Plan a top secret party your little secret agents will love with our Spy Party Ideas! Boys and girls alike will enjoy a spy theme party, and our planning guide will help you create a super secret agent event!
This theme is most popular with children ages 6 to 12. However, you can accommodate a younger crowd by using only the easier activities detailed below.
Spy Party Invitations & Planning
It's important to select a location for your Spy Party early in the planning process. If you'd rather not have the party at home, consider 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 Party, it's time to start thinking about what supplies you'll need. If you plan to use paper tableware and Spy-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 is intended only as a guide.
Top Secret Invitations
Creative invitations build excitement and can increase attendance at your child's spy 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:
- Use colored construction paper folded in half, and decorate the cover with stamps or scrapbooking decorations featuring fedoras, magnifying glasses, or shoeprints. Include the party details inside. Mail each invitation in a small manila envelope with "Top Secret" written or stamped on it.
- Provide the party details in a creatively-worded way. Use our sample message, or write your own:
Secret Agent [birthday child’s name] invites you on a top-secret mission—
Code Name: Operation Birthday Party!
This mission will begin at [party time] on [party date] at [child's name]'s secret hideout:
[party address]
If you choose to accept this assignment, dial [phone number] from a secure phone line, and ask for Secret Agent [parent's first name]!
- Seal the envelopes with spy stickers.
- Invite your guests to come wearing disguises.
For a special touch, let us print personalized invitations for you! We’ll include your child’s name and all the party details surrounded by a spy-themed border. You can also take a look at the blank invitations we offer, which are quick to fill in and mail. See all our spy party invitations.
Spy Party Favors
Thank your guests for attending your child's spy party with fun favors like spy fedoras, temporary tattoos, spy stickers, magnifying glasses, mini squirt guns, binoculars, sunglasses, inflatable globes, and compasses. If you'd like to create your own goody bags, take a look at our large selection of individual party favors, favor bags, and favor boxes. If you want to add candy, we offer lots of sweet treats that kids love, too!
Did you know that we can make personalized spy party favors for each of your guests? Consider our popular Spy Party Bag Tags, which can be easily attached to backpacks or lunchboxes and enjoyed long after the party has ended. Just enter your guests' names, and we’ll do the rest! Whichever favors you choose, your guests are sure to remember this top-secret event for a long time!
Additional Spy 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 recipes and decorating 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 spy party.
Spy Decorations & Food Ideas
Fun Ideas To Set The Mood
- Using sidewalk chalk, draw large footprints on the driveway or walk leading up to your door.
- Hang a sign on your front door that says "Secret Agent Training Center".
- Welcome your guests with a custom message printed on one of our Spy Party Personalized Banners!
- Twist together streamers in two or three colors, drape them along the walls, and wrap them around chairs and/or banisters. You can also hang strips of streamers across the doorways leading into the party area for a curtain effect.
- Balloons are always a hit with children! Tie groups of five helium balloons to balloon weights, and place them around the party space. For impact, use a mixture of Mylar Balloons and solid color latex balloons. Tie a balloon to the back of each chair along the party table, and tie a group of five balloons to the birthday child’s chair.
- Add color to the walls with your own construction paper or poster board cutouts of footprints, magnifying glasses, and maps.
- Items you may already own—like binoculars, magnifying glasses, cameras, flashlights, fedoras, and play money—can be grouped together to create a centerpiece for the party table.
- Consider a pull-string pinata if you would rather not have small children swinging a bat. Don't worry if the pinata you like best isn't available with pull-strings; you can easily convert a traditional pinata using our easy instructions.
Secret Agent Snacks
Serve your guests traditional treats with fun, spy-themed names. Here are a few examples to get you started:
- Mystery Munch - Prepare a snack mix of yummy foods like mini-pretzels, tiny fish crackers, M&Ms, mini marshmallows, and gummy candies.
- Kid-favorite hot dogs become Detective Dogs.
- Serve Mission Impossible pizza.
- Set out a Secret Agent Snack Tray of cut-up carrots, celery, cheese, crackers, and veggie dip for your sleuths to nosh.
- Spy Salsa is simply tortilla chips and salsa.
- Your Spy Birthday Cake can either be a round cake decorated as a bomb with dark frosting and a red licorice string fuse or a 9" x 13" cake frosted in white icing and piped with frosting shapes of a magnifying glass and footprints walking across the cake. Use sparkler candles or trick candles that re-light for more fun.
