Sailboat Birthday Party Ideas - House Boat Party Theme

Sailboat birthday party? That sounds exciting! Invite your child's friends over to have a great time.

Start planning your party at least 3 weeks in advance. Use your imagination to the fullest, and the kids will remember the party for a long time!

Resources:

Invitations

You can create your invitations in a shape of a sailboat. Make a template by drawing sailboat on a piece of sturdy paper. Then cut it out and use it to make outlines on colorful construction paper.

If your child is roughly 5 years old or younger, it would be cute if you can take his or her picture in a sailor outfit. Then print that image on the front of white invitation cards. Decorate the invites with life jacket and boat ring stickers and images.

For another sailboat birthday party invitation idea, you can write party information on sheets of paper. Next roll paper into scrolls, and place the invites in soda bottles filled with sand and seashells. That way you have "message in a bottle" type invitations.

Ask the guests to wear blue-and-white sailor outfits, or wear clothes in those colors.

Decorations

Blue and white colors fit the sailboat birthday party theme quite well. I recommend that you use them as much as you can.

Mount a large sailboat poster on the fence. Tape a sign that says "Welcome to a Boat Party!" so everyone can see where the party is. Tie colorful balloons in bunches all around the scene.

Create a sailboat and place it in the yard. Get a few large appliance boxes. Line them up horizontally. Then cut the boxes open at the top to form a foundation of the boat.

Cut openings between connecting boxes to form sections of the sailboat. Draw and cut out round windows along the sides. Create boat entrance by cutting an opening on one side, and laying a cardboard piece on the floor.

Paint the boat in the color of your choice. Create a mast out of a hat rack or an old lamp post. Attach a white sheet to represent a sail.

Print images of sailboats, yachts, marinas, tropical destinations, and tape them to the walls all around the house. Cut out sailboat shapes and hang them from the ceiling on fishing lines. String nautical flags from one end of the room to the other. Spread colorful paper streamers around the area.

Use a blue table cover for the party table. Print and laminate images of various sea animals. Use them as placemats at each setting. Tie blue helium balloons to the backs of the chairs.

Guest Arrival and Introductory Activities

*Fish for a Name Tag: To make name tags, cut fish shapes out of thick colorful paper. Draw scales and other details on the fish, and then attach a paper clip to the mouth of each fish. Put the name tags in a decorated box or a kiddie pool.

As the kids enter the party area, give them a sturdy stick with a yarn "line" and a magnet "hook," and invite them to "catch" one of the fish-shaped name tags. When the name tag is retrieved, write the guest's name on it.

*Design a T-Shirt: Get the kids to print seashell designs on white T-shirts. Place a newspaper inside each T-shirt to prevent the bleed-through. Put paint on a sponge. Press the outside of the seashell into the paint, an then on the shirt. Let the kids experiment with different colors.

Favors

Fill goodie bags with such sailboat birthday party favors as sailor hats, theme stickers and coloring pages, compasses, toy binoculars, and beach towels.

Sailboat Party Games

*Pin the Flag on the Sailboat: Play a theme version of Pin the Tail game.

*Sailboat Races: Fill a kiddie pool with water. Give each child a toy sailboat and a battery operated fan. Have a sailboat race where the children use the fans to push their sailboats from one side of the pool to the other.

*Ocean in a Bottle: Start off by filling a clear plastic soda bottle with water. Then add some blue food coloring and metal confetti. Finally, seal the bottle lid with glue.

It's a fun craft activity for the kids. At the very end, they get a chance to move the bottle back and forth, and see the "ocean" developing inside the bottle.

*Tug-of-Water War: Fill a kiddie pool with water. Divide the kids into 2 teams and place each team on opposite sides of the kiddie pool. Place a rope between the teams for a tug-of-war. Then have them try to pull one another into the water.

*Musical Mats: Put beach mats (or beach towels) on the floor in a large play area, enough for all but one player. Play some party music and have the children dance or march around the mats.

When you stop the music, they must look for a mat and sit down. The person who does not find a mat is out of the game. Remove one mat each round and continue playing until there is only one player left.

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

*Beanbag Fish Toss: Put small prizes or candies in 3 or 4 pails. Set up the pails against the walls. Have a couple of beanbags for children to throw. (It's a good idea that your beanbags look like fish, but it's not crucial!)

Invite the children to take turns throwing beanbags into pails. Let the kids choose a prize from whatever bucket the beanbag lands in. Make sure every player receives a prize.

*Birthday Pinata: Have a pinata activity at the end of the party.

Food and Drink

Sailing Party Cake:

*Sailboat Cake: Bake a rectangular cake. Carve a sailboat shape, and frost the sections of the boat in various colors: hull of the boat in blue, sail in white, and so on.

As a variation, you can bake a regular cake, and frost it blue. Then make several origami sailboats out of paper, and place them on top of the cake.

Sailboat Birthday Party Food Ideas:

*Tuna sandwiches
*Subs
*Pizza
*Hot dogs
*Jell-O
*Goldfish crackers
*Ice cream
*Lollipops

Sailboat Birthday Party Drink Ideas:

*Sunset Punch: Combine 5 1/2 cups each pineapple juice, orange juice, and peach nectar. Serve the drink with crushed ice and a peach slice on the edge of the glass.

*Blue colored drink (e.g Gatorade)
*Iced tea