Pirate Party Ideas?!
Pirate Party Ideas?
I am having a pirate party for myself as a bit of a laugh as I am turning 17. I am having about 15 friends over. I am looking for some ideas for food, decorations, costumes and games.
I live in Australia so unless you know of items that are easily avalible here, please keep the suggestions general.
I am quite a creative person so I have no problem with making a few decorations. I don't want anything thats extremely expsensive although I dont mind paying a fair amount.
Thanks!
Answers:
Things You Will Need For the Party
Invitations:
Pirate type graphic on front with "Ahoy There Matey". Inside: xxxBEWARExxx Captain "child's name" is having a Pirate Party Come on "date" If ye dare! Pier "address" "time" RSVP, Pirate Garb Optional (leave yer weapons on yer ship)
Write invitation on paper and burn around the edges, then roll them up and put them in root beer bottles. Put the children's names on paper and glue that like a label on the outside of the bottles, leave the bottles on the children's doorsteps.
Other Invitations: soaking them in coffee. Let them dry or microwave them on low. Run this paper through the printer to print graphics of pirate ship or other pirate graphics.
"Aye.....ye be invited fer some birthday spirits at Captn Tyler's Buccaneer Bash
Chart yer course fer the "location" ? day of month
We be a meetin at "time" fer some swashbuckling fun, grub and kiddie spirits.
Wave yer flag if ye be attendin or hav yer mum send message by yer phone to "number"
Sees ye there.....aarrgghh!
Decorations:
Balloons and black and gold streamers. Balloons taped to ceiling with ribbon hanging down. Attach handmade paper fish that you and your child(ren) color. (This is the ocean). Find a Halloween skeleton to hang on your front door. Make an old looking sign that says "Enter at yer own risk". Find a large cardboard box with flags. Tape flaps down. Cut 4-5" down from top along side, front and other side, leave backside uncut to use as hinge. Open for treasure chest. Decorate with either paper or markers to look like a treasure chest, could write "Keep Yer Hands Off" Captain NAME's. Use to hold gifts.
Another treasure chest can be made from a Styrofoam chest. Paint and decorate with plastic gems.
Make a pirate ship for the party by going to a local appliance store and getting a refrigerator box. Put the box on it's side and cut one side off. Then cut the sides into a ship shape. Use the flaps from the top of the box to make a pointed bow, and draw planks on the side to make look like wood. Make a helm by cutting the wheel shape out of cardboard (two pieces glued together to make it sturdy) and bolting that to another piece of cardboard which is bent in half so it stands up. Use pvc pipes (very cheap at the hardware store) stuck into flower pots filled with rocks to be the masts and make sails out of poster boards with a jolly roger drawn on them.
Make a Cave: use several large cardboard boxes taped together with an entrance, dead end and exit. Cut a few holes in the top for light and fill the boxes with balloons. Hide pirate garb inside (hooks or other).
Net for table cloth.
Food:
Serve hotdog with pirate sails attached. Popcorn, goldfish, Swedish fish and gummy worms make good "fish bait." Cake and ice cream. Red punch for "crocodile blood punch."
Scary fish made out of a watermelon. Cut small v's at one end of the watermelon to resemble a mouth with teeth and scoop out the insides into little melon balls. Then fill the fishes mouth back up with the melon balls, grapes, etc.
Blue jello with gummy octopuses suspended in the middle to look like the ocean.
Ice cream cone cupcakes decorated like pirates- including a wedding band earring.
Cake:
Sheet cake, frost with chocolate frosting. Use frosting tube or other to make a skull and cross bones on front. Put a frosting eye patch and bandana on the skull. Edge the cake with a design. Use fish on sides. Colorful small candies as jewels around. Could also find rectangular snack cakes, cut tops to hinge like a chest and fill with candies. Set these at corners of cake.
Readers Cake Ideas:
Rectangular cake decorated with wavy blue buttercream. Make an island out of an upside down muffin cake, decorate green to make an island. Decorate with Playmobil pirate toys.
Another idea: Make a pirate ship cake. Bake a cake mix in two round pans. Cut each in half. Use icing to stick the four layers together. Cut a small bit off the rounded end and stand the cake up to look like the hull of a boat. Ice it with chocolate icing then stick broken pieces of Flake chocolate bars (about five) to the sides to make the hull look wooden. Place a bamboo skewer into the top for a mast to fly the Jolly Roger (make out of construction paper). Place a few toy pirate figures on top of the cake. When serving, place crumpled blue cellophane around the base of the cake for an ocean. A toy shark or dolphin in the "ocean" makes a nice finishing touch. suggested by Undine Hunt-Roberts from an idea she got from Mary Engelbreit's magazine Home Companion
Goodie Bags:
These will look like mini treasure chests. Need one paper lunch sack per child. Cut off top 2 inches. Use black marker to give bag a wood design. Outline edges of bag. Make one line 2 inches from top (side to side) and key hole. Fill with goodies and fold and tape.
