The 12 Best Ideas For 6 Year Old Birthday Parties

Planning for a kid's birthday party can be daunting.

The options are endless with young kids' birthday parties. Some families prefer small gatherings with a handful of friends and family, while others choose to invite the whole class!

Birthday parties are so much fun at this age but the planning can be stressful! There is so much to take care of, the theme, the location, any entertainers your child might want, the party food and, of course, the birthday cake.

Kidadl is here to help, we have a guide to 7-year-old birthday party ideas and [first birthday party food] ideas, but for now, let's take some of the stress out of your party planning with our birthday party ideas specially geared towards 6-year-olds.

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Themes For 6 Year Old Birthday Parties

Put on a party to remember with our kids' birthday party themes and fun activities for 6-year-old birthday parties.

Two hours is a good duration for a 6th birthday party. This leaves plenty of time for entertainment and an unhurried birthday tea and cake.

There are no rules on how many guests you have to invite! Some children prefer to invite just a handful of their closest friends, while others want to invite every child they've met that year. A six-year-old can have as much fun with a small intimate party as they can with tons of guests.

One of the best things about themed parties is that decorating and catering are so much easier when you have a theme. Our themes are all unisex, so you can avoid gendered invites, décor, and party bags. Read on for ideas for fun 6-year-old birthday parties.

Circus

Hold up, a party where kids get to expend tons of energy, stuff themselves with cake, and learn new skills at the same time?

The main draw with a circus party is that little ones get to try out actual circus skills, so finding an entertainer who can teach the kids to juggle or hula hoop is key. Even a family member who knows how to do some basic tricks would be enough to make the bash a party to remember.

Most circus entertainers can offer a package lasting around 90 minutes, which will include a performance followed by a skills workshop.

Fill your space with colorful balloons. Many circus-themed parties favor red and white striped awnings, bunting, and tents. If you want a garden party, think about hiring a big marquee tent for the party.

A small tent would also work well for your cake and party food tables. The show and workshop can take place in the open air. If holding the party inside, try draping bunting or fabric from the ceiling to make it feel like a tent.

Many circus parties feature popcorn in individual cups. In fact, circus parties and movie parties often have similar party foods and decorations. Fizzy drinks such as homemade lemonade are popular choices for circus parties and the cake must be a showstopper! Think more than one tier and a sparkler or two on top!

Arts And Crafts

An art party is a great choice for kids of this age. You might decide to go for a painting party, a dreamcatcher-making party, a sculpting party... the list is endless.

Why not hire a professional to come and entertain your family and friends in your venue with a masterclass in a new skill? You might want to go with something like pottery making, or painting, or choose a cooking or soap-making party!

How about a cupcake-making party or a lip balm-making party? Your child and their friends will have lots of opportunities to throw glitter around and make loads of mess, and have something cool to show for it at the end of your party!

Why not get the kids involved in the party decoration too? You can help them to make bunting and streamers as a crafting pre-party activity!

Safari

If your birthday boy or girl is a fan of wild animals, a safari birthday party could be the perfect choice for you. While you may not have any wild animals at home (apart from two-legged ones) you can still have safari games that will keep party guests entertained and active throughout the whole party.

Why not try a fun obstacle course activity that can be done in a room or from room to room inside your house, or outdoors? Combine this with a treasure hunt and have clues to lead kids to prizes.

Each clue can contain some interesting information about a wild animal or habitat so kids learn as they go around.

Another choice is to visit a wildlife enclosure or national park with your guests. Many of these places host birthday parties where children can see and interact with real animals.

If hosting yourself, think about decking out your space with jungly decor: big tropical leaves, jungle animals, flowers, multi-colored balloons...

For food think Hawaiian pizza, fruit platters in the shape of animal faces, or simple snacks like grapes (cut in half to avoid a choking hazard) labeled as snake eggs for little ones to enjoy!

Creepy Crawlies And Mini Beasts

How about a pond dipping party at a local wildlife reserve or nature park, or a treasure hunt around your garden collecting or documenting on a sheet the insects they find? Guests can tick off all the bugs they encounter and can collect prizes as they go along.

Deck an indoor venue or garden setup with paper spiders and caterpillars, green, brown, and black balloons and make sure you stick a few edible legs onto your snacks or potato chip wings to ensure your platters are on-theme!

Pajama Party

It doesn't have to be nighttime to have an old-school pajama party! Host your party in the afternoon, set up a room just for the kids, and provide movies, popcorn, pizza, and bonding activities.

