A popular theme for a children’s party is the circus. http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/circus_party.html If you would like to use the circus for your child’s next birthday or event, then you will need to know how to plan a circus party.

One of the best things about a circus party is the wide variety of ideas for decorations, food, activities and games. Clowns, face painting, costumes, entertainment – you have a lot to choose from. The first thing to decide is, will your circus party be open to all things circus, or are you going to limit it to one circus character…say a clown. If you do open it up to everything involved with the circus, you can have so much fun with imaginative ideas from several different sources. This page will explain how to plan a circus party for clowns and all the rest of the people and animals in the circus!

Will your circus party be a costume party? One idea is to let each guest come as his or her favorite circus performer…not necessarily to perform, just to look like the lion tamer, for example – with a stuffed lion. If this is the case, you will need to mention costumes on your invitations.

An important consideration is, “Should the party be inside or outside. Or a combination of both. If you choose to serve circus food, like popcorn, peanuts and cotton candy to serve to the guests, outside is probably going to be less messy. Hopefully you will have good weather for your festivities.

In the olden days of the circus, the “big top” (the circus tent) was usually red and white striped. If you would like to add the word “carnival” to your searches on the Internet, you are likely to come up with quite a few ideas available based on the circus of days gone by. The term “three ring circus party” will also lead to the same vintage feel to your theme.

Invitations: Circus party invitations can be as simple as going online to a party store and buying them, or being as creative as you like. The major advantage to purchasing items from a party store is that they match. With a circus, bright colors added to the design theme will probably look wonderful, and you can buy those supplies generically. You may want to mix and match – solid colors and designed supplies.

There are online sites where you can select and download or print free images of circus elephants, a ringmaster, dogs jumping through hoops, and many more. http://www.cartooncritters.com/circus.htm You may use the images as coloring pages for crafts, or use them to decorate invitations.

You can find red and white striped paper online (just search red and white striped paper) and then use the paper to make invitations. You can decorate them with circus stickers, or whatever you like.

Decorations: Balloons are fun party decorations, particularly for a circus party! You probably don’t need anything fancy, just colorful: yellow, red and blue are the basic colors you’ll find in the “big top” version of a circus party. They are inspired by the “Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus”.

There are sites on the Internet with wonderful old vintage circus posters. If you search for “circus poster,” you’ll have lots to choose from. Bareback riders, trained elephants and trapeze artists are all familiar circus images.

Thanks to your circus theme, you have some built-in food ideas. You can find popcorn boxes online and fill them with pre-popped popcorn. You can do the same with peanuts. Peanuts in the shell are very circus-like. Search for “peanut bags” online and you’ll have a lot of choices. One really great thing to keep in mind is, if you are putting out snack food like this, you are not only providing something to eat, the boxes and bags become part of the party decorations.

Hotdogs are easy and reminiscent of the circus, if you are sticking with the circus food idea. So are corndogs. Then there are animal crackers in their boxes, particularly “Barnum’s Animal Crackers.” You can purchase one cookie box per guest. Placed on the party table, they also lend to a big-top theme.

If you are brave enough for cotton candy (it’s sticky), you can actually buy a cotton candy machine rather inexpensively. If you’re a fan of the cotton candy swirled on a cardboard cone (not the stuff squished into bags), you may want to look into your own cotton candy machine or a cotton candy machine rental. There are also hotdog carts and popcorn machines for rent, although they are sometimes hard to find.

For beverages, you can let the kids get in on the creativity and set up a lemonade stand. http://www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com/kids-birthday-party-ideas.htmlCoolers full of juice boxes and cans of soda provide another possibility.

As for the birthday cake, if you search for “circus birthday cake,” you will wind up with so many options for free recipes and cake decorating ideas, that we will leave that one up to you!

Here are two things you can do to boost your birthday theme: hire a clown entertainer and/or rent a bounce house. Budget will be a consideration. Hiring a clown provides a lot of entertainment value, because they usually come with some or all of the following: their own music, balloon animals, face painting, juggling tricks…ask the entertainment booking agency to get the specifics.

As far as a bounce house is concerned, there are circus inflatable bounce houses and jumps and slides and more. A search for “circus bounce house” will give you a lot of choices.

Consider getting a circus music CD to play in the background. With or without a clown and bounce house, this is a good way to keep the circus atmosphere going. You also have the option of buying music tracks online, downloading them, and making you own circus CD. One way or the other, the perky circus music helps create the illusion that you are really at the circus. You can listen to samples of the tracks before you buy the songs or CD.

Crafts are fun for kids, as we mentioned, with the free coloring pages and other Internet offerings. You can try your own hand at face painting. http://www.face-painting-fun.com/

A circus piñata could be a hit – there are elephant piñatas and more. Along with candy, you could fill the piñata with small circus party favors (stickers, clown lip whistles, giggle tubes) and then provide the guests with a peanut bag for a goody bag to take home the loot. (You might want to set aside a few extras, just in case one guest is better at scooping up the piñata contents than the others.) Have a wonderful circus party!