Birthdays are one of my favorite holidays, and since it’s almost that time of year I wanted to share one of the most fun birthday parties that we put together, with a Halloween carnival twist!
The happy accident that started a tradition
When my oldest son was about to turn five I wanted to do a large birthday. We do a birthday ‘party’ on the odd years, and more intimate family celebrations on even years. And I suppose I thought that after 5, they would want smaller parties with just friends, so I wanted to make a really fun memory. I remembered a wedding we attended that had a carnival theme including a photo booth and game booths. I fell in love with it and wanted to replicate that in his birthday. But did I stop there? No…no I did not. I asked him to pick a ‘theme’ for his carnival birthday and he wanted to do The Nightmare Before Christmas. Thus began the tradition of a themed carnival for our little’s 5th birthdays.
The games
We did five games, and five prizes. I have to note that this was at a time where we had big aspirations and a small budget. I also wasn’t in the ‘Pinterest Worthy Birthday’ mindset so my photos are more candid to remember the day, and not professional.
1. Oogie Boogie spin target – Inspired by his lair in the movie. My husband built a large spinning wheel with targets. The goal was to use a Nerf gun to shoot a target and win a prize.
2. Knock ‘Em Down – I hand painted 10 blocks with different characters from the movie. The goal here was to knock them down like a classic carnival game.
3. Catch the duck – I painted rubber ducks to look like the toy duck from the movie (unfortunately there are no photos of them). We put them in a pool and players were supposed to catch them with a set of zombie arms. 3 ducks and they won a prize.
4. Oogie Toss – This one was kind of like a one-sided corn hole game. I took a sturdy cardboard board and glued some burlap onto it to make an Oogie Boogie head, with a large cutout where his mouth is. We had some plushies that were the kid characters from the movie (Shock, Lock, and Barrel) that players had to throw into his mouth.
5. Pin The Nose on Zero – We hand made our own Zero. We started with a cardboard cone that we put white fabric around to make his head, then we just put some white tulle cascading from the head to make his body, and secured it all to a cardboard tri-fold. We then took some red balls and added velcro to them, as well as the tip of his nose. Players had to close their eyes and try to stick the ball to his head/nose. (I know, Zero’s nose is a pumpkin, but we worked with what we had.)
The Prizes
1. Plushies – What kid doesn’t love a plushie right? I would have loved to get themed plushies to match our theme, but we had to work on a budget!
2. Monster keychains – We got a couple dozen cute monster keychains from the party store for a decent steal.
3. Candy bags – Carnivals aren’t complete without a bit of sweets. We got swirl suckers and some small candies and put it in a small bag, which we used the sucker to tie the bag around.
4. Vinyl Nightmare Before Christmas Mini figures – Probably my favorite prize, and the biggest splurge. We bought a box of blind bag figures from a website called BigBadToyStore.com. They were so cute and fun for everyone!
5. Perler Bead Oogies – Back to budgeting. We hand made a bunch of different colored Oogie Boogies with perler beads. We were able to get a large bucket of glow in the dark beads, so in true fashion to the OG, these Oogies glowed in the dark!
I really had so much fun with this birthday, and although starting this tradition was an ‘accident’ it has been some of our best memory makers. We have now done 3 themed carnival birthday parties (Nightmare Before Christmas, mermaid, and glow in the dark) and it’s been a blast! You really can get so creative with your theme and the games and so much more. I hope this may inspire you for your next birthday party idea! If you were to do a carnival let me know what kind of theme you would choose!
