Beach Birthday Party Theme

Beach Party Decorations
For tablecloths use colorful beach towels.

Fill plastic sand pails with sand and attach helium balloons with different lengths of curling ribbon.

For an inside party fill lots of blue balloons with helium and let them float on the ceiling. Tie white curling ribbon below the balloons and on a few attach fish and sea creatures. (Makes it look like you are under the water).

Sprinkle sand and shells for a beach look on the tables.

Fill small swimming pools with ice to hold cold canned drinks.

Use different colors and sizes of plastic sand pails for serving dishes. Great for chips, dip, pretzels … even for holding the flatware.

Fun Ideas
Set up a backdrop with a beach / surf scene. Borrow a surf board, or cover your ironing board to look like a surf board and let the kids take pictures posing in front of the surf on the board.

Beach Party Games
Buried Treasure Hunt
Fill a kiddie pool with sand and then bury small treasures such as pretty rocks, sea shells, fake jewels and large plastic coins. Give the party guests sand shovels and sifters to find the buried treasure in their “beach”. Let them take the treasure home as a party favor.

Beach Ball Icebreaker
Blow up a beach ball and write questions all over the ball - fill up as much space as you can with as many questions as you can think of. Have guests sit in a circle and throw the ball to each other. When someone catches the ball they have to answer the question that their right thumb is touching. Sample questions: What is your middle name? Scuba dive or surf board? If you were a marine animal what would you be? What sand sculpture would you like to make? Have you ever been to the beach? Ever been stung by a jellyfish? If you had a million dollars what would you buy first? What
 would you change your name to? Chocolate or vanilla? Favorite color?

Mystery Fishing Game
Kids fish for prizes in this fun game!　 For the "water" use a large appliance box, hang a sheet across a doorway, or cover a table so that the "fish" (and the person in the water) are hidden from view. Tie a string to a stick and attach a clothespin on the end of the string.　 Birthday party guests take turns "casting" the line into the "water". The person in the "water" puts small gifts, favors or candy on the clothespin and then tugs the string to signal that there is a "fish" on the line.　 Then kids pull up the line and retrieve their prize.　 This is a simple but fantastic birthday party game that
 kids adore!　 Have lots of prizes because kids will　want to do this birthday party game again and again.　

More fun beach games if you have a swimming pool

Beach Party Activities
For older children give them each a beach ball and let them blow it up and put their name on it. Give them permanent markers to sign each others beach ball.

Make Lei’s - paint coffee filters with water colors and let dry. Cut circles about 1 ½ inches wide from the coffee filters. String the coffee filter flowers on thread with noodles or beads as spacers.

Make colorful necklaces with sea shells.

Decorate a picture frame with small beach sea shells and jewels.

Beach sand art projects - either bottles or pictures.

Beach Party Food
Macaroni and cheese using the Shells pasta - serve in large conch shells.

Goldfish crackers in sand pails - use sand shovels as serving spoons.

Fill small clear plastic cups with blue Jello - add Swedish fish candies.

Fill small clear plastic cups with vanilla pudding. Sprinkle crushed graham crackers on top for “sand”. Place teddy grahams on top and finish with a small cocktail umbrella.

Fruit kabobs - skewer pieces of cut up strawberries, pineapples and bananas on pretzels.

Octopus Hot Dogs - cut hotdogs long ways into 8 strips … being sure to leave 1” of one end of the hot dog uncut. Place
 in the microwave to heat - the 8 “legs” will curl up while cooking and will look like an octopus.

Peanut butter and jelly(fish) sandwiches cut into starfish shapes with a cookie cutter.

Instead of cake make cupcakes. Frost ½ of the top blue and ½ light brown. (For the water and sand.) Place a teddy graham laying down on a piece of fruit roll up - like the teddy is sunning himself on a beach towel. Add a small cocktail umbrella and a lifesaver gummy candy in the “water”.