Teen Birthday Party Ideas

Everyone likes to watch a good movie, and every teen has a favorite one, so why not to turn your living room to a movie theatre for one night?

You can start with unusual invitations for your guests making them look like movie tickets or pop corn bags. Decorate the room with posters of your kid’s favorite movie or print out movie stills to make garland for ceiling in the room.  Use a ‘red carpet’ with golden stars and guests names written on it to make your guests feel real VIP’s.  Movie theatre-themed printables such as welcome signs, banners and bottle wrappers will look great at your movie party.

And of course food: you can complete the atmosphere with hot dogs, pizza, some ‘movie’ candy as milk dots and gummy candies and of course traditional popcorn in boxes. You can also order some special made cookies and cupcakes in the shape of clapperboard, stars or movie projectors.

Slumber parties are one of the favorite for teenage girls. There are plenty of teen birthday party ideas with sleepovers. We’ve collected some of the most popular.

Send your guests invitations shaped as slippers, sleeping masks or toothbrush and then, when they arrive, present them real slippers and toothbrush. You can also present invitees matching pajamas.

Follow the theme when decorating the party space by transforming the room in to a comfortable sleeping place using bean bags, lot of cushions and blankets. Also decorate the room with some lights to make the atmosphere cozy and warm.

What’s a slumber party without special treats? Set up ‘self serve bar’ on your taste: hot cocoa with cookies and marshmallows, yogurt with fruits, individual cereal boxes or lap trays with all necessary for making s’mores.

Don’t forget about some game activity. For example, truth or dare questions which you can print and divide into two jars, sign them and decorate with bows.

Arts & Crafts party is probably the best from all tween birthday party ideas.

Gaming possibilities are endless for this one. Buy art party supplies and set up the art area for guests to make something they can take home with them to remember the event. Balloon dart painting would be a great idea for outdoor activity. You can also invite professional artist to teach all the guests how to draw.

Make the whole party bright and colorful with ordering a cake and cupcakes imitating paint of different colors all over it or cookies in the shape of palette with brush. Make a ‘rainbow’ laying out fruit and veggies by colors on dishes.

Make goodie bags with fun art supplies for your guests to present them at the end of the holiday.

Pool party is one more of the most popular teenage birthday party ideas.

Be creative on invites to your guests: use mini beach ball or bathing suit cards with party details on each of them; or tie your invitation to sunglasses, flip-flop or some other pool accessory.

Decorate your pool with floating balloons or plastic flowers and walls with pool noodle garland, use beach towels as tablecloth.

Make your party fun and active with different types of contests as Biggest Splash, Marco Polo, Submarine Races and Water Balloon Piñatas. And don’t forget about water guns for all your guests.

Keep with the theme when choosing pool party food: snacks can be served in beach buckets with shovels instead of spoons and licorice as pool noodles. You can also offer your guests sandwiches in the shape of flip-flops, candy bar with themed sweets. And of course it’s not a pool party without a few flavors of ice cream.

If your kid love to dance and sing, has favorite songs or a band,  he/she would be happy if you throw VIP Rock Star party. Look through some tween birthday party ideas we offer.

There are several options for invitations you can use: Backstage VIP pass, Concert tickets, CD like cards in CD cases, invitation looking like Billboards Top Ten. You can also present guests matching rock star t-shirts.

You can use a large sign in the front door saying ‘Tonight’s Rock Concert Starring (birthday kid’s name). Decorate the room with vintage records as hanging décor. Set up a disco ball and a fog machine. There also can be a rock star stage with karaoke machine, guitars and drums for all kids to try to be the lead singer or even record their own CD to take it home. And make sure there’s enough room for a dance floor at you party place.

Set up a dinner table covered up with a black tableware, serve cake and cupcakes to match the theme on red or purple plates, cups and napkins. Ice cream cone microphones and guitar pick cookies in vinyl record bowls would be perfect for a dessert buffet at your rockin’ party.

Beach party is by far the most popular of teenage birthday party ideas. So if you live near the ocean, river or a lake, such party would be perfect for you and your tween or teen.

As a first step to surprise your guests invite them to the party in a creative way sending message in a bottle or write your party details on a beach ball.

Set the mood of your party with fake palm trees, floral tropical décor, umbrellas and tiki torches around. Offer your guests beach blankets with beachscape or underwater prints of bright colors and matching towels.

