Kids with winter birthdays may not have the same options that their summer friends have — playgrounds, parks, picnics, pools, and other outside fun is, er, out. And that’s exactly why we love these creative winter birthday party themes, and all the smart, fun ideas bloggers and party planners have come up with.
Filled with cool details and awesome-yet-totally-doable touches, each winter-centric celebration brings the outdoors inside — and proves that the coldest season can offer up the coolest parties around town.
Top: Penguin Jell-o treats | Giggles Galore
CMP is an rstyle affiliate
Related: The Ultimate Birthday Party Gift Guide: Best gifts for kids of all ages!
1. Ice Skating Winter Birthday Party Theme
Even the least experienced ice skating guest doesn’t have to worry about slipping, sliding, and taking a tumble at this ice skating party — precisely because it contains zero ice skates. Zero real ones, anyway. Instead, you can twirl out fun ice skate-centered activities like decorate-your-own paper skates stations and skating goodies by Charming Touch Parties.
I love this idea because all you really need is colorful construction paper, pom-poms, buttons, ribbon, and glue (i.e., all the odds and ends you probably already have in your crafting pile anyway).
Party favors are in the bag too. Love how Jac O’ Lyn Murphy Designs bundles snowflake necklaces and mittens for kids to take home — it’s an idea that is both stylish and practical (keep those hands warm, kids!). If you’re having a bigger party and this isn’t in your budget, tie packets of hot cocoa mix with ribbon to one-size-fits-all mittens instead.
2. Frozen Winter Birthday Party Theme
It’s been four years since Disney’s icy movie cracked records in theaters, but Elsa and Anna still make kids everywhere melt — truly, no winter birthday party theme list is complete without it. And we kind of wouldn’t want it to be, considering how truly creative you can get with every element (gorgeous cake snowballs and blue fruity slushes are only the tip of the iceberg).
And what kid could say no to a “do you want to build a snowman?” cookie-making activity like the one seen here by Pink Peppermint Design? These are perfection, but if you’re looking for an easier option, I think the cookie snowman kits at Macaroni Kid will let any novice baker look like a pro.
Also by Pink Peppermint Design, milk even gets in on the fun with super cute Olaf-inspired DIY bottles. And this looks easy enough to try, and you don’t even need beautiful glass milk bottles; small mason jars or simple plastic bottles from a craft store would work well too.
Paging Fun Mums’ DIY instructions for sparkly Frozen silly putty look easy enough to follow to make for an excellent party activity — the kids can take the gorgeous goop home as party gifts. But if you’re wanting something a little less messy, this scavenger hunt by My Sister’s Suitcase (via Bombshell Bling) will send kids on an indoor adventure to fill in the blanks on their card clues and win a cool prize.
No Frozen party would be complete without ice — or at least its non-melting stunt double. Paging Supermom set out chunky clear beads and elastic strips for kids to string together their own blingy bracelets to take home. She has so many cool (ha!) ideas on her site but the easiest is one of my favorites: using half-sphere styrofoam to hold cards for different stations like food options or activities.
Related: Tips for hosting a Winter Olympics birthday party!
3. Ice Hockey Winter Birthday Party Theme
You don’t have to be an ice hockey fanatic to appreciate that this sports-centered theme is a total winner. Love that the food table seen here at Beth Kruse Custom Creations is actually a working concessions stand filled with hot dogs, cupcakes, cookies, popcorn, and sports drinks.
This looks like the real deal, but anyone could pull this off by having an parent or older sibling behind a counter help serve up cupcakes and soft pretzels. And, of course, the popcorn. You can find those fun old-school popcorn boxes from Amazon.
We also love how Beth Kruse Custom Creations made real pucks into party invitations — these double-up as party favors. Smart!
A Dazzle Day has so many ideas that are sure to score major points with kids, like trading card curtains, shiny whistles, and mini Stanley Cup souvenirs to take home. But I adore the hockey stick brownies, because creative and easy is always my favorite combo.
