Do you have a little one longing to be Part of that World, the mermaid one that is 🙂 If your little one’s favorite princess is Ariel from the Little Mermaid, this party is for you! With a few low cost items, upcycled decorations and some amazing games – including a treasure hunt, this party will be an absolute hit with your birthday kid AND it won’t break your piggy bank! Read on to check out our ideas!
DECORATIONS
To keep costs low, our decorations were pretty simple – we had a Little Mermaid Birthday Banner, some Little Mermaid Stickers, balloons from the Ariel Birthday Party Supplies kit, and a handful of blue plastic table covers hung around the walls and entry ways for an ‘underwater’ feel.
We also picked up a few bags of Seashells from the Dollar Store to spread around the tables. And to keep in the Little Mermaid theme, we sprinkled the Little Mermaid stickers around each of the food and activity tables. This doubled both as an additional decoration & as a final ‘game’ – the kids could keep as many as they could find after the party.
If you have any little mermaid toys and don’t mind having them out, those would make great additions to the party as well! AND, if your kiddo is in need of some activities a few days before the party, they can help with decorations by creating a few easy crafts. A quick search and you kind find a TON of kid-friendly mermaid craft ideas.
We also created a few labels and signs to go along with the party & games. Feel free to use for your own personal use and/or link back to this post 🙂 Click here to check them out.
THE TABLE
With just a few Little Mermaid items, you can create an awesome table perfect for your little ones! We kept things pretty simple in the themed-items area, purchasing just a few Ariel Party Plates & Napkins and mixing those with some solid colored items. We also used some of the hanging decorations from the Ariel Birthday Party Supplies but repurposed them for centerpieces. And of course, we spread out some seashells as well 🙂
THE PHOTO AREA
Photo backdrops are a great way of setting a theme and double as a nice and easy activity! Pick a backdrop that functions as decorative, add a few props to the scene and you’ve got a great place to hang out!
You can do soooo much with a photo area for the Little Mermaid!!!! If you have some extra time, you might want to create an Upcycled Ship (We created this one in our Intro Day for Pirate Week), underwater scene with a blue background and some sea creatures (We created one for our Ocean Week), or Ariel’s grotto with a handful of some “human items”.
Otherwise, there are definitely some Mermaid photo backdrops (Mermaid Backdrop) that you can purchase or some ocean/castle scenes that would match the ocean theme (Ocean Backdrop).
Note, you don’t have to go all out with a photo backdrop stand either. Grab a few pieces of tape and an empty wall & you’re all set!
PARTY FOOD
No party is complete without some party food! You can always serve some typical (or fancier) party food, but you can also keep in theme with a few clever labels 🙂
- Sea Cucumbers – Cucumbers
- Tiny Tentacles – Red Pepper Slices
- Goldfish – goldfish 😉
- Fish Soup – this can be an actual fish soup, clam chowder, or just some Campbell’s chicken noodles soup in little mermaid shapes
- Star Fish Sandwiches – sandwiches made using a star shaped sandwich cutter
- Mermaid & Friends Cookies – Mythical Creature Cookies
- Red Fish – Swedish fish
CRAFT & ACTIVITY TABLE(S)
We typically set up an activity table for kids to keep entertained while everyone arrives AND after all the games are done. These activities are simple and easy and typically don’t require too much supervision.
- Go Fish – We found a packet of Go Fish Cards at the Dollar Tree that aren’t Little Mermaid themed but fit the ocean setting
And while we didn’t have these crafts set up at our activity table, you could also add these in for some more before or after party games fun. (We used them for Mermaid Day in our Ocean Week and Mermaid Day in our Mythical Creature Week)
- Mermaid Wood Slices – This is a nice simple craft that’s a step above coloring pages because they have more dimension. You could also lay out some paint pens which might work a bit better on the wood than regular markers 😉
- Mermaid Ornament Craft
GAMES
What’s a party without some fun and memorable games??? Kids will definitely have fun just running around and coming up with their own games, BUT adding in a few themed games will definitely be a hit with your guests! Here were a few of ours:
For our games, we had a few stations set up along with treasure hunt clues that our group had to solve together before moving on. Each station was loosely based on a scene or song from the movie. It was super fun for them to perform the activity AND solve the clues (Note: You could definitely split these and just have the treasure hunt / clues portion OR the activities. For our group, the combination made the set of games much more active and entertaining 🙂 )
Most of our clues were fairly easy to find because of the age group. But if you have an older or smaller group, you could definitely make things a bit more challenging by hiding them a bit more or even adding some red herring clues/scrolls without sea shells to throw them off!
STATION 1: SEASHELLS & THE INTRO CLUE
The introduction clue sets up the game and lets everyone know that the rest of the clues will be rolled up in scrolls with a seashell. If you have some small seashells, you could also tie those to the clue instead of the paper versions below.