Spy Games & Activities
Tell your aspiring spies they are enrolled in a top-secret Spy Training Course, and they need to demonstrate their skills to become certified spies. Choose any combination of the ideas below to create your own Spy Training Course. At the end of the party, hand out Spy School Certificates to each guest to show they passed their Spy Training!
Spy Word Hunt: To keep the children busy while you wait for all your guests to arrive, print copies of our Spy Word Hunt and let them find all the hidden words. If desired, you may print a copy of our answer key (below) as well.  Fingerprinting: Using washable ink pads and index cards, have your guests take each other’s thumbprints. Make sure to have a box of hand wipes ready to clean their fingers afterwards.
Destroy the “Bombs”: Fill black balloon “bombs” with air (not helium), and tell the children to destroy them all. Stand back and watch the fun as the children sit or stomp on the balloons to destroy them!
Disguises: Every spy should be able to change his/her appearance. Offer a variety of different clothes, hats, sunglasses, and washable markers, and let each of your guests create a disguise. (Use the markers for freckles, scars, and mustaches.)
I Spy: This classic game is perfect for a spy-themed party! Start with the birthday child, and let him/her secretly choose an item in the room. Then have him/her tell your guests “I Spy something [give the color of the item].” One at a time, let each guest try to guess the object the birthday child has chosen. Whoever guesses correctly gets to choose the next secret item.
Listening Skills: Have all of your guests sit in a row with the birthday child on one end. Before the party, choose a message for the birthday child to whisper to the child next to him/her. Each child whispers the message on down the line, and the last child announces to everyone what they heard. If they get the message right, they all passed their listening training! If they don’t get the right message, they’ll all be laughing at whatever the message has become!
Secret Code Breaking: Make a simple code by assigning the letters of the alphabet to random numbers. Write a message in code on index cards before the party, and pass them out with pencils when your guests arrive. See if the children can decode their secret messages. Alternatively, you can give each of your older guests a copy of our Crack the Code Cryptoquiz puzzle. Print a copy of the answers as a reference, too. If any of the children have trouble with the puzzle, give them one of the letters or phrases from the answer sheet to get them started.
Who Am I? Game: Write down the names of movie and cartoon characters the children will know on index cards. Have all of the children sit down, except for the birthday child. Tape a name on the birthday child's back, and have him/her stand with his/her back to the group so your guests can read the name taped to his/her back. Then, he/she must ask the group yes or no questions until correctly guessing which character he/she has been assigned. Let everyone have a turn. Appropriate characters for this game may include Shrek, Cinderella, Harry Potter, Tinker Bell, Aladdin, Mr. Incredible, James Bond, etc.
Secret Agent Obstacle Course: Tell your guests that secret agents need to show strength and speed. Set up an obstacle course in your home or yard using everyday objects like a wooden board "balance beam", a nylon tunnel, a play fort or small tent as “enemy headquarters”, a slide as an “escape chute”, hula hoops set on the ground, bean bag chairs to jump over, etc.
Memory Test: Fill a tray with 10-15 items a spy might use, like a passport, binoculars, a camera, a watch, a magnifying glass, an inkpad for fingerprinting, and so on. Let the children study the tray for about 15 seconds, then cover the tray and remove one item. Bring the tray back, uncover it and ask your guests which item is missing. When someone guesses correctly, start the game over. If desired, you can award a small prize to each child who guesses correctly.
Satellite Photo Identification: Print overhead satellite photos from the internet of familiar places such as your house, your child's school, a local grocery store, a baseball stadium, your guests’ homes, etc. Show them to the children one at a time, and let your guests try to identify them. They will be especially excited to see their own houses! Use Google Earth or another website to find the photos.
Writing an Invisible Message: Before the party, prepare a bowl of lemon juice and gather up some cotton swabs, such as Q-Tips. Let each guest dip a Q-tip in lemon juice, use it to write a message on a piece of paper, and then let it dry. To read their messages, the children must hold their slips of paper up to a warm light bulb or candle, being careful not to burn themselves or their papers. After a moment, the lemon juice will darken and reveal the messages.
Following Clues: All spies need the ability to follow clues! Tell the children an enemy spy has stolen their goody bags! Make up clues before the party, and hide them in the yard or party area. Hand the children the first clue, and let them start searching! Each clue should lead to another envelope containing a clue. The final clue should lead to the stolen goody bags. You can substitute a piñata or the birthday cake as the stolen item, if you prefer.
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