DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Mermaid Birthday Ideas

Our site has loads of printables for use at a Mermaid Birthday Party, including invitations, treat bags, coloring pages, bookmarks, doorknob holders and crafts.  Many of these are needed for every party and many of the others make great treat bag additions.  Check out our Fantasy Section for all of these and more.

But we all know there's more to a party than things you print out!  Here are some ideas to fill in the gaps:

ACTIVITIES/GAMES:

Susan contributes:  My daughter (age 4) went to a great mermaid party last year at a local children's art center.   Here are a few of the ideas would be easy to replicate at home:

• The girls decorated paper crowns for their heads and strung beads for necklaces.
   
  • You can buy beads or make your own.  Here are a few links to help you make beads:
    • Clay Beads
    • Paper Beads
      
• The art people used light green trash bags and tied them around the girls waists for skirts.  Think of a Hula skirt and you'll have the idea.
• They also did some "underwater art" where you draw a picture with wax crayon on white paper, then paint over with light blue watercolor paint.  It looks just like a scene under the sea.  (test your wax crayons before the party to ensure they're waxy enough.  Some of the fancy new crayons don't work).
• The children can also wear leis

One viewer suggests:

• Fish Pinata  (see directions to make one on our site)
  
• Bury seashells, gold covered chocolate coins, gems (aquarium decorations from the pet store), costume jewelry and other trinkets in a sandbox or a plastic pool filled with sand.  Give the children plastic shovels and let them hunt for buried treasure under the sea
• Sebastian the crab (from Disney's little mermaid) sings music perfect for doing the limbo!  Make a limbo stick from a wrapping paper tube covered blue with streamers and crepe paper hanging off the ends.
• give each child a baby food jar and 5-7 pixie sticks of each color and have them pour it in as "sand art"
• Play the FISHING GAME
• Have a mermaid race.  Put green streamers from below the knee to right above the ankle and have them hop to the finish line.
• Make TP roll mermaids but cover both ends of the toilet paper roll with paper first, filling it with little candies.  The kids can open their mini pinatas at the table while waiting for the cake to be served

DECORATIONS:

One viewer suggests:

• Green, teal and blue streamers and balloons would work well
  • green and blue Christmas lights can be hung around the room where you'll be eating the birthday cake.  When the main lights are turned off, this will give a nice 'under the sea' effect.
  • The green streamers hanging down from the ceiling like seaweed 
  • The blue streamers attached to the ceiling in a wavy design (like you're looking up at the waves from the bottom of the ocean.
  • Make paper fish and other sealife (see the Ocean section on this site) and hang them from the ceiling at different heights (the ocean mobile templates work well for this since they're double sided)
• For the cake table, use a blue table cloth covered with netting (cheesecloth will work if you don't have a fishing net handy).  Lay seashells all around and sprinkle the table with fish shaped confetti.
• Make an 'Under the Sea' lamp.  Take blue contact paper and cut wave shapes.  Attach it to a plain white lamp shade.  Set in the center of a room or close to one of the walls.  Turn off the lights, leaving only the lamp on.  The walls should have a pretty wavy look on them.

FOOD:

The purchase of one appropriately shaped cookie cutter can go a long way!

• Make seashell shaped Peanut Butter & Jelly (make sure the guests aren't allergic!), tuna fish salad, & bologna/cheese sandwiches, seashell shaped cookies with pink frosting, seashell shaped pink Jell-O jigglers (make a big cookie sheet of jello jiggler and cut out once set).
• tuna salad, gold fish crackers (in several flavors).
• serve snacks in plastic sand pails, sand castle molds, fish and shell shaped dishes.
• The children can decorate their cookies with icing and sprinkles as a food activity.
• Glue small images (from coloring pages or clipart) onto toothpicks.  Let dry.  Stick in the top of cupcakes for an instant theme party treat!
• Sand Castle Cake:  2 to 4 layers of cake piled with frosting in the center.  Frost the cake.  Bake some of the cake mix in 4 ice cream cones.  Put them on the 4 corners of the cake and frost them too.  Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs ('sand') over the entire thing.

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