17252

Candyland Party -1yr- Cardboard Castle Entrance

January 2008

Renee in Las Vegas, NV

Honorable Mention

For my daughter's 1st Birthday we decided to go with a Candyland theme.

For her invitations I made some large pastel colored gumdrops with lots of glitter and some very large peices of styromfoam, which we painted with purple and green stripes and tied them at each end to look like big pieces of candy. I put these things around her with some balloons behind her and took her picture. On the invitation we invited everyone to join us in Candyland to celebrate. We had about 75 people attending so we rented a hall for the party to accommodate everyone.

At the entrance we laid down peices of paper painted to look like peppermints as a peppermint walkway with some standing candy canes on each side. We had three huge cardboard castles that everyone had to walk through to enter Candyland.

My sister dressed as Lolly and greeted guests as they arrived. We used poster board to create a welcome to Candyland sign and glued the story of Candyland from the game to the bottom of the sign. We hot glued a long wooden stick to the sign and put it in round peice of styrofoam to hold it in place. 

Once everyone entered Candyland we had tables set up for the adults. For the centerpieces I made gumdrop trees. At the top of each tree I put in a bright colored lollipop and curled ribbon to hang down. The tree sat on top of a square peice of styrofoam that I hot glued peppermint candies to. The peppermint square sat on top of a round piece of styrofoam that I spraypainted, coverd in glitter and wrapped the outside with candy themed ribbon. Behind each centerpeice I had 6 balloons. For each table the balloon bouquet had a different variety of brightly colored balloons.  After walking through this area you went into the kids area.

The first table was set up with everything the kids needed to decorate gingerbread men. The table next to it was set up for the kids to make candy necklaces and bracelets. In one corner of the room I had a huge tree. In  the trunk a door was cut into it leading into a little house with an opening to exit through the back and two windows inside. We taped purple balloons to the tree and set them around it as well. I had a large gingerbread man next to the tree and this was the gingerbread tree with sugarplums. The kids loved playing in this! We made a sign saying it was the gingerbread tree.

I had a bubble machine set up behind it and this added even more fun for the kids. In another corner we had the lollipop woods. I made about 15 lollipops of varying sizes out of round styrofoam peices, celophane, and brightly colored ribbon.  I bought some large rectangular styrofoam pieces and stuck the lollipops in this to stand up. I covered the styrofoam with different colored easter grass.

Next came the peppermint forest. I laid down more of the peices of peppermint paper and had about 10 cardboard candycanes lined around them.

For the chocolate swamp I had an actual chocolate fountain with all of the trimming. This was a huge hit with the adults and the kids. I used a projector to copy a picture of Gloppy and taped this to the table with a banner declaring it the Chocolate swamp.

For activities I had a friend dress as Princess Frostine to lead some activities with Lolly. They did some musical games and them led the kids through Candyland on a treasure hunt for a golden gumdrop. The kids loved this. Princess Frostine did some magic tricks that entertained the kids as well.  We ended the activities with facepainting. I had a table that I placed some glass candy jars on that were filled with candy. I let the kids (and adults) come and scoop out there own candy into a candythemed cellophane bag.

Favors were fun to do too. I found some brightly colored bags and some candy stickers. I put the sticker on the bags and then used a spray glitter for an extra touch. I filled the bags with candyland sticker/coloring books I found at the local drugstore. I put in a pack of crayons. I found some scented bubbles in the shape of an icecream cone and topped it off with a toothbrush. We thought the toothbrush would make the parents happy after all the candy. I found some large lollipops and included one of those as well.

The party was so much fun even though it was a lot of work to make all of the props. At the end of the party one of the kids moms asked me if she could give me a call when it was time to start planning her daughters next party. Looking forward to her 2nd Birthday already!

• Kids Party Home
• Kids by Category
• Kids by A to Z
• Teen Party Ideas
• Adult Party Ideas
• Holiday Party Ideas
• Nutcracker Ballet