Pirate Birthday Party Ideas

This page will help you turn your pirate birthday party into an event filled with fun and excitement...

Before you sail off to Treasure Island, take a look at our resource section.

Resources:

Help your guests find their way to the pirate birthday party with treasure map invitations. Draw a simple diagram of a neighborhood including houses of the guests and your own. Mark your house with X.

Add familiar sights and give them creative names such as Hangman's Tree, Dead Man's Mall, and Peg-Leg's Restaurant. Photocopy the map on brown paper.

Personalize each map by making a dotted line path from each child's house to the party spot. Tear or burn the edges. Roll the maps into scrolls, secure with gold strings, and mail.

You can also put the scrolls inside empty bottles. Let the kids figure out how to retrieve the invites from the bottles!

Younger children would like the idea of receiving pirate coloring pages. Photocopy original black and white picture a number of times. Next, write your party details on the back side. The children can color the invites when they get them.

Ask your guests to wear pirate outfits. Award prizes for the scariest costumes.

Best pirate birthday party decoration colors are red and black. Get balloons and streamers in those colors. Make a poster that says: "Ahoy - Welcome Aboard!" And put it up on the front door.

Get a few large appliance boxes. Line them up to form a foundation of a pirate ship. Open the boxes at the top. Cut openings between connecting boxes to form sections of the ship. Cut out round windows along the sides.

Form a "walk-the-plank" entrance by cutting an opening on one side of the ship and laying a cardboard piece on the floor.

Wooden pallets (often available for free from timber yards) make great pirate rafts. Add dowel masts to your "raft", a couple of meters of inexpensive striped fabric threaded onto a timber batten for a mainsail, and a few bits of rope or thick cord to serve as rigging.

Coils of rope and a plank, suspended above the ground on a couple of logs or plastic storage cubes, will give an instant pirate theme atmosphere.

Decorate the entire party area with pirate related posters. Place a skeleton in the yard, and have it pointing towards the house.

Have a treasure chest in the area. If you don't have anything resembling it, here's how to make one...Paint a wooden box inside and out with gold acrylic paint. Let it dry. Cover the top with a thin layer of crafts glue. Then place beads, shells, a plastic scull, and other decorations on top of the glue.

Sprinkle some gold glitter. Cut two pieces of gold braid trim to go around the box lid and bottom. Glue them in place. Add decorative lines on box sides with glitter paint pens. Let the glue and paint dry. Fill the treasure chest with plastic 'gold coins' to look like valuable treasure.

Use a large map or several maps taped together for a tablecloth. Just crinkle the map to make it look old.

*Pirate Transformations: As the kids arrive, provide them with pirate gear. Offer patches, pirate hats, bandannas, swords, etc. Draw fake mustaches and battle scars on their faces. Give removable theme tattoos as well.

*Pirate Coloring Station: Have young kids color pirate theme coloring pages while their waiting for others to arrive.

*Watch a Movie: Invite the kids to watch a quick episode from Pirates of the Caribbean. That way they can model and behave like the pirates from the film.

Send the kids home with these pirate birthday party favors: chocolate gold coins, eye patches, swords, flags, fake jewelry, and so on.

This favor pack will ensure that all the boys have their pirate accessories at the party.

*Walk the Plank: Set out an eight-foot length of two-by-four board. Line the kids up at one end. Beginning with easy challenges, have the kids walk straight across the flat part of the board without stepping off into the "sea".

After everyone has completed the first task, increase the difficulty level. Have the kids walk the plank backwards, sideways, hopping, without using their hands for balance, and - for the ultimate challenge - blindfolded!

When a pirate falls into the sea, he or she must drop out of the game. For the younger kids, have plastic crocodiles or sharks "floating" around the plank.

*Buccaneers' Raid: Split the group into two teams. First team members are the "Buccaneers" and the other team has 60 seconds to hide. The Buccaneers then head out to find them. Once a player is found, he must be tagged to be captured.

All captured members are placed in an area designated as Jail. Once in Jail, a person can be rescued if one of his teammates touches him. The game, or round, ends when the Buccaneers capture everyone on the other team.

*Sleeping Pirate: One player (the Sleeping Pirate) sits on a chair protecting treasure that is in a box at his feet. Other children line up at the opposite end of the room.

On signal "Go", players stalk in attempt to pick up treasure without being caught. The Sleeping Pirate catches players who have made noise by pointing at them. Any person, who got pointed at, must start from the beginning. Two tries for each player. You can have two pirates seated back to back if the group is large.

*Ocean in a Bottle: Before the party, wash and dry one bottle and cap for each child. If there are labels on the bottles, try to peel as much of them off as you can by soaking bottles in warm water.

