Are you looking for suggestions on how to create the ultimate pirate birthday party for your child? You've come to the right place! I planned a very successful pirate party for my son, even making him a pirate piniata (which I documented- see below).

There are major areas to consider when planning your pirate party:

• Decorations
• Games
• Food
• Invitations
• Dress
• Favors

EBay is a GREAT place to look for any of these things. When I planned my son's pirate party, I ordered decorations, favors and games from EBay. Many stores have lots to choose from, so you can order most/all of your supplies from one store and save on shipping.

INVITATIONS:

Send out pirate invitations to your guests. You might be able to find some at your party store, or you can order them online. If you're really creative, you can also make your own.If ordering decorations, I recommend checking an EBay store for invitations too, since you can usually get them at a decent price.

DECORATIONS:

Add signs to your party place for some added pirate feel. Here are some things you could consider including:
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Shiver Me Timbers!
It’s Captain Cameron’s
7th Birthday!
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Be Prepared
to Walk the Plank!

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Other pirate decorations:
• Treasure chests open with candy (or plastic) necklaces, chocolate coins and other goodies in them
• Parrots
• Skull and crossbones
• Black, white, red, gold balloons & streamers.

DRESS:

Have all the children dress up upon arrival. They can also wear bandanas, paint on mustaches & beards, scars,etc. You can have them dress PRIOR to coming or have materials ready.

Give all your guests a pirate name. This was a challenge- if you look online for ideas, you will find that a lot of the pirate names on there are offensive, so it was difficult in my case to choose names that were appropriate for a children’s party. I included some of the names we used in my pirate party ebook.  I printed them on name tags for them and were ready to put on each child when they arrived.

FOOD:

Make a pirate cake. You could make it to be any ‘pirate shape’- a treasure chest, parrot, ship. I ordered a pirate cake set from a store online- it had little pirate figurines and a ship and a chest. We then just had to make a basic rectangular cake, then decorate with icing so it looked like part was water, part was sand, then add the figurines.

GAMES:

Cannonball Catch:
Fill black balloons with water. Have the children toss the balloons to each other, trying not to ‘explode’ the cannonball!

Treasure Hunt:  Have a treasure hunt with maps for the guests. I mentioned in my piñata part of my ebook how I used the piñata itself as the ‘treasure’ and once the kids found it, they broke it open, then I put the prizes in the loot bags and sent them home. The treasure hunt went really well. Even with our big downpour of rain! (I quickly put the maps in some plastic envelopes so the ink wouldn’t run).

To have an ‘aged’ look for the treasure maps- crumple the paper into a tight ball. Uncrumple the paper. To give the paper some color, dye the paper by soaking it for about 10 minutes in cold coffee. Drain off the access coffee. Dry paper with a hair dryer (on low setting or will tear the paper). Make sure to dye the paper BEFORE drawing a map on if using marker!

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Would you like more information on how to make a pirate pinata (step-by-step WITH photos), and to read the entire bonus section of the ebook, which includes more games and other info for your pirate party- please check out Our PIRATE PINATA EBOOK INSTRUCTIONS. Have fun at your pirate party!