How do you do a pirate party?

[skewiff]

I think my son would really like a pirate party. He'll be 4.

I'll hire somewhere out (as home is a bit small) - but other than asking children to dress up as pirates - how else have you made the party piratey? -

Sorry to be so unimaginative.

Have thought of pirate cakes and food (what food though???).

pirate ship cake (or treasure chest)

making pirate hats

face painting?

Pin the pirate on the treasure heap

Musical islands

pass the parcel with gold coins in layers

I got great inflatable swords which were used (with balloons) for letting off steam after tea and then taken home as party presents

Most important rule - all weapons get taken into safe custody on arrival

Treasure hunt?

treasure hunt?

Is there an echo in here?

Oh wow - what good ideas already!

Any more are welcome too ...

Thank you.

Play Captains Coming! (you shout out instructions that children have to follow port or Star board and they run to left or right, climb the rigging or swab the decks they act out that, man over board they pretend to swim, Captains Coming they all stand to salute.)
Sleeping sea lions - a good game to calm them down!

Food - I iced a skull and cross bones onto chocolate digestives
I added some green food colouring to lemonade and told them it was pirate juice brewed from sea weed - they loved it!
I made a birthday cake in the shape of a pirate face - a circle cake with jaffa cake eye patch and another cake cut into hat shape.

Instead of party bags I made little treasure chests and put in chocolate coins, water pistols, a small plastic sea animal, sweety necklaces or watches

www.purple-heart.com/baking-cake-cups-wrappers.irc?cName=baking-cake-cups-wrappers&pg=1

the link above takes you too cupcake cases & matching cupcake flags.... I used these for 1 of DDs birthdays, though that was a small get together

you can get plain card 3 tier cake stands quite easily, for another Childs Party Cake order, I painted 1 black & added a skull & bones at the top, & filled with various Pirate cupcakes.....saves you cutting up to dish out to the kids or for party bags too

The same company also has napkins, plates & party bags & favours, all in a pirate theme

You might want to skip filling the party bags though in favour of making a treasure chest shaped "Pinata" ......wire & thin cane frame, covered with layered of paper & glue to make up into paper mache' about 4/5 layers should do it....

though remember to leave a hole....fill with sweets & pirate balloons bubble bottles etc etc, & then close the hole with more paper & glue layers.....make sure you have secure handle to suspend it from a beam or similar at the venue & then paint to look like a treasure chest :)

hang it up in the venue & give them all an empty party bag & let the little Pirates queue up & bash it with their swords until it splits & then they can have a mad scramble to fill their own party bags, we did this with another themed party of DDs & it went down a treat, & saves you the job of filing the bags & doubles up as a party game :)

We also filled a bit of net with with balloons & suspend it from the ceiling.....make a split in the middle, which iss tied up with ribbon, so that the ribbon could be pulled & the balloons then all fall on the kids.....we let the balloons go after singing happy birthday & doing the candles.....makes for great photos & the kids go mental for it & it becomes a pop the balloon game.....you could use a mix of pirate, & black, green etc & seaweed streamers, cheap plastic fish etc etc

Also the old sword cocktail sticks are good, for cheese, sausages etc

these look fun

If all else fails play "Roger the Cabin Boy"!

Our Postmans name is Roger, got to admit, childish as it is.... it makes me giggle every time I see him

Gosh, I can't believe how creative and dedicated some of you are!

Thanks for all of the ideas - I'm not very good at making things (well not complicated things anyway) I was already thinking last night - how am I going to make pirate hats with them?

So the pirate treasure chest/ party bag idea has frightened me a bit. I'll look at it again though and maybe give it ago.

Ohhhh this thread was made for me (see my name!), but unfortunately everyone has already come up with brilliant ideas! What about decorating gingerbread men (could be already made plain ones that you can get from Sainsburys) with those icing pens as pirates?

You can buy little telescopes from party shops for the party bags and chocolate coins are a really good idea.

