Coolest 1st Birthday Party Ideas

One of the coolest 1st birthday party ideas is the Teddy Bear theme. I can't help but jump straight to the costumes…

There are lots of great party supplies for your Teddy Bear party. Here's a list of the coolest "bear necessities":

Invitations

Here's one of the cutest 1st birthday party ideas for invitations. Dress your baby up in a baby bear costume. Take their photo, print it out and add something like: "A "beary" special baby is turning 1..... Join us for some birthday fun!" You can even ask everyone to bring their favorite teddy bear.

Another idea is to cut card stock into teddy bear shapes and put pink ribbon for a bow on the top of the teddy bear's head for a girl's invitation, and a blue ribbon around the teddy bear's neck for a boy's invitation.

We've also created these cool teddy bear birthday party printable invitations and envelopes for you to download and print.

Decorations

Scatter lots of stuffed teddy bears around the party area (you can even use them as table centerpieces). You can also draw on poster board and colored papers a whole bunch of paw prints and put them all around the house. If you have a pathway leading to the house, use colored chalk to draw more paw prints a few steps before the front door.

Set up a cave area in the corner. Rolls of brown paper work well for this and you can attach it to the wall or furniture in the room. Place all sorts of toys in the cave and let the babies and kids explore.

Some more teddy bear 1st birthday party ideas for setting the scene can include honey jars scattered around the party area and buzzing paper bees hanging from the ceiling (with clear fishing line).

Encourage everyone (even grandparents) to bring their own teddy bear and join the fun. For an instant decoration, attach helium filled balloons to each guest's bear.

You can also get your guests feeling "beary" special by pinning a large brown pompon to their "tail", and giving them bear ears to wear.

Icebreaker Activities

If there'll be young kids joining the party (as is often the case), it's important you prepare several 1st birthday party ideas for icebreaker activities to keep them busy as they arrive.

*Honeycomb necklaces: This is one of the simplest (and tastiest) 1st birthday party ideas. Get some string and Honeycomb cereal and let the kids prepare their own edible necklaces. Viola.

*Bear Ears: Have the kids cut brown fuzzy fur (available at art supply stores) into three oval shape fuzz balls. Give them a plastic hair band and have them attach two furry balls by folding them lengthwise around the hair band and attaching them with a glue gun or stapler. Use the third fur ball for a tail. You can also prepare a few of these in advance to hand out to the parents and get them in the teddy bear mood.

*Make & Take Teddy Placemats: Print out a whole bunch of teddy bear clipart (or get a few teddy bear coloring books). Give each kid two pages. Have them cut pieces of thin cardboard (a bit larger than the letter-sized pages) for stiffening mats. Then let them decorate the teddy bear pictures with crayons, markers, stickers, glitter, etc. Have them glue on both pages, one on each side of the cardboard. Then cover each placemat with the clear Con-Tact paper.

You can also choose to make a teddy bear (with a body) cake. Use two round cakes, one for the head and another for the body, six cupcakes (two for the ears, two for the hands, and two for the feet). Again, frost everything and use candies to decorate and black licorice for the claws.

And here's another one of the cutest 1st birthday party ideas for cakes… Cub cakes :-)

Prepare 2 dozen chocolate cupcakes and when they have cooled off, remove all of the cupcake liners. Then frost the top of 12 with chocolate frosting. On top of each frosted cupcake, place an unfrosted cupcake upside-down (securing it with a toothpick). After this, frost the upside-down cupcakes on all sides with chocolate frosting. Take lots of Oreo cookies and break them in half, placing two halves on top of each cupcake for ears. Use chocolate chips, M&M's, or other small candies to make the teddy's eyes, nose and a mouth. You can send these great teddies home with your guests as a party favor, or serve them instead of a birthday cake (remember to remove the toothpick when serving to youngsters).

