Coolest Kid Birthday Party Ideas

On this page you'll find lots of great GENERAL sports kid birthday party ideas that can be tweaked to fit virtually ANY sports theme, such as basketball, baseball, soccer, football, volleyball, golf, ping-pong, badminton, hockey, cricket, rugby, or whatever your kid's heart desires.

Most often, each of the popular themes has its own paper products, but here is a great selection of General Sports Party Supplies.

For the more popular sports, I've dedicated a separate page with even MORE great birthday party ideas to supplement this page:

One of the best birthday party ideas for invitations is to create an "official" sporting event ticket/invitation. Just print it out with all sorts of sports-related graphics and remember to "perforate" the edge (and even write "void if detached").

You can easily perforate with a sowing machine that has no thread or with a utility knife. Write something like:

"Admit One", give the date, time, stadium (address) "Row" and "Seat", etc. RSVP: Coach (you of course) - "a failure to RSVP may result in a technical foul!!" Ad words like: "Come ready to compete!", "Score big with [your kid's name]!", "Be an ALL STAR", and more.

You can get ticket envelopes at one of the Ticket-Master outlets and address each invitation to "All Star [kid's name]". Encourage the kids to bring the ticket to the party so that when they come you can rip off the side and give them back the stub.

If you want to focus on one sport, you can make your invitations look like the type of ball that is used in that sport.

The sports birthday party theme works well outdoors (in your yard or a nearby park), but you can also use the birthday party ideas for decorations that are described here for an indoor sports party as well.

To start off, use your kid's favorite team's colors for the color scheme and hang bunches of colored balloons around the party area.

One of the best birthday party ideas is to make your own sport balloons by drawing on them. For baseballs use a red pen on a white balloon, drawing the stitching. For basketballs use a black marker on orange balloons, for a soccer ball use a black pen on white balloons, etc.

Hang signs around the party area that say: "Bleachers", "Locker Rooms", "Restrooms", etc. Also, set up a first aid station with band-aids, bandages, hydrogen peroxide, a water cooler, etc.

Make paper cutouts of footballs, bats, rackets, hockey sticks, gloves etc. You can also scatter these cool inflatable sports equipment all around the party area.

Disperse all sorts of sport-related props and toys around the party area, such as balls, mitts, bats, sport cards, etc. Hang up posters of famous sport figures and of different sports.

If you really want to be creative, one of the best birthday party ideas is to blow-up a picture of a famous player - poster size (some Kinko's and other copying stores can do this) and put it in the party area. You can also cut the face out so that the kids can put their own face in it for great picture-taking moments (great to send with thank-you notes).

Consider making your own popcorn, cotton candy, and peanut stands out of PVC pipes. It's quite simple. The stands should be five feet tall. Glue clothespins all around and hang small bags of popcorn, candy, etc. You can also extend a line between branches and hang the bags from there.

Use real sports props to decorate the table. You can tie helium balloons onto trophies, medals or other props for table centerpieces. If you have chairs instead of benches, hang sports pennants down the back of each chair to add more color. Decorate the table with sports cards (either bought or handmade). For instructions on making your own sport cards look in the Ice-Breaker activity section below.

One of the coolest birthday party ideas for setting the sports scene (if you are not too picky about your lawn) is spray painting or using chalk to mark the field.

As the kids arrive, provide face paints and let them color their own faces with their favorite team's colors. This is one of coolest birthday party ideas to get the kids into the party mood. Also, hand out pins, sport sweatbands for the wrist and forehead, tube socks, and take your pick from many of these great sports items.

If you're planning to have team activities, let the kids draw a piece of paper from of a sports helmet to signify which team they belong to. You can also hand out colored shirts or/and baseball caps for each team. On the back of each shirt you can use fabric paint to write the kid's name and a number of their choice.

Once everyone has arrived have the kids come up with a name for their team, make up a team cheer, decorate a team banner, etc.

*Sport card making: Turn to the Internet to collect pictures of sport stars and print them out. Also print out a short paragraph about each star. Give the kids multi-colored lightweight cardboard (cut them beforehand to be the size of a card) and let them choose which player they want. See if they can match each person's life information with their picture. Give them glue, glitter, stickers, etc. and let them make and decorate their own sport cards. You can then play a game seeing how much everyone knows about each player.

*Signed Ball: This is one of the best birthday party ideas for a keepsake gift. Take a ball of choice and have everyone at the party sign it as they arrive. This is a great way to keep a nice memory of the great party.

*Sport Players: Here's another excellent activity that gives the kids a chance to use their drawing and imagination skills. Use big white butcher paper and have someone outline each kid (they can be outlined in any kind of pose). Then hand out crayons, markers, etc. and let them go wild turning themselves into their favorite player.

*Sport Collage: This is a great way to get those artistic juices flowing before the party gets underway. Collect all kinds of sport magazines and newspapers, give the kids scissors and glue, and have them cut out and paste their own sports collages. You'll be surprised how interesting these can come out!

