Pirate Birthday Party Theme

Pirate Party Games
Sword Relay Race
Use foam swords for this fun relay race. Divide pirates into two teams. Give each team a container with 20 gold plastic coins. Set two baskets or treasure chests at one end of the playing field (or room). Give the sword to the first pirate in line on each team and have them balance gold coins on their swords and run to the treasure chest. After they deposit the coin they run back and give the sword to the next pirate in line. First team with all of their coins in the treasure chest wins. If they drop the coin they must run back to the start line and place their coin back in their teams container. Then the next person in line grabs a coin and begins.

Pirate Water Bail
Divide birthday party guests into 2 teams. Use 4 buckets - place two at the starting line and two 30 or more feet away.　 Fill the farthest buckets with water. Players take a sponge and run to the far bucket, dip the sponge in the water and then run back to the starting line bucket and squeeze the water into the empty bucket. The first team to fill their bucket wins. (Use larger buckets to hold the water first since a lot of the water will be lost as they race back to fill their bucket.) Variation: Race backwards for a crazy birthday party game twist!

Treasure Dig
Fill two small plastic pools with sand.  In each pool place 40 - 50 pennies then mix them into the sand so they are hidden.  Divide guests into two teams and have the stand behind one another in a line.  On "go" the first person from each team will run to the pool, dig through the sand and try to find a penny.  When they have found a penny they will run back to their line and place it in a container for their team.  Set a time limit of 5 - 10 minutes for each round.  The team with the most pennies in their container at the end of the round wins a prize.

Pirate Tag
Played like traditional tag except "it" is called Captain Hook.  Captain Hook tags players and when they are tagged they become members of his crew.  The crew and Captain Hook try and tag all the other players.  The last person to be tagged becomes the new Captain Hook.

Walk the Plank
Party guests are blindfolded and then asked to "walk the plank" - there are several ways to set up the "plank".  The easiest is to draw a "plank" on the ground with sidewalk chalk about 1 foot x 7 feet.  Guests have to walk the plank without stepping out of the lines.  A real board can be used for the plank - set it on the ground or elevate it with a few bricks.  The board can also be placed over a plastic pool (place bricks on both sides of the board to raise it up and then put the pool underneath - don't have the board sitting directly on the edge of the pool) and then ask guests to walk the plank to see who doesn't fall in.   Let younger children play without the blindfold. 

Cannonball War
Make 2 "Ships" from cardboard boxes or plywood (decorate, name and cutout portholes) Place in yard facing one another with a large blue tarp in between for water.  Divide kids into 2 teams and provide with cannonballs (100+ black water-filled balloons!) Let the chaos ensue!!  If you don't want to use water balloons make cannons out of balled up newspaper wrapped in black hockey-tape.

Pirate Party Activities
Face Painting
Tell the pirates they must first look the part to be worthy of the treasure hunt. Paint on beards, mustaches, scars and sideburns with face paint or draw on with eyeliner.

Making of a Pirate
Dress the pirates up with doo rags (bandanas), clip on hoop earrings, eye patches, temporary tattoos, and foam swords. You can also make sashes from black and white cloth or pick up pirate hats for them to wear. (Long John Silver’s has paper pirate hats.)

Pirate Names
Before the party come up with pirate names for each of the guests. Use their last names or personality traits. Write the names on name tags and declare that they must use each others pirate names for the rest of the party.

Pirate Party Food Ideas
Serve fish and chips from Long John Silver’s.
Macaroni and cheese using the Shells pasta - serve in large conch shells.
Cannon Ball Meatballs
Bread Stick Swords
Fruit Kabobs (swords)
Goldfish crackers in upside down pirate hats.
Fill small clear plastic cups with blue Jello - add Swedish fish candies.
Fruit kabobs - skewer pieces of cut up strawberries, pineapples and bananas on pretzels.
Scurvy Dogs - Hot dogs.
Octopus Hot Dogs - cut hotdogs long ways into 8 strips … being sure to leave 1” of one end of the hot dog uncut. Place in the microwave to heat - the 8 “legs” will curl up while cooking and will look like an octopus.
Peanut butter and jelly(fish) sandwiches cut into starfish shapes with a cookie cutter.