Another idea: Use recycled diaper wipes boxes. Rough up the sides with sandpaper and spray paint gold. Let the kids decorate them with stick on "jewels" (use stick on earrings). Fill with plastic gold coins and Mardi Gras jewelry. These can be used for the buried treasure game.
Spray paint paper bags gold. Have the kids decorate them with markers, sequins and stickers.
Dress-up items:
Vest: Need-bolt of black felt, pinking shears, Wonder Under or other iron web, white cotton fabric remnant, white fabric paint.
Make a simple pattern so all you need to do is sew to side seams. Cut out with the pinking shears. Draw a skull and crossbones on the white fabric to make a patch with the Wonder Under on the vest. Outline with the fabric paint to make it more secure.
Telescopes: Need-paper towel tubes. Spray paint black, cover one end with plastic wrap and tape on with wide, colored masking tape (hardware store).
Pirate Hats: Need-slick, vinyl like fabric. Again a two piece design, sewn together on the sides. Use the iron patch again.
GAMES
Pin the X on the treasure: Make a large map with an outline of an "X". Give each child a crayon and blindfold them. Have them make one x on the map.
OR
Pin the Eye Patch on the Pirate (suggested by reader)
Musical Islands: Like musical chairs, only use a piece of paper in place of the chairs.
Treasure Hunt: This one takes work. You will need a hiding place for each goodie bag. Several clues for each child. At starting point each child gets a handwritten clue.
Decorate the clues by making them look old. Write them on white paper, then dab a wet tea bag over them, let dry. This will take them to their next clue. Do this as many times as you wish with the final clue leading them to their treasure bag. Readers idea: Use empty diaper wipe containers, decorated to look like treasure chests.
Modified version of the treasure hunt for younger children. Purchase a small gift for each child and wrap each gift in different colored or themed wrapping paper. Hide the
gifts. Then, give each child a small sample of the unique paper his/her gift is wrapped in. Instruct the children to find their gift wrapped in the matching paper.
Scavenger Hunt: Make a list and give to each team leader. Kids try to find the items listed around the neighborhood.
Other game ideas, shared by a readers:
Pass the Pirate Hat: Played like hot potato. Whenever someone is eliminated, they have to "walk the plank."
Fishing: Use cardboard fish with paper clips, stick poles with string and magnet.
Cannonball Pop: Use black balloon with prize slips inside a few of them.
Peg Leg Race: Three legged races.
Buried Treasure: Make a treasure chest by recycling a diaper wipes box. (see above)
Gold Nugget Treasure Hunt: Spray paint small rocks to make the gold. Hide. Give each child a handmade 'nugget' bag made from black cloth.
Sunken Treasure: Cleaned out all your child's old "McDonald" toys from the past year or so, and added some gold coins, etc -- anything that fit the theme. Fill a small pool with water and put the "treasure" in the bottom. The children can use shovels and kitchen utensils (can't use their hands, except the littlest who were under 3) to "dig" for sunken treasure.
Panning for gold: spray paint some rocks (more of that trusty gold spray paint) gold. Fill a small wading pool with water and added a 25 lb. bag of sand (about $3) and the "gold nuggets". Give the children metal pie plates and show them how to "pan" for gold.
Marooned: A game of tag were the person chasing everyone is "Shark" and the marooned sailors can go to the "Island" (home free - a towel on the floor) one at a time. When the shark catches a sailor he becomes a shark too and tries to catch sailors. The last remaining sailor wins the game.
Decorate felt hats cut and glued as pirate hats.
Cannonball Pi?ata: make from a balloon, paint black.
Pin the parrot on the pirate
Draw a picture of a pirate ship on some poster board and have the children throw Styrofoam balls (cannon balls) at it. This can be done from the cardboard Pirate Ship.
Get a refrigerator box and cut in half. Divide children and put each team in their box. Give team one, 2 dozen ping-pong balls and see how many "cannon balls" they can toss into the other teams "ship" to try and sink it. Team two can catch the "bombs" and toss back into team ones ship, but they cannot pick "bombs" up off of the floor. After team one has used their 2 dozen balls, give team two a try, then count the bombs to see who sunk who's ship.
Walking the plank: Use a little tykes pool or other hard side kiddie pool and make a wooden plank to go across the top. Purchase enough rubber alligators for each child and put them at the bottom of the pool. Then filled with water. As they go out at Musical Island, they walked the plank.
You could make a treasure chest pinata, have the guests go on a treasure hunt for their goodie bags, make a cake in the look of a skull and crossbones, have orange juice so no one will get scurvy. I'm sure people could put together pirate costumes with things they have in their home.
We've done a pirate theme the last couple of Halloweens. I took pennies from our change jar and spray painted them with gold paint and they turn out awesome! I found some white cloth with the thin black stripes that looked like the sail material. I pinned the corner into the corner of the wall behind the couch and then pinned it so it looked like it was swagging down just like a real sail. I pick up shiny baubles at our local thrift store - brass plates & goblets and costume jewlery so it looks like there is lots of loot around. Print out pictures of different pirate flags and post them around (I'll source a link for some).
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