The Mermaid Party Theme

There are a lot of things you can do to make your mermaid party a memorable one. First of all make sure you have decorated the entire place in aqua, turquoise blue and green colour.

Ideas for Making the Invitation

1. Take a transparent long air-tight bottle/jar. Fill the bottom with colourful shells. Make cut-outs of various mermaid characters like Sebastian, flounder, sea-horse. Laminate the cut-outs. Fill the jar with water and float them in the jar. Sprinkle in a little glitter and close the jars (If there is water leaking out of the jars or you feel the lamination wont stay in water then you can stick the cut-outs on a candy stick and rest them in between the shells).  Make a Mermaid cut-out about the same size of the jar or may be bigger. On the back of the mermaid write the party details. Get the mermaid cut-out laminated. Paint a candy-stick blue or take a blue or green colour straw and stick the mermaid cut-out on top of the straw. Paste this mermaid cut-out on the back-side of the jar with a cello-tape or a two-sided tape.  
2. Another way of making the card is by using a zip-lock bag. Make a mermaid cut-out and write the party details behind, laminate it. Fill the zip-lock with sand and shells. You can put in small treasures for the kids like pins, erasers, sharpeners, pencils, etc for the kids. place the mermaid in the bag and close it.

Poems for the Invitation

1. Little (name) turns (age) and is celebrating it under the sea. So get ready to twist and turn as you enter the wonderful world of fun creatures and adventure on (date) at (venue) from (time).
2. Little (name) invites you to explore the wonderful world of under the sea as she turns (age) so let’s dress-up like one of the sea-creatures and have a whale of a time on (date) at (Venue) from (time).
3. Magical Mermaids and oceans of fish, have gathered together to make a wish, for (name)’s (age) birthday!!! From (time), (date), we hope you can join us for some mermaid play!!

Gifting Ideas

The best gift would be swimming goggles, flippers, swimming floats or swimming arm-bands.

You can gift catch the fish magnet game. Hunt down for some fishing games in the malls.

Decoration

Decoration plays a vital role in the mermaid theme. The guests need to experience an under water adventure and the key to that is the decoration.

1. You can cover the walls with dark blue cellophane paper to give an under water feel. Make some orange and green streamers hang at the bottom to give it a sea look. Make cut-outs or get ready-made stickers of starfish, octopus, sea-horse, fish, whale, etc and stick randomly on the walls.
2. You can get a big whale balloon and place it in the centre of the venue or at the entrance. Place long balloons all around the place.
3. On the ceiling you can put stars either the ready to stick glow stickers or make stars with white construction paper and put silver glitter on the border.
4. Use a blue or green table-cloth and stick fishes all around it.

 Welcome Note

Treasure Chest: Get mermaid stuff like puzzles, hair-bands, clips, bracelets, hats, necklaces, etc. take a big jewelry box or a cardboard box and cover it with golden wrapping paper or paint it gold. Decorate it with beads, shells, colourful stones, etc. Put the various mermaid items in the box and keep the box at the entrance. This shall be the treasure chest. When a child enters allow them to take a gift of their choice.

Fun Activities and Games

1. Pin the Clip on Ariel’s Hair: Make a big cut-out of the Mermaid and place it on a wall. Now ask the kids to put a pin in her hair in a place near her forehead (you can also make a mark for the pin to be more precise) the one who is closest wins.
2. Treasure Hunt: Hide various house-hold items like fork, spoon, butter-knives, straws, plates, plastic cups and glasses. Ask the kids to hunt down for them and the one who gets the maximum items wins.
3. Mermaid Limbo: Put streamers on a stick and play the limbo. Shorten the distance of the stick in every round. The kids have to clear the stick in order to be in the game.
4. Bubbles all Around: Get bottles of bubbles and decorate them with small fish cut-outs and give one to every child to blow the bubbles.
5. Mermaid Relay: Make cut-outs of 2 identical mermaid tails (stick a two sided tape in centre of the tail or ribbons on the 2 sides so that girls can tie a knot and wear it in front or back)  (this depends on the age of the kids), 2 mermaid crowns and get 2 bracelets or bands. Divide the girls into two teams and at a distance keep the cut-outs and play relay where-in one child from each team has to run to the cut-outs wear the costume take it out and run back for the next player to race. (Keep extra cut-outs in case if it tears)

