Heroes with super powers, larger-than-life dinosaurs, sports stars – these are some birthday party ideas for boys are always popular. Thrill your son’s guests by immersing them in your child’s favorite party theme.
Tip: Use the birthday party themes for boys below as a jumping off point to brainstorm with your child how to create the perfect party for him from invites to decorations, activities to snacks and sweets.
Dinosaurs
Invites: For a clever way to announce your child’s party to guests, send out envelopes stuffed with baby dinosaur eggs – that would be peanut or almond M&Ms. Glue the party details on the back of the envelope.
Décor: The smash hit movie Jurassic World made dinosaurs cool once again. Lead guests into the party with dinosaur footprints. Use construction paper to make each one. Pepper tables with plastic dinosaurs as centerpieces.
Food: Craft sugar cookies into the shapes of dinosaur bones. Put veggie sticks in plastic cups as dinosaur snacks. Make your cake in the shape of a volcano using red-hued frosting for lava.
Activities: Build on the dinosaur egg idea by having games with dinosaur eggs. Play charades with this twist – put the actions in plastic eggs (maybe you have a stash leftover from Easter?). One guest picks an egg and then reads what’s inside, which can be anything from cartoon characters to favorite sports. The rest of the party guests then guess the word by watching the picker’s actions.
Superheroes
Invites: Have your child create his own comic book to let his guests know where and when to come to his hero party.
Décor: Make comic-book-style superhero pop-up quotes on poster board. Cut them out and tape them throughout your party room. You might cutout stars and lightning bolts, too.
Food: Use a large star cookie cutter to turn sandwiches into super-sandwiches. Rip out pages from a comic book and roll carefully into a cone to fill with popcorn, candies, or whatever else you’d like to offer as munchies.
Activities: Stock a table with all the supplies so that partygoers can make their own superhero masks. Another idea? Stich together simple capes from plain fabric and ribbon as the tie – use permanent markers or provide fabric pens so each child can design one.
Sports
Invites: Take me out to the ballgame! That’s exactly what you can say on your child’s birthday party invite. Make the card look like a sports event ticket so that guests know where and when the festivities will start – I mean, the big game begins.
Décor: What’s your child’s favorite sport? Print out pictures of famous or just regular athletes playing that sport. Post them on the walls along with cutouts of balls, bats and other types of sports equipment. Go farther by decorating walls with streamers in the colors of your child’s favorite sports teams.
Food: Hello, ballpark food! Spread out a buffet of hot dogs, cotton candy, and popcorn. Craft cupcakes to look like a ball from your child’s favorite sport – like use white frosting and red icing to create the laces for a baseball-themed celebration.
Activities: Let’s play ball! Take the party outside and play a game of baseball, football, basketball – or maybe all of them! For quieter moments let the kids color index cards to turn them into “sports cards.”
Dr. Seuss
Invites: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish … start your child’s party invite with a line or two from your child’s favorite Dr. Seuss book.
Décor: Buy secondhand Dr. Seuss books and remove the pages. Paste them onto bright-colored construction paper. Tape these images on the walls or suspend them from the ceiling with string.
Food: Suspend gummy fish in blue Jell-O as your red and blue fish. Or dive into other Dr. Seuss books for inspiration on food ideas.
Activities: Watch a Dr. Seuss film like Horton Hears a Who! or Cat in the Hat. Read some of Dr. Seuss’s classic to the kids and have them act out what’s happening.
Silly science
Invites: Write out the celebration details as a lab experiment. Roll them up and then place them into a plastic text tube. Deliver the invites in person or mail in padded envelopes.
Décor: Purchase inexpensive safety goggles and notebooks for each little scientist attending your lab experiment, er, party.
Food: Change the temperature and a solid becomes a liquid – let your guests know that their dessert is all a part of an experiment. Melt chocolate and offer different foods for party guests to dip into it like apple slices, graham crackers and pretzels.
Activities: Science experiments, of course! Google ‘simple science experiments for kids’ for ideas. One classic? DIY soda pop – the kids can even help make it. Squeeze the juice from two lemons into a glass and add an equal amount of water then swirl in 1 teaspoon baking soda – instant bubbles! Add in sugar to taste. Let each partygoer make his own.
Throwing a party for your daughter? Check out some party theme ideas here.
This post was originally published in 2015 and has been updated for 2017.
