Pirate and Princess Theme Birthday Party Ideas

Fun ideas for a Pirate and Princess birthday party.  Great party theme for siblings, twins or boy and girl parties.

Decorations
Princess side - Decorate with pretty pink tablecloths and sprinkle glitter and sequins on the table - then cover with a clear plastic tablecloth. Throw in splashes of purple or blue for fun. Cover the chairs with matching material then gather the material to the back of the chairs and secure with a rubber band. Place pretty flowers in the rubber band for a elegant look. On the table place tiara's at each place setting. Fancy china would complete the look, or use pretty paper plates in a solid pink or grey. If you are using plastic cups make them extra special by sticking on “stick-on” jewels - looks really pretty with clear cups.
Attach pink and white helium filled balloons to the back of the chairs. For a royal entrance place a red (or pink) carpet from the street to the front door leading into the house. An easy decorating idea is to blow up lots (and lots!) of pink and white balloons and place them covering the party room floor. This sets the mood for a very special party and kids love to dance and move through them.
Hang clear Christmas lights around the party room. Streamers are also an easy way to make the room look festive. Cut 15 - 20 lengths of crepe paper at least 15 feet each. Start in the middle of the room and tape one end of each streamer in a 8 - 9” circle. One by one pick up the other end of the streamer and tape it about 6 - 8 feet from the center circle. Create a dip in the center of the steamers - if you are feeling creative twist two colors of crepe paper together.

Pirate Side - Decorate with pirate flags, parrots, treasure chests, treasure, gold coins, and brown streamers to look like a pirate ship. Decorate the table in black and white and sprinkle gold coins around the top of the party table.
Decorate a large treasure chest and fill the bottom with batting or a gold pillow - just enough so that you only have to fill the very top with jewelry, coins and pirate loot. Let some trail down the pirate chest and onto the table.

Activities
Decorate princess crowns and tie bandana doo rags on the pirates.
Make princess wands and pirate swords from heavy cardboard covered with aluminum foil. 
Decorate photo frames or door hangers with crowns, scepters and glitter ... skull and cross bones, treasure "X"'s and parrots.
Decorate pillow cases with pink fabric paint and write “Princess ________“ (name of girl) or "Pirate ________"  (name of boy).
Decorate fairy wands or scepters
Blow bubbles or use a bubble machine and have the Princesses and Pirates pop the bubbles with their scepters and swords.
Face Painting -   Apply make- up to the Princesses and draw on beards, mustaches, scars and sideburns to the pirates. 
Dress Up - Princesses: give the princesses crowns, high heel slippers, gowns, clip-on earrings, large rings and jewels and scepters.  Pirates:  give the pirates doo rags (bandanas), clip on hoop earrings, eye patches, temporary tattoos, and foam swords. You can also make sashes from black and white cloth or pick up pirate hats for them to wear. (Long John Silver’s has paper pirate hats.)
Pirate and Princess Names
Before the party come up with pirate names for each of the Pirate guests. Use their last names or personality traits. Write the names on name tags and declare that they must use each others pirate names for the rest of the party.  Examples - Peg leg Pete, One-eyed Jack, Smitty.   For the Princesses call them Princess ________ (real name) or make up fun names that sound royal. 

Party Games
Treasure Hunt - Make clues that lead the pirates and princesses from one area of the house to
the next. The clues should be hard enough that they have to think, but easy enough for children to figure out. To make the party last longer we always make the guests have to do a challenge or game to get the next clue at each station. Once they finish the challenge then they get the clue to the next destination. Some great pirate themed activities and challenges would be:
Walk the plank - Lay a large flat board on the floor. Blindfold the first player and they must walk the length of the board and back (can’t turn around, must walk backwards!) without stepping off the “plank”.
Gold Coin Toss - Pirates have to throw plastic gold coins into a treasure chest to move on. Set the chest on the floor (or table) about 6 feet from the base line where the pirates will be standing. Give them each 5 gold coins and tell them to try and get the coins into the chest. To move on the group must get a certain number of coins in the chest - a good challenging number is to multiply the number of pirates x 4. They may have to try over and over to get the correct number in the chest … which will make it challenging.
Island Scurry - Cut out five large shapes out of poster board - about 12“ x 14“. Decorate them to look like small islands. Tell the pirates they must use only these five islands to get from one end of the room to the other (or if playing outside make the space at least 25 feet). They must take the four pieces and move their team by having everyone stand on the pieces together, taking the back piece … moving it to the front and so on. If they step in the “water” then they must start at the beginning. No one can be left behind - they must all move together.
Parrot Piñata - Fill the piñata with candies and small prizes and a clue to the next location on the treasure map. Let the pirates take turns trying to open the piñata. * When the pirates first arrive at the party you may want to have them decorate a paper lunch sack to use to hold their “loot” when the piñata is opened.

Pirate Princess Relay - Gather two sets of fun clothes (long dresses, tutu’s, high heels, tiaras, hats, wigs, long socks and a pirates set containing large pants, eye patch, hat, large shirt, earrings … etc. ) in two baskets. Place the baskets at one end of the room and make lines with tape on the other side of the room where the teams will line up. Divide guests into two teams, a princess team and a pirate team, and have the first person in each line run to the baskets, put on the clothes … then run back to the starting line to tag a teammate … then run back to the basket and take off the funny items. When all the items are back in the basket they run to the starting line and tag the next person in line. The second person then goes and puts on all the items … etc.

Party Food Ideas
Serve fish and chips from Long John Silver’s.
Macaroni and cheese using the Shells pasta - serve in large conch shells.
Cannon Ball Meatballs
Bread Stick Swords
Fruit Kabobs (swords)
Goldfish crackers in upside down pirate hats.
Fill small clear plastic cups with blue Jello - add Swedish fish candies.
Fruit kabobs - skewer pieces of cut up strawberries, pineapples and bananas on pretzels.
Scurvy Dogs - Hot dogs.
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.
Make pretty sandwiches and cut them out with a star shaped cookie cutter.
Cheese (cut with a cookie cutter into princess shapes) and crackers.
Make a batch of rice krispie treats and cut out in heart shapes.
Wand cookies - Make sugar cookies and cut into star shapes. Before baking place a long lollipop stick into each cookie and then decorate. Give as a treat at the party or wrap in cellophane and place in the goody bag.

Party Favor Ideas
Tiara’s
Wands or Scepters
Bubbles
Wand cookies on a stick
Stick on earrings
Pretty charm bracelets or necklaces.
Doo rags
Foam swords
Eye patches
Temporary tattoos
Pirate hats
Compass
Telescope
Stuffed parrot
Gold chocolate coins
Individual packages of gold fish crackers
Pirate stickers.

Goody / Loot Bag Ideas
Small treasure chests
Chinese take out box containers in black
Doo Rags (bandanas) - wrap them around the party favors and tie with twine.
Brown lunch bags - crinkle them up and make them look like a treasure map.