Child Party Themes! Come be with me, Under the Sea!

Child Party Themes: Find oceans of fun, creative and entertaining ideas!

Come be with me, Under the Sea! If your child is wild about The Little Mermaid, Nemo or Spongebob Squarepants - the 'Under the Sea' theme fits perfectly with each 'sea' character! This general theme does not limit you to character specific ideas. Rather, it opens the door to welcome many more great ideas and options!

Invitations If your child is crazy about The Little Mermaid, Nemo or Spongebob Squarepants, there is a variety of store bought invitations for each of these child party themes, The Little Mermaid, Nemo and Spongebob Squarepants, and more. BirthdayExpress.com is a great online resource for child party themes like these.

If you are looking for a unique ‘Under the Sea’ invitation, you might consider using a message in a bottle.

Dollar stores generally have a selection of small, glass bottles, or, you can improvise by using an empty 8 – 20 oz size plastic bottle and removing the label.

Just add a little sand, a few small shells, a couple agates or pretty pebbles to the bottom of the bottle.

Next, roll up a piece of paper to fit in the bottle with the party information printed on it. Either parchment paper or blue paper would add to the ‘Under the Sea’ child party themes invitation.

These ‘Under the Sea’ child party themes invitations are best hand delivered, however, you may also package them safely in a box with blue colored tissue or grass and send them through the mail.

Party Plan
2 hours

:30 Guests arrive. Warmly greet the guests as they ‘swim’ through an ocean of streamers, seaweed and ocean life.

Next, while the guests are arriving, have the birthday boy or girl show their friends over to an area with an icebreaker activity. See the child party themes activities section below for ideas.

:30Child Party Themes Activities.
Choose 3 ‘Under the Sea’ activities as described in the section below. You may only have time for two, but if the games finish quickly, it’s a great idea to have a back up.

:20 Cake & fun food Kids rarely sit at a table during a birthday party for longer than 20 minutes – they’re too excited! Find cake & fun food ideas for child party themes, like ‘Under the Sea’ below.

:20 Presents. You may consider turning present time into a game. This will make present time organized fun! A great idea is to have the kids sit in a circle with their presents to the birthday boy or girl on their laps. Turn on beach music (The Little Mermaid soundtrack, Jimmy Buffet, Reggae are a few ideas sure to set the ‘Under the Sea’ mood) and have the kids pass the shell, fish – an ‘Under the Sea’ item – until the music stops. The child who is holding the item will give their present to the birthday boy or girl to open.

:20 ‘Sea’ you Later! After presents, you may consider one last activity that will calm the group down before parents pick them up. Ideas might include coloring pages at the same table the kids decorated their ocean life or making fish necklaces using gummy fish and dental floss.

Have the goodie bags ready to go, near the door as guests depart. This helps make ‘sea’ you later easier.

Child Party Themes Decorations
Here’s an opportunity to let YOUR creativity run WILD! The ‘Under the Sea’ party decorating ideas will vary depending on the time of year and where you will be having the birthday party.

If your ‘Under the Sea’ party is during the summer months or in a warm climate, you will be able to take advantage of the outdoors, sand and water for your decorations.

However, if your ‘Under the Sea’ party will be held indoors, there are plenty of great dry ideas!

Decorating the entrance with blue streamers with different ocean life or ocean characters taped to a few will encourage the guests to get in the spirit and swim on in!

An idea is to attach the blue streamers to a hula-hoop that is wrapped with blue streamers and hang the lightweight hula-hoop from the ceiling or sturdy ceiling light fixture with invisible fishing line.

A variety of blue latex helium balloons with green curling ribbon strings will also add to the ‘Under the Sea’ party atmosphere as water and seaweed – indoors and out!

You might also consider creating an ocean floor on your floor or walkway by adhering homemade construction paper ocean plants and sea life to the edges as a border. Perfect for underwater child party themes!

At party supply stores, including Birthday Express, you can also find a selection of the Little Mermaid, Nemo and Spongebob Squarepants theme decorations.

You can use cardboard from a large box to create child size mermaid tails, with painted scales embellished with glitter.

This also makes a great photo opportunity. Have the birthday girl and each friend stand behind a pair of mermaid tails. Then take either a digital picture or a traditional picture of each ‘mermaid’ to send home after the party with a thank you.

For the table, you might consider using a blue plastic tablecloth and inexpensive fish bowls for a punchbowl and serving pieces to add another ‘Under the Sea’ touch. Also, ocean theme confetti or shells sprinkled on the blue tablecloth and balloons create festivity.

Child Party Themes Activities
We’ve caught a great collection of ‘Under the Sea’ party activities:

’Under the Sea’ Artwork as an Icebreaker - Have the table set with an assortment of paper fish, starfish, sharks, (crayola.com is a great resource for printable color pages that you could either use as a template or print) stickers, markers and stamps. This is a great icebreaker and keeps the guests busy while waiting for the entire group to arrive.

’Under the Sea’ Guessing Game as an Icebreaker - Another ‘Under the Sea’ icebreaker activity is to have a guessing game. Fill a small glass fishbowl with ‘fish’ (Swedish or gummy fish) or ‘bait’ (colorful gumballs or jellybeans) and have each child guess how many there are. Have sheets of paper and markers for each child to write their name and the number that they guess (some adult assistance may be required). Whoever guesses closest to the number will get to take the ‘fish’ or ‘bait’ home as a prize.

’Under the Sea’ Pinata - Find a fish, The Little Mermaid, Nemo or Spongebob Squarepants shaped pinata (Birthday Express has a great pinata stock), fill with candy and small toys and let the kids take a swing! Be sure to set the rules and explain how important it is to follow the rules for safety’s sake. Label a zip lock bag with the child’s name to hold their treasures.