1. Mermaid Picture: Cut out a huge shell shape with construction paper. Paint it brown and make shell like stripes on it with brown marker. Now make a cardboard cut out of the same size and shape of the shell and stick the shell on the cardboard. Place the cardboard on the ground try to rest it on a stick or wall. Hire a Mermaid dress make every child that enters wear it and click a photo. Another way of doing it is you can make a mermaid cut-out on cardboard and make a hole on the mermaids face. Let the face hole be big enough for all the kids faces to fit in. click a picure of the kids. Email them the picture as a thank-you note.
2. Sea Monster: Enlist an adult helper ("Sea Monster") to assist with this Little Mermaid party activity. (It's best if you play this game outside).
   Draw lines (or put a masking tape) on both sides of the playing area (about 50 feet apart). Sea Monster stands behind one line, and the kids stand behind the other. The game starts with the kids yelling "Sea monster, Sea monster, are you hungry?" The Sea Monster should reply "No, come closer!" Then the kids take about 5-8 steps toward the Sea Monster.
   The play continues in this manner until the kids get near the Sea Monster. Then, when asked if he is hungry, the Sea Monster replies "Yes", at which point children will start running back toward their "home" line. Sea Monster tries to catch others to become sea monsters. Continue playing until there is only one child remains "free."
3. Freeze-Dance: Play “under the sea” music make all the kids dance and stop the music whoever is still dancing is out. Repeat it till one child remains.
4. Bean Bag Toss in Fish’s Mouth: Draw a picture of a fish on a piece of poster board. Then tape the fish to the front of a cardboard box. Finally, cut the fish’s mouth out so the bean bags can fly through. Have the children throw bean bags, one at a time, and reward the child who makes the most.
5. Dive Under the Sea: Before the party, lay a large blue sheet on the ground and place plenty of bean bag fishes, stuffed animal creatures, etc. under it. You can make the fishes out of fabric and stuff them with tissue paper. To play, have everyone gather around the sheet and grab the part of fabric that is in front of them. Have all the children shake the sheet like a parachute. While they are doing that, you say, “Under the Sea Under the Sea ______ and _____ dive under the sea.” You fill in the blanks with two different children’s names. The two children would then go under the sheet, grab 1 sea creature and toss it on top of the sheet. The creatures would then be tossed around on the sheet. Continue sending children under the sea until they have all had a turn.
6. Pass the Treasure Box: this is similar to passing the parcel but with a twist. . Fill the box with gifts like rubber duck, fish bean bag, stickers etc. Make the kids sit in a cirle and make them pass a treasure box play the music and when the music stops the child with the treasure box gets to open it and select a gift and leave the game. In this way all the kids get a gift.
7. Watch the Movie: Lastly you can play “The Little Mermaid” movie and let the kids enjoy it.

Food Ideas

1. Cake: Get a mermaid shaped cake from the near-by cake shop.
2. Cup-Cakes: Cup-Cakes go well in every occasion. Try to find cup-cakes with meraid or fish shapes.
3. Prawns Masti: Prawns are tasty, healthy and sea-food so it has all the reasons to be in the menu. http://bohra-gourmet.blogspot.com/2010/12/prawns-masti.html
4. Gummy Fish in the Ocean: Make blue Jelly and slide in some gummy fish before setting the jelly.
5. Pizza: Small round shaped pizza’s would go well with the theme.
6. Fish Sandwiches: Use a fish-shaped cookie cutter and shape out the sandwiches.
7. Fish Fruits: cut fruits and place them in a plate by forming a fish pattern. Serve with a sweet yogurt dip.
8. Fruit Punch with blue color goes well.
9. You can add blue colour to sprite or 7up and give the kids. they will surely love it.
10. Fish/Shell shaped cookies: you can either bake fish shaped cookies or buy them from a bakery.
11. Shell Shaped Pasta: Make shell shaped pasta with veggies, chicken and broccoli.

Additional Ideas:
You can arrange for a trip at the aquarium with the kids.