Decorate your table with themed tablecloth and sandal-shaped straws. Based on your taste your food menu can consist of Hawaiian pizza, such grilled food as hotdogs and mini burgers, cupcakes decorated with little umbrellas, fruit kabobs, etc. Set up ice bar with tropical drinks such as non alcoholic Piña Colada, ice tea and lemonade, ice cream sandwiches with shell-shaped cookies.

There’s a really good choice among beach games activities to make a party more fun. It would be interesting for kids to play beach bingo, hula hoop relay race, hot beach ball or water balloon toss. Arrange some kind of competitions as seashell decoration or sand castle competition. There are also plenty of different piñatas for beach themed party. And for teens it would be cool to play beach volleyball, limbo competition and frisbee. You can set up origami bracelets or lei-making station. Arrange dance contest with kid’s favorite tracks.

Your beach party won’t be complete without sitting around a bonfire making s‘mores and singing to the guitar.

Neon or Glow in the Dark is one more of the most popular teenage birthday party ideas.

Send out invites in neon colors to your guests asking them to wear white clothes to the party. Get black lights and glow led lamps and replace all regular light bulbs with them.

Place your food table under the black light. There are plenty of neon party supplies as plates, bowls and cups in bright colors, which will make your food table join the party. You can use some of neon party food ideas as rainbow birthday cake, green and pink cupcakes, lollipops, neon icing and water coloring to make your party food light up the dark.

Provide your guests with highlighters of colors that will glow best, such as green, pink, orange and yellow. You can use some glow in the dark makeup to make creative drawings.

Techno music is a must for a neon party, so pick out a good playlist of techno tracks for black light dancing. Make glow in the dark bubbles by pouring the liquid from a glow stick in a bubble container.

Kids may also like some dancing contest with prizes: light neon party eye glasses, stickers, necklaces and bracelets.

If your kid loves video games this type of tween birthday party ideas would be lot of fun. No matter what his/her favorite game is, whether it’s Minecraft, Packman, X-box or Super Mario, you can make a themed birthday party.

Incorporate the look of your kid’s favorite game to invites ordering printed ”VIP passes” for guests. Write “Game On”, “Level Up” or “Power Up” on them. Make a garland with the same sign.  Decorate the party place and a dessert table in the same colors using tableware, balloons and other party supplies. Print out posters picturing your kid’s favorite game characters and hang them around the place.

Serve video controllers shaped cookies, characters cupcakes and a themed birthday cake.

To make your kid’s birthday party perfect order game truck to play his favorite game with closest friends. Or set up a gaming area by yourself for kids to have a fun gaming time.

Throw a Spa party for your birthday girl. Invite her best friends for a sleepover. Spa masks invitations would be a perfect start.

Prepare bean bags and lot of pillows and fluffy blankets. Get manicure/pedicure supplies, lip gloss, spa masks and towels. Decoration options are endless here: make the place look girly in pink, blue and white colors, fill the room with flowers, and decorate the party place with candles.

Serve cucumber mint lemon limeade like in real spa. Serve elegant and small appetizers as canapé, mini cheesecakes, tartlets, involtinies, etc. Order cookies and cupcakes in the shape of nail polish bottles or other cosmetics supplies. Serve scoops of ice cream during spa procedures.

Make beauty stations for girls around the room with fuzzy blankets and pillows and place bowls with warm water and rose petals floating. Watch some movie while making manicures, pedicures and masks.

Make some little presents for your guests to take something to remember the party. For example put nail polish, hair accessories and themed sweets in a bag or a box tied with a bow.

To prepare for Scavenger Hunt you need to get some prizes for guests as small toys or sweets and hide them over your party place, inside or outside in a neighborhood. Offer your kid to make a themed party if he/she has some favorite movie, as “Star Wars”, “Doctor Who”, “Hary Potter”, etc. So you can use movie-related items to hide for hunt. If you decide to have a themed scavenger hunt, print out your invites picturing the favorite movie making your guests interested and excited. It would be better to include additional information to the invitations asking your guests to wear comfortable clothes as scavenger hunt party is one of the most active from tween birthday party ideas.

Print out the lists of clues or even a map for every kid to find all the hidden prizes. You can also do Birthday Cake Hunt to make the party more fun. Explain all the rules to kids, divide your guests into two teams and start the hunt.

After kids find all treasures, serve pizza, hotdogs, themed sweets and of course a cake.

