For my family watching Survivor is a family event. The kids get the biggest kick out of watching these people survive out in the wilderness and picking their favorites! My daughter decided she wanted to have a Survivor sleepover this year for her birthday. I was super excited about the theme and ran with it.
If you read my article on Birthday Party Etiquette you will find general tips for birthday parties. In this article you will find specific ideas for turning a plain old birthday party into a Survivor themed birthday party.
Invitations
You can get extremely creative with invitations for any party, however we had an extra fun time with the Survivor party invites! You can always go out to the party supply store and find some jungle or island themed party invitations, those will work just fine for this theme. My preference is to make my own invitations though. We thought of several different ideas that are extremely cute for Survivor themed invitations. One is to use brown butcher paper, write the party details in a clever rhyme similar to what tree mail would sound like on Survivor, then roll it up and tie a piece of twine around it. Another option is to use a photo editing program and come up with your very own Survivor Logo. I had a friend of mine do this for our invitations. she used my daughters favorite colors and my daughter even made up her very own tribe name. I took the logo and pasted it into Microsoft Word and typed up the invitations and printed them out. Very easy to do and I never had to leave my house to get them done!
Food
Food was simple for this party as well. I didn’t want to serve any gross foods as they often do on Survivor, so instead I kept my menu simple. I did throw in a few things that looked gross though. For the Survivor-like foods we served pretzel sticks (firewood), gummy worms, malted milk balls (mini coconuts), and ants on a log (celery sticks topped with peanut butter and raisins). Then we also had other typical party food snacks as well.
The cake was very simple to make. I decided to make her cake into an island. We used graham cracker crumbs to look like sand. I bought some plastic palm trees from the cake decorating supply store to stick int he cake as well. These trees were very inexpensive, but really added that extra touch to the cake.
Fun and Games
Some children prefer not to have games at their parties, other children love them. Here are a few suggestions for Survivor themed games for your birthday party.
1. Obstacle Course – You can set up an obstacle course in your front or back yard. The kids can easily go through the obstacle course and you don’t really have to buy anything to do this. You can use whatever items you have around the house or garage to make your obstacle course work for you all.
2. Quiz time – In some episodes of Survivor they have to read a story and answer questions about the story. Other times they have to answer questions about their fellow tribe mates. You can have the kids answer questions about the birthday child, or you could have them listen to a story and then answer some questions about the story.
3. You can also do any standard party games such as Red Rover, Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Musical Chairs, and etc. These will all work well for a Survivor party since the challenges are always different on Survivor and these can just be your version of those challenges.
Party Favors
We purchased some bandannas in my daughters favorite colors from a craft store. Then I wrote the tribe name on them with fabric paint.. You can do this or you can put some bug and worm shaped fruit snacks into goody bags with some survivor items like compasses, magnifying glasses, mini telescopes and other fun survivor toys.
This party was so much fun and was extremely simple to put together. It works great for both boys and girls, and is truly a blast for everyone who attends.
