Hawaiian luau children's party

Hawaiian luau children’s party

Get great tips for a summer Hawaiian luau kids party tips. What to eat drink, play and more!

Photo Credit: Megan Stevens
By Angela McKendree

If you want to throw the best birthday party of the summer for your child, have a classic summertime themed birthday party. Throw a Hawaiian luau party! If you follow these tips, the party will be a smash!

Invitations:

This is where the party begins. You have to send out enticing invitations that will lure kids and parents away from day camps and trips to grandma’s house. Pick out a summer themed set of invitations that have sea shells, fish or other ocean animals, or palm trees and tropical flowers. Remember to greet guests with “Aloha!”

Costumes:

Buy enough grass skirts and straw hats so that every child can wear one. You might buy them all in the same color, except for one and let the birthday child wear a different colored one. Or you might want to buy them in all different colors and let the kids choose their favorites. You can also buy leis made of plastic flowers or real fresh flowers depending on how much money you spend and how long you want the leis to last (one night or all summer?). For kids who wont wear the skirts, you can offer inner tubes that they can wear around their waists.

Food:

Lets begin with the cake. A pineapple upside down cake would be the perfect touch to a Hawaiian themed party, but you could also make a regular cake in any flavor and just decorate it with icing to make it look like a pineapple. Another option is to make a pineapple flavored batter into cupcakes and put individual pineapple rings on top. For the main course, you can serve chicken (grilled or fried) on skewers or Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza. For appetizers or dessert you can have fresh summer fruit on skewers too. If you’re afraid kids won’t eat that, serve it with some cool yogurt dip. For drinks, take see through mini water bottles and remove the labels. Add water or clear soda and add food coloring to them to make red, yellow and orange and green colored “tropical punch” drinks.

Décor:

A little construction paper will go a long way. You can make paper suns with yellow and orange construction paper, ocean waves with two different shades of blue, pineapples with yellow and green, palm trees with brown and green, and hang them from the ceiling and table or stick them to the walls. Inflatable kiddie pools and a sandbox, complete with seashells, for outdoor activities are perfect for this theme. Inflatable palm trees are also a nice touch. Use a grass skirt tablecloth to put on the cake table and gift table and put out bamboo placemats at the eating table or craft table.

Favor bags:

Stuff the favor bags with aquatic life tub or pool toys, vacuum packed towels that you soak in water to bring them to their full size, flip-flop shoes for wearing all summer long, pineapple gummy candies, mini water guns, and of course, sunglasses. They will use these items all summer long!