How to Organize a Unicorn Birthday Party
Looking for unicorn birthday party ideas? You are in the right place! After I wrote how to plan a simple birthday party, I thought it would be good to give you a real example of what to do.
In this post, I’m going to talk about how to organize a birthday party at home, but not just any party – a unicorn theme birthday party for my daughter.
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Planning a Birthday Party
Planning parties is one of the most fun things I get to do as a mom. Not that the other things aren’t fun, but parties are a creative planning type of fun! You are literally planning all the details to make your son or daughter’s day one of their best childhood memories.
Oh, did I just put a ton of pressure on your shoulders?
That wasn’t my intention. I don’t think I realized how overwhelming it is when you are learning how to organize a birthday party.
To me, it’s literally just fun and games.
Well, also decorations and food. And inviting people. And remembering to buy enough party favors.
And..
Ok, yea, I guess you can easily get buried by the thought of setting up a birthday party.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to do a theme party. You can host a simple birthday party using this instantly downloadable checklist.
It’ll guide you through the basics of how to organize a birthday party.
For those of you who want to know all of the bells and whistles, and a play by play of what I did to organize a unicorn themed birthday party (insert any theme party idea here), keep reading.
The First Thing to do to Plan the Party
The difference between having a theme party and a simple birthday party is figuring out the theme and making it evident in the party. It is entirely pointless to pick a theme (like Spiderman) and then only have your kid dressed up like spiderman, and maybe have a spidey cake. Y’all, come on, you know that if this is going to be a spiderman theme party there should be decorations, games and maybe even treats that remind the kids about spiderman.
With that said, the first thing I did to plan my daughter’s party was to figure out what theme I wanted. For that, I turned to Pinterest. I searched for theme parties + the age of my daughter. I wanted to organize a party that she and her friends would appreciate and Pinterest showed me that unicorns were still in!
My daughter has loved unicorns since she was three, so I knew she’d approve. I saw a few more pins with a unicorn party and immediately I chose it.
Ok, I just lied.
I actually hesitated and seesawed over unicorns vs. rainbows (sounding like an 80s cartoon, and as a matter of fact, I also considered Rainbow Brite but none of the decor popped to me).
After looking at more decorating options for both themes, I decided on unicorns for certain.
What is a Unicorn Birthday Party?
A unicorn birthday party could be what you want it to be. Again, you need to weave the theme throughout the party using decorations, balloons, games, stories, costumes, or whatever you want.
A unicorn party theme could center on the whole magical, fantasy creature idea. It could overlap with storybook tales and include castles and princesses. You also could have a fun pink and purple theme with stars, hearts, and unicorn horns. There were a few other unicorn theme ideas out there but none of those appealed to me.
For my 8-year-old, I liked the gentle, more cartoonish unicorn look that was more about just the theme colors, with stars, hearts, and unicorns.
How to Organize a Birthday Party
Let’s talk about the planning part.
After I decided that unicorns were the theme, I did a bit of research (like 20 minutes or less guys, so don’t be overwhelmed). I clicked through those pins on Pinterest and looked at the blogs and what things they had displayed. I then traveled to amazon to see what they had as far as decorations.
I found some interesting things like this
Fun stuff! But I decided to get this pack as the main part of my decoration.
Ultimate Unicorn Party Supplies and Plates for Girl Birthday | Best Value
and this great pack of 24 Pcs Unicorn Party Hats
Budgeting for a Unicorn Party
In my birthday party planning post, I do encourage you to start with the budget. Even though I did do some research on what I wanted to buy, I did come up with a tentative budget. I gotta say the best way how to organize a birthday party is to get a budget before looking at any party items. I definitely let the items I wanted to have to dictate how high the budget needed to be.
Decide on the Location
Next on the list was to decide on the location. For me, this was easy because I almost always have parties at home. It is generally the least expensive also.
Our Unicorn Guest List
Decide next on who you want to attend. For us, this party was all about my daughter. I wanted her to have all of her friends there.
