Throw an unforgettable party for your baby’s first birthday! These party ideas will help you plan every detail—the birthday theme, birthday decorations, party food, activities and more! A child’s 1st birthday marks an important milestone and deserves an extra special celebration. It’s also a great way to bring your neighbors, friends, and family together. We’ve put together adorable birthday party themes for your baby that are also fun for guests who will bring their own small kids. And if you have a slightly older child, these ideas can be easily adapted for a toddler’s birthday party. Choose from one of these creative birthday parties and throw your little one the best birthday bash!
7 First Birthday Party Ideas
Unicorn First Birthday Party
Delight your little one with a whimsical unicorn party!
Party Decorations
Fill the party room with balloons in soft colors like pink, light blue, teal, and light purple. Line your party table with tulle and cover the floor in front of the table with white polyester fiber fill to look like the table is soaring in the clouds. Dress your child in a tulle skirt or overalls and have them wear a unicorn headband for pictures.
Party Food
Serve up a delectable tray of adorable sweets: carrot cake donuts dipped in pink frosting, fluffy beignets dusted in powdered sugar to resemble clouds, pretzel sticks dipped in marshmallow whip and sprinkles, glitter-dusted cake pops. Instead of birthday cake, make unicorn cupcakes that are topped with frosted ice cream cones to resemble unicorn horns.
Birthday Gifts
Delight the birthday child with unicorn-themed gifts like a unicorn plush chair, a unicorn plushie to cuddle, or a personalized birthday book like My Royal Birthday Adventure, Unicorn Edition. This storybook takes the child on a fantasy adventure to a magical kingdom and features the child’s name in the story and artwork! It’s a beautiful keepsake that the child can grow up with.
Nursery Rhyme Land Birthday
Turn your party space into nursery rhyme land with themed decorations, food, and gifts!
Party Decorations
Choose a wall for your party backdrop that can also serve as a picture spot. For your backdrop, show a cow jumping over the moon and Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall. Decorate the room with moon and star balloons and play nursery rhyme songs in the background.
Party Food
Let your creativity soar by serving up foods themed to specific nursery rhymes. Serve your guests Humpty Dumpty’s deviled eggs, Yankee Doodle’s Macaroni and Cheese, Little Miss Muffet’s cottage cheese, the Queen of Heart’s strawberry tarts, and Twinkle Little Star cookies.
Birthday Gifts
Give your child a themed gift they will adore and treasure, like a personalized book of nursery rhymes! In My Very Own Nursery Rhymes, Mother Goose creates an all-new story based on the child’s name, as favorite characters spell out the name letter by letter in rhyme!
Wild One Birthday
Go wild with your child’s first birthday party and turn your home into an animal-lovers dream!
Party Decorations
Make your party room look like an imaginative jungle. Decorate the space with green and gold balloons, paper palm leaves, and large stuffed animals. Drape faux vines around your food table and use plants as centerpieces. Layer a board with fake grass for a photo backdrop. Guests can take family photos, and even dress their children in cute animal costumes!
Party Food
Serve up party foods that are fit for hungry animals but with a kid-friendly twist such as: chocolate covered banana slices, sloppy joe mini sliders, animal crackers, trail mix, and a birthday cake covered in fondant animals.
Birthday Gifts
Your child will go wild for animal lover gifts like animal play blocks, animal block puzzles, an animal play mat, or a personalized animal storybook like My Very Own Name. In this book, animals spell the child’s name letter by letter in rhyme! It’s a unique birthday gift that also helps the child learn their name as they grow.
Disney Birthday Party
Give your child the magical experience of a Disney-themed birthday party! Mickey, Minnie Mouse, and all your favorite characters are here to celebrate and make this first birthday oodles of fun!
Party Decorations
Decorate the room in a garland of colorful balloons. Hang a Disney castle backdrop behind your food table. Make your own paper fireworks and glue them to the backdrop in a Mickey mouse face shape (two small ones and a large one). For the table, DIY some Mickey Mouse topiaries. Attach two small moss balls to one large moss ball using toothpicks. Then glue the topiary to a candle holder.