Invite your child's closest friends and host an intimate indoor party for the inner circle with pampering, cozy movies, and midnight snacks. Try some friendship-inspired activities such as friendship bracelet making and fun quizzes.

Creative activities such as pillowcase designing are sure to keep kids entertained until early evening when the kids can get creative in the kitchen! Pizza making is always popular,  with guests rolling their own dough and decorating their creations with assorted toppings.

Takeout pizza is always a hit though too, as is bottomless vanilla ice cream with several bowls of toppings for friends to enjoy loading their sundaes with! Popcorn is a must for movie time, as are candies for midnight snacking.

When it comes to decor, consider making an encampment for the children in their party room, or outside in the garden in tents if the weather is nice. You can hire services that set up special tents and pamper packages for your guests with personalized pajamas and other items for each guest.

This will save you time constructing a load of tepees yourself, or decide to forego tents and tepees for sleeping bags on the floor.

Cars

How about hiring a track so that your party guests can tear up the asphalt together?

A driving party is the perfect choice for children of all ages who love adventure and speed! Think go-karts, mini jeeps, mini golf carts... some places let children as young as six drive the vehicles themselves in a safe, supervised fashion, while other places take kids on cool rides in the back seat, with staff driving.

Try to find a driving range where at least the birthday girl or boy get a chance to get behind the wheel.

The driving range might be able to provide decorations themselves as part of a birthday party package. If your child is a fan of the Pixar movie 'Cars' you could have that as a theme, or deck the halls with formula one style checkered flags.

For a car-lovers' celebration try arranging food in the shape of vehicles, for example, an apple slice with four grape halves for wheels. Traffic light cupcakes and kebabs can also go down well.

Try fruit kebabs with strawberry, pineapple, and kiwi, for example. Hot dogs with cherry tomato wheels are sure to go down a treat as will sandwiches cut out with a car-shaped cookie cutter.

Superhero

You can't go wrong with a superhero birthday celebration! You could hire a superhero entertainer to take care of all the activities at your celebration.

Check out your local entertainers and leave the whole party in their capable hands.

Your entertainer will know all the best superhero pastimes for 6-year-old birthday parties, leaving you to just sort out some decor and the party food! Why not encourage your guests to come dressed up as superheroes, or bulk buy some felt superhero masks and capes and hand them out at the start of your party!

Are you going to theme your party around a single superhero like Spiderman, or have a more open theme like Marvel? Try a comic book theme, with a city skyline silhouette backdrop and comic book action speech bubbles dotted here and there (think POW! and BOOM!) around the party room.

Superhero cupcakes, cinema snacks such as sweet and salted butter popcorn, fruit platters, and more will make up the perfect superhero spread!

Themed Around A Movie

Take the kids to see a movie at the cinema or show one at your house, and then have an afterparty inspired by that movie. You could even have a movie-premiere party where guests have to dress up for the after party.

You can serve all the food on silvery platters, with frozen vol-au-vents filled with child-friendly toppings, and serve lemonade in plastic champagne glasses!

Pirates

A perfect theme for children of all ages to enjoy, get the children to dress up as pirates and have pirate games and treasure hunts where your child's friends can follow a treasure trail and find chocolate gold coins at the end of it!

Make bunting featuring old flags or treasure maps or try and make your party room look like the bottom deck of a pirate ship!

Stick little pirate flags on your snacks and consider a treasure chest birthday cake full of sweets and gold coins!

Princesses

Princess parties aren't just for girls, any child can enjoy dressing up in a silly dress for a day. Hire a princess entertainer for themed activities or dress up and lead the party yourself. Have the children dress up as flamboyantly as possible, dresses, tiaras, glitter in their hair... let them go wild.

You can have some princess-themed games such as walking with a book on your head and winning a prize if you can get to the other side without it slipping off onto the floor! Decoration can be as regal as you like, think pastel-colored balloons, bunting, and streamers.

Cake pops, dainty cupcakes, and tiny triangular sandwiches can make a princess tea feel very refined!

Games Party

For games fans, why not have a fun board game or video game day where the children can play their favorite games together all day long? Decorate your home in the theme of their favorite game and serve gamer snacks like pizza, crisps and candies.

Swimming

Have a swimming party in your pool if you have one, or at a local pool or splash park. Get lots of floating toys for children to splash around with and have tropical poolside drinks like kids' pina coladas and fresh fruit platters for children to snack on whilst drying off.

If you found this article helpful, why not take a look at our great guides to planning a [2-years-old birthday party], or a [baby shower for daddy] too?

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