Soap Bubble Prints - This is a great outdoor activity or be sure to cover indoor work surfaces with a plastic tablecloth. Have an aluminum pie tin for each child and fill with bubble solution. Use 1 cup of store-bought bubble solution mixed with ½ cup tempera paint. (or to make homemade bubble solution mix 3 cups of water, 1 cup dish soap and ¼ cup corn syrup then mix with tempera paint using the same ratio, 1 cup bubble solution to ½ cup tempera paint). Next, give each child a straw and several papers, like white copier paper. It’s a good idea to label each sheet ahead of time with each child’s name, so they can claim their bubble art. Have the child blow bubbles in the pie tin just until the bubbles just begin to overflow. Then, gently lay the paper on the bubbles and you have a different print each time! Set out to dry.

Treasure Hunt! - Fill a small size child’s wading pool with sand and water. Bury an assortment of rubber toy sea life, coins, ‘Fools-Gold’ and shiny tumbled rocks for the treasure. Blindfold the child and let them hunt for the treasure. You may not need to blindfold younger kids. It’s a good idea to set a limit to how many pieces of treasure each child can hunt so there is enough for all. Zip lock plastic bags labeled with each treasure hunter’s name can be used to collect treasure.

Let’s go Fishing! - Use a child’s wading pool for this child party themes activity. Cut out an assortment of fish using buoyant Styrofoam plates. Attach a large paperclip to each fish. Number each fish, so there is one per guest. Using a dowel with fishing line with a magnet tied to the end for a fishing rod, have each child take turns fishing until they catch a fish. Have little prizes that correlate with the number on the caught fish. Everyone’s a winner!

Sea Snake! - Use about 8 feet of rope to make the ‘Sea Snake.’ On one end of the rope, use heavyweight cardboard cut out and decorated to look like the diamond shaped snake’s head. On the other end, create a rattle by filling a small plastic container one-third full with beans or rice. Attach the container to the rope and tape the container shut. To play, have an adult swing the ‘Sea Snake’ back and forth on the ground. The kids jump over the ‘Sea Snake’ without touching.

Pin the Fin on the Shark - This is the ‘Under the Sea’ version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Label a fin with each child’s name. Blindfold the child, spin and have them stick the fin on the shark.

Gummy Fish Necklaces - Pierce holes in gummy fish, gummy worms and gummy sharks. Then have the kids string the gummy candy on dental floss. Tie the ends to make a necklace.

Child Party Themes Cake & Fun Food
Fishbowl Punch: Here’s an idea for a fun blue ocean drink served in a fishbowl. Float refreezable plastic ice cubes or freeze ice cubes with gummy fish in them. In a large pitcher, mix 1 6 oz. Can of frozen lemonade concentrate, 4 cups water and ¼ sugar and 1 0.22 oz envelope blue-color unsweetened drink mix like Kool Aide. Stir in chilled 1 liter bottle of lemon-lime soda just before serving. Pour into fishbowl and add ice cubes.

Fin Crust Pizza: Roll out refrigerated biscuit dough into a 5” circle, then shape it into a fish. Top with pizza sauce, grated mozzarella cheese and arrange pepperoni slices to look like scales. Use an olive for the eye. Bake at 375 F degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. You could also cook a single serving, regular crust, pepperoni pizza according to the package directions, cut a wedge to resemble a fish and add an olive for the eye.

Goldfish crackers are always a quick and easy snack for ‘Under the Sea’ child party themes.

We have also found a variety of creative cake decorating ideas at http://www.bettycrocker.com, including easy to bake Goin’ Fishin’ cupcakes.

Another simple cupcake idea for underwater child party themes is to frost with blue colored frosting, top with Swedish or gummy fish candy or rainbow colored goldfish crackers. Then as the finishing touch, add tiny white bubbles using cake-decorating candies.

An ‘Under the Sea’ idea for a cake is a fishbowl cake. Turn a cake baked from packaged cake mix and white frosting into this creative birthday dessert! Bake the cake according to package directions in two, 8” x 1 ½” round pans. After the layers of cake have cooled, carefully stack and cut away about 1 ½” from the top and bottom, giving an oval fishbowl effect. Tint about 1/3 cup of the white frosting yellow and the remaining white frosting, tint light blue. Frost the cake with a light blue. Create a border around the top of the cake using a decorating bag fitted with a large star tip. Around the base of the cake, press Nerds candies into the wet frosting for a colorful, textured ocean floor. Place the remaining yellow frosting in a decorating bag fitted with a medium rose tip. Create oval fish above the ocean floor, with wavy fins. Add bubbles rising to the top of the cake from the fish using cake decorating disc candies.

Another great party idea for all child party themes is to scoop ice cream ahead of time and place the scoops in cupcake liners. Store covered in the freezer until cake time. This is a terrific time saver for these kinds of child party themes.

Child Party Themes Goodie Bags
Saving the goodie bags until the very end of the party make saying ‘Sea’ You Later easier for the school of guests.

A great ‘Under the Sea’ goodie bag is to use a square piece of ocean theme print fabric with the goodies placed in the middle, four corners pulled together and tied with sheer ribbon.

Or, use a blue colored lunch sack style paper bag. Cut a wave pattern along the top and fold over. The paper bag can be closed using an ‘Under the Sea’ theme sticker, or punch two holes with a hole-punch and thread a ribbon through.

‘Under the Sea’ goodie ideas include: a ‘Go Fish’ card game, fish stickers, bubbles, shells or little ocean theme toys. Oriental Trading Company is a terrific resource to find goodies for all types of child party themes at a reasonable price.

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