Party Food
Delight your guests with Disney park food faire such as corn dogs with ketchup and mustard, baked pretzels with cheese sauce, chocolate ice cream bars, mickey-shaped rice cereal treats, and churros with caramel sauce. Theme the birthday cake to Disney characters or make a chocolate-covered dome cake and attach two chocolate circles to the top to resemble Mickey Mouse!
Birthday Gifts
Oh boy, it’s time for some special first birthday gifts! Surprise your child with Disney plushies, a Disney-themed blanket, or a Mickey Mouse reading chair and personalized Disney books that feature your child’s name!
Tea for Two Twins Birthday Party
Twin babies mean double the fun! Plan an adorable “Tea for Two” twins birthday party that children and adults will love!
Party Decorations
Decorate your party room like an elegant tea party that’s perfect for your twins and guests! Cover tables with pastel tablecloths, name banners for the twins, pastel balloons, and lots of flowers. Use teacups for decorating, and to serve your party food.
Party Food
It’s afternoon tea time and we have lots of delectable food options! Use tiered trays to serve mini tarts, cupcakes, cucumber and cheese tea sandwiches, and mini quiches. Display scones and frosted donuts on cake pedestals. Instead of birthday cake, serve birthday cupcakes in teacups. Not only will it look adorable, but guests can eat on the move as they mingle!
Birthday Gifts
Make this party extra special with twins’ birthday gifts that will be treasured forever and fit the party theme! A personalized book like My Very Own Fairy Tale captures the whimsy of your tea party and can be created uniquely for each twin with their name. You can also surprise the twins with tutus, a toy tea party set, or a ceramic tea set to put on display until they get older.
One Magical First Birthday
This rainbow-themed birthday party is all about the magic of turning one-years-old!
Party Decorations
Using a wall as your food buffet backdrop, arrange balloons in a rainbow arch. Hang golden letters that read, “One Magical Birthday” and display a variety of kid-friendly foods in rainbow colors.
Party Foods
Make a fruit charcuterie tray, with fruit shaped in a rainbow. Serve mini pancakes that are topped with yogurt and rainbow sprinkles. Blend fruit and vegetable smoothies in different colors and serve in mini plastic cups. Here are some flavor ideas: strawberry (red), orange and banana (orange/yellow), spinach and pineapple (green), blueberry (blue/purple). Display a rainbow cake in the center—a large one for the adults and a small rainbow smash cake for your child.
Birthday Gifts
Give the birthday boy or girl a gift to fill their days with magic and wonder! Give them a night sky lamp projector that turns their bedroom into a starry night. Delight them with a mess-free touch tablet so they can draw any picture. Engage your little one with the magic of personalized children’s storybooks! With a book like The Magic in Me, your child stars in the story and discovers that their unique magic makes up our colorful world!
This Little Trucker is One Birthday Party
This things-that-go birthday party is perfect for your little truck-lover!
Party Decorations
Hang up a sign at the food table that says, “This Little Trucker is One” and another at the entrance that says, “Crew Enter Here.” You can DIY other signs that say “Dig In” and “Food Loading Zone” to place at food platters. Decorate with toy trucks, construction tape, and make a table runner that looks like a road. Instead of party hats, use paper or plastic construction hats. Turn large cardboard boxes into cars that older child guests can pretend to drive in.
Party Food
Serve up picnic faire food like mini burgers, hotdogs, popcorn, macaroni and cheese, and pudding cups with crushed chocolate cookies on top to look like dirt. Decorate the birthday cake like a racetrack or construction site.
Birthday Gifts
Surprise your little trucker with themed gifts like a set of plush trucks, a baby-friendly scooter vehicle, or a personalized book like My Very Own Trucks where vehicles spell out the child’s name!
