Have fun in the sun with a beach theme party! Whether your party is near the ocean or in your own back yard, our beach party guide includes suggestions for beach party themes, easy summer crafts, decorations, beach party games, and a lot more! We have the beach party ideas and supplies to make your beach birthday party a success!
Planning & Invitations
Your first decision is where to hold the party. You can host a great beach party in your back yard if the ocean is far away. If you do live near the beach, check with the local town hall to find out if you need to make a reservation or apply for a permit. You’ll also want to confirm what hours the beach is open on the date of your party.
Be sure to arrive at the beach early on the day of the party so you’ll have plenty of time to set up chairs and games. You will also need to help guests find your party by using a large flag in the sand or tying a group of helium balloons to a chair. You may want to bring a small first aid kit with antibiotic cream and band aids, just in case there are minor cuts or scrapes. A beach pail filled with a few bottles of sunscreen is a good idea, too.
For a beach party at home, use a sandbox to represent the beach, or fill a wading pool with sand and add sand toys and a few lawn chairs all around it. A backyard pool can fill in for the ocean, or another kiddy pool filled with water will do the job nicely. Then add a slip’n slide or a sprinkler for more water play choices. You can even put a wading pool full of water at the bottom of the slide (if you have a swing set in the yard) to create your own water slide. Place a hose at the top of the slide so that water is running down into the pool as the kids slide down.
Beach Party Themes
Choosing a theme will make it easier to decide on decorations, partyware and activities for your beach party. Your party supplies can use colors that match the theme pattern for a coordinated look. For example, a beach ball theme can use lots of primary colors for balloons and partyware. Other popular themes that work well for a beach party are hula dancing, luau, pirate, ocean and surfer patterns. Visit our Developing a Theme page to learn more, or choose from our entire selection of party themes.
What Do I Need for the Party?
If you plan to use paper tableware and party supplies with a beach pattern, our Suggested Party Supply List may be helpful while you're shopping. You probably won’t need everything on the list, so just use it as a guide.
Depending on where you hold the party, you may also want to purchase or borrow some of these items:
- Extra beach chairs
- Kiddy pools
- Lawn sprinkler
- Beach balls
- Sand pails and shovels
- Hula hoops
- Sno-Cone machine (can be rented)
- Suntan lotion
- Disposable cameras
Beach Party Invitations
Creative invitations are fun for guests to receive and build excitement before the party date. If you have time to make your own beach party invitations, be sure to let your child help choose the design and fill in the details. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Write the party invitation on an inflated beach ball. Then deflate the beach ball and send it in an envelope. Your guests will have fun blowing up the beach ball to read the invitation.
- Punch a hole in the corner of a card-style invitation, and tie it with ribbon to a pair of kid’s sunglasses or a small squirt gun. You will need to deliver them by hand or use padded mailing envelopes.
- Use creative wording on the invitations like “Splish Splash, it’s Kelly’s Beach Bash”, and “Swim on Over for some Fun in the Sun”.
- Put the invitations inside a small sand pail before delivering them.
- Seal the envelopes with summer stickers.
- For a special touch, let us print personalized invitations for you! We’ll include your child’s name and all the party details with a background design that matches your beach party theme. You can also take a look at the blank invitations we offer. These are quick to fill in and mail, which is perfect when you want to send your invitations quickly. Check out all of our beach party invitations.
Beach Party Favors
Thank your guests with fun party favors like beach balls, sand pails, squirt fish, sunglasses, bubbles and squirt guns. For a great party favor, don't forget to check out our personalized beach favors like stickers, magnets and bag tags, which can be printed with a special message or your guests' names. Just choose a design, and we’ll do the rest!
And to simplify your planning, we’ve designed several complete Beach Favor Sets that include a matching bag! If you want to add candy, we offer lots of sweet treats that kids love.
You can also choose from our large selection of individual beach party favors, favor bags, and favor boxes to create your own goody bags.
For a fun presentation, tuck the favor bag inside a new sand pail or attach it to a sport water bottle before handing to your guests.
Additional Party Planning Tips
To simplify the rest of the party planning process, check out our Party Planning 101 section for our party planning timeline, a printable RSVP sheet, birthday cake ideas, and other party planning basics. Or, just read the paragraphs below for decorating and food ideas, party activities, and more for your child’s beach theme party.
Decorating & Food Ideas
Beach Party Decorations
Decorating at the beach is simple because the sun, sand, and sea are the main attractions. You will want to bring lots of sand toys, beach balls, and shovels for the children, plus beach umbrellas, extra beach towels and beach chairs. Colorful balloons always add to the party atmosphere, and they can serve double duty by helping guests find the right spot on the beach. When guests arrive, hand everyone a lei, and have fun beach music playing on a portable sound system.
For a beach party in the back yard, we have lots of ideas to help you create a sunny beach atmosphere. Try just a few ideas, or go all out!
Create your own mini beach by filling a wading pool with sand and sand toys. If you already own a sandbox, use that instead. Build a simple sandcastle and leave sand toys for the guests to play with later. Scatter lots of beach balls throughout the yard or hanging from trees, and hang extra bathing suits on a fence.
Decorate your garage door to resemble a beach scene. First draw various parts of the beach on poster board and then attach them to your garage door. Include the ocean and some sand, plus a surfer, a dolphin or a shark. You could even cut out a surf board shape and lean it against the door. Use sidewalk chalk to draw giant letters spelling out “Beach This Way” and an arrow pointing to your yard.
Fill the yard with beach umbrellas, lawn chairs, and beach towels. Add a sand pail filled with a few bottles of sunscreen, and play fun beach music on a portable sound system. Give each guest a flower lei as they arrive.