*Peanut-Bear and Jelly sandwiches: Use a teddy bear cookie cutter to cut finger sandwiches (first cut the bread and then spread the P&J so you don't get a misshaped blob). You can also choose other tasty spreads, like honey.
*Bearburgers: Use a cookie cutter to cut the hamburger patties.
*Porridge (add food coloring to make it fun)
*Bearries: Strawberries, blueberries, boysenberries, and all sorts of other berries.
*Biscuit Bears: Send each guest home with their own edible teddy bear! You'll need vegetable spray, 4 packages of refrigerator biscuits, raisins, and poppy seeds. Divide each package of biscuits in half, and knead each portion. Form 8 balls of dough. Separate each lump of dough into the following parts: 1 large ball for a body; 1 small ball for head; 8 smaller balls for ears, hands, feet, nose, and tail. Spray a baking sheet with vegetable spray (or cover with foil) and set each body on it. Place a head above each body, and add ears, hands, feet, nose, and tail. Poke raisins in the center of the ears and the nose. Make eyes and a belly button. Add more raisins to hands and feet for claws. Sprinkle bodies with poppy/sesame seeds to make "fur," if desired. Bake according to package directions, until golden brown. Cool and enjoy!

*Honey Bear Punch: All bears love honey! Mix 2 quarts lemonade, 3 quarts unsweetened pineapple juice, and 2/3 cup honey.
*Honey Ice Cubes: babies and kids love sucking on ice, so make special ice cubes by adding a few drops of honey into ice cube tray compartments, add water and freeze.

*Teddy bear shaped Jell-O jigglers and finger fruits (which can be cut with bear cookie cutters).
*Gummy Bears and other bear shaped treats (available at the supermarket).
*Honey Straws: You can buy these at the supermarket, or make them on your own by pinching the end of a straw, heating for an instant with a lighter, then pinching together the end to close one side. Then pour in the honey (with a syringe) and seal off the top end. If the little kids don't have teeth yet, cut a bit of the top off so they can suck out the honey.
*Honeycomb Cereal

Favors

One of the coolest teddy bear 1st birthday party ideas for favor bags is to paint the top of small brown paper bags with yellow paint to make it look like honey dripping over the edges and write "Pot O' Honey" (this can also be part of the icebreaker activities).

Take photos of the guests with their teddy bears or with one of the grownups dressed as a bear as they arrive. If you have a printer and digital camera you can print out the pictures by the end of the party and hand out as cute gifts.

If you'll be having a number of older kids, or want to add some excitement with the parents, here are some teddy bear 1st birthday party ideas for games and activities:

*Teddy Bear-Teddy Bear: This game is great for kids who are two or older. Sing the rhyme 'Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear', and say something to do after each time the words are said. For example "Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around", "Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground", "Teddy bear, teddy bear, climb the stairs", "Teddy bear, teddy bear, say your prayers". This rhyme can be altered with turn around, touch the ground, touch your nose, touch your toes etc. Either get everyone to do the actions or have them make their bears do the actions.

*Story Time with Teddy: One of the best teddy bear 1st birthday party ideas is to have your guests sit in a circle, curled up with their special teddies, and ready to listen to a story. Even if they may not understand all the words, just sitting together and looking at the pictures will be fun. Here are some excellent teddy bear books to start off with.

*Teddy Bear Bean Bag Toss: Take a large piece of cardboard and draw a picture of a teddy bear with a big open mouth on it. Then cut a hole where the mouth is (so that bean bags can be thrown in). Make bean bags bay filling socks with dried beans and tying each one with a rubber band. For more fun, draw all kinds of teddy bear designs on the bean bags. Then stand the teddy bear target against a chair and give each child a turn to throw the bean bags into the teddy's mouth. The parents can help the children aim, if they are too young to do so.

*Bear Hunt: If you've got a group of older kids coming to the party one of the best teddy bear 1st birthday party ideas is to have them all pretend to be bears and go out on a hunt for honey. Have them wear the bear ears while they hunt. You can hunt inside or outside for different honey items, such as bags filled with Honeycomb cereal, honey straws (as described above), and other fun honey stuff.

Take your coolest party ideas, add a few colorful photos and you've got a "PARTY TALE ".

Many of the ideas you'll find on this site have been sent to us by people around the world. These people are an inspiration to this site, helping make this site an inspiration to others.

Once your party is over, we'd love for you to send us your own PARTY TALE and we'll create your very own theme party page and photo gallery that's hosted on our site! (Family, friends and just about anybody will be able to find inspiration from YOUR CHILD'S birthday party AND comment on YOUR ideas!)

Here's a chance for you to peek at other people's Teddy Bear birthday PARTY TALES and find even more ideas:

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Coolest Teddy Bear 1st Birthday Party Ideas

Everything in life I share,
except of course my teddy bear!

Invitations

Decorations

Icebreaker Activities