Masquerade party would be perfect among all teen birthday party ideas for sweet sixteen. Send out invites with a mask pattern on it or you can use blank masks with party detail on them. Ask your guests to dress elegantly and get ready for the best mask contest.

If possible, rent a banquet hall for the event making sure there is enough place for dancing.

Choose colors for your birthday party place. For example, dark and golden colors, black, white and red theme, violet and sparkling black, etc.  Decorate room and tables with flowers, peacock feathers, sparkles, candelabras and other colorful table centerpieces to create the special atmosphere.

Make your party food fancy. Present food on a single table or place it around the venue. Serve bite-sized treats on appetizer trays making it easy to eat for your guests wearing masks. Place the birthday cake on a tall cake stand. Chocolate fountain would look perfect at masquerade party. Provide a good choice of non-alcoholic beverages. Serve drinks in tall glasses.

Prepare a playlist with classical music to complete the masquerade scene perfectly.

Create Candyland for your tween’s birthday party. Follow the theme starting from invitations and ending with games and activities. Send out invitations attached to lollypops.

The main thing to make the candy party successful is to make your party place as colorful as possible. Decorate the place in bright rainbow colors with the help of colored balloons, giant floating paper M&Ms, lollipops, cupcakes, cotton candy clouds, etc. Use chalkboards to write “Today’s menu” using colored chalks.

Place big bowls and jars with candy everywhere. Among your kid’s favorite sweets and a traditional cake, provide different types of cupcakes of bright colors on tall cake stands, cupcake and marshmallow kabobs, make licorice twists and use them as drinking straws. Set up ice cream bar.

Arrange a chocolate tasting, providing different types of chocolate, play a treasure hunt or have a pie eating contest. Make candy necklaces with kids. Watch some themed movie as the old-school “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” or modern “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.

Bring the atmosphere of 80’s to your party by asking your guests in invites to dress up and win the prize for the best 80’s costume and craziest hair style. And use some accessories such as plastic glasses, band t-shirts, glitter bracelets, bandanas or some neon clothes as prizes for the best once.

Print out and decorate the room with pictures of the old school celebrities or characters from most popular 80’s movies or video games. Hang old cassette tapes above the party place and a twirling disco ball above the dancing area. Make a playlist of the most popular tracks of that particular decade.

Keep up with the theme when choosing food for the party. Consider such popular 80’s dishes as sloppy Joes, pizza rolls; and fruit roll-ups, jell-o pudding pops and pancakes on a vintage record dessert stand for a dessert. And the Pac Man birthday cake is just what you need.

There are two options when it comes to bon fire party: whether you’re hosting it in a patio with a central fire pit or on the beach, bonfire party is one the most popular teen birthday party ideas as it requires minimum set up, food preparation and cleaning after.

Get s’mores kit boxes for your guests and use them as invitations writing party details on them.

Make sure you know how to built bonfire beforehand if you’re planning to host your party on a beach or in a park. Bonfire would be the center of your activity, so don’t forget about safety.

Place enough chairs for your guests around fire. Bring blankets in case guests get chilly and set up some candles around the party place to make the evening cozy and warm.

There are several food options you can make with your guests on an open flame besides traditional s’mores. Consider these when planning the menu: hotdogs, cheese fries, hamburgers, vegetables, popcorn and hot chocolate.

Finnish your evening by launching fireworks or sky lanterns making the event memorable.

Emojis are everywhere on the internet and there’s no doubt you tween or teen would find emoji birthday party a fun and creative idea.

Make your invites easy: google emoji images and print it out writing your party details on it.

You can buy emoji decorations or you can use DIY once cutting circles and using permanent marker for creating various facial expressions for decorating the walls. Draw emoji faces on yellow balloons.

Use some party food ideas as mini emoji pizza cutting out emoji faces out of papperoni. Kids will love emoji themed cake pops, marzipops, sugar cookies, macarons and of course a matching cake. Don’t forget that emojis are not only yellow faces. There are different kinds of other funny icons for more creative ideas.

Set up emoji crafts station and make themed necklaces together with kids as well as emoji masks with the help of yellow paper plates, popsicle sticks and markers.

Probably the most creative from all teenage birthday party ideas. So why don’t you throw Mad Hatter Tea Party for your tween or teen?

Ask your guests to wear costumes or at least some accessories to make the party more interesting.

If you’re crafty enough you can make some decorations by yourself, for others there is a good choice of supplies in stores.

