Wizard of Oz Birthday Party Theme Ideas

Wizard of Oz Birthday Party Theme - Ideas for Wizard of Oz invitations, decorations, food, icebreaker, games, activities, party favors and goody bags.

Wizard of Oz Invitation Ideas -- Print out party information on large round stickers - cd stickers work also - and stick onto one side of a large 4" lollipop.  (The invitation could read "We represent the lollipop guild, the lollipop guild, the lollipop guild...and in the name of the lollipop guild - we'd like to welcome you to ________'s party!" -- Print out party information on large rectangular stickers and stick onto packages of Skittles (Taste the Rainbow!) -- Boxes of animal crackers/cookies would be fun for this idea also (Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh my!) -- Plain note cards in yellow, emerald green, or rainbow.  Use one of the movies famous lines to invite your guests such as: "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" to _____'s house for a Wizard of Oz birthday party!" "Somewhere over the Rainbow ... is _____'s party!" Or buy invitations  Wizard of Oz Invitations

Wizard of Oz Decorations
There are many different ways to decorate for a Wizard of Oz party. 
Starting outside - to greet the party guests as they arrive tie yellow or rainbow colored balloons onto the mailbox.  Paint your sidewalk and walkway with yellow sidewalk chalk to look like bricks - use black chalk or charcoal to define the bricks.  Hang a sign by the front door that says:
"Bell out of order
  Please Knock!"
The party table can be decorated in rainbow colors, or simpler such as a yellow table cloth with vases filled with lollipops or rainbow colored flowers.  Or you could put down a blue and white checkered table cloth and set out vases of yellow roses or large yellow sunflowers.  Red plates (the color of ruby slippers) would look great on the blue and white checkered table cloth.  For place markers use 2" lollipops - print out the guests names on round stickers and stick to the lollipops.  And/or you can attach rainbow colored helium balloons to a pair of red glittery shoes. 

Wizard of Oz Food Ideas
Funnel cakes (tornado)
Hot dogs (toto)
Corn on the cob (scarecrows cornfield)
Candied apples
Cotton candy (tornados) - rent a machine for more fun!
Make sandwiches or Rice Krispie treats and cut with a cookie cutter in the shape of a dog bone (toto), or heart (tin man)
Rainbow fruit tray or Rainbow Fruit kabobs - alternate fruit on a plate or a kabob to look like a rainbow - strawberries (red), oranges (orange), pineapple pieces (yellow), kiwi slices (green), blueberries (blue) , grapes (violet)

Wizard of Oz Icebreaker
A fun icebreaker for the Wizard of Oz party when guests are arriving is to set up a Guessing Game.  In this game guests will try and guess how many Skittles (or other rainbow colored candy) are in a jar.  Fill a clear glass or plastic jar with a large bag of skittles.  You will have to count them as you put them in the jar - write the number down somewhere so you won't forget.  Set the jar on a table by the front door and place pens, pencils and rainbow pieces of paper around it.  Have guests write down their guess and their name and then place it in a basket (decorate to look like Dorothy's basket), or decorated container.  Close to the end of the party announce who had the closest guess and that guest gets to take the container home.

Activities for a Wizard of Oz Party
Piñata's are always a big hit with children at a birthday party.  Choose a piñata shaped like a rainbow and use a broom (witch's broom) to hit it with.  See our Piñata page for tips.

Hire actors to come to the party dressed up as some of the characters from the movie.  If you can't afford to hire someone check with your local high school or middle school theater arts group, or dress up your family and helpers!

Ruby Slippers Craft
If your party will be mostly girls this is a fun craft.  See our Funky Flip Flop page on how to make the flip flops.  Use red flip flops for each guest and use materials in reds, pinks, silver, gold or rainbow colors.

Set up a Cupcake decorating station and let the guests decorate cupcakes.  Set out bowls of fun candies such as skittles, jelly beans, chocolate chips, sprinkles, tubes of writing gel, marshmallows, etc. and let the children decorate their own cupcake. 

Make tissue paper lollipops.  Cut out large circles from cardboard or heavy poster board about 5 - 6". You will need sheets of tissue paper in rainbow colors.  Before the party cut the tissue paper into 1.5" to 2" squares. Separate the colors into boxes or paper plates.  Let them draw out a design on their circles to show them where to place the tissue paper. Have the party guests put a drop of glue onto the cardboard circle and then wrap a piece of tissue paper on the tip of their finger - then glue the tissue paper onto the cardboard.  Make sure the tissue is glued close together so it will look full.  Glue a 12" wooden dowel on the back.

