Your daughter loves everything about Disney’s Frozen. She dressed up as Elsa for Halloween and Let it Go is her favorite song. It is no surprise to you that she wants to have a Frozen-themed party for her birthday. Unfortunately, a quick look at your after-holiday budget does not leave much to work with. Don’t worry. You can still make your daughter’s dreams come true.
These budget-conscious ideas will allow your princess and her friends to enjoy an afternoon of games, crafts and other Frozen-themed activities without breaking the bank:
Start with invitations - www.punchbowl.com is a free electronic invitation site that offers four options for Frozen invitations. Simply fill in the party details, insert the guest emails and press send. Paper invitations can be found at various retailers or online at www.amazon.ca.
Photo booth - Give the kids something to do as the guests arrive. Printable photo booth props are available on www.etsy.com. You can print out the images from your home printer, then cut out and attach a dowel rod or branches from the yard. Snap pictures of your guests posing as Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Sven and Kristoff and share the photos with the children’s parents. For a backdrop, use white icicle lights or different-sized cotton balls threaded onto string to look like falling snow.
What to serve - A simple Frozen-themed lunch includes baby carrots and ranch dip, pretzel sticks, blue gelatin cups and sandwiches cut in the shape of a snowflake. Snowflake cookie cutters can be found in craft stores and online.
Any parent can make a trifle. Add food coloring to a white cake mix to create a blue cake. Crumble the cake into a glass bowl or trifle bowl and layer with whipped topping. Repeat layers until all the cake is used. Top with the last of the whipped topping and decorate with blue sprinkles and a Frozen candle.
Games
Antler ring toss - Order an inflatable antler toss game from Oriental Trading, www.orientaltrading.com. The guests will enjoy taking turns trying to get their rings on Sven’s antlers. While the game comes with inflatable rings, it might be fun to dim the lights and use glow stick necklace rings.
Build an Olaf game - www.disney.com has a free printable of Olaf in pieces, www.disney.co.uk/frozen/downloads/frozen-activity-build-olaf.pdf. Print out a sheet for each player and have them cut out the separate pieces. Using a single die, play a game similar to the Cootie game. Instead of building bugs, you are building Olaf. Assign numbers to each part and collect his snowman parts as you roll. The pieces can be glued to the front of a blue, inexpensive gift bag to be used as their goodie bag.
Melting snowball - Have the kids sit in a circle and pass a Styrofoam ball around while the Frozen soundtrack plays. Like Hot Potato, when the music stops, the child holding the ball is out. To avoid hurt feelings, the birthday girl can open her gifts in the order her friends get out of the game.
Crafts
Make a Frozen hair tie - Purchase elastic hair ties. Attach blue, white or snowflake patterned ribbons to the elastic by folding the ribbon in half. Slip the looped end of the ribbon behind the elastic and then pull the ends through the loop to attach around the elastic. Embellish the ribbons with beads attached to elastic thread or yarn and attach in the same manner.
Elsa’s gloves - Let the kids decorate inexpensive white or blue gloves. Use white glue to draw basic snowflake shapes and cover with glitter. Add more bling with gems and beads for gloves worthy of a princess.
Trolls - Use grey clay or homemade play dough to craft Cliff, Bulda or the other trolls. Decorate with googly eyes, craft moss hair, grey felt ears and small rock noses.
Goodie bags - As your guests leave the party, make sure their homemade goodie bag includes their glitter gloves, hair ties and trolls. Finish the bag with other Frozen items like a Frozen party cup, stickers and pencils, all found on Oriental Trading, www.orientaltrading.com.
Here are some suggestions in case you have extra time left over at the party:
Play in the snow – No, you don’t have to bundle everyone up to go outside. If you are lucky enough to have snow on the ground, simply scoop some up in containers and bring it inside. No snow? No problem! Create your own snow with a mixture of corn starch and shaving cream.
Set the kids at the table and let them decorate their own Olafs. Use small sticks for arms, left-over moss for hair, and black buttons for the eyes and mouth. An orange pipe cleaner makes a perfect carrot nose.
Too messy? Why not end the party by settling down for a screening of, you guessed it, Frozen!
Pam is a freelance writer and mother of three. She enjoys planning, hosting and writing about themed parties for kids and adults.
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