Mermaid Birthday Party – Part 1

With the release of the Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia movie, it’s all about mermaids this summer. If you know a little one who wants a magical mermaid birthday party, here’s a fun and inexpensive idea.

The challenge of a mermaid birthday party is that mermaids cannot walk! So if you want the guests to really feel like mermaids, you will need to plan for this downside.

To make each guest feel like a real mermaid, we will carefully wrap their legs with colorful fabrics. The simplest way to do this is to gather several bright, colorful fabrics, each at least a meter or so. Blankets and sheets can work too, and the thrift store has a good selection of fabrics. But you will find the best in the fabric store. Check the free space section first.

Before the guests arrive, choose a pleasant area or room to decorate luxuriously. Since mermaids will party here, make it look beautiful. Is your theme an underwater cave or a palace? Cover furniture with dark colored blankets or fabrics to make them look like rocks. Hang different shades of blue crepe paper all over the ceiling and walls. Place paper fish and seaweed on the walls and windows (or hanging from the ceiling). Try to make the room look as blue as possible, maybe hang a blue sheet over a sunny window. Scatter real or paper starfish and seashells around. Place an old trunk in the room and fill it with costume jewelry, gold candy coins, maybe some sand and seashells, craft jewelry, glass stones, and whatever else you can find in a treasure chest. Each of your guests will be able to choose several items from the chest before leaving, instead of a bag of goodies. (You decide how many items they can choose, or maybe each child gets a handful.)

Another room theme could be an ocean beach. For this idea, you want the room to be as sunny as possible. Cover the floor with sand-colored blankets; pillows can be stones. Cover the furniture with dark lava rock blankets. Scatter seashells, crepe paper green algae, driftwood, and starfish around the room. You could even put on an ocean wave sound effect if you have a noise generator! Again, place a treasure chest somewhere in the room as well.

As each guest arrives, let them choose which fabric will be their own mermaid tail. Then escort them to the party room and carefully wrap the fabric around their legs. You can simply tuck the end in to keep it in place, or use a safety pin or a fabric strap or ribbon to tie it in place. Leave your feet free last and make sure there is enough extra fabric hanging to cover your feet. I advise you to make each guest go to the bathroom before you put your tail! And be sure to instruct each guest to ask for help if they need to go somewhere. It’s a good idea to make the tail tight enough to look like a mermaid tail, but loose enough that a person can carefully walk to the couch if they need to. Just make sure someone is always watching and helping anyone who wants to move in! If not, it is best for each guest to stay in one place during the party.

If it’s hot enough, guests can show up in their bathing suits and they will really look like mermaids. There should be plenty of comfortable pillows and blankets around, so that each mermaid can rest comfortably.

After all the guests have transformed into mermaids, it’s time for the fun to begin. Look out for the Mermaid Birthday Party: Part 2!