How to plan an amazing frozen themed birthday party without spending a ton of money. Ideas for decorations, food, activities and more!
How do you feel about the movie Frozen? Do you love it or do you wish people would just “let it go” already? My daughter Audrey is firmly in the “love” camp. She turned 2 a few weeks ago and we threw her a Frozen themed birthday party that was a big success. We also managed to keep the cost under control which is always a bonus!
We went big with the twins’ birthday party back in May but I wanted to do something smaller and more low key this time around. I just invited a handful of friends which meant that we could do really fun invitations. I used this free printable to make edible snowman kits and sent them off to our friends along with an invitation. It was pretty inexpensive to mail them, even the envelopes for families with 2 or 3 kids (I did one kit per kid) were less than a dollar to send out.
I can’t take credit for any of the decorations, I am extremely lucky to have a very crafty mom. She made these amazing centerpieces from these Anna, Elsa and Olaf dolls that we already had. She found all of the other decorative pieces at garage sales (many were from other Frozen parties!). Everything is stuck into a chunk of styrofoam. The centerpiece bases for Anna and Olaf are cheap vases that she painted silver to hide the styrofoam and the Elsa centerpiece is on top of a faux crystal bowl.
Each table had a different centerpiece which sat on a runner made of this metallic fabric she found on clearance at the craft store. For something a little different, each chair had a pair of dollar store fairy wings strapped to the back. The kids LOVED wearing the wings during the party, even the boys!
One thing I did re-use from the big girls’ party was the paper pompoms. The colors were right so why not? I also hung some sparkly snowflakes all around the patio – our local party store had them on clearance and they looked very festive!
This party was just six weeks after the twins’ birthday bash so I really wanted to avoid too much repetition from the first party. To change things up a bit I did a brunch instead of lunch, which worked out great because the menu could be completely different. I did a buffet of bagels with smoked salmon, rolls with deli meats and cheeses, a platter with a variety of sandwich and bagel trimmings, baked french toast casserole, rainbow slaw and an Olaf fruit platter (my mom again, she really is the best!).
Check this guy out!
He is cut from two honeydew melons. The first melon makes up the head and the second melon is split in half and filled with fruit to make the body. She held everything together with toothpicks. If you do this, she recommends using an underripe melon for the head, it will hold together the best that way. Of course no birthday party is complete without a cake. This was my first attempt at a tiered cake and it came out pretty cute!
The snowflakes are made of candy melts and the figurines came from Amazon. If you’re new to tiered cakes like I am, one thing that really helped me out was a cake leveler, it kept all the layers even so that the cake would be stable and not topple over. I also dipped some pretzel wands in candy melts and decorated them with snowflake sprinkles and candy pearls. I served the pretzels in a little vase with jelly beans in the bottom.
For activities to keep the kids busy, I had our bubble machine going and we had a sand pit again because it was such a big hit at the last party. This time we hid necklaces, bracelets and these cute pink princess turtles in the sand, the kids had a good time digging everything up.
The big hit of the party was our Elsa’s frozen ice hands activity. I poured water into disposable gloves and dropped little trinkets into them (felt snowflakes, plastic Frozen rings, beads, buttons, large rhinestones). I laid the hands out flat and then froze them until solid. After a quick dip in hot water I was able to cut the gloves open and slide the hands right out. I put all of the hands in our water table with a few inches of water.
This was a fun way for the kids to cool off on a hot day and it forced them to get creative to free their treasures! Some kids tried to smash the hands to get their loot, others put them on the hot pavement in the sun to melt and the younger kids just had fun doing some splashing and stirring. I let all of our friends know in advance that there would be an ice/water activity so that they could bring extra clothes in case anyone got really wet (no one did).
When it was time to go, I sent everyone on their way with these treat buckets full of fun Frozen items like paint with water books, crayons, stickers and a few pieces of candy. Everything came from the dollar store.
So what did Audrey think of her party? She absolutely loved it! I thought she was going to take a great nap afterwards and not only did she not nap, I couldn’t get her to go to bed until after 10 pm! Too much sugar, too much excitement! Regardless, I am so thankful for my littlest buddy, she is such a joy and a blessing.
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OMG this is so adorable. I wanna come to your party! 🙂
I’ll invite you next time 😉
I love the Olaf fruit tray so creative and cute! Plus he’s my favorite Frozen character.
Thanks, I saw the idea on Pinterest!
Wow, this is a kid’s dream! You did a great job on the cake and I love all of the decorations.
