If you’re thinking of hosting or arranging a childrens birthday party any time in the near future, you might want to consider implementing a “theme” for the day. This doesn’t need to be anything complex or costly - with a little imagination and a few household bits and pieces you can transform the special occasion into a particular birthday theme and give them something they’ll never forget.

Spaceman Party

This is a great theme for those wannabe astronauts. Let their imaginations run wild as they bounce around on the surface of an alien planet!

Tips

• Use re-writable CDs, which can be picked up very cheaply these days, to provide a great shimmering effect. These can be tied to lengths of string and hung from the ceiling. Additionally, you can draw on symbols with glow in the dark ink or, using a black marker pen, “blank out” some areas to make star shapes
• Use lots of black. As well as the usual party streamers and balloons in other parts of the house, you can set aside one room as the “Space Room”. Fill this room up with black balloons and black sheets attached to the walls to create a truly out-of-this-world atmospheric effect
• Print out a few colour graphics if you have access to a printer. Rockets, planets, stars - that sort of thing. It all helps to set the mood!
• If you happen to have any polystyrene or packaging material lying around, then this can be used to create great little moons or asteroids that you can hang from the ceiling, or “moon rocks” which you can scatter around on the floor
• Tin foil - used in many a cheesy 70s sci fi series, tin foil is brilliant at creating that “mock futuristic” effect. Use it to create shiny moon landers for table decorations or just stick small pieces to black material to create a star field.
• For snacks, go for foods which match the theme - chocolate snacks such as Mars bars, Galaxy and Milky Ways are obvious examples! Coat halves of baking potatoes in tinfoil and stick cocktail sticks with sausages and cheese on or place futuristic candy snacks in the shapes of stars etc. into tinfoil wrapped bowls to give things a more space-stationey look
• To add an educational element to the day, take a variety of balloons and blow them up to represent the planets of the solar system, have a look around on the internet for good reference material for this.

Games You Can Play

• “Hunt the moon rock” - Hide some special “moon rocks” around the house - to make these you can simply use balled up newspaper wrapped in tin foil. The aim of the game is for the kids to run around looking for these rocks and the first one to get back to the “moon base” with, say, five rocks is the winner
• “Robot Arm Game” - Split the kids up into teams of two and then let each group decide who will be the “robot arm” and who will be the “operator”. Give each child who is playing as the robot arm a bandana or something else that is suitable for use as a blindfold. The idea of the game is for the operator to give instructions to the robot arm to retreive objects scattered around the room. The team who manages to fetch the most items in a given period of time is the winner
• “Moon Radio Tower” Game - Split the kids up into two or three teams and set them the task of building the highest possible “radio tower” within a given period of time. The team with the highest tower wins. You can use items like sofa cushions, cardboard boxes or plastic buckets for this
• “Planet Chairs” - Sit the kids in chairs in a circle and give each child one of three planet names. One child then has to stand in the middle of the ring and shouts out one of the planet names, then all the children with that specific name have to run to another chair and while they are doing this, the child in the middle has to try and grab one of the vacant chairs. Whoever is left standing is then “it”. A child can shout out “Milky way” and then all of the children have to run to a new seat

Hopefully by using some of these handy hints and tips, you’ll be able to organise a fantastic and memorable party for your little ones. Have fun!