Mardi Gras Birthday Party Ideas

Mardi Gras Party Decoration Ideas
Great colors for a Mardi Gras party are combinations of deep purple, blue, gold, green and touches of black.  Outside the party venue hang Mardi Gras beads from the branches of trees and bushes.  Place a sign in the front yard that says "Welcome to New Orleans!" .  Cover the front door with Mardi Gras themed wrapping paper or a large banner.   Make or buy colorful pinwheels and stick them in the ground about 2 feet apart along the walkway to the party.  Place a green or purple carpet that is long and thin leading up to the doorway to the party and decorate the outside of the door to look like a giant gold Mardi Gras mask.  Hang stings of beads from the party entrance that the guests will have to walk through to get into the party.

Decorate the party table in bright festive colors.  Mardi Gras beads can also be used to wrap around napkins for a napkin ring. Lay lots of Mardi Gras bead on the party table, hanging over candelabras and around the party area.  Mardi Gras is over the top so use large masks on the wall and anything gold and glittery.   Set out lots of glow in the dark necklaces, glow sticks and bracelets for the kids to wear.  Decorate the bowls and dishes you use to serve food with the glow in the dark necklaces by placing them around the bowls. 

Mardi Gras Icebreaker
Bead Exchange
Give guests 3 strings of Mardi Gras beads when they enter the party.   The beads need to be all the same color for every guest ... different then what you have decorated the party room with to avoid cheating. Choose three words that the guests are not allowed to say during the party and write them on a poster or white board where everyone can see them.  When you give the guests their beads tell them that for the whole party they are not allowed to use those three words.   Some good words to choose are the birthday child's name, beads, fun, etc.   If a guest is caught saying one of the 3 words then the person who caught them gets to take one of their strands of beads from them.  Play for the whole party and at the end of the party the guest with the most beads wins a prize.  

Mardi Gras Party Activities

The making of a Parade
Give birthday guests each an empty shoebox and let them decorate it to look like a Mardi Gras float.  Set out paints, foil, feathers, beads, etc. for them to decorate their boxes with and then give a prize for the most creative.  (These can also be used as Goody / Loot bags to hold their party favors at the end of the party.)

Face Painting
Transform the birthday guests with face paint.  Set up a station and have an adult paint the kids faces to look like animals or simply paint on fleur de lies' or stars.

Mardi Gras Glam
Set out lots of fun things that the kids can get dressed up in for the Mardi Gras party such as colorful plastic fedora hats, feather boas, big sunglasses, king and queen crowns, wigs, masks, joker hats, beads, etc. 

Mardi Gras Party Games
Carnival Style Games
Make the Mardi Gras party extra special with some carnival style games.  We have some great  carnival games listed that are easy to put together and fun for all ages.  Have an adult dress up as a Mardi Gras character and make balloon animals as they wait in line for the games. 

Mardi Gras Piñata
Make the piñata extra fun by adding a small plastic baby to the prizes inside the piñata.  Whoever finds the baby gets an extra prize! 

Mardi Gras Treasure  Hunt
Before the party buy and hide lots of gold coins around the party area or outside if the weather permits.   Have guests search to find as many gold coins as they can.  Let them turn them in for prizes after the hunt.  If the party will be held at night a fun game is to do the Treasure Hunt with flashlights.  (You can also hide a few small plastic babies that can be turned in for special prizes. )

Mardi Gras Limbo
Turn on fast music and have two people hold a long string of Mardi Gras beads for the kids to limbo under.  When a player is out have them take the place of one of the people holding the beads so everyone gets to play. 

Mardi Gras Party Food Ideas
King Cake
Large sugar cookies (let guests decorate them with purple, gold and green icing)
Fruit trays or fruit skewers
Cheese and crackers
Chocolate fountain - strawberries, marshmallows, pretzels, etc. for dipping

Mardi Gras Party Favor Ideas
Mardi Gras Beads
Masks
Small bottles of Bubbles in solid colors of purple, gold and green
Chocolate foil covered coins
Fleur-de-lis jewelry
Purple, gold and green nail polish

Mardi Gras Goody / Loot Bag Ideas
Hurricane glasses
Colorful bags or Chinese containers