It’s a surf’s up party! Plan a surf birthday party for your child with this surf party guide. Have fun at the beach or in your own backyard with our surf decorating ideas, surf party games and surf party supplies.
Invitations Decorations
Food
Party Favors
Games & Activities
Planning & Invitations
A surf party theme works well at the beach, by your own pool or in the backyard. This party could also be held indoors during the winter to help chase away cabin fever during cold months. For additional ideas, see our article on When and Where to Have the Party.
What do I need for the Party?
You will need basic party supplies such as plates, napkins, cups, and cutlery; a tablecloth, streamers, and balloons. If you want to use surf theme supplies instead of solid colors, see our Surf Party Supplies.
To help with your shopping, take a look at our Suggested Party Supply List. You may not need everything on the list, but you can use it as a guide.
Surf Party Invitations
Guests love to receive creative invitations, which help to build excitement before the big date. If you have the time to make your own invitations, here are a few suggestions:
- Cut the shape of a surf board out of heavy cardstock and decorate the surf board in your child's favorite colors. Leave one strip of white space down the center of the board for the party details.
- Use creative wording on the invitations like:
Surf’s Up!
Grab your board and surf on over to
[Name]’s Birthday Bash
If you would rather not make your own invitations, consider our Surfer Dude Personalized Invitations, which include all the party details for you! We also offer blank invitations that you can fill in yourself.
Decorating & Food Ideas
Surf Party Decorations
For a surf party at the beach, you won’t need many decorations because the sand and sea are the main attractions. You can help guests find your spot at the beach by tying a large bunch of balloons to a chair. Remember to have plenty of sunscreen on hand as well. You should also bring sand toys, hula hoops, and beach umbrellas.
Set the mood by playing lots of classic surf music from the 1960’s like the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and the Surfaris.
For a party in your back yard, decorate with lots of beach balls, sand pails and beach umbrellas. Cut out surfboard shapes from colorful foam poster board and hang them from tree limbs. To create a beach atmosphere, try some of these decorating ideas:
- Use sidewalk chalk to draw giant letters on the driveway spelling out “Beach This Way” and an arrow pointing to your yard.
- Set out lots of beach umbrellas, lawn chairs, and beach towels. Add a sand pail filled with a few bottles of sunscreen.
- For table decorations, use seashells, starfish, snorkel masks or sunglasses.
- Make a banner that says “Welcome to [child's last name] Beach” and hang it near the party entrance. See our personalized surf banners and let us do the work for you!
- Tie groups of helium balloons around the party area. Add beach themed Mylar balloons to some of the groups, and keep them in place with balloon weights.
- Hang a Pinata in the party area that can be used as a decoration before the activity begins. Remember, you can transform any pinata into a pull-string with these easy instructions.
Surf Party Food Ideas
Choose from these suggestions to create your Surf Party menu:
- Offer sandwiches, hot dogs or hamburgers. For a party at a beach, you will need to check in advance with the local town hall to be sure you are allowed to use a grill on the beach.
- Make little signs for each food item with a beach 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.
- Be sure to bring lots of water and other drinks in a cooler to keep the children hydrated throughout the party.
- Surf Party Cake - Start with a round two-layer cake and cover the sides with white frosting. On the top, cover half with the white frosting and the other half with blue frosting. Draw a rippled edge between the two halves to create a wavy shoreline. Crush graham crackers and sprinkle them over the white frosting on the top and the sides to give the appearance of sand. Add gumballs as miniature beach balls and a few small drink umbrellas to the beach side on top of the cake. Then set three small toy surfboards sticking up from the waves in the blue ocean side of the cake. You could use our surfboard necklaces with the cords removed.
Surf Party Favors
Choose fun party favors to fit your surf theme like our surf zipper pulls, beach balls, shell necklaces and surf stickers.
We’ve designed several complete Surf Party favor sets to help simplify your planning. You can also include some of our personalized Surf Party favors. Choose from bag tags, zipper pulls, magnets, and more, all personalized with your guests’ names or a personal message from you.
Surf Party Games & Activites
If your surf party is at a beach, you won’t need many party games because the guests will be having so much fun in the sand and sea. Be ready with a few traditional beach games like tug of war and limbo just in case you need them.
When the party is in your back yard, a good supply of water balloons and squirt guns will keep young guests busy for quite awhile! Whether your party is at the shore or closer to home, we have many more ideas to keep your guests entertained, so check out the Games and Activities section below.
For additional party planning tips, our Party Planning 101 Guide includes cake ideas, party etiquette tips, a printable guest list, and more.
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