Carnival Party. Party Themes

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Party Themes. Carnival Party.

The circus is coming to town and it's bringing a party with it! Turn your house, yard, or garage into a big top celebration, with lots of goodies, games, and kooky clowns. It's carnival time for kids of all ages!

INVITATIONS
COSTUMES
DECORATIONS
GAMES
ACTIVITIES
FOOD
FAVORS
VARIATIONS
HELPFUL HINTS

INVITATIONS up

Make clown masks using construction paper, felt-tip pens, sequins, and glitter. Use a glue gun or super glue to attach a red rubber ball for a nose, then cut out eye holes. Tie a string to either side of each mask, write the party details on the inside of masks, and mail them in large envelopes.
Insert invitations into boxes of circus animal crackers. Place each box of crackers into another small box to keep the crackers from being crushed in the mail.

COSTUMES up

Ask your guests to come dressed as clowns! Suggest they dress in colorful, baggy thrift-shop clothes. Decorate their faces with face paint.
Have the kids dress like circus animals or as one of the side show characters.
Award costume prizes for funniest, most creative, scariest, saddest, and so on.

DECORATIONS up

Make your own big-top tents by hanging sheets and blankets or crepe paper streamers from the ceiling.
Create carnival game booths using large cardboard appliance boxes painted with poster paint.
Fill the party room with multicolored balloons for a festive atmosphere.
Place stuffed animals and clown dolls around the party room for an added attraction.
Distribute items used in a circus, such as hoops, nets, batons, and so on, throughout the party room.

GAMES up

Have the party "animals" do some circus stunts, taking turns being the ringmaster who gives orders. The kids can jump through hoops, leap over ropes, duck under sticks, and step through tires and other obstacles while behaving like animals.
Play carnival games using the cardboard-box booths. Include such games as Ring the Soda Bottle with rings cut from tag-board; Gone Fishin' with sticks, string, and magnets for fishing poles: Penny Platter with pennies tossed on a plate; Catch a Goldfish with real goldfish in a kiddy pool that the kids try to catch with their hands; and Water Gun Shooting Gallery with squirt guns to shoot small plastic bottles off a ledge.

ACTIVITIES up

Have each kid draw a clown face on a large sheet of paper using felt-tip pens, crayons, or paint. See who can come up with the funniest face.
If the kids don't come with their faces already painted, have them use face paint to decorate each other's faces to look like clowns.
Instead of having the kids wear costumes to the party, provide a variety of funny, old, thrift-store clothes at the party, and have them mix and match to reate their own crazy clown look.

FOOD up

Set out plates of animal crackers for snacking.
Make Animalwiches by cutting animal shapes out of bread with cookie cutters. Fill with favorite spreads.
Cut out slices of bread, cheese, and meat using animal cookie cutters. Place all animal shapes on a platter and let the kids assemble their animal sandwiches as they would a puzzle.

FAVORS up

Send the kids home with small stuffed animals you'd find at a circus.
Make popcorn bails and give them to the kids to take home.
Let the kids keep the small toys they win at the game booths.

VARIATIONS up

Go to the circus or the carnival if it's in town and enjoy a real big top and Ferris wheel. (Be sure to have enough adult supervision.)
Find out when your local communities are hosting festivals, and make one of those events the focus of your party.

HELPFUL HINTS up

Be sure to have lots of prizes on hand for the games - for both winners and losers - so everyone has a good time and feels successful!
Have the kids win tickets instead of toys at the carnival booths, then have them cash in the tickets for a prize at the end of the party.
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