Circus Birthday Party Theme

Circus Party Decorations
Decorate the party room or outside area like a circus big top tent. Use a canopy or a large parachute to make the
 big top and then hang yellow and red streamers from the top to make it look festive. Use lots of helium balloons
 and streamers - red, yellow and blue.

Yellow and red pennant flags on strings - or make them out of felt triangles.

Fun Ideas
Have a parent or adult dress up like a ringmaster in a coat with tails and a large hat.

If you will be playing circus/carnival type games make a ticket booth out of a large appliance box and paint it red and yellow. Give children tickets to play the different games and to exchange for food.

Circus Party Games
Walk the tight rope - lay down a length of rope on the ground and have the kids pretend that it is a circus high wire
 tight rope. Have them balance while they are walking and let the ringmaster ask for large applause when they finish.

Feed the Lions - Trace a large lions head onto a poster board and cut out a 8 x 8” hole for his mouth. Make small
bean bags out of brightly colored yellow and read fabric. One by one let the children toss the bean bags into the
mouth of the lion. If you are giving away prizes let them win tickets to redeem at the prize table at the end of the
 party.

Clown Relay - Gather two sets of crazy oversize clothes, big wigs, super size shoes, large sunglasses and red plastic noses. Divide the children into two teams and one at at time 1 person from each team must run to the pile of circus clown clothes, put everything on, run back and tag their teammates, then run back to where the clothes were and
 take them off again. Then they must run back to their team and tag the next person to go. The winner is the team
 that completes the relay with every team member first.

Circus Party Activities
Face Painting

Balloon Animals

Let children decorate a little white sack with circus animal stickers and red and yellow markers. Use as a goody bag and to hold tickets and prizes.

Decorate photo frames with circus themed animals and shapes.

Decorate clown hats and then paint everyone’s face like a clown and have fun making everyone laugh. Great picture opportunity for the photo frames.

Clown piñata filled with candy and circus treats.

Bounce Houses or Moonwalks

Bubbles

Teach circus tricks like: juggling, summersaults, clowning around

Circus Party Food
Serve yummy circus food - hotdogs wrapped in foil, popcorn in red/white bags, small bags of cotton candy (or rent a cotton candy machine), snow cones or nachos.

Cupcakes with animal crackers in the center - make a cage out of pretzels or black icing.

Circus train cake with fun animals.