Pink Poodle Party (1950s)

Amount of Time: 5 to 20 hours

Budget: $150 to $500

Age Group: Best for school-aged kids, 6 to 16

Number of Guests: Large groups work best, 15+

Indoor/Outdoor: Indoor works well, preferably in a basement or other large, open space.

Special Notes: This is an especially favorite theme for school-aged kids and is relatively simple to organize. Guests add a lot to the “feel and theme” of the party by coming dressed up in 50’s attire. Also, many of the activities take place on the sock hop dance floor. So, planning time can be minimal if that is a factor. Also, if your kid wants a lot of people to attend this theme works well and is manageable with a large group.

Invitations:

Use some pink material and cut it into a poodle skirt and then trace out pink cardboard stock into the same shape. Paste the skirt material onto this colourful paperstock. On the inside include all of the party details.

Use clipart to decorate an invitation off of the computer, using a jukebox and other 50s memorabilia.

If you have a bunch of old 45 records lying around that you wouldn’t mind getting rid of, you could peel off the labels and print your own invitation labels on the album and send these. You could uses “album language,” i.e. you, as the host, could be the record producer, the guests the recording artists, etc.

Decorations:

Dress the birthday child in complete 1950s attire…full skirt, cardigan, Mary Janes, pink scarf, etc

Have your guests dress in 1950s attire. Pink Poodle skirts for the girls, jeans and white t-shirts for the boys. If the girls just come with a poofy skirt, have them pin a pink poodle craft on themselves. You could provide goody bags to the girls at the beginning of the party with stuff they could use: pink knapsacks full of mini tube of red lip gloss, bubble gum, jewellery, scarf, etc.
Play 1950’s Music.

Make a jukebox out of Styrofoam. You can do this either before the party as a decoration or as a craft at the party.

Have bright colored balloons and streamers decorated throughout the party area, and try to find one or two 1950’s themed helium balloons.

Have 50’s themed posters if you can find them.

Hang old records from the ceilings with bright-colored streamers.

Crafts:

Have guests draw/color a pink poodle and then decorate it with sequins, pink cotton balls, etc.

Provide black vests to the guests and have them decorate a pink poodle pin that they can immediately clip onto the vest.

Games/Activities:

Pin the tail on the Pink Poodle.

Have a 1950’s sock hop!

Enjoy a hand jive concert…to the music of Grease, of course!

Have a hula-hoop and jump rope contests.

Enjoy a Limbo competition.

Give away prizes of T-shirts and CDs ~ like it was from a record station. For smaller prizes, give out key chains, stickers, yo-yos.

Have a bubble-gum blowing contest.

Menu:

Serve 1950’s Drive-In Food:

Hot dogs, Hamburgers, curly fries, onion rings, milk shakes in a variety of flavours.

Make your own banana splits.

Serve root beer floats.

Serve the food in vintage red/white paper baskets.

Cake:

Make a round cake and decorate it as a record album ~ with a personalized album label for the birthday kid.

Make a sheet cake and frost and decorate it with a dance scene.

Make cupcakes, and decorate each one as a 45 LP with different labels from that era.

Goody Bags:

For goodies, you could use popcorn boxes from the movie theatre and fill them with an assortment of goodies. Some ideas include: glitter sunglasses, combs, microwave popcorn, mini coke bottles, gel pens with little notebooks, Blowpop lollipops.

Or buy vintage soda pop glasses and fill them with an assortment of candies.