Birthday Party Ideas for Your Kids

Pass the Parcel! We'd never heard of this one until we saw the Bluey episode about Lucky's Dad's Rules (best. episode. ever.), and now my kids want to play it ALL the time. Similar to Hot Potato, kids pass around a wrapped gift while music is playing. When the music stops, whoever is holding the gift gets to unwrap it. According to the Bluey episode, the original way to play is to wrap a single gift in various layers of wrapping paper, so you go through several rounds before a child actually opens the gift, which they get to keep. Another version of the game includes small prizes within each layer of paper, and strategically stopping the music to make sure every child gets a prize.

Hot potato. We just had a birthday party for a five-year-old, and ended up playing hot potato along with pass the parcel. Though I’ve loved pass the parcel since we discovered it on Bluey, think the kids enjoyed hot potato even more, as they were able to toss the “potato” (we used a small plushy) to each other out of order, which made the game more active and the kids more engaged. When the music stopped, whoever was holding the plushy got out, and the last person in got the prize. This kept the kids from slow passing, too, since the goal was NOT to get caught with the plushy!

My tween went to a Survivor-themed birthday party and had a blast. The kids were divided into teams and had to compete in a variety of party games, like a trivia challenge and being the first to put on a frozen t-shirt. They got to take home their team color bandana and a tiki cup as party favors.

A treasure hunt was always my favorite birthday party game when I was a tween and started having at-home parties with a smaller number of friends. Write out a series of clues leading the group to seek out various locations in and around the house, and have a treasure prize (or party favors) to discover at the end. If you've got a bigger group, you can split the kids into teams with two different sets of clues and have them race to the treasure.

Customization stations like make-your-own pizza or a top-your-own ice cream sundae bar.

Inflatables are always a hit, though renting one can be pricy. We've done the giant slides in the past, and they are tons of fun for kids and adults!

I love the idea of an outdoor movie night. Project a movie on a screen outside, lounge around on sleeping bags and pillows, and pass around the snacks!

My daughter wanted one last year. We rented a waterslide as it was a summer birthday. We also rented a snow cone machine which was a big hit.