One of the best birthday party ideas for a sports cake is to use a round heatproof bowl (or this sports ball cake pan) to bake your cake. Then just turn the bowl upside-down after baking.

Another idea is to frost the tops of cupcakes so they look like all kinds of different balls.

You can also make cakes to resemble certain sport areas. For example, frost a rectangular cake green for a grass field. Then use white icing for field marks, add miniature plastic goals, and plastic figurines.

Instead of figurines, you can cut out oval pieces of Bristol board and glue on cut outs of sport players. Then attach it to a popsicle stick and stick into the cake. One of the silliest birthday party ideas for cake decorations is to cut out sport player bodies and glue your kid's face on them so that all of the players are actually your child!

You'll also find lots of cool sports cake ideas including photos and how-to tips in our cake gallery...

For lunch time you can have the kids go to the area assigned and labeled as the "cafeteria", where you can have a long table set up with stadium-type food. You can buy simple foam food trays and foam cups, lids and straws, and have each kid go through the line and choose their goodies.

You can also rent hot dog, popcorn, cotton candy and snow-cone carts and stands.

*ALL STAR Hot Dogs and Corn Dogs: You can set up a condiment bar. Have hot dogs, buns, mustard, ketchup, relish, onions, chili, cheese, pickles, etc., and let the kids make their own ALL STAR hot dog.
*Grand Slam Chicken Wings: A finger lickin' meal!
*Home Run Pizza
*Energy food (in other words VEGETABLES and dip)
*Strike Out Nachos and cheese
*Ball sandwiches: Make PB&J (and other) sandwiches and cut them out with a round cookie cutter.
*Spaghetti with meatBALLS

*POWER Shake: This recipe serves eight people. Take a cup of smooth (low-fat and low-sugar) peanut butter, four ripe bananas, and six cups of nonfat frozen yogurt. Cut bananas into pieces. Place a fourth of each ingredient in a blender (this is to prevent overflow). Whirl until smooth, and duplicate steps for the left over ingredients. Pour concoction into glasses and serve (if you want it more like a drink and less like a shake use nonfat milk instead of frozen yogurt).

*Fruit Smoothie Quenchers: Choose fresh fruit, such as strawberries, bananas, pineapples, oranges, grapes, etc. Whirl fruit in a blender and once liquefied add one quart of frozen vanilla yogurt and six ice cubes. Then blend again with raspberry ginger ale and pour into a punch bowl (for a thinner mixture, add more ginger ale).

Tip: Use a huge enamel tub and fill it with ice. Then put all kinds of soda cans, bottles, colorful plastic-covered popsicles, fruit juices and energy drinks.

*Sport Balls: To make them, pop two and a half quarts of popcorn and put aside in a big bowl. Then, in a medium sized saucepan, blend a third cup of water, one cup of sugar, half a cup of corn syrup, and half a teaspoon of salt. Heat and cook over a medium fire until sugar completely dissolves and mixture has come to a boil (stir continually). Keep cooking and once the mixture reaches a hard boil quickly whip in one teaspoon of vanilla and a fourth cup of butter or margarine (you can make it colorful by adding food coloring). After the butter has liquefied, pour all of the mixture over the popcorn and toss until the popcorn is well coated. Spread the coated popcorn on large baking sheets or pieces of waxed paper and let it cool. Once slightly cool form into balls. The kids will have a BALL devouring these tasty treats!
*Peanuts!! Almost every sports game gives out peanuts (don't forget to put empty containers for peanut shells).
*Energy bars
*Cracker Jacks
*Churros (long cinnamon sticks sold at sporting events)
*Soft-baked pretzels
*Snow Cones
*Cotton Candy
*Sport-shaped cheese crackers (available at supermarkets)
*Corn-nuts
*Fruit Bars, Granola Bars, and other healthy treats.

Another one of the tastiest birthday party ideas for treats is to let the kids make their own sundaes. Put out a sundae buffet with different types of ice cream, whip-cream, sprinkles, fruit toppings, chocolate syrup, etc. and let the kids build their own sundaes.

Tip: You can serve many of the treats in upside-down batter helmets or different sport hats.

You can put party favors in large plastic drink cups (just like ones you get at sporting events). Some birthday party ideas for items you can give out are little Gatorades (or other power drinks), wristbands, Frisbees, hula hoops, sport squeeze balls, whistles, sport cards, cracker jacks, power bars, sport stickers and any other sports related items.

Here are some nice and inexpensive medals to give each kid at the end of the games. Team games can get very competitive, so just remember that at the end - everyone wins!

Here's an entire page with the coolest Sports birthday party ideas for games, such as Dress-Up Relay, Ping-Pong Bobbing, Water Balloon Volley, KneeBall Relay and more. You'll also find some VERY important tips to help you survive (and enjoy) game time.

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Coolest Kid Birthday Party Ideas for a Sports Theme