4. Abominable Snowman Winter Birthday Party Theme
Kids may know him by his other aliases — Yeti, Sasquatch — and though we may not have proof this guy actually exists in the real world, that only makes this party idea all the better. My Pookie Designs went all out with the theme (seriously — just check out those amazing details above!), focusing on Monsters, Inc.‘s abominable snowman with creative touches like popcorn “abomina-balls.”
And we can’t stop laughing about the yellow snow cones (lemonade flavored, naturally).
You can get really creative with all the details. Like how the treats table at My Pookie Designs includes selections like rock candy icicles, sugar sticks snow powder, and melted snow water bottles — so clever.
The Purple Pug picked Bumble from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as its abominable snowman of honor, even including him in an awesome yeti-building party activity using wooden spools, fabric, and googly eyes.
She also had the idea of “Brumble Crumble” (below) — crushed cake bits that kids top with things such as candy canes, marshmallows, and chocolate chips. Yum!
5. Penguin Winter Birthday Party Theme
Penguins are the perfect mascots for winter parties — after all, they’re always dressed up for special events (hey-o!). We love how Giggles Galore made adorable treats like the ones above (also shown at top) — yes, those are penguins plucking Swedish Fish out of pools of blue Jell-o. It’s a genius addition to a party that also includes bubble games, a hot cocoa bar, and adorable cupcake toppers (below).
This winter birthday party theme was so inspiring to me — the colors, the whimsy, the ideas that think-outside-the-ice-cap. Even if you’re not sure how to pull this one off, click over to see the full party plus tips on vendors who can help.
Hostess with the Mostess came up with one of the coolest, cutest penguin party activities around and offers up an easy template for you to duplicate these cute DIY penguin balloons! What kid wouldn’t love going home with one of these?
6. Lumberjack Winter Birthday Party Theme
Perfect for miniature Ron Swansons everywhere, this kind of party is all about the great outdoors and the things that come with it: Campfires. Flapjacks. Plaid. That means that there are tons of fun options to play around with, and this lumberjack party that we saw over at Hostess with the Mostess gives a creative chop to many of them.
Between the lumberjack-themed sugar cookies (above) and the teeny take-home tree favors (below), it’s hard to choose a favorite element.
Most of this party was professionally done but we found other cool (and easy!) ways to pull of the Lumberjack theme. Try this wood grain cookies recipe by Printable Crush, and get sapling souvenirs online (like at Green World Project) or from a local gardening store.
The menu for flannely, frosty parties like these means hearty, stick-to-your-ribs foods. Ashley Skeie Events went for chocolate tree stumpy cakes, pancakes with maple syrup, and ohmygod bacon on sticks. And maybe it’s because the outdoors has so many sticks, but The Yes Girls also used them to make one-bite s’mores (above). Although, if you’re having lots of little ones at the party, maybe skip the pointy sticks altogether.
Activity-wise, we love how Simply Real Moms stocked up on inflatable axes and put together homemade felt beards (she used a tutorial from Make It & Love It) for these adorable little lumberjack photo booth poses, and filled a table with Lincoln Logs for some hands-on, small-scale cabin building.
7. Winter Wonderland Birthday Party Theme
You’d think that with a general “winter” theme, you’d have only so many options…not so. There are practically as many details for this kind of party as there are snowflakes dotting your driveway on a snow day (in other words: lots). We love these warm-looking sweater wreaths by Nestling Designs, which she crafted with a swimming noodle (yes, really!). Click over to see more of her smart ideas like the matching sweater cozies for hot cocoa.
Paging Supermom has an awesome tutorial for kids to make their own indoor snow, which contains exactly one ingredient and is thus guaranteed to be a perfect party activity. Paper DIY snowflakes are also good options for guests of all ages and abilities — you’ll want to grab some of these patterns (who knew you could turn Darth Vader into a snowflake?).
Finally, when it comes to winter birthday party themes, Project Nursery knows that you can never, ever go wrong with a hot chocolate bar. They stocked theirs with peppermint spoons, caramels, and marshmallows. So pretty! But honestly, this looks good enough to be at a wedding. For a little kids birthday party, you could even get away with a few cans of whipped cream and everyone would be just as happy!
