Everyone loves good birthday party themes! The thing is, though, that as our children get older, their birthday parties get harder to plan. As my daughter’s 10th birthday quickly approaches, I am racking my brain for fun ideas. Tweens are between the ages of 9 and 12, and can be particularly difficult, because they are sitting between being a little kid, and being a teenager. A combination of fun and maturity are needed to keep this age group interested. Here are the best themes I have come up with for tween-age birthday parties.
Tie-dye Birthday Party Themes
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Everyone loves tie-dye, and who wouldn’t? It’s so bright and fun. We did this theme for my daughter’s ninth birthday. We asked the parents to have all of the kids bring white, pre-washed, cotton shirts. We supplied the dye, rubber bands, and Ziplock bags to take their creations home in. All the kids can work together to tie up their shirts into different patterns and dye them. It will be so much fun! Now, this is very messy, so it should probably be done outside, for easy clean up. Some of the kids might go home a little more rainbow colored than they did before, but most parents should understanding. They can all make beautiful art and have extra special favors to take home. A tie-dyed cake and a rainbow of balloons would complete this theme nicely.
Canvas Painting Birthday Party Themes
There is a new painting craze going around. There are so many places here that offer painting classes and drinking wine. You can easily recreate this for your tween’s birthday party, by getting canvases from an art store, and some acrylic paints. You can either give them a painting theme or let them free paint. After painting, you could offer art themed snacks and a rainbow cake. It would be so bright and fun!
Hollywood Birthday Party Themes
Have all of the tween superstars show up with their red carpet finest! Have a red carpet leading into the house with a photo prop station, and take their starlet pictures as the walk in! Things like, sunglasses, big costume jewelry, feather boa’s, bowties, and fake beards would make these pictures really fun. This would be a beautiful theme and make everyone feel like they are attending a big Hollywood event. An additional fun activity would be mad-lib style acceptance speeches. Have the kids fill in the blanks with you, and then have the birthday kid read their acceptance speech to all of the attendees. Or have each kid complete their own and then mix them all up, and have a kid draw the speech they are to do deliver at random. Sit back, and watch the laughs roll. Gold and white balloons, edible glitter dusted cookies, and awards for each child would really set the tone for this theme.
Paint Wars Birthday Party Themes
This one can be really fun, and extra messy. Put a little squirt of paint into each water balloon and then fill it up with water. You could even buy the pre-color filled water balloons at the store for easier setup. Have the kids wear white shirts and clothes that their parents don’t mind getting covered in different colors. Separate the kids into teams, with different colors of balloons in their team’s bucket. Then, let the paint wars commence! Use a non-toxic, water-based paint and make sure to warn all the parents before hand. Team-themed snacks and balloons and a cake displaying all of the team’s colors would really bring this theme together.
Shaving Cream Battle Birthday Party Themes
This is a much cleaner version of a paint or silly string war. Just give every kid a can of white, foam shaving cream. Then have a battle just like you would with silly string. Have the kids wear swimsuits and offer a sprinkler for the kids to play in after, for easy clean up. Making homemade puffy paint out of shaving cream, white glue, and food coloring would be a fun additional activity. Snowball cakes and a cake with marshmallow fluff or whipped cream topping would carry the shaving cream theme throughout the party. As an added bonus, all the tweens will smell pretty good by the end of the party.
Obstacle Course
This one could be really fun to set up. Have different obstacles for the tweens to complete. Some obstacles I think would be fun and age appropriate to tweens are carrying eggs on a spoon with their mouths, being blindfolded and moving as many cotton balls from one bowl to another as they can in a short time, climbing through tunnels, and even throwing balls through a target. The ideas are limitless! This would be a great way to get many funny pictures of the kids having a great time! At the end, celebrate everyone’s victory and the birthday kid! A traditional cake, snacks, and decorations would be perfect for this party theme.
Tween birthday parties can be so hard to plan, because tweens no longer want to feel like little kids, but still need excitement and fun to stay interested. With these ideas, hopefully planning a party starts to become a little easier.
What is your favorite tween party idea? Have you thrown any parties for the 9 to 12-year-old range? What theme did you use? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
