About a month ago my husband and I threw what was maybe the biggest bash of our lives. We had a pirate party for our friends (no, not our kids’ friends, our friends). It was a ton of work, but also a complete blast. I am going to share tons of pirate party ideas today. Everything from invitations and decorations to food and game ideas. Some ideas are originals, others come from other sources on the internet. All in all, this will be a very comprehensive list of pirate party fun!
Invitations:
This was maybe my favorite part of the whole party. I found little jars at a local party store that looked just right to be used for a message in a bottle. They even had little cork stoppers in the top!
I created a treasure map looking invitation and then added all of the details. I printed these out and used a candle to burn around the edges a little, then rolled them and stuffed them into a bottle.
Fun right? I have a template for this invitation that you can use to create your own if you would like. To use this, right click and save to your computer, then open in a photo editing program and add your text. I use PicMonkey to do this and have a tutorial on how right here.
Food:
There are SO many fun food ideas to go with a pirate themed party. Let me show you some I used!
Gold Coin Oreos in a Treasure Chest. Did you know that you can buy gold food spray paint? I love this stuff! I found this idea on Pinterest, but there is no source. All you need to do is spray paint the Oreos to look like gold coins. They will still taste the same!
How about a crocodile made entirely of cupcakes? I got this idea on Pinterest as well, but again, I can’t find the source. If anyone has that please let me know! It’s fairly straight forward to make though. I used ping pong balls for the eyes:
Love this idea of little Rice Krispy treat treasure chests. Get the tutorial here.
Or how about some cute little Marshmallow Pirates? Tutorial here.
A couple of super simple ideas from my party. Grabbed some Pirate’s Booty (from Costco):
A bowl of fruit becomes pirate food when you add a tag that says “Scurvy Prevention:”
For our drinks we had a bunch of sodas with flavorings to go in them. I put poison labels on each bottle and then a simple tag that says “Pick Yer Poison:” (I have a printable Pirate Party Pack available for sale to make these tags. More on that below.)
- Meat Balls and Sauce can be Cannon Balls
- Swedish Fish
- Cupcakes with Skull and Crossbones Flags or Ship Masts on Toothpicks
- Gold wrapped candy as treasure
Decorations:
As I mentioned above, I have a Pirate Party Printable Pack (say that 5 times fast) for sale that has a bunch of printable decor items that you can use such as banners, cupcake toppers and tags. Here’s a small sampling:
See more about this set (it includes over 30 printable graphics that you can personalize as needed) and purchase it here.
I used these cute plates, along with coordinating cups and napkins: (Get them here)
I also grabbed some simple things like a small treasure box and treasure:
A fishing net to drape across the table and a ship wheel to hand above the table.
Games:
We played several games at our party.
A few simple kid games:
Roll the eyeballs into a treasure chest. To do this we just got some ping pong balls and colored them to look like eyes. Then each player had the chance to roll them into a small toy treasure chest from behind a certain line.
My husband created a cross word puzzle for everyone to play too. This is fun, but I warn you, it’s a hard one! Feel free to use it though:
And last, we did a treasure hunt. We wrote our clues on the back of a treasure map that was cut into pieces. Since we had adults, ours took them around the city. If you have kids at your party you can just do it around the house. Ours ended with buried treasure that was marked with a red X to mark the spot.
Good idea !! I really, really love it !!
I love that you created that for YOUR friends. Haha! You guys are way too much fun! What was the occasion? Wish we could have come!!
I clicked on the Pirate Party Printables pack and it led to an error. FYI.
This is secretly my birthday party each year. We just don’t mention that it’s a birthday party. Of course by now they have mostly figured it out. We do it every year and there’s more to it than this. I will have to tell you about it. SO MUCH FUN!
This is fantastic! Do u have the answers to the crossword though please?
Awesome party idea! I love the gold oreo cookies. Hopefully one of my boys will want to do this!
Sept 19 is International Talk Like A Pirate Day and our first small Pirate Party years ago is now something a little more…fanatical. Our friends have embraced it (they introduced mandatory costumes) and we rotate the hosts each year. Next year is our turn and your blog has opened my eyes to a number of possibilities. Why did I never think to look at children’s parties as inspiration? Thanks for the posts!
This party is adorable, so many great ideas, love all the treasure maps and your pirate printables!
Thank You for sharing!
I love that you made this a party for YOURSELF!!! <3
I can't see the whole invitation. Can you please tell us what it says? I love the clevding. What is a "gang plank" and what kind of clue did you include with the invitation? I am so enthralled by this idea!
Thanks!!
Gang plank is the thing they would make people walk and fall into the water. The invitation had the time and date in secret lettering (lemon juice). I think the rest of it says Bring the One you love and be prepared to duel to the death.