Fun Ideas for a Pirate-Themed Kids Party

This weekend Aaron turned 5 and he requested a pirate themed birthday party. Turning 5 is a big deal, so of course his wish was my command. After all is said and done, I think the party was a success, so I’m sharing some fun ideas if you’re hoping to throw your own pirate themed party in the future. I love the versatility of this theme because it’s great for all ages… my husband probably had more fun than anyone!

Entertainment

When Aaron asked for a pirate theme, my first thought was “okay… how do I entertain a bunch of 5 year olds at a pirate themed birthday party in the middle of summer in South Florida?”. A bounce house/water slide that looks like a tropical island, of course! It was a huge hit. You could easily have a pool party as well, but we don’t have a pool so this was a great option for us.

I found this shark piñata at Target as our other source of entertainment and it was a hit! They have some great pirate options on Amazon too but they’re a bit more expensive. I wouldn’t recommend planning more than 2-3 organized games for a kid’s party so they have plenty of time for free play in between cake and food.

I also bought this pirate costume set from Amazon and I highly recommend it! It came with paper hats, eye patches, mustaches, and inflatable swords. Joe dressed up like a pirate for the kids and they all had a big sword fight in the yard.

Food

Speaking of food, we made it easy on ourselves and served pizza. I also put together a grazing board, which I include in almost every event I host because it’s such a great way to provide a variety of options to guests. For drinks, we filled two coolers (one inside and one outside) with small water bottles, capri suns, sodas, and white claws for the adults.

Instead of cake this year, I opted to get store-bought cupcakes and decorate them myself. I ordered this party kit from Amazon that included a few cupcake toppers and then supplemented with plastic coins. You could also use chocolate coins for this, but I couldn’t find them anywhere!

My favorite idea was using this Ryan’s World treasure box Aaron got for Christmas last year as the cupcake stand. I just used a few small bowls and mason jar lids to make them sit taller in the little squares and then displayed the rest on the open surface of the lid. If you use this particular treasure box, make sure to put something heavy (I used a candle) inside to prevent tipping.

Party Decorations

I love to create a centerpiece table for decorations. This simply means choosing a spot against a wall or, in our case, in the middle of the house, where you concentrate a lot of your decorations to create a bigger impact than if there were few small things scattered around the house. Not only does it help to relay the theme, but it always becomes the perfect backdrop for pictures. Here’s how we decorated ours.

I got this table cloth from Target, along with the matching napkins and plates. We built the back drop using PVC pipes (and we pull it out multiple times a year for parties. It was been worth every penny since we don’t have a table up against a wall anywhere in our small house) and decorated it with these Happy Birthday Balloons and a few items from this set on Amazon.

I also found these cute cardboard treasure boxes that were perfect for goodie bags. I filled them with a bag of pirate booty and pieces from this set from Amazon.