We gave this intro clue to the group while they were close to a bowl of seashells with the scroll sticking out.
Alternative: to make it a bit harder, you could bury the scroll completely under a deeper bowl of sea shells and/or only let them use a tool (like a spoon or tongs) to get the scroll out..
The clue points them to finding all of Ariel’s friends (station 2).
STATION 2: ARIEL’S FRIENDS
For this station, we set up some stickers with the characters from the movie. If you have any figurines or plushies and don’t mind having them out, this would be a great place to set them up!
The scroll actually contains a word search, and the words to find are names of characters from the film. Once all the names are found, there should be 12 letters left that spell out: Ariel’s Grotto.
STATION 3: ARIEL’S GROTTO
If we could have made a realistic underwater grotto, we definitely would have! But of course a realistic replica in your living room might be tough to set up 🙂 Instead, we used our Underwater Background and a not-so-subtle sign next to it saying “Ariel’s Grotto”. If you have any of the gadgets and gizmos from Ariel’s Grotto, you could place those along the floor or nearby shelves to complete the look.
For this station, we placed the scroll next to the ‘Ariel’s Grotto’ sign and the large cardboard seashell. For this clue, the goal is to find a few of the items that were in the grotto (chests, silverware, glasses, etc…). The items they had to find, however, were actually images – that matched the ones on the clue. Each image had a corresponding letter. When arranged in the exact order shown on the clue, the letters read ‘Under the Sea’.
STATION 4: UNDER THE SEA
For this station, we set up a box representing the ‘sea’ (covered in blue tissue). We decorated it with a few images of fish and mermaids as well as under sea creatures.
Inside, we added the real scroll as well as a few fake ones. We also tied a few magnetic rings to the scroll and had a large magnet next to the box. To make it a bit more difficult, we said they couldn’t just reach in and grab the scroll (Since the big magnet seems out of place for this party, they should be able to figure out that they’ll need it to get the right scroll!)
Alternative 1: If you want to add a bit of extra surprise, you can add a bit of a twist to what’s inside. Instead of having one hole or box to put their hand in, the kids could have a few to pick from. Only one of the holes/boxes would have the scroll but the others would have some items that feel ‘funny’ – e.g. cooled but cooked spaghetti, peeled grapes, corn hair.
Alternative 2: If you have a large plastic bin, you can add the scroll into an empty water bottle along with a few coins to weigh it down. Then fill up the bin with water 🙂 The kids will have to reach in to grab their scroll (or alternatively use a tool- like tongs or a strong magnet – to get them out).
The clue inside is a maze where the start is at the bottom with Ursula’s sea polyps. The end is at the top by a castle. The correct path passes letters that spell out ‘Le Poisson’.
STATION 5: LE POISSON
This station is based loosely off Chef Louis’ kitchen and the scene where he’s cooking fish. We set up a small pot and put in our paper fish. A few steps away, we also laid out a blue tissue paper to represent the sea. The goal was to get the fish from the pot to ‘sea’ without actually touching the fish.
On the back of some of the fish, we wrote out a few numbers (numbers that correspond to the combination of the lock in the next & final station). Our eagle-eyed youngsters did catch that some had numbers on them and made sure to write those down. 😉 At the bottom of the pot was the last scroll.
STATION 6: TRUE LOVE
And last but not least we have the actual heart shaped lock! Using the combination from the numbers on the fish, they can unlock the box and grab their candy treats!
Alternative: if you can’t find a heart shaped lock, you could also print out an image of a heart and attach to a regular combination lock. Otherwise, you can always tell the kids they have to tell you the ‘password’ before they get their treats! 🙂
GOODIE BAGS & GIVE AWAYS
For our goodie bags, we picked up a few things from the Dollar Store – Mermaid Magic Towels, Mermaid Puzzles, fish games, pencils, stickers – just a few little items that they could play with at the end of the day 😉 We also added some extra candy as well as packets of goldfish cause everyone loves goldfish!
THANK YOU
Thank you so much for checking out our party planning article. Hopefully it gave you some great ideas for your next celebration!
If you did enjoy this, please let us know below or follow us on Pinterest. For more mermaid-themed and/or ocean fun, check out some of our other parties below, our Mermaid Ideas, and Water Fun. Also, If you haven’t already and are still looking for that perfect party theme, feel free to check out some of our other party ideas: Party Guides!
Happy Party Planning 🙂
MORE MERMAID FUN:
Check out our Budget Friendly Backyard Mermaid Party:
Dive into our Mermaid Beach Party:
And Learn Loads about Mermaids in our Mythical Creature Week – Mermaid Day:
