Throw an entertaining birthday bash worthy of the "Big Top" with our Circus Party Ideas! Read on for general party planning tips as well as great circus decorating ideas, food, game, and activity suggestions.
Planning & Invitations
It's important to select a location for your child's Circus Party early in the planning process. If you'd rather not have the party at home, consider using a nearby park, reserving a local recreation center room, a community clubhouse, or your church hall. Or, try one of the other locations listed in our When & Where to Have the Party article.
What Do I Need for the Party?
Once you've decided where to have your child's circus party, it's time to start thinking about what supplies you'll need. If you plan to use paper tableware and circus-themed party supplies, our Suggested Party Supply List may be helpful while you're shopping. Please note that you may not need everything on the list; it's intended only as a guide.
In addition to basic party supplies, like plates, cups, napkins, and decorations, you may also consider purchasing, borrowing or renting the following items:
- Red Clown Noses for Your Guests to Wear
- A Popcorn Machine
- A Bubble Machine
- A Snow Cone or Cotton Candy Maker
- Prizes for the Party Games
- Disposable Cameras
Circus Party Invitations
Creative invitations build excitement and can increase attendance at your party. If you have time to make your own, be sure to involve your child in choosing the design and filling in the details. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Design each invitation to resemble a circus ticket, and seal the envelope with circus stickers.
- Alternatively, you can use colored construction paper folded in half to create each invitation. Just decorate the front with circus stickers or clown drawings, and then write the party details inside.
- Be creative with the party details by writing a theme-appropriate message inside each invitation. Use the example below, or write your own message.
[Family Last Name] Entertainment Proudly Presents
[Birthday Child’s Name]'s Birthday Circus...
The Greatest Show on Earth!
Fun For All: Food ~ Games ~ Balloons
Appearing One Day Only: [Date of Party]
Show Time: [Time Party Begins)
Join Us Under the Big Top at [Location]!
Don't Clown Around; RSVP to the Ringmaster at [Your Phone Number].
- Attach each invitation to the front of a box of animal crackers. Or, send each invitation inside a flattened popcorn box.
Party Favors
Thank your guests for attending your child's circus party by giving them fun party favors like red clown noses, small circus animals, silly straws, animal stickers, water squirt toys, kazoos, bubbles, sunglasses, and packets of animal crackers. See all our circus party favors, Favor Bags, and Favor Boxes to create your own goody bags. Or, to simplify your planning, check out our complete Clown Favor Sets that include a matching bag!
You can also take a look at our full selection of party favors to create your own goody bags. If you want to add candy, we offer lots of sweet treats that kids love. Whichever favors you choose, your guests are sure to remember this party for a long time!
Additional Party Planning Tips
To simplify the rest of the party planning process, check out our Party Planning 101 section for ideas on when and where to have the party, our party planning timeline, and other party planning basics. Or, just read the paragraphs below for circus party decorating and food ideas, activities, and games.
History
You may wish to share some history of the evolution of the circus with the birthday child before the party, or perhaps with the entire group during snack time at the party. Read on for a brief history…
A Brief History of the Circus
The circus has illuminated the hearts and imaginations of audiences for more than 2,000 years. It brings to mind famous names like P.T. Barnum, acts like the Flying Wallendas, and the skill of trainers like Gunther Gebel-Williams.
To find the birth of the circus, one must reach back to ancient Rome and its Circus Maximus. Rome's circus included chariot races and clashes between ferocious athletes and exotic animals.
As the Dark Ages descended on Europe, the circus was all but forgotten. It took the fancy equestrian skills of British Cavalry man, Sergeant Major Philip Astley, to revive the excitement of live performances. By adding clowns, juggling acts and tumbling to equestrian performances, Philip Astley built the basic ingredients of a modern circus.
The first American circus was held in Philadelphia in 1793. Soon after the War of 1812, permanent horse shows were replaced by traveling shows which pitched their circus tents on village greens.
It all began with Old Bet, an African elephant purchased by Hackaliah Bailey from a sea captain for $1000. Bailey had so much success with Old Bet that he soon began purchasing other exotic animals. Later, Bailey's name became forever linked to, arguably, the most famous circus name in history, Phineas Taylor Barnum.
No Proof has been given that Connecticut-born P.T. Barnum actually said, "There's a sucker born every minute," but his showmanship, sense of spectacle, and ability to win over a crowd all support his other famous quotes, "Every cloud has a silver lining," and, "The public is wiser than many imagine."
In his 80 years, Barnum won the title "master showman" dozens of times over, earned a position among the 100 most important people of the millennium, and received Life magazine's title, "The Patron Saint of Promoters". These titles not only speak to Barnum's abilities, but also to America's love of entrepreneurship, risk-taking performances, and belief in the romance of the road… all of which combine to form the "Big Top" fascination held by children of all ages.
Decorating & Food Ideas
Fun Ideas to Create a Circus Atmosphere
- Circus Tent - Use brightly-colored streamers to form a canopy over the center of the table, simulating a circus tent. The streamers should cascade from a point in the middle (i.e. the center of the ceiling or a chandelier), down and out to the sides of the room. You can also hang red, blue, and yellow plastic table covers from the ceiling down over the walls of the party room to make it look like the inside of a circus tent.
- Circus Table Decorations - Decorate the party tables with red, blue and yellow table covers topped with centerpieces made from clusters of your child’s stuffed animals. Alternatively, you can make table centerpieces using tall popcorn boxes with balloons and streamers coming out of the center of each box.
- Trapezes - Create monkeys on flying trapezes by stringing rope though empty paper towel tubes and hanging them throughout the party space. Then, set one of your own stuffed monkeys on each trapeze.
