Little girls who love the idea of a sleep over birthday party but aren’t ready to spend a night away from home will love a pajama party. Perfect for girls ages 6-8, parents will also love being able to send party guests home at “bedtime” to sleep in their own beds and not on the birthday girl’s family room floor. Follow these instructions for hosting a fun pajama themed birthday party.
Pajama Party Invitations
Find some funky patterned scrapbook paper at a scrapbook store to make cut out pajama bottoms. Also pick up some colored card stock in a coordinating color. If you use 8 ½ x 11 inch card stock, you can easily cut the cardstock in half or quarters for larger or medium sized invitations. Make a “pattern” out of scrap paper for your pajama bottoms. Sketch the outline of a pair or pants. Then, to get the perfect pattern, fold your scrap paper in half so the pajama bottoms are folded right down the middle, length wise. Cut your pajama bottom pattern out following the lines on half of your picture, then when you unfold it, you will have a perfectly symmetrical pair of pajama bottoms.
Trace the pattern onto your patterned paper, cut out your patterned pajama bottoms and glue or tape them to your solid colored coordinated card stock. Punch two holes at the top center of your card so the holes go through the front of the pajamas. Then tie a ribbon through the holes and into a bow to look like a cute draw string on the pajama bottoms.
Finally, print out the party information on a separate sheet of paper, cut it to size and attach it to the back of the invitation using mono adhesive tape or a glue stick. Make sure you instruct the guests to come in their pajamas and bring a sleeping bag a pillow and their favorite stuffed animal.
Pajama Party Decorations
Be sure to designate a large space for the pajama party activities. Move furniture out of the way so that there is a big floor space. This will make it easier for playing games or watching a movie. String some white twinkle lights through out the room and dim the main lighting to create a fun night time effect. Balloons scattered through out the room will also add to the festive look. Don’t worry about buying helium filled balloons, just inflate them yourself and leave them on the floor. The guests will know what to do with them!
Pajama Party Games
Sleeping bag relay race: You’ll need two sleeping bags placed at one end of the room. Make sure the sleeping bags are zipped up and only open at the top. It’s a good idea if they are two different colors – then you can have a red team and a blue team, for example. Divide the children into their teams and line them up ready. When you say “Go!” the first child in each team races to their sleeping bag. They have to get right into the sleeping bag – and then get out again! You might need a couple of helpers to assist! Then each child races back to their team, “tags” the next kid in their team, who then races to their sleeping bag.
The first team to finish wins. Have a practice game first with no winners. You could adapt this slumber party game to any suitable obstacle race, too. Play this one a couple of times before settling down for…
Pass the pillow: This slumber party game is a variation of pass the parcel. Prepare a box of wrapped goodies and place it in the center of the circle where the kids are sitting. When the music starts to play, the children pass a pillow around the circle. When the music stops, the child holding the pillow can take a goodie out of the box. Whoever is playing and stopping the music must make sure that every kid gets a goodie – or there’ll be tears!
Musical sleeping bags: Clear a space! Lay out the kids’ sleeping bags on the floor. One less sleeping bag than the number of players. Start the music – and when it stops – it’s up to you! Either each child has to sit on a sleeping bag. (Faster) Or they have to actually get into them. (More chaotic!)
Toss the toy: Each child puts their pillow on the floor in front of them and takes five steps back. They then have to toss their soft toy so that it lands on the pillow! Depending on the space you have, they can all do this around the room, or two by two. If any kids have brought unsuitable soft toys/pillows for this activity, give them a substitute.
Pajama Party Activities
Kids will love to decorate their own pillow case with fabric paints, iron on transfers and other things. Provide each child with a plain white pillow case and a supply of fabric paints. For an extra treat, purchase iron-on transfer paper for your home computer printer. Take a digital picture of each guest when she arrives and print out iron-on transfers of their picture. Kids might also enjoy attaching ribbon, or tie dying their pillow cases.
Kids will love snuggling up with their sleeping bag, pillow and stuffed animal to watch an appropriate. Since this isn’t a “sleep over” pajama party, a movie may or may not fit in with your time table, so make sure you know how long each activity should last and plan your movie accordingly.
Pajama Party Treats
Pizza and root beer floats make a fun kid menu for a pajama party. If you’d rather not have dinner for your guests, try putting out different finger foods, like popcorn, pretzels, M&M;’s and drink boxes. Don’t forget the birthday cake. A 9×13 cake can easily be made to look like a bed. Just use white frosting for the sheet, a colored frosting for the bed spread, and frost 2 snack cakes for the pillows. Graham crackers can be used to create a headboard and tiny toy animals can create the look of stuffed animals sitting on the bed.
Pajama Party Favors
Depending on the age of your party guests, as well as the activities or crafts completed during the party, you might want to consider some of the following items for party favors: a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, a bedtime story book, a flashlight, miniature boxes of cereal, travel sized toiletries, packets of hot cocoa mix.
