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Star Wars Party Planning for the Whole Family
by Cheryl Levey - http://www.cherylsweb.com
Copyright © 2005 Cheryl Levey. All Rights Reserved.
I was about ten years old when a friend and her dad took
me to see the very first Star Wars movie, you know, the
one that is referred to as Episode Four these days. As a
child, I had an irrational fear of robotic things (seeing the
Terminator a few years later didn't help!) and my seven
year old son laughed at me as I recently told him how I
lost it in the theater and my friend's dad had to sit with me
in the lobby during almost the whole movie. The reason I
told him this is because he has his little heart set on getting
a Darth Vadar voice-changer mask. I can see it now, he will
stand over me in the morning as I sleep and wake me in
Darth Vadar's evil voice with "Luke, I am your father!"
(which is a running joke here these days).
It is very interesting to me to see how the Star Wars saga
has spanned almost thirty years (yes I am telling my age
here!). It's cool for me to see how it feeds on everyone - the
good vs. evil theme is universal, the characters are both
nostalgic for those of us who were there "in the beginning"
and are also embraced by our kids' generation.
So, I was not the least bit surprised when my son announced
that he wanted a Star Wars theme party for his birthday this
year. It actually sounds like a lot of fun for both him and his
friends and also their parents and some of our friends too.
I'm sure my son is not the only one who wants a Star Wars
themed party, so I decided to write this article with tips and
ideas for planning one.
Where
Because our party is in the summer, it will primarily be
outside. However, we will decorate our living room too. Also,
if appropriate, have the party at night to take advantage of
glow in the dark decorations.
Invitations
You can get some cool invitations with one of the Shindigz
"Kit-n-Kaboodle" kits, or you can make your own using
some phrases like "On (Party Date), in a galaxy far, far
away, (Birthday Child's name) was born. Little did he/she
know he/she was the Chosen One. Now you have been
chosen to come train to become a Jedi. May the Force
Be With You" or "It Is Your Destiny ... to Come to
This Party!"
Decorations
For our party, I'll get the decorations at Shindigz. They
have a great assortment of Star Wars cups, plates, and
other party supplies. I order from them for all of our parties
because they have a huge selection and especially
because they have great deals with their "Kit-n-Kaboodles."
These are full sets of themed party supplies, instead of
having to buy everything separately. They include themed
plates, napkins, invitations, balloons, cutlery, cups,
napkins, and a table cover. Getting all of this separately
would cost at least twice what Shindigz does! Since our
party will be bigger than just the kids, I'll order some
black and gold solid plates, napkins, etc. too.
Since the tableware is all taken care of, here are some
other decorating ideas:
-> Black and metallic balloons and streamers can give
a spacey, technological kind of look.
-> You can hang glow in the dark planets and stars from
the ceiling too - just use black thread.
-> Metallic gossamer, or even better, Shindigz offers
glow-star gossamer, can be hung on the walls.
-> Put Star Wars movie posters and life-size stand-ups
around the party room or area. You can also take pictures
of the guests with the stand-ups too.
-> For kids, you can have a Death Star centerpiece
or piñata - just get a ball sized piñata and paint it gray.
-> Inexpensive Star Wars action figures can be displayed
around the party area.
Costumes
Part of the decorations can be yourselves and your guests.
You can mention on the invitations that people can come
dressed as their favorite Star Wars character. You can
also make really easy Jedi costumes (especially for
the kids) with a piece of cloth that has a slit cut halfway
down the middle; drape it over the child with the two
sides meeting in the front and tie it on with another piece
of cloth. Princess Leia can be a wig, belt and white
bathrobe. Han Solo just needs jeans, open shirt and vest.
Darth Vadar can be just a flowing black cape and mask (and
black clothing). BuyCostumes has some great Star Wars
costumes, as do CostumeMan.com.
Favors
Shindigz has a great favor bag that is a small black duffel
with some Star Wars themed things in it. If your party is
just for kids and is somewhat small (or if the cost doesn't
matter), this is great - especially if you can go for the
Biggest Favor pack. Another idea is to get several of the
stadium cups (they are less than a dollar each) and fill
them with candy, glow sticks, and Star Wars stickers.
Oversized bags of candy, glow toys by the dozen, and
stickers are all available inexpensively at Oriental Trading
Company, Inc.. Doing something like this works out well
if you aren't sure how many kids are actually coming.
Some parties are by invite only, but ours tend to be "the
more the merrier!" and I want to be sure that every child
gets a favor cup to take home. Better to have too many
than not enough, right? Other ideas are to get an inexpensive
light saber for each child (they were only $5.59 at the last
store I looked in) and/or include small action figures (also
around $5.00 or under) in their goody bags.
Food
Well, I wanted to have "Light Saber" hot dogs and other
barbeque/picnic type foods, but my son wants pizza. Since
it's his party, he'll get what he wants. Here are some other
ideas. In one of the movies, a blue drink is served, so we'll
have some blue Kool-Aid or Gatorade punch. And a lot of
the snack foods served will be in the form of sticks, like light
sabers - carrot and celery sticks (with ranch dip), maybe
some fruit kabobs or watermelon cut into sticks, long
pretzels, Twizzlers.
Cake
Local bakeries and grocery stores can make a nice Star
Wars cake for you, but if you want to do your own, here
are a few ideas I came across online: (1) a light saber
cake - very simple, just bake a sheet cake and cut and
arrange to be really long and then ice it whatever color
saber your child wants, with the "handle" iced gray or
black. (2) More complicated but really neat is to make
an R2D2 cake - round cakes and another layer baked
in a bowl to make his head. Ice white and decorate with
candies to make him look like R2D2. (3) A sheet cake
with inexpensive action heroes on top - it could be made
into a scene or they figures could be arranged as though
they are posing for a photo.
Games/Entertainment
I couldn't believe all the awesome ideas I found when I was
researching Star Wars parties. Here are some of them:
-> For younger kids, a moon bounce is a great idea!
-> For older kids, LaserTag (need I say more?)
-> You can have each child make their own light saber out
of foam noodles and silver duct tape for the handle. Very
inexpensive.
-> Pretend light saber duels. This can be free play or it can
be contests. It can also be to destroy the Death Star piñata!
-> If it's summer, you can have water gun duels in the
back yard.
-> Star Wars board games like Trivial Pursuit and
Monopoly - you can get them at AreYouGame.com
-> Death Star Toss (hot potato)
-> Of course, have the Star Wars music soundtrack playing
throughout the whole party!
-> And lastly, watching one or several of the movies can be
part of the party. We plan on having the kids go crazy during
daylight, but when it starts getting dark, we'll pop some
popcorn and pop in one of the movies.
When my son first said he wanted a Star Wars theme, I was
thinking we'd keep it simple, a few decorations, a couple hours,
cake and ice cream. But now that I've researched and found
so many great ideas, as always, the party will be much
more elaborate than I first envisioned and I can't wait!
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Cheryl Levey is a writer living with her family in beautiful central
Arizona. Check out her website at http://www.cherylsweb.com
for more articles, ebooks, and other stuff, including additional
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