervise their play.