Im not gonna lie…I kinda miss having Birthday Parties…I think my last one was when I was like 6 and all I remember was My Little Ponies EVERYWHERE! :-p
Did you know that My Little Ponies are a thing again?! My older girls are obsessed, we have about a million ponies lying around, both the old school ones I used to play with and these new ones that have HUGE eyes!
Such cute ideas. My daughter loves Frozen
So many cute ideas. Those center prices are stunning. The sand and water activities, what a great idea.
I’ll admit it–I’m a huge Frozen fan. This looks like such a great party, so many cute and creative ideas! 🙂
You did such an incredible job and that Olaf from melons is amazing! This is a party any kid would go crazy over and I think if my little guy sees your Olaf, we’ll be having a similar one soon!
This party is adorable! Wish I still had little ones!
I’m totally milking the cutesy birthday party thing for as long as it lasts!
Oh my goodness, this is such a cute idea. I think I want it for MY next birthday….so what if I turn 44, right?
Go for it! And let me know how it turns out 🙂
My girls are huge frozen fans!
I have to admit Olaf is kinda cute. Looks like you guys had a great time at the party.
One I’m sure will be remembered for Years to come.
This is fantastic! My kiddos would LOVE this. I have a house full of little frozen fans! This wold make their day!
A lot of our friends’ kids are Frozen obsessed so it was the perfect choice to appeal to everyone!
My niece’s birthday is next weekend and it;s going to be a Frozen themed party!
I hope you have a great time!
You did such a great job! I love the do you want to build a snowman idea!
I saw it on Pinterest and figured that since we only had to do a few invites it would be fun. We had 50 people at my older girls’ party, it would NOT have been fun to stuff 50 of those snowman bags 😉
What a great idea for a birthday party. I’m going to be planning one for my 5yr old here pretty soon. He does love Olaf!!
What fabulous birthday party. I love Frozen especiall olaf.
Oddly enough I saw Frozen for the first time with my two boys ages 21 and 17 with the 21-year-olds girlfriend in their college town. It’s what they wanted to see! We all were crying in the first 15 minutes, laughing and loving this movie! I will most likely have a Frozen birthday party when Hunter turns 21 just for fun – he always has been a big snowman fan (we live in FL) and is a HUGE Olaf fan! LOL – he bought Kaitlyn (the girlfriend) an Olaf stuffed talking toy for Christmas, but couldn’t part with him so he went and bought another! Thanks so much for this great post! I will def be making Olaf!! With a smile, Carlyn from Tampa
It’s a very cute movie, I hope your son likes his Olaf melon 🙂
You went above and beyond with this adorable Frozen in the Summer party!! I love the frozen hands idea with the dispoable glove pure creativity!!
Thanks, I saw the idea on Pinterest
Oh my gosh, they all must have had so much fun! I love all the decorations and fun things you added!
They had a great time, no one wanted to leave even (a sign of a good party!)
We had a Frozen birthday party too. What a fun theme, especially in Summmmmmerrrrr! 🙂
I don’t think Frozen ever gets old for the kids 😉
Me-oh-my! You thought of EVERYTHING and then some. SOOO many creative and adorable ideas. And it’s not over the top at all. I love the centerpieces (I bet those would have been fun to make)!
Both of my girls have winter birthdays, I’m a summer birthday and I always struggle to figure out how to throw a good kid party in the winter! I wish I could do outdoor birthday brunches like this!
Winter birthdays are tricky, although my older girls’ birthday is the end of April and we almost got rained out last year so now I always have it in May to be safe!
What a beautiful party! Everything turned out perfect. Very creative.
I bet I know a few kids that would love this theme for their birthday party. Frozen is very popular around my house.
What an amazing party! My oldest would absolutely flip out for a party like this!
Ha, I love it! I have a boy but he still loves ‘Frozen’ and Olaf is his absolute fave. It’s a long-lasting popular movie, that’s def for sure. Perfect for the party theme. 🙂
This looks like such a great party – such a great way to have a Frozen party and Olaf is adorable!
What a cute party. Your definitely thought outside of the box, what great recipes and activities!
Wow! What a beautiful party. I love how you thought out every detail. My kids’ birthdays are six weeks apart too. It really keeps you busy.
What a wonderful party!! I loved everything especially the frozen hands. I bet everyone had an amazing time.
What a FABULOUS execution of the theme!
xo katie // a touch of teal
I love the olaf fruit platter. What a fun party!
All of this is perfect for a Frozen party. I have to admit my favorite part was the Olaf fruit piece. =)
Sara, oh man, all the preparation for this party, how did you get it all done and take care of your girls at the same time…:) Everything looked wonderful and you even were able to get amazing photographs during the actual party. Supermom??? 🙂