I have previously written about things to consider when planning a Children’s Birthday party and moved onto themes with my dinosaur party. So I thought I would tell you my thoughts on Superhero Party planning. Starting with invites right through to Thank you notes.
A Superhero Party – The Invites
A Superhero party starts with the invites. You can either buy your own or make them. This can be as simple as a piece of paper with the party details on, or you can add your favourite superhero image(s). You could even use card. Invites should be clear as to the party’s date, time and location, if there is a dress code or theme, if there’s any food requirements, siblings/parents allowed to stay (if this is an issue for you) and I recommend a contact number and a date to reply by. I think a good Superhero birthday party ideally would involve the children dressing up as super heroes.
Dressing up for a Superhero Party
If your child does not have any Superhero dressing up then just improvise – even a sheet can be transformed into a cape! The use of face-paint can be really effective too (see my previous post on Heroes and Villains), and the party host may want to do this as part of the entertainment.
Decorating your Superhero Party
It can be really simple to transform an empty hall into a Superhero party by jut adding some wall decorations. Famous words, pictures, symbols, and buildings I think work well. Such as Pow! Crash! KAPOW! Zap! BANG! Boom! And black buildings with yellow windows. Symbols from Superman, the Green Lantern, Bats and Spiders, or posters of their favourite characters. Dividers can be utilised to add more displays if there isn’t a suitable wall. You may want to pay for licensed table-cloth/plates/napkins are you could use red, yellow, green and blue colours instead. Again balloons in these colours can give a real superhero feel. If you have time you could make models from cardboard – such as a Batmobile.
You could have plenty of opportunities for photos by making your own buildings/backgrounds to stand by or you could buy a cardboard cut-out of their favourite superhero.
Superhero Party Cake
There are many ideas for Superhero party cakes. At a recent Superheroes party there was a fantastic Batman cake they had made themselves – with a Batman symbol on the top and the buildings around the edge. Obviously how you make your cake will be determined by the number of guests and which Superhero is the birthday child’s favourite.
Other Superhero Party Food
They made smaller cupcakes with Batman symbols on and R (for Robin) on the others – utilising red, yellow and black icing. These were given at the party but could have also gone into the party bags, which I find is a good idea if you do not have a lot of helpers as you do not need to cut, wrap and bag up the cake during the party.
For other foods I think that generally young children do not want anything too fancy when it comes to food. A good choice of ham/cheese/jam/chocolate spread sandwiches, pizza, savouries and biscuits and cake will usually tend to be a hit. Add some grapes/cucumber/raw carrot as a healthy option tends to go down well with parents. You may want to display the food in superhero containers – again these could be just utilising the colours red/yellow and blue (I would save the green for the table-cloth) or you could print some pictures to them (black Batman symbol on a yellow cup, draw a black spider on a red cup).
Entertainment at a Superhero Birthday Party
What you do may largely depend on the number and age of the guests. A really good Superhero party I went to had 3 grown-ups dressed as The Joker, Batman and Robin. The idea was that The Joker came out and hide and the children had to look for him. The children were in reception year (ages 4-5 years) and a lot were really scared and upset, even with the appearance of Batman and Robin. So they all disappeared and just Batman and Robin came out first, then the children were okay. I would like to add, however, that my Sensory Seeker is a huge Joker fan and LOVED every minute of it! The Joker then cleaned his make-up off and the children loved to play with him. I would also like to warn anyone who is thinking of doing this that some of the boys were a bit boisterous.
Other ideas are having a craft station where children can make masks, colouring in pictures, or do gluing and sticking, use Hama beads, Superhero bowling, play with Kryptonite (green play-doh and frozen Kryptonite), Batman says (a spin on Simon says) – the list is endless. As well as all the traditional games, photo opportunities, and face-painting.
The Supehero Party Favours/bags
Again you can buy in party bags or make your own. There are lots of Superhero party favours ideas on my superhero party pinterest board – as well as other inspirational ideas for the party. Generally it is about utilising those Superhero colours – you can use a bag, a cup, a box, a tube, a see-through bag. Maybe you want to add green sweets to represent kryptonite.
The Supehero Thank Yous
There are plenty of craft ideas involving Superheroes that you could adapt to make Thank yous for your guests. If you have been able to take photos of them then this would make a great basis for a Thank you.
Have you any further ideas on what needs to be thought about or could be done for a Superhero party?
Thank you very much to the family for inviting us and allowing me to blog about their fantastic party.