Karate Birthday Party Ideas - Martial Arts Party Theme

If your child loves martial arts, then he or she will enjoy having a karate birthday party.

Here you'll find everything you need to throw a great martial arts party. Just follow my lead and your guests will have a great time!

Resources:

Invitations

You can create karate party invitations resembling karate uniforms. Outline and cut hourglass shapes out of white construction paper. The shapes should mirror the body image: top part representing chest area, middle part standing for the waist, and the bottom representing the hips.

Draw a "V" shape at the top of the invites, and continue drawing a line all the way to the bottom. So it looks as if two parts of the karate shirt have come together.

Write your party information on the other side. Then tie a black or blue ribbon at the "waist" area. The ribbon represents a karate belt that tightens and pulls the uniform together.

As an alternative, you can take a picture of your child wearing a karate shirt and standing in a fighting stance. Then print and glue that image on the front of white invitation cards. Have your child help you decorate the invites with theme stickers. Write party details on the inside of the cards.

Ask the guests to wear comfortable clothes.

Decorations

Don't go overboard with karate birthday party decorations. Keep the decor items theme specific but simple. Use balloons and paper streamers in black, blue, and red colors.

Create a sign that says "(Your family name) Karate Training School." Mount the sign on the fence to mark your party spot. Place a couple of punching bags with karate gloves in the backyard.

Put up some karate theme posters on the wall inside the house. Paint signs using Japanese characters standing for "warrior," "strength," "honor," etc. (Search for correct Japanese spelling on the internet.)

Post the signs around the scene. Spread out some theme related items: gloves, swords, karate headbands, and so on.

Cover the party table with a red or orange cloth. Print some karate theme images off the internet. Laminate and use them for placemats at each setting. Hang a "Happy Birthday" banner in the area.

Guest Arrival and Introductory Activities

*Coloring Pages: Have theme related coloring pages to entertain the younger kids.

*Birthday Message: Put up a sheet of poster board on the wall. As the guests arrive, give them colorful markers, and invite them to write special messages for the birthday child.

Later, you can laminate and make a great party memento out of the poster. As your child grows older, he or she can look at the poster, and remember all the fun memories from the event.

Favors

Give out some cool karate birthday party favors such as sticker sheets, ninja figurines, plastic throwing stars, removable tattoos, plastic swords, black headband bandannas, and so forth.

Karate Birthday Party Games

*Find the Sword: Before the party, hide a plastic sword in the backyard. At game time, invite the kids to work as a team to find the sword. Give clues in case the children are having a hard time finding it.

*Karate Kids in Training: All karate warriors go through rigorous training to achieve mastery.

Have the kids form a circle. Get them to do jumping jacks, push-ups, lunges, sit-ups, squats, and so on.

*Balance Beam: Wrap a "balance beam" board in an old blanket or sheet. Use electrical tape to keep the padding from slipping. Securely balance the board on a couple of bricks.

Have the children walk across the board one at a time. Increase the difficulty with each round by having the kids walk backwards, sideways, with their eyes closed, and so on.

*Chop, Chop, Kick: Play a karate party theme version of Duck, Duck, Goose game.

*Karate Lesson: Invite an experienced martial arts instructor to the party to teach the kids some basic karate moves. The guests can learn karate stances, plus simple kicks and punches. The boys will love this!

*Sensei Says: Play a theme version of Simon Says game.

*Kicking Contest: Test the kids to see who can kick the highest. Give prizes to all contest participants.

*Karate Pinata: You can get an inexpensive "talking" karate pinata from a party shop. It's designed in a shape of karate warrior that says "Awesome Hit!" and "Ouch! every time it gets hit.

Invite the children to break it with a bat, or with their karate chops. It's a lot of fun!

Food and Drink

Karate Party Cake:

*Karate Cake: Make a cake in a shape of karate shirt.

To start, bake a rectangular cake. Cut a V shape from the top of the cake to the middle. Frost the entire cake white. To make black belt, add a strip of chocolate frosting in the middle with two ends hanging loose.

Karate Birthday Party Food Ideas:

*Serve sushi rolls with chopsticks.

*Hot dogs
*Grilled burgers
*Corn on the cob
*Pop corn
*Chips with salsa
*Ice cream