American Girl Kids’ Party Ideas

American Girl Kit Kittredge is on her way to the big screen this summer in an adventure of a lifetime!  Kit’s story takes place during the depression in America, where her family is getting by when her father seeks work in a big city, and her mom and Kit get along by taking in boarders to their home who have colorful personalities, including a magician, a dance, a librarian, darling dog Grace, and even a Monkey.  It’s going to be an adventure when Kit comes across a mystery she must solve to save her family’s home and keep them together.  This is going to be a fantastic movie this summer, and will be a great party this summer too.

An American Girl Party can be done several different ways…it would make for a wonderful tea party or slumber party.

Special Note: Do not assume that your party guests will have American Girl dolls.  This would be a great party to request that everyone bring their American Girl Dolls, but make sure BEFORE you request people bring them, that everyone has one.  Otherwise, it will be quite awkward for a guest to attend who doesn’t have an American Girl doll.  Make sure to check with parents before the party invitations are sent out, or don’t make a specific request, and discuss it when guests’ parents RSVP.

For this thematic party, you can either make it all around American Girls and/or specific to the movie.  Find ideas here that cover both:

For the party invitation, purchase old fashioned taffy sheets and repackage using colorful cellophane.  Attach a vintage-inspired postcard to the taffy and write all of the party details on it.  Hand-deliver these invitations to your guests to get them in the mood of the party.

Activity Ideas:

Make jewelry for the dolls, either for all of the dolls that were brought or for the birthday girl’s doll.  Small beaded bracelets, necklaces, belts, hair clips are all great ides.

Make crafts for the dolls. Buy different shades of clay at a local craft store. Have the girls make doll-sized cookies, ice cream cones with dribbles down the side, chocolate bars, cookies with bites out of them, pancakes, waffles, lollipops, etc.  Bake the clay at 275 degrees for 15 minutes and let them cool.

Xerox and enlarge your daughter’s favorite doll paper dolls, many sets are available on-line and at Costco. Make the doll and clothes big, hang the doll on the wall and have the girls decorate it with different dresses, hats, etc. Even get clothes pictures from other dolls that are radically different so the doll gets different looks. Imagine American Girl Julie wearing Kaya’s clothes.

For a slumber party activity, have the guests watch American Girl movies: Samantha: An American Girl Holiday, and Felicity: An American Girl Adventure.

For a snack, make up trays of sweet & salty snacks, including popcorn, pretzels, raisins, M&Ms, sweet cereal, graham crackers, etc. and have them dish them up into rolled tubes of brown paper, an old fashioned way to enjoy the snacks.

Make sleeping sacks for dolls to sleep in for the night.  Buy fleece  and make it 12″ wide x 22″ long. Fold it over & keep it open on three sides.  Place the fold on the left. Cut 3″ out of the lower right corner and 3″ deep slits 1 inch apart around the bottom and half way up the right side.  On the upper right, round the corners and pin the fabric so it does not slip. Have the girls tie the slits of fabric to each other (top one to bottom one…make sure they stay lined up).  A perfect sleeping spot for the dolls and a great goody item to take home.

Have an American Girl Fashion Show.  Dress up the dolls that are at the party and purchase accessories at a craft or dime store.  Boas, hats, belts, purses, hair clips are all options to dress up the dolls.

Create activities to match the different eras of the American Girls.  As examples:

Kit, 1934:  Kit’s story centers around the Hobo life and is the first American Girl movie to be released in the cinemas.  Here are some activities to match the movie:

1. Decorate the party room with Hobo signs have guests guess what each symbol stands for.
2. Just like the librarian in the movie, have the guests create their own mini-stories using paper, a hole punch, craft supplies, and yarn for binding.
3. Put on a magic show.
4. Have a dance competition, like the eccentric dance that moves into the house.  Kick up some moves with or without the dolls.

Kaya, 1764, Have the girls take off and line up their shoes and then leave the room.  Hide a stone in one shoe and the guests must guess which shoe holds the stone.

Felicity, 1774, Have everyone sit in a circle with one person in the center.  Have the circle of girls passing the ring behind their backs until the person in the middle, who has a blindfold on, calls out STOP.  She must determine who has the ring!

Josefina, 1824: Have one player be an angel and the rest of the guests pick a rainbow color and keep it to themselves. The angel calls out a color. If it is the one you are thinking of you have to run & tag a predetermined base to be safe. If the angel catches you, you become the angel & guess the colors.  If no one is caught or is thinking of the angel’s color, then the game continues with another guess as the players think of a new color.

Kirsten, 1854: Have the guests stand in a circle and begin with, “I have a basket…”, to which the other’s reply “What’s in your basket?” The 1st girl has to think of something that starts with the letter A, the next B, and so on. If you can not think of an item that starts with your letter, you are out. The game continues until only one is standing.

Addy, 1864:  Call out “Hot boiled beans and bacon for supper, come & eat it while it’s hot!”to one guest sent out of the room. Then, hide a small object and call the girl who was “it” to come find it.  Call out colder and hotter as she moves farther away or closer to the object until she finds it.

Samantha, 1904: Play a silly parlor game.  Group the guests in teams of threes.  The first group draws a picture of a head.  The next group draws a picture of a torso.  The third team draws a picture of legs. When they are done, open the papers to see what has been made.

Molly, 1944:  Play a patriotic-themed game since her time period is WW2. Hide small flag stickers around the party are  Give the group 30 seconds to gather as many as they can.

For the Party Menu:

If it is a tea that you are serving, small sandwiches filled with cream cheese and jam or a favorite chicken salad, or cucumber dill would be delicious.  Mini scones with jam and clotted cream would be lovely.  Small lemon tarts, brownies, and mini cupcakes would make wonderful sweet treats.

For a slumber party, prairie food would be a good choice: hot dogs, baked beans, cole slaw, chips and dips, and colorful birthday cake would make a great menu.  Don’t forget the sweet and salty snack mix too!

For a goody: Send the guests home with the crafts they made.  Additionally, you can provide a small whisker basket for the guests to carry their items in.  Other ideas are mini homemade bread loaves, rag dolls, and old fashioned penny candy.

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