American Girl Party Ideas

American Girl Kit Kittredge hit the big screen last summer in the adventure of a lifetime! Kit’s story takes place during the depression in America. Her father has left to seek work in a big city, and Kit and her mom get along by taking colorful boarders into their home, including a magician, a dancer, a librarian, a darling dog named Grace, and even a monkey. The adventure begins when Kit comes across a mystery she must solve in order to save her family’s home and keep them together. This is a fantastic movie, and makes for a great summer party too!

An American Girl party can be done as a tea party or slumber party.

Special Note: Do not assume that your party guests will have American Girl dolls. It would be very fun if everyone could bring her American Girl doll, but make sure that everyone has one BEFORE you request that people bring them. You can either check with parents before your send invitations out, or discuss it when they RSVP for their child. Otherwise, it will be quite awkward for a guest to attend who doesn’t have an American Girl doll.

You can either make this party revolve around all American Girl dolls, or make it specific to the movie. Here are ideas that cover both:

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

For the Activities:
Make jewelry for either all of the guests’ dolls or for the birthday girl’s doll. Small beaded bracelets, necklaces, belts, and hair clips are all great ides.

Make crafts for the dolls. Buy different colors of clay at a local craft store. Have the girls make doll-sized cookies, ice cream cones, chocolate bars, pancakes, waffles, lollipops, etc. Bake the clay at 275 degrees for fifteen minutes, and let the creations cool.

Use a Xerox machine to photocopy and enlarge your daughter’s favorite American Girl paper doll and different outfits for it (these paper dolls are available online or at Costco). At the party, hang the doll on the wall. Have the girls decorate different dresses, hats, etc., for it. Make sure to provide clothes from other paper doll sets and eras so the doll gets many different looks. Imagine American Girl Julie wearing Kaya’s clothes! What fun!

If you are having a slumber party, have the guests watch the American Girl movies: Samantha: An American Girl Holiday and Felicity: An American Girl Adventure.

For the movie, make up trays of sweet and salty treats, including popcorn, pretzels, raisins, M&M’s, sweet cereal, or graham crackers. Dish them up into rolled tubes of brown paper for an old-fashioned way to enjoy the snacks.

Make sleeping bags for the dolls to sleep in for the night. Buy fleece and cut it into pieces 12″ wide x 22″ long. Fold the fleece over and 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” apart around the bottom and halfway up the right side. Round the upper right hand corner and pin the fabric so it does not slip. Have the girls tie the slits of fabric to each other (the top one to the bottom one … make sure they stay lined up). This creates a perfect sleeping spot for the dolls and a great goody item for the guests to take home.

Have an American Girl fashion show. Dress the dolls up in accessories from a craft or dime store. Boas, hats, belts, purses, and hair clips are all great accessory options.

Do activities that 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:

• Decorate the party room with Hobo signs, and have guests guess what each symbol stands for.
• 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.
• Put on a magic show.
• Have a dance competition to mimic the eccentric dancer 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 have the guests guess which shoe holds the stone.

Felicity, 1774: Have everyone sit in a circle with one blindfolded person in the center. Have the circle of girls pass a ring behind their backs until the person in the middle calls out “Stop.” Then the person 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. Then have the angel call out a color. The person who picked that color must run and tag a predetermined base to be safe while the angel tries to catch her. If the angel catches the player, the player becomes the angel and starts to guess the colors. If the player isn’t caught or no one is thinking of the angel’s color, then the angel must continue to guess.

Kirsten, 1854: Have the guests stand in a circle, and have one start by saying, “I have a basket …” to which the others reply, “What’s in your basket?” The first guest must say something that starts with the letter A, the person next to her must say something that starts with the letter B, and so on. If a player cannot think of an item that starts with her letter, she is out. The game continues until only one is standing.

Addy, 1864: Name one guest as “It” and have her leave the room. When she is gone, have the other guests hide a small object. Once the object is hidden, call out “Hot boiled beans and bacon for supper, come and eat it while it’s hot!” When It returns, have the guests 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 three. Have the first group draw a head on a large piece of paper and fold it over. The next group will draw a picture of a torso and fold the paper over again. The third group will draw a pair of legs. When all three are done, open the papers to see the creature they made.

Molly, 1944: Since Molly’s era is during World War II, play a patriotic game. Hide small flag stickers around the party area. Give the group thirty seconds to gather as many of the stickers as they can.

For the Party Menu:
If you are having a tea party, serve small sandwiches filled with cream cheese and jam, chicken salad, or cucumber and dill. Mini scones with jam and clotted cream would also 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 the Goodies:
Send the guests home with the crafts they made. Additionally, you can provide a small wicker basket for them to carry their items in. Other things that would be fun are mini homemade bread loaves, rag dolls, and old fashioned penny candy.