There is a Peppa Pig episode in which they have a pirate party and go on a treasure hunt, which I can see has been mentioned above too.

you can buy pinatas (probably more cheaply than you could make one TBH).

The internet is your friend - a bit of googling will come up with instructions for hats, etc. yellow moon / baker ross for supplies.

Ginerbread men + writing icing makes for great pirates (DS and I accidently made the village people last time we bought some of those ).

Have you spotted the partyark website advertising banner down the side of this mn page? Might be worth a look at if only for ideas. If it's not there on your page try googling it.

Okay...a Simpler less "scary" idea for making a Pirate Pinata might be in order then :)
( & having made several stealth I would disagree, as they cost practically nothing to make, & you fill them as you can afford & can also keep control of what goes in them as regards quality, caterng for allergies etc)

Giant balloon ( you can get the punch ball 1s in poundland & the likes in bags of 8, or any over sized balloon

wipe a bit of baby oil, butter anything lightly greasy over the balloon, then layer up torn up news paper with PVA glue & completely cover the balloon ....(your DCs will love helping with this too & if older might even do it all for you).......leaving a hole at the top of the balloon near the rubber ring blow up bit

a bit of rope or thick wool etc laid over the hole & secured with more paper & glue or masking tape (this will mean you can hang it up) ....keep on layering newspaper & glue until you have 4/5 layers of paper, including the secured edges of rope, but a few patches where is a bit thinner (gives kids a chance to break it more easily when hitting it

leave to dry throughly (can take a couple of days) & pop the balloon via the top hole

now fill it with your chosen goodies, & close the hole with more glue & paper layers

Paint it all black.....

find Skulls & bones on the internet.....drag the picture you like onto your computer desktop....then drag it onto an open blank "Word" page...click corners so that you se it framed....you can now drag the corners to enlarge the picture to the size you want....

print off a few & glue around the "balloon"...or failing that let your DCs paint their own SKull & bones design onto it :)

& PS if the idea of making cupcakes scares you too......buy basic buns, you can get bags of plain & chocolate in poundland & the likes, or most supermarkets do tubs.......buy some ready made butter cream icing....pipe onto & a small clean plastic bag with a small triangle nipped out of the corner will do fine as a piping bag, doesn't need to be perfect as you can now cover with sprinkles etc.......pop the finished cake into a pirate paper cup cake case, & a flag ontop.....viola!!...cheats home made Pirate cupcakes

rockinhippy - I agree they cost practically nothing if you happen to have paint, glue, etc already (as we have) but I am aware that in less messy craft-orientated households that might represent quite an outlay (and I was thinking of the empty fill-it-yourself ones - I have never come across ready filled ones)

OP - how are you on cake making? Treasure chest is the easiest option, IMHO - and can be cheated in a similar fashion to the cupcakes if you buy ready-made 'traybake' type cakes and lots of chocolate coins / candy necklaces etc.

TBH stealth, I've never searched out a cheaper version, as they've never suited DDs party themes, but do remember seeing a ready filled one when I was looking for other things, so I 've always just presumed they all came filled, & that was a bout £30....

but you got me curious as to what they DO cost empty now, so I just googled out of nosiness & spotted this which might be of interest to you skewwiff :)
www.partydelights.co.uk/themes/pinata-standard-pinata.aspx they have a pirate AND a treasure chest, @ £13.99......though if cost is an issue, I still stand by the balloon version costing little to make, as you will only need black paint, @ aprox 99p for a large bottle & PVA, at a similar price

Try this website they offer free party plans with loads of suggestions for pirate parties
pirate party planning

Don't know if this is any use anymore but my cousin makes party cakes and has started putting her cake how-to's here bit.ly/87eQ76 -- currently there's a shark-shaped-cake and a treasure chest filled with sweeties...
:-)
She's been making them for (grown-up) friend's parties!

Sorry - I realise this may be a bit late for your little boys party, but it might help others