Wizard of Oz Party Games
Treasure hunt for Toto or the witches broom.  Set up a treasure hunt filled with lots of clues and activities the guests have to do as they search for the hidden item.  See our Treasure Hunt page on how to set it up.  We like to have our treasure hunts take a long time (and so do the kids!) so we add in different tasks or games they have to complete before they get their next clue.  Some fun ideas for a Wizard of Oz Treasure hunt would be to have the guests: sing a song from the movie, re-create the scene from Munchkinland with the Lollipop Guild, do a water relay (to pour on the witch) - see below, ect.

Rainbow Tag - If it's pretty outside and you've got the room to play - this is a fun game!  
Object of the Game: To avoid being caught by the rainbow catcher.
First: Choose a “rainbow catcher”. They will stand in the middle of a large play area. Next assign all the remaining players different colors of the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. (Don’t let the rainbow catcher hear what colors each person is assigned.)
Play: The rainbow catcher then calls out a color. All the players that have been assigned that color try and run past the catcher to the other side of the play area. The rainbow catcher tries to tag as many of children as they can before they reach the other side. The kids who are tagged become rainbow catchers and stand in the middle to help tag other players on the next round. Sometimes the rainbow catcher can yell “Rainbow!!” and all the players must try and reach the other side. The last person caught becomes the new rainbow catcher.

Yellow Brick Road Relay
You can play this game inside or outside.  Party guests will divide up into two teams.  Each team will be given two pieces of yellow paper or yellow poster board cut into 8 x 11.5" pieces.  The guests will have to use the two pieces of paper to get to the other side of the play area and back by putting down one piece, standing on it, then putting the next piece in front of them and stepping on to it.  They will then take the first piece and place it in front of them and continue around a marker or cone at the end of the playing field and back to their team.  Once they are back then the next person in line does the same thing.  First team with all their players to finish wins.

Find some Courage Obstacle Course (Lion)
Set up an obstacle course throughout your backyard using things like hay bales, slides, elevated boards, trampoline, big boxes to crawl through and hula hoops to make the course.  Compete against teams in this game or against the stopwatch.  When they get good at the course make them do it again - walking or running backwards! 

Apple Throw (Scarecrow)
Cover empty tin cans with construction paper (or something similar) and stack them pyramid style on a table.  Place a mark about 10 feet or more away from the table where guests will have to stand to try and knock over the tin cans with apples.  You can use real apples or fake ones. 

Give the Tin Man a Heart (Tin Man)
Create a tin man sculpture out of foil and cardboard and hang on the wall.  Draw a heart shape on the Tin Man with a black marker.  Give each guest a 4" heart that you have cut out of construction paper and place a piece of double sided tape on the back - either write their name on their heart or give them a number so you will know who's is who's.  Blindfold the guests one by one and see how close they can get to placing their heart to the Tin Man's heart.

Catch the Lion's Tail
This is a fun tag game for when you are outside or have plenty of space to run.  Guests will line up and hold hands.  They can not let go of each other's hands for any reason.  The first person in line tries to tag the last person in line.  When the first person has tagged the "lion's tail" then the "tail" comes to the front of the line and becomes the "tagger".  Continue until everyone has had a chance to catch the lion's tail.

Drench the Witch Relay Race
This is a fun relay race to play outside in the summer - caution ... kids can get wet!
You will need Two large tubs filled with water and two smaller containers that are equal in size.  The idea is to get water from the larger containers, run across an area (more then 20 feet) and put the water into the smaller containers.  The team that fills their container first wins.  There are several ways to do this - you can transfer the water using spoons, sponges or, our personal favorite, plastic cups with a few holes punched in the bottom.  Divide the guests into two teams and have them line up behind one another.  One by one they take their "water carrier" and dip it into the big bucket - run across the play area and then put the water into the smaller container.  Then they run back and hand off to the next player on their team.  This continues until one team has filled their water container to the top - or to a pre-determined mark.
 

Wizard of Oz Party Favor Ideas
Bubbles (Glenda)
Large Lollipops
Heart Necklaces, earrings or bracelets
Red glittery nailpolish
Magic Wands
Blue Birds
Animal Crackers (Lion's and Tiger's and Bear's!)
Skittles

Wizard of Oz Goody Bags
Rainbow cups or bags
Small baskets
Blue and white checkered material (or bandanas) tied around the party favors