- Party Admission Tickets - As your guests arrive, hand each an admission ticket. You can purchase rolls of admissions tickets, make your own, or print copies of our Carnival Tickets on cardstock and cut them out.
- Easy Clown Costumes - Provide each guest with a red clown nose and a hat as they arrive. The hats can be made by gluing large pom-poms to the tops of cone-shaped party hats, or you can make them using the instructions in our Clown Hats activity.
- Face Painting & Temporary Tattoos - Once your guests settle in, have an older child or adult ready to apply temporary tattoos or face paint to the children's faces.
- Balloons - Balloons are always a hit with children, and they definitely add to a circus atmosphere! Tie groups of five helium balloons to balloon weights, and place them around the party space. For impact, use a mixture of our circus balloons with two or three solid color latex balloons. Tie a balloon to the back of each chair, and tie a group of five balloons to the birthday child’s chair!
- Strongman's Barbell - Make a fake barbell from a wooden dowel with plastic balls glued onto each end. Spray paint it black, and add the words "500 lbs." to each end with a white paint pen from a craft store.
- Circus Posters - Make easy circus posters using pages from any circus coloring book. Just enlarge the pages at an office supply store, and then color them yourself with craft paint or watercolor crayons, which cover large areas easily. Or, create circus signs with craft paint and poster board. Include wording such as: "Welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth!", "Under the Big Top!", or "AMAZING!" Hang the posters on the walls throughout the party space.
- Bubble Fun - Purchase or borrow a bubble blower, and aim it into the center of the party space.
- Animal Cage - Cut an empty appliance box to resemble an animal cage, set it inside a little red wagon, and add stuffed animals peeking out from the cage.
- Circus Pinata - Consider purchasing an animal-shaped pull-string pinata if you would rather not have small children swinging a bat. We offer a selection of traditional and pull-string pinatas, but any traditional pinata can be converted to a pull-string one using our easy instructions.
- Ticket Booth - Set up a ticket booth at the front door or at the entrance to the party area. Have an adult wearing a top hat or clown outfit manage the ticket booth. He or she can distribute carnival tickets which your guests can exchange for candy, prizes, and participation in activities. Make sure each guest gets enough tickets to be able to participate in most, if not all, activities.
- Three-Ring Circus - Use three hula hoops to form a "three-ring circus" in the party area. Flip a small, cylindrical trashcan upside down to make a stand in one of the circles, and set a stuffed elephant, lion or other circus animal on it to complete the decoration.
- Clowning Around - Ask an older child or adult to dress as a clown and make balloon animals for the children. Use our easy Balloon Animals Kit that includes an instruction book, balloons, and a balloon inflator. There’s no need to master the entire book! One or two basic shapes will delight young children.
- Circus Music - Circus, carnival, or other peppy music will add to the atmosphere. Check the Internet, a local book or music store, or a library for CDs or tapes with appropriate songs like "Elephant's March."
Circus Style Snacks
When it comes to food, partygoers are usually perfectly content to eat pizza or hotdogs, which is certainly much easier on the hosts! However, if you have the time and would like to serve up some more interesting treats, consider these ideas:- Traditional Circus Fare - Offer food the kids might find at the circus, such as hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, cracker jacks, pretzels, peanuts in the shell, lemonade, and cola or root beer floats.
- Concession Stand - Make a poster for the food area that says “Concession Stand”, and include pictures of the snacks you’ll be serving. If desired, you can give the kids a few additional tickets that they can use to "buy" party food. For added fun, ask an older sibling or neighbor to dress as a clown and hand out the snacks.
- Fun Drinks - Add a shaped silly straw to each guest's drink.
- Fresh Popcorn - Consider renting a commercial popcorn machine to give your circus an authentic feel. Everyone loves freshly-popped popcorn! For added fun, serve the popcorn in red- and white-striped popcorn bags.
- Sweet Circus Treats - Make sweet circus treats for your guests using a borrowed, rented or purchased snow cone maker or cotton candy machine.
- Ice Cream Surprise - Ask a local ice cream truck to make a stop at the party.
- Funny Fruit - Display a fruit tray in the shape of a clown face. Try using apple slices to form the face, strawberries for the red hair and nose, red grapes for the eyes and the smile, and blueberries for a hat. (Note: The apple slices will be less likely to brown if you soak them in lemon juice and water before making the clown face.)
- Animal Crackers - Serve animal crackers for a theme-appropriate snack. Use the boxes as decorations, or add name tags to the sides of them to serve as place cards at the table.
- A Fun Bagged Lunch - Serve your guests their snacks in popcorn bags. Fill each bag with a hotdog wrapped in foil, ketchup and mustard packets, animal cracker cookies, and a juice box before the party.
- Clown Cupcakes - Bake or purchase cupcakes with white frosting. Decorate each to look like a clown's face using a red gum drop nose, two star cereal eyes, a banana runt or a snip of red licorice string for a mouth, and a few puffs of cotton candy as the hair. If you like, add ice cream cones turned upside down to form the clown's hat.
- Circus Cake - Bake or purchase a 9" x 13” cake, and cover it with white frosting. Next, pipe on lots of balloons in red, yellow and blue using tubes of colored icing available at the grocery store. Add the words “Happy Birthday” if you wish, and set a few toy circus animals around the edges.
- Clown Ice Cream - Make upside-down ice cream cone clown heads using scoops of bright orange or raspberry sherbet topped with sugar cone "hats" surrounded by rings of icing "ruffles." Make faces on the ice cream scoops using round, red candy for the noses (try gumballs), M&Ms and frosting for the eyes, and red licorice strings for the mouths. Make these ahead of time, and freeze them until you're ready to serve them to your guests.
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