Carnival Birthday Party Ideas
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My daughter MiniMe's 6th birthday was a carnival themed party, complete with carnival food, fun, and games. I'd like to share my party details with you, to help inspire your next carnival-themed party or fall festival.
Decorations for a carnival atmosphere
Decorations are key to creating a carnival look for your party, and the decoration with the biggest impact at our party was a big white tent. Besides being great protection from sun and potential rain, the tent really defined the outdoor party space and gave the guests somewhere to focus their attention.
Around the entire party space, we used lots of pennants and balloons to bring a joyful and colorful atmosphere to the party.
We even posted some carnival directional signs that looked adorable in the space and make an otherwise obtrusive tent pole look like a purposeful decoration.
And no carnival party would be complete without a clown, and my aunt was sweet enough to dress up for the occasion.
Carnival party games and a midway
If you're going to have a carnival, you've got to have games! I created a midway with lots of game options that entertained kids of all ages. To create the game booths, I started with plain, cardboard voting booths that I found online. I got this fabulous idea from the Living on the Crafty Side of Life blog, and I knew I just had to repeat it. She has some great carnival/fair fonts you can download and use as well.
Since the kids were young (and short), I cut the bottoms off the booths so that they wouldn’t be too tall for the kids to play the games. I decorated the booths with colorful bulletin board paper, bulletin board trim, and letters. Your local parent-teacher school store is a great source for everything at affordable prices. I was especially thrilled to find a red and white striped pattern, which instantly screamed carnival to me.
Inside the booths, I placed several carnival games that I purchased from Amazon and from Oriental Trading Company, including a Ring Toss, Spin-a-Wheel, and others.
And of course, we had to have a duck pond, too! This is always MiniMe's favorite game at her school carnival, so she insisted we have one at her party.
The kids earned tickets when they played the games, and at the end of the party, they were able to buy little prizes with their tickets. To make the prize board, I simply decorated a piece of foam core and added wooden skewers to create hooks. Then I put the prizes in bags and hung them on the skewers.
Carnival party food
The food you serve is a critical part of any party theme's success, and carnival was no exception. It was easy to come up with lots of carnival food ideas that worked great for the party. To start, of course we had to have cotton candy. We rented a large cotton candy machine and my cousin kept everyone fully stocked with fluffy sweets throughout the party.
I filled a tiered basket with more carnival classics — popcorn, pretzels, and peanuts.
The peanuts, decked out in vintage-looking paper peanut bags, were one of my favorite parts of the party.
MiniMe's favorite, though, was the shaved ice truck that we hired to stop by for an hour. The kids thought it was such a big treat to have the truck come just for them to enjoy.
For dessert, we thought cake would be too heavy for an outdoor party. Instead, I tasked Chica with coming up with a fun carnival cupcake idea, and she sure delivered! Check out the story of her carnival cupcakes topped with mini funnel cakes, including info on where to get those adorable raffle ticket cupcake wrappers.
23 comments so far:
How did the funnel cakes taste not being warm? How long in advance did you made the cakes?
Donna, we made the funnel cakes a couple hours before the party, to maximize freshness. They held up fine being room temperature. (Although to be fair, kids don't care much about stuff like that!)
How did you make the booths? What materials did you use? We're they very sturdy?
Hi! Im considering this theme for my sons bday this year and was wondering what was the base for the different games? The ring toss,can toss etc. was it just a big box?
Thanks
Aimee and Asia, we made the booths from simple cardboard voting booths. They can be tricky to find if it's not an election year, but here's a good source online.
Hi! Where did you get the games?
Brandy, we found most of the games at Oriental Trading Company.
Where on line did you find the cardboard voting booth boxes?
Pam, they can be tricky to find depending on the time of year, but here's a good one and you can also do a quick Google search to look for other options.
Do you still have the games like the ring toss and spin a wheel etc? Would you consider selling them. I’m not crafty at all and would much rather buy!
Jordan, I don't still have those games but here are links to where you can buy similar games from Oriental Trading and Amazon
I wanted to know did you let kids play in their own or somebody was standing by games to help kids play? Also were kids not taking the prizes without even earning them?
Ruchika, we had volunteer parents working the games at the beginning of the party, when prizes were at stake, then we let them play on their own later in the party if they wanted. And no, we did not have any kids trying to take prizes without earning them.
Hi! Love this theme! Where did you get the letters? Thanks!
Rachel, we cut the letters out using a Silhouette electronic cutting machine and a carnival-style font.
Hello! I have been waiting to plan the perfect carnival party! This looks amazing. Did you have a list or agenda schedule of items needed to create your lineup and layout? Would you mind sharing it?
Rebecca, all the info we have to share is already detailed in the post. We didn't create any formal agendas for the party.
Hi ?this is such great info you provided thank you so much for that. I did have a question as to how you got the booths not to fly away. My son is turning 2 and I’m giving him this type of party in a park and I want to set some booths up like this. Thanks in advance for helping me out with my question. Enjoy your day!
Shirley, we did not have any trouble with wind, but I suppose the stability of your booths will depend on what they are made of and how your weather is that day. Perhaps you can weight them with bricks or hold them down with stakes?
hi, your carnival party is SPECTACULAR!!!!!!!! do you sell the game booth
Lina, thank you! We don't sell the booths, but we made them out of cardboard voting booths. You can find them online here and other places.
Hi! I want to throw a carnival birthday party for my daughter for her 10th birthday because she wanted a carnival theme I wanted to know where did you get that stand to hold all those snacks in photo number 12?
Janiya, wish we could direct you to a source, but that snack basket is just something we already had at home.