Coolest Pirate Birthday Party Ideas

Ahoy Matey! Prepare for an adventure on the high Pirate birthday party seas with these swashbuckling ideas that'll blow you outta the water!

Before we start walking the plank, here are the coolest Pirate party packs and party supply items:

Invitations

Make Treasure Island maps on brown newsprint or brown paper sack and burn the edges. Write all the needed information in pirate lingo.

For instance, on the front you can write "Ahoy There Matey!" and inside you can write something like: "Aye...ye be invited fer some birthday spirits at Captain (child's name) Buccaneer Bash. Chart yer course fer the (address and day of month).

We be a meetin at (time) fer some swashbuckling fun, grub and kiddie spirits. Wave yer flag if ye be attendin or have yer mum send a message by yer phone to (phone number). Sees ye there... (if not, then you'll have to walk the plank - If you dare!)".

Then, you can roll each one up, tie with ribbons and place each one in a clear bottle or if you want in a root beer bottle for a more authentic look (leave a piece of ribbon hanging for easy removal). Add a few tablespoons of sand and small seashells to give it an ocean-like effect.

Another fun pirate birthday party invitation idea is to make a map of your home or backyard on a large piece of newsprint with a big red X where you want to hide or bury a certain treasure or clues for finding a treasure. Cut the map into the number of invitations you want to give out (like a puzzle). Burn the edges a bit and pour coffee on it to make it look more authentic. Then put each piece in a different invitation and tell them to bring the piece with them. When the guests have arrived let everyone put the puzzle together and look for the treasure or clues (this is a way you can start a treasure hunt if you want to).

Decorations

An excellent way to start is by finding some pictures and clipart that'll give your imagination an artistic boost. (Here's my hand-picked selection of great pirate birthday party pictures to get you started...)

It won't be a pirate birthday party without a… treasure chest. If you don't have one or something resembling one-you can definitely make your own.

Take a Styrofoam cooler and paint it brown or black. You can use gold ribbon to trim the lid and the base of the chest. Then take some small rectangle shapes of yellow craft foam and glue on to the center of the lid in the front and the other directly below to make the lock. You can also cut out and glue different colored circles or diamond shapes around the base. Fill it with gold chocolate coins, gummy fish, starburst candies (they look like little treasures), colored beaded necklaces and a lot of other cool treasures. To make the chest look full you can add spray-painted gold rocks, shells, marbles, plastic gems etc.

Hang fishing nets all around your house or yard (you can also use the nets over any kind of tablecloth for your tables). Stick rubber fish, seahorses, plastic oyster shells, lobsters and crabs in the fish net. And for that eerie pirate birthday party atmosphere, hang up all kinds of skeletons. Here's a great selection of skeletons.

You can also make a sign on the door "Enter at yer own risk" and hang old treasure maps on the walls.

Another great pirate birthday party prop is this personalized pirate ship. You can have each kid pose as a pirate in it (this could be a great way to send your thank-you cards). Have each pirate say "Aaaaargh" while posing for the picture :-)

And... for the final touch for your pirate birthday party decorations, this awesome water gossamer comes in three different watery patterns and you can use it to cover the furniture, walls, ceiling, table, etc., instantly and easily transforming them into the high seas.

You can ask all the kids to come in white t-shirts and blue jeans or black pants. As they arrive turn them into pirates with bandanas, pirate hats, eye patches, make-up beards, tattoos, possibly add blood, scars, some facial hair, self-adhesive mustaches, and sashes made from strips of red and white-striped materials.

Icebreaker Activities

*Pirate Arts and Crafts: Pirate telescopes can be made from paper towel rolls or toilet paper rolls. Kids can decorate them with jewels, feathers, stickers, glitter etc. and put cellophane paper (with a rubber band) covering the two openings. Swords can be made from long balloons.

*Favor Box Treasure Chests: Use recycled diaper wipes boxes (roughen up the sides with sandpaper and spray paint gold). Let the kids decorate them with stick-on "jewels" (stick-on earrings work well), pirate stickers, etc. Later, you can fill these mini treasure chests with the pirate birthday party favors.

*Pirate Flags: Give each kid a rectangular piece of lining material or cotton and permanent felt-tip pens. Let them color their own pirate flags. You can then add these to your decorations.

*Ocean in a Bottle: Each kid gets a baby food jar (or any other little jar or clear water bottle for that matter). They then add small sea beads, glitter, water, baby oil and blue food coloring to create their own ocean!! (Hot-glue the tops so the ocean doesn't drain on your floor…)

Pirate Birthday Party Food and Drink

You can also make individual treasure chests with cupcakes. Cut the tops off. Make a hole in the center of the cakes and add fill it with Juju Bees, Snowcaps candy and frosting. Then frost the tops with chocolate frosting and put them back on propped up with a mini pretzel knot (as if the treasure chest is slightly open and the pretzel is the lock). Yellow icing can be added to the top to resemble the brass bands of a trunk with M&M's as jewels.

Here are some cool ideas for pirate birthday party food (remember to make little signs in front of each dish to make sure the kids recognize that it's authentic pirate food…).

*Chicken legs (no utensils allowed!!)
*Seaweed Pasta (Green Linguine)
*Treasure Salad (add dried cranberries, golden raisins and pecans in the salad
*Hot Dog Ships (spear a wooden skewer through a small piece of paper to make a schooner sail and then pierce it through a hot dog, then add a few Goldfish crackers)
*Octopus (split hot-dogs)
*Pirate's Teeth (corn)
*Golden Treasures (macaroni and cheese)
*Golden Nuggets (chicken nuggets)
*Veggie Palm Trees - Cut up various vegetable and serve on a platter with dip. You can then decorate the platter with palm trees that you make out of vegetables. The way you make these is by taking a carrot and securing it in the vegetables with a toothpick. Then take the top fourth of a green pepper, cut a small whole for the carrot to fit snuggly in and you have a palm tree!
*Fish 'n' Chips

*Frosty Ale (root beer) in mugs.
*Sharks Blood (take red Kool-aid or punch and make them as ice cubes…. Then you take sprite and the kids get to drop the red Kool-aid ice cubes into the sprite - kids think it's awesome that the drink turns pink/red…. This can also be called "Crocodile" or "Alligator" blood… whichever you think is tastier….)

*Goldfish crackers
*Ocean with sunken treasures (blue Jell-O with diced peaches)
*Peg legs (carrot sticks)
*Canon ball grapes
*Red Rubies (strawberries, cranberries and cherries)
*Octopus legs (gummy worms)
*Gold puffs (cheese puffs)
*Gold and Silver Hershey nuggets
*Golden candies (butterscotch)
*Breadsticks (swords)

Pirate Birthday Party Favors

A great pirate birthday party favor idea is to give each kid one or two REAL goldfish in a plastic bag with water. You can give them some fish food as well.

Another excellent idea is to all the pirate birthday party favors in the little treasure boxes (if you decided to do the treasure favor box as an activity) or in bandannas. Fill them with ring pops, candy necklaces, skull pops, golden chocolate coins, a compass, gem pop rings, candy necklaces, tattoos, gold chocolate coins, small telescopes, skull key chains, skull pencils, etc.

Games and Activities

Here's an entire page with the coolest ideas for Pirate party games, such as Hook the Treasure, Find the Crocodile, Walk the Plank, Treasure Hunt, Cannonballs Away, Swab the Poop Deck and more. You'll also find some VERY important tips to help you survive (and enjoy) game time.

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 Pirate birthday PARTY TALES and find even more ideas:

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