Jamaican Party Ideas - Caribbean Birthday Party Theme

Jamaican party is fantastic for warm weather celebrations. If you plan it right, your guests will talk about it for a long time.

Invite your child's friends, put on some reggae music, and let the kids have some fun at your Caribbean party!

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Invitations

When creating Jamaican party invitations, let your creativity run wild.

To start, you can make your invitations out of parchment paper. Write party information starting with "Hey Mon, We're Having a Party!". Take empty glass soda bottles, and fill them with sand and seashells. Then roll the invitations into scrolls, and place them inside the bottles.

Or, you can attach the invites to flip flops. That way your guests receive a cool souvenir that they can wear to the party.

For a different idea, you can make invitations look like airline ticket passes to Jamaica. Do a Google image search to see what they look like. If you have graphics software, then create them on the computer. And if not, draw them by hand.

As a variation, you can make your invites look like Caribbean promotional brochures. Print some tropical images off the internet, and glue them on one side of the paper. Next, write your party details on the other side.

Ask your guests to wear cut-off shorts, and tell them that shoes are optional.

Decorations

For Caribbean party decorations, use bright tropical colors. Put on some reggae music. Mount Jamaican flag near the entrance to mark your party spot.

Set up inflatable or cloth palm trees in the backyard. Have several colorful sun umbrellas and tiki torches around the scene. Place pink flamingos along the walkway leading to your front door.

Hang posters of lush Jamaican beaches on the wall. (Check with travel agents if they have brochures that they can give away.) Decorate the area with fish nets. Spread out theme goods: tropical fish, parrots, seashells, coconuts, flip flops, beach towels and so on.

Tie balloons in bunches. Fill empty space with colorful paper streamers.

Scatter seashells on the party table. Laminate tropical pictures and have them for placemats. Create a table centerpiece out of tropical fruits in a basket. Hang a personalized "Happy Birthday" banner in the area.

Guest Arrival and Introductory Activities

*Caribbean Mural: Tape butcher paper all around the walls. When the guests arrive, give them paints and markers and have them paint tropical mural. They can draw palm trees, waves, people dancing, and so on.

*Hula Hoop Fun: Offer your guests several hula hoops. Have the children swing the hula hoops for as long as they can without the hoops touching the ground.

Younger kids might have trouble keeping the hula hoops in the air, so get them to jump through the hoops instead.

Favors

Send the children home with such Jamaican party favors as flip flops, sunscreen, shell necklaces, coconut cups, sunglasses, beach towels, and so forth.

Jamaican Party Games

*Musical Pools: Set large pans of water in a circle, enough for all but one player. Play some fun music and have the kids, in bathing suits, march around the pools of water.

As you stop the music, the children must scramble for a pool and sit down. The player who does not find a pool is out of the game. Remove one pan of water and continue playing until there is only one player left.

*Island Hopping: Cut "islands" (about two feet in diameter) out of brown construction paper. Place the islands within stepping distance from one another around the yard, but make it so the kids have to stretch to reach them.

Have the guests take turns trying to hop from one island to another, without falling into the ocean to be devoured by sharks. To make it even more fun, time the kids or have a race between two teams.

*Shark Alert: Have the kids dressed for getting wet. Choose one person to be the Shark. Arrange everyone else in a big circle around the Shark. Have the players in the circle toss a water balloon back and forth, keeping it away from the Shark.

If the Shark bats the water balloon out of the circle, the person who threw it becomes the Shark. To make the game easier for the Shark, have your Jamaican party guests toss the balloon to someone standing at least two people away from them in the circle.

*Limbo Contest: Purchase an inexpensive limbo stick, or use bamboo or broom stick. Play upbeat party music and get the guests to go as low as they can lowering the limbo stick every round. Award prizes to all the participants.

*Shooting Gallery: Set up several plastic bottles or empty containers on the table. Have the kids shoot the targets using squirt guns from a distance for points.

*Play Drums: Have the players line up. Give them drums and other musical instruments (or anything that makes noise) -- bells, maracas, tambourines. Put on some Caribbean music so the guests can play along. Get them to go around dancing and performing their tunes.

*Attack of the Flying Sponges: Collect a bunch of inexpensive sponges - the larger the better - in various colors. Place buckets of water on both sides of the lawn or play area, or give a bucket of water to each player. Put the sponges inside the buckets to get them wet.

On the command "Go!" the kids grab a sponge from the bucket and chase one another around the lawn, trying to hit other players with the wet sponges. Warn the children not to aim at anyone's face. Supervise this activity for added safety.

*Braid Hair: Invite an expert specializing in braiding hair. At the end of the party, invite the kids to get their hair braided. (If you decide to use this activity, then check with kids' parents in advance to make sure that none of them object.)

Jamaican Party Food Ideas:

*Caribbean Kebabs: place cubes of ham, cheese, pineapple, and cherries on wooden skewers.

*BBQ Chicken
*Rice and Peas (rice stewed with beans and coconut milk)
*Bananas dipped in marshmallow and coconut
*Shrimp or Tuna Salad
*Scooped out oranges filled with sherbet
*Chips with avocado dip
*Pizza
*Fruit Salad
*Banana Splits

Jamaican Party Theme Ideas