Children's costume party-not Halloween, need ideas.....

busygourmet

My DS wants to have a costume birthday party but I don't want it to be a Halloween theme. However, I have been searching online for weeks and cannot find any ideas that are not Halloween related costume parties. Anyone have any suggestions, ideas on how to plan for his party?

Maybride2

Dress up like their favorite storybook character? We used to do that in elementary school and it was always fun.

grahamsm3

One of the best birthday parties I had when I was little was a dress up party - with things that would go in preschool's dramatic play area.

We were all girls so we did old dresses, fancy hats, gloves, scarves, and costume jewelry that was donated by older relatives and took pictures of everyone all dressed up.

so google things like dramatic play costumes, dramatic play center, preschool dress up, dress up party, dress up birthday - I think the shift from 'costume' to 'dress up' will help a lot to weed out Halloween

some companies that might have costumes -

lakeshore

discount school supply

environments

community playthings 

kaplan  

party ideas - it was hard to weed out girly ideas - I only came up with 2 and the second is meh.

http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/dress-up.html 

http://www.kidspartyfun.com/pages/themes/dressup.html 

Wine Enthusiast

What if you go for a specific theme, like dress up as a cowboy/girl and do a Western theme, pirate and go with a Pirates of the Caribbean theme, something like that.  You could look on Oriental Trading or Party City's websites for theme ideas and see if you like any of them for a costume theme.

busygourmet

Yes, I am leaning towards having it be a specific theme. He told me he wants to do a Stars Wars theme. So then do you ask all the kids to wear Star Wars costume or just tell them it's a costume party, they can wear any costume they want, and he will wear his Star Wars costume?

wejustwant2:)

Hi!  I just worked a party that was "dress-up" and not Halloween (It was two weeks ago).  All of the children came dressed in their costumes and they hired me to paint faces - which I did to coordinate... ie. Spiderman got a Spiderman Face, Batman, Fairy Princess etc.

 The parents loved it because they didn't have to buy anything and they all got a second use out of their kids Halloween Costumes.  I plan on doing something like this for my girls' birthday party in October.

Good Luck and please post pictures and let us know how it turns out.

 

Maybride2

busygourmet:

Yes, I am leaning towards having it be a specific theme. He told me he wants to do a Stars Wars theme. So then do you ask all the kids to wear Star Wars costume or just tell them it's a costume party, they can wear any costume they want, and he will wear his Star Wars costume?

Well, with it being nowhere near Halloween right now finding specific costumes will be harder to do. And as a parent who is already bringing a gift to the party, I don't want to have to spend more time and money on a costume that probably won't get much use. If DS couldn't go in something he already owned, he'd likely be going sans costume.

InkBlotTest

busygourmet:

Yes, I am leaning towards having it be a specific theme. He told me he wants to do a Stars Wars theme. So then do you ask all the kids to wear Star Wars costume or just tell them it's a costume party, they can wear any costume they want, and he will wear his Star Wars costume?

 Hmmm...I dont think I would ask all of the kids to wear a Star Wars costume, as many kids may night like Star Wars, and if their kids dont like Star Wars, I'm sure the parents wont want to buy their kid a Star Wars costume.  However, your son can still wear his costumer, and you can still have a Star Wars theme, but maybe broaden the genre of costumes the other kids can wear, maybe make it a space theme or something a little less movie-specific.

LisaMinFL

What about a super hero party?

http://www.hostessblog.com/2011/02/vintage-pop-art-superhero-birthday-party/

Have "capes"  and masks as the favors, that way kids can wear whatever, but put on a quick costume?

Or you could do a pirate and princess theme. Have mini tiaras, boas, foam swords, and eye patches for everyone...

 

LisaMinFL

oh this is cute too, star wars...(I must have missed that part earlier..)

http://www.makeandtakes.com/star-wars-birthday-party-ideas

 

GatorWedsNole

Could you have accessories that could be used as Star Wars costumes?  Think brown ear muffs for the girls and black"darth vadar type hats for the for the boys. 

I don't think it's a good idea to ask parents to buy costumes, but your son can have his as the bday boy and the rest of the kids can play dress up. 

GL!

lyndonbrogan

What about a fruit and vegetable themed party? You can also build your menu around that?or have a sea life theme and serve food accordingly