Ahoy Matey, Pirates On Shore!

A pirate party can be really fun, popular and versatile. You can hold it indoors or outdoors, at your home or an outside venue, as a joint party for two siblings who are a few years apart, or for a boy or a girl. You can easily find supplies for this theme as well.

Check out these Pirates of the Caribbean party supplies to make your party planning easy!

For more pirate party supplies, visit Birthday in a Box.

For the Invitations:
Take a grocery bag or a piece of heavy brown paper, burn the edges, and write out the party details in “pirate speak.” You can roll up the paper and put it into a bottle with some sand and a few seashells. These would probably be best hand-delivered.

For a different kind of invitation, make a treasure map of your home, and mark an “X” where you will be burying treasure. Cut the pieces of the map into a puzzle, and send a piece to each one of your party guests. You can write all of the party details on the back side of the puzzle piece. Remind the guests to bring their puzzle pieces so they can put the map together and find the party’s buried treasure!

You can also give your invitation an aged look by waving a wet teabag over the paper and tearing the edges a bit.

Also check out these create-and-print pirate invitations.

For the Decorations:
Use a black tablecloth. Cover it with skull and crossbones confetti and chocolate gold coins.

Hang pirate signs all over, reading things like, “Danger!, “Beware!,” and “Only pirates should enter … at their own risk!”

Buy a skeleton and dress it up like a pirate.

Make a skull-and-crossbones flag.

Give bandanas and eye patches to your guests. You can give them these and other pirate gear to wear at the party and take home with them.

Line the front pathway to your door with lit tiki torches.

Use crossbones and black crepe paper in the dining area for a festive touch.

Face paint beards and little tattoos/scars on your pirate guests’ faces.

Blow up some inflatable palm trees.

For the Crafts:
For your first craft, make a pirate flag that can be hung during the party.

Decorate treasure chests with glitter, glue, stickers, felt pieces, gold ribbon, gold coins, etc.

Make paper telescopes.

For the Games and Activities:
Have a rule that once your guests enter the party, they must all speak like pirates. The kid who speaks like a pirate the most wins a prize!

Have the kids dress as pirates. Take a group photo. You could send this picture with your thank you notes.

Play Mop a Water Balloon. Break the kids up into two teams, and have one player from each team mop a water balloon across the room, around a pylon and back again. Continue until the all the kids have had a turn.

Play Walk the Plank. Lay down a large, wide strip of brown paper — the size of a plank. Blindfold one guest, spin him around a couple of times, and then have him walk the plank. Whoever makes it across the plank without falling off wins a prize.

Have a bean bag toss through the opening of a shark’s mouth.

Have a treasure hunt. Put clues around your home that lead to a treasure. Depending on the number of kids, have the guests work in teams or on their own. Make sure to hand out treasure maps and provide proper clues. You may have something little that they find at each clue as well. You could mark the different areas with fun names like “Blackbeard’s Watering Hole,” “Matey Prison Cell,” etc.

Play Pin the X on the Island, where the kids must get their Xs as close as the X on the island.

Set up a tent and have kids enter “skull cave.” Decorate it with lights inside, and have them retrieve a little goody in there, such as more pirate garb, a compass, or a telescope.

Break a pirate piñata.

Play Musical Islands instead of Musical Chairs. Either use little pieces of carpet or hula-hoops for the islands.

For the Menu:
Snacks:

For the Cake:
FamilyFun.com has some really cute cake ideas for this party. Check them out: a pirate ship and a treasure chest.

For the Goody Bags:
Stuff your treasure chest with individual treasure bags that the kids can take home with them. Fill the bags with gold chocolate coins, compasses, beads, tattoos, pirate pencils and erasers, glow in the dark stickers, and hand hooks.

Give out plastic swords.

You could also hand the treasures out in little plastic skulls, or sew loot bags with golden drawstrings.