Using a funnel, pour six ounces of cooking oil into each bottle, followed by six ounces of vinegar. Let the kids observe the fluids interacting -- the oil goes to the top and the vinegar to the bottom. Then pour several drops of blue food coloring into the bottles, and again let the children watch the changes and separations.

Close the caps tightly and tell the kids to shake their bottles to make "waves". For added fun, give everyone tiny plastic toys to put inside the mixture to float. Plastic confetti and glitter will add sparkle, too. Once all of the materials are added, seal the caps shut with rubber cement or glue to prevent leakage.

*Pirate Coin Dig: Fill a sandbox or a wading pool with "pirate" coins. Provide the kids with shovels. Get them to find as many coins as they can in one minute.

*The Pirates' Cave: Get refrigerator (or sofa) boxes. (You can get them for free from your nearby furniture or appliance store). Create a maze out of them in your backyard or a big room. Duck tape the boxes together for the kids to crawl through. Have artificial spider webs and plastic spiders for a real cave atmosphere.

*Hook the Treasure: Prepare brightly colored plastic drink cups (16oz or large enough to fit a kid's hand into) ahead of time. Cut an X hole in the bottom and push a wrapped candy cane halfway down into it. Now empty a large bag of pretzels into a bowl. See how many pretzels the kids can fish out with their "hooks" in 60 seconds.

*Feed the Alligator: This is a variation of a classic Bean Bag Toss game. Cut out a mouth on a poster of an alligator and get the kids to throw bean bags through the alligator's "mouth".

*Pass the Treasure: You'll need 5 to 10 boxes in various sizes. Before the party, fill the smallest box with candies and prizes. Wrap the box and place in the next largest box. Continue until the boxes are wrapped and placed inside one another.

At game time, invite the children to sit in a circle. Turn on some music and ask the kids to pass the treasure. Stop the music from time to time. Whoever is holding the treasure at that moment gets to open the package. Play continues until all the packages are unwrapped. When the treats are discovered, be sure that everyone gets some of the treasure.

*Treasure Chest Cake: Bake a rectangular cake, and then frost it with chocolate frosting. Decorate the cake with colorful sprinkles and chocolate gold coins to make it look like a chest lid. Clean the baking pan, then frost the outside of the pan. Set the pan at a right angle to the cake to form a treasure chest. Fill the chest with candy jewelry and chocolate gold coins.

*Pirate Pinwheels: Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on tortillas. Top with a layer of assorted lunch meat and/or cheese. Roll up and secure with toothpicks. Refrigerate for at least one hour. Cut into 1" slices before serving. Garnish with "masts" made by gluing paper triangles to toothpicks. You can also add mayo, mustard, or other condiments instead of cream cheese.

*Peanut Butter Planks: Wash celery and cut into 6" pieces. Fill each piece with peanut butter. Top with raisins or chocolate chips.

*Potato Wedges: Wash and scrub 5 medium potatoes. Dry them with a paper towel. Cut potatoes into wedges. Place the wedges into a large bowl and mix with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Next, put them into a large, greased baking dish. Cook in a hot oven for 40 minutes, or until ready. Sprinkle with sea salt if desired.

*Buccaneer Banana Bread: In a large bowl, mash 3 large bananas with a fork. Beat one egg. Add the egg and 1/2 cup melted butter to the bananas and mix well. In a small bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, and add to banana mixture. Pour the combined mixture into a greased loaf pan and bake at 325°F for about 1 1/4 hours or until ready. For an extra treat, add one cup chocolate chips, blueberries, or chopped nuts.

*Dessert Island Fruit Galleon: Cut a small watermelon in half and reserve one half for the boat. Trim a little from the base of the reserved half so that it will sit flat. Cut the fruit (watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, pineapple, etc.) into small pieces. Tread 2 or 3 slices of different fruit onto fancy toothpicks. Then push the toothpicks into the cut side of the watermelon boat. You can tread a sticker of Jolly Roger onto a skewer, and push the skewer into the watermelon.

*Black Bart Stew: Serve bowls of hot soup to warm up the pirates.

*Chicken Legs and Wings: Let the kids eat with their fingers, the way pirates used to do.

*Pirates Booty: Puffed rice and corn chips from Robert's American Gourmet (available at your natural supermarket such as Whole Foods).

*Hotdogs
*Fish 'n Chips
*Ben & Jerry's Phish Food Ice Cream

*Pirate Punch: In a large bowl, mix a 32-oz can of pineapple juice, one 12-oz can of orange juice concentrate, one 6-oz can of lemonade concentrate, five cups of cold water, one quart of 7-Up, and a quart of rainbow sherbet. Chill until ready and serve to the gang. Add slices of orange, banana, kiwi, or float cherries in the bowl for an added twist.