Invite your guests to a long table covered with vintage tableware, colorful and mismatching teapots, cups and napkins of different sizes. Put some flowers and clocks on the table. Hang a garland from playing cards above the dining area. Decorate your walls with signs quoting the novel’s famous sayings: “We’re All Mad Here”, “This Way”, That Way” and “The Other Way”.

Offer tea and lemonade to your invitees. Serve some finger foods as cookies, cupcakes and mini muffins. Attach ‘Drink Me’ “Eat Me’ tags to dishes. Be creative with a birthday cake. It can be in the shape of heart, playing cards or Mad Hatter hat.

Set the mood to your party with music choosing movie soundtracks.

One more way to make your teen’s birthday unusual and memorable is to host a Casino or Poker themed party.

Renting a banquet hall would be perfect for a casino night party. But if there’s no such opportunity, you can make your living room look like a cool gambling place.

Choose black, white and red colors for your party. Hang the famous Vegas welcome sign, other casino related banners picturing roulette, slot machines, etc. There’s a good choice of casino party supplies as dinner plates, bowls, cups, can covers, tablecloths which feature playing cards suits prints.

Rent a blackjack table or set up gambling-like table, put playing cards decks, poker chips and fake money on it. Prepare some prizes for winners at your party like candy or accessories. Let the kids be dealers one at a time.

Besides typical party bite-size snacks as mini pizzas, nachos, pretzels, etc., there are some creative casino related ideas for food as Elvis cupcakes, “dice” marshmallow, poker chip cookies and candy coins.

Create magical atmosphere at your event. Imagination has no boundaries when it comes to fantasy party themes: fairies, wizards, elves, dragons, mermaids, etc. Or you can make movie themed fantasy party like Harry Potter, Lords of the Rings or Hobbit, Once Upon a Time if your kid is a fan of one of these.

Prepare some themed accessories for kids to pick when they arrive: magic wands, hats, cloaks, masks and tiaras.

Make your party look spectacular using DIY decorations or order it in a store. Decorate the place with artificial trees leaves, feathers, flowers, butterflies. Hang candles and Christmas lights as well as birdcages to make your party look like some magical place.

Make your food menu match the theme with a little creativity. Add some themed treats to the usual party meals as seashell and star shaped sandwiches, gold fish cookies, chocolate gold coins. Cut melon and kiwi in the shape of stars to make fruit wands. Fill little bottles with juice of different colors to make them look like magic potions.

Send a quest or hunt with treasure map for kids to be active at the party.

Don’t know what theme to choose for your tween girl birthday party? Owl themed features will make any place girly and cute. That’s why lot of people use it as a base for a party. So be sure your girl would love this idea.

Choose the colors of your event. It can be pink and white stripes, turquoise and white, black and white polka dot, etc. Make invitations of the matching colors with owl pattern on them.

Choose what you like from a variety of owl-themed party goods as balloons, banners, streamers for decoration; and also napkins, cups, plates for your party table. There are also free olw themed printables available online.

There are thousands of options when it comes to owl party food starting from fruits ending with a birthday cake. Kids will love owl look sandwiches which are easy to make. Owl veggie/fruit tray will look great at a themes party: just cut and place vegetables and fruits of different colors in the shape of owl. You can order a themed birthday cake or cupcakes with owl cake pops.

Consider some other party favors as owl piñata and owl candy bar.

Follow your party theme by setting up owl painting station for game activity to keep kids excited.

Treat your guests with chocolate owls in individual packs tied with bows at the end of the party to take something home with them.

Paintball is a fun activity for all ages, so throwing a party for your teen in paintball theme would turn his/her birthday into an unforgettable adventure. Since paintball gaming is widely popular nowadays, there should be no problems for you to find a local paintball venue that hosts birthday celebrations.

Print out or buy army camo invites to your guests. Let the kids experience a paintball battle while taking care of decorating a banquet hall for a paintball theme. Make the party area look colorful using splatter paint accents and such items as banners, with “dripping paint” all over, paint splatter confetti and stickers.

Hang “target” banner on the wall behind your food table. Put your paintball splat cake with toy paintball shooter on the top and matching cupcakes or cake pops. Get paintball gumball tubes for all the kids. Put glass bottles with colored soda on the table to make it look brighter.

After a fun day of playing give all your guests gift bags with “t-shirt” cookies covered in “paint splats” and personalized tags to remember your birthday party.