Balloons always say “party” to children, so tie groups of helium balloons together and anchor them in place with balloon weights. Our shaped balloons like a popsicle or flip flops look great combined with colorful latex balloons. Or you might like balloons shaped like a fish, a shark, or a pirate’s treasure chest included in our full selection of shaped balloons. If you’re serving food indoors, tie a balloon to the back of each chair, and tie a group of five balloons to the birthday child’s chair! For table decorations, use seashells, starfish, snorkel masks or sunglasses.
Hang a colorful piñata that matches your theme as a decoration. Later it will become an activity when the kids break it open. Consider a pull-string piñata if you would rather not have small children swinging a bat. We offer a great selection of both traditional and pull-string piñatas, but any traditional piñata can be converted to a pull-string using our easy instructions.
Make a banner that says “Welcome to [your last name] Beach” and hang it near the party entrance. See our selection of beach banners and let us do the work for you!
Consider using one of our Beach Party Boxes, which come filled with beach themed partyware, streamers, balloons, and more. Or see our beach party decorations for more quick and easy decorating choices!
Beach Party Food Ideas
Either picnic food or a barbecue menu would be perfect for a beach party. Sandwiches, hot dogs, or hamburgers are all good choices to feed your hungry guests. If your party will be at a beach, check in advance with the local town hall to be sure you can bring a barbeque grill onto the beach.
Make little signs for each food item with a beach theme name like Sandy Beach Burgers, Hang Loose Hot Dogs, Surf’s Up Salad, Fun in the Sun Fruit Kabobs and Catch a Wave Chip and Dip. Serve the chips or cookies in clean, new plastic sand pails, and use clean sand shovels as serving spoons for salads. Fill paper cups with fish-shaped crackers or other small treats and place an umbrella straw upright in the middle. Be sure to bring lots of water and other drinks in a cooler to keep the children hydrated throughout the party.
If the party is at home, fruit smoothies served in tiki cups are a great way to help the children cool down and stay hydrated in the hot sun.
Try our Banana-Strawberry Smoothie that kids and adults love. Here's what you'll need:
- 2 Bananas
- 2 Cups of Strawberries
- 1 Cup of Milk (Note: If you're using frozen strawberries instead of fresh, reduce the milk to 1/2 cup.)
- 1 Cup of Frozen Yogurt
Slice the bananas and strawberries, and put them in a blender with the milk and frozen yogurt. Blend on high until smooth. Pour into glasses, add a fun straw, and serve! If you're looking for more summer drink ideas that will take less time to whip up, consider virgin Strawberry Daiquiris and virgin Piña Coladas made from store-bought mixes.
One way to tie in the beach theme with a food item is to serve a vegetable platter that looks like a beach ball. Start with a bowl of dip at the top of the platter to create the top circle shape on a beach ball. Next, use carrots and slices of red pepper to create the dividing lines between each section of the ball. Then fill in between the dividing lines with slices of cucumbers for a green section and cherry tomatoes for a red section.
Another cute idea is to serve each guest a Mini Beach Cup made from pudding and crushed cookies. First spoon vanilla pudding into a clear plastic cup and sprinkle crushed vanilla wafers on top as “sand”. Place a gumball on the sand as your beach ball, and a teddy bear cookie under a small drink umbrella to complete the beach scene.
For a party at the beach, it’s easier if you plan to buy ice cream for the guests from a frozen treat vendor. And if your party is at home, either popsicles or an ice cream sundae bar are a sure hit with kids. You can create your own Ice Cream Cart by setting up a table with cones and ice cream at one end and a variety of toppings in serving bowls at the other end. Guests can "order" their scoops of ice cream from an adult, and then add their own toppings. Don't forget the whipped cream and cherries!
No birthday party is complete without a birthday cake! And wouldn’t your child love a cake that mommy made herself? Wait! It’s not that hard to turn a regular cake mix into something special. Here are two different ways to create a beach birthday cake using just a few decorations:
- Beach Cake – Create a cake that looks like a beach scene by icing half of a 9”x13” cake with blue icing and the other half with white icing. Draw a rippled edge between the two halves to create a wavy shoreline. Crush graham crackers, and sprinkle them over the white frosting to give the appearance of sand. Set a miniature toy boat on the ocean side of the cake, and use different colors of decorator icing to draw seashells and tiny crabs on the shore side. Use gumballs as miniature beach balls and a few small drink umbrellas to add the finishing touches.
- Fish Cake - Start with any flavor cake baked in a 9”x13” cake pan. Let it cool and remove from pan. You’ll need two colors of frosting so that the fins and tail are a different color than the body of the fish. A green body with yellow fins would look good, but choose any two colors that you like. You’ll also need Necco wafer candies to make the fish scales, one chocolate sandwich cookie for the eye, and a small piece of red licorice string to create a smile.
Cut the cake as shown in our drawings and arrange the pieces on a cake plate. Frost the body of the fish in one icing color and frost the fins and the tail in the second icing color. Then put the cookie eye and the licorice string mouth in place. The last step is to arrange the Necco wafers over the body of the fish to resemble scales.
Game & Craft Ideas
Beach Party Games and Activities
For a beach party in the back yard, squirt guns and water balloons may be all you need to keep the children playing happily for a long time! If your party is at the beach, bring along some classic summer games like horse shoes, volleyball, limbo, tug of war, and a piñata. These fun games continue to be popular with kids of all ages! And whether your party is at the shore or closer to home, we have a lot more ideas to keep your guests entertained, so check out our list of beach games and crafts below.
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