However, I did find that for many of the theme decoration packs, there was a limited number of things like cups, napkins, name tags, party hats, and gift bags.
To accommodate for the limited items (to prevent me from buying extras), I limited the guest list to 6. That would give a total of 7 girls.
If you decide to make decorations, costumes, hats, etc. this is probably a good place to plan for that. In the case of this unicorn birthday party, I was going the convenient way of buying everything. It was a busy time for us and I just didn’t have the time to make things.
However, I do recommend doing that and involving your kids if possible. Not only will it save you a lot of money, it also builds incredible memories.
What Do You Put in a Unicorn Party Bag?
This is also a good time to talk about party favors. I really like to have a good amount of items in party guests’ bags. You can call these gift bags, party bags, or party favors.
Favors don’t have to be expensive, and it’s better if they aren’t. If you go to a party store you might be able to get a pack of like-items in higher numbers (in order to save money from buying individuals). However, just keep in mind that if you get something that costs $5 or more, you have to multiply that by the number of guests.
The cost will be outrageous.
So I’ll tell you how to organize a birthday party is to stay cheap and cut corners. For this party, I went to my local dollar stores and bought cute unicorn stickers. At Walmart, there was a selection of unicorn favors but in the end I thought it was too much.
So I filled their bags with pastel markers, 2 each from a regular-sized pack, another type of cute sticker, a printout unicorn activity page, and fruit-scented lip glosses that again came in a big pack.
What Food to Serve at a Unicorn Party?
When thinking about how to organize a birthday party food will always play a huge part. Creating the menu for my unicorn party was pretty easy. I got a fresh fruit salad and cheese and crackers, as well as chips and unicorn horns. I mean, Funyuns.
I had already decided on a simple menu and put on the invitation “light snacks”.
I wanted to make themed snacks but it didn’t actually work out since I didn’t have time to write out labels for the foods. I did make the unicorn breath idea I saw, but again it wasn’t the same without the label. The kids didn’t care, of course.
Also, the beautiful rainbow cake (shown earlier) I got premade at Costco. It was so moist and soft, seriously one of the best cakes I’ve ever eaten.
What Do you Do at a Unicorn Party?
Every party needs some kind of entertainment piece. There are lots of activities for a unicorn party that you can find online. The best way to host a birthday party will definitely be to have a plan B in case your original idea goes awry.
I like to have a few game ideas ready, backup options for music (if you are having music), and anything else I can think of ready to go. I usually also depend on my husband because he is fabulous with kids and he can always come up with ways to entertain them.
At our unicorn birthday party, we had a few activities.
First was Pick Your Unicorn Name.
Second, we had a Unicorn Treasure Hunt.
Third, we played Pin the Horn on the Unicorn.
And the last planned activity was breaking the Pinata.
Unicorn Gifts for an 8-year-old girl
There were some great gifts for my daughter. I just wanted to share a few of the unicorn gifts you could get or encourage guests to get for an 8-year-old.
The first gift I got was this MerryXGift Real Makeup Sets with Purse for Girls, Unicorn Makeup
It is super cute and really made the theme come alive. My daughter loves playing with makeup and this one claims to be non-toxic, so I feel better about her playing with it.
What is the Order of Things for a Birthday Party?
The order of events during a birthday party is up to you. I will tell you that in general the cake and ice cream (if you have ice cream) comes near the end and most people will do presents after the cake part.
So my unicorn party went in this order:
- Guests arrived
- We picked Unicorn names while waiting for everyone to arrive
- Free play
- The first game
- Free play and snacks
- The second game
- Cake – singing happy birthday
- Presents
- The Pinata
- Free play and gift bags while parents arrived
Is that Everything I Need to Know to Plan a Birthday Party?
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you everything there is to know about how to organize a birthday party because your party will be different from mine.
Even if you decide on having a unicorn-themed birthday party and use the same decorations and cake, even then your party will be uniquely different.
However, you can follow the ideas presented here and if you need more help, please download my free printable for planning a birthday party.
