Star Wars Birthday

Recently my son turned thirteen and surprisingly requested a return to home birthday parties. Last year we celebrated at an arcade and though he really enjoyed it, was limited by guests and time. Invitations were sent to join him in the dark side for episode thirteen. Here is how my kids and I created an easy and fun, low budget party to celebrate. Hoping these ideas can by useful and fun for your Star Wars fan, whether young or old.

Decorations:

I love using inexpensive paper plates and painter’s tape to quickly decorate a space. Here is my son’s favorite character, Boba Fett made out of green and red paper plates. I cut a T shape out of black poster board and used a few more poster board scraps to create the rest of his helmet. This was a very quick and inexpensive way to help set the scene in the small eating area of our kitchen.

I covered the handles of all the upper cabinets in our kitchen with these pool noodle lightsabers. They are made by just cutting a red and green pool noodle in half and duct taping them to the cabinet handles, then covering them up with the above printable which is free to download for personal use.

My kids helped me to make 3D TIE Fighters out of 2L soda bottles and toilet paper rolls. For the full tutorial and printable wing template go here. It was a fun family project and they looked really neat hung up with clear fishing wire. The Happy Birthday Banner in Death Star font is free to download here for personal use. I make more personalized banners here. I also made a template to create the stormtrooper plates that is available above.

I used a lot of black poster board to create silhouettes in the windows. As my son’s birthday is so close to Halloween, often his birthday theme dictates our Halloween theme. This is a very easy and inexpensive way to decorate and really makes a big impact.

Here is C-3PO with R2-D2 in our dining room. It took only a few dollars worth of poster board to create. As we plan on dressing up as Star Wars characters for Halloween, I will leave this up, covering it with white tissue paper, to create a nice silhouette for drive-by trick-or-treaters.

My oldest daughter helped me to paint this large scrap wood panel. She did such a great job and was so creative with it. She flicked on white paint to create stars and ended up painting on TIE fighters shooting out their green beams. We have painted numerous panels and wooden cutouts through the years. They are made out of 4X8 feet long panels of particle board. I project images onto the boards and outline them with a black Sharpie. My kids paint them and then they are sometimes cut out with a jigsaw. They make wonderful photo props and really help to set the scene. My kids always enjoy posing in front of them and seeing how tall they are compared to all the characters.

Here is the finished panel standing in the playroom. I cut out many silhouettes of TIE fighters battling X-Wing Starfighters from black poster board and reused a red plastic tablecloth that was previously the red bow for my daughter’s Matilda birthday to create the visible beams that are fired from the starfighter. My husband really loved the beams which reminded him of how we made Superman’s heat vision for my son’s previous Superhero birthday.

I covered our dining table with my son’s Star Wars bed sheet and added more silhouettes of TIE fighters and an X-wing Starfighter. I used more cut up red plastic tablecloth to create more beams. My daughters also painted pumpkins as Baby Yoda and Princess Leia to finish off this space.

In the living room, I filled the bookshelves up with my son’s Star Wars books. He has acquired quite a collection over the years. I also cut out the starbird that is the symbol of the Resistance from black poster board to further decorate.

I created these Star Wars inspired party signs. I printed them onto white cardstock and cut around the black border and slipped them into acrylic stands purchased in the past from the Dollar Tree. I also used double sided tape to adhere some to our doors and wall.

As I wanted to keep the mess and chaos more manageable I made this sign to discourage guests from going upstairs. I also made a more general one that says “Nothing to see here but the Sarlacc” that can be posted on any door, drawer, or box you don’t want opened.

Lastly, I made this banner that says Episode 13. It is available above and includes numbers 0-9 so you can personalize for any age. I really enjoy creating banners to coordinate with all my kids’ party themes. These decorations take little time and effort to put up but really help to set the scene. I make more custom banners here.

Party Activities:

I found free coloring pages at Smooth Draw and set up a little table for kids to color. I make more personalized coloring pages for kids here.

I projected several pictures onto white poster board to create a large coloring wall. I like to do this for all our parties as it is so quick and inexpensive to set up. The poster board cost just 50 cents a piece at the Dollar Tree. It takes advantage of the unused space in our hallway and is always enjoyed by kids as well as some adults.

Here is an AT-AT walker, a combat vehicle used by the Imperial ground forces. I used a thick black Sharpie to create the outlines for kids to color in.

Here is the Millennium Falcon. I used push pins to hold the cups of crayons up but you could use less damaging command strips. I also made a template inspired by the control panel unit found on Darth Vader’s chest to glue onto each cup. It is available to download for free here.

Here is an X-wing Starfighter used by the Rebel Alliance.

Here is one of his sisters coloring Baby Yoda.

I laid out a simple invitation to create Princess Leia puppets with paper bags. As we often have guests of all ages attend, I wanted to include something to do for our younger guests. The teens mostly spent their time eating, hanging out on the sofa watching Return of the Jedi, and playing on their phones.

The kids constructed TIE fighters. I made the template for this craft a few years ago and it is available for free here. Originally we used popsicle sticks but as I currently had only corn dog sticks, they were used.

My kids also helped me to make TIE fighter shaped sugar cookies. We used this recipe for the cookies. I purchased the TIE fighter cutter a few years ago from CookieCutterSupply on Etsy.

Decorating cookies is always a hit (even with teenage boys) and setting up this activity was as easy as setting out vanilla buttercream frosting, these cookies, along with some paper plates, plastic knives, a few sprinkles, and letting the kids go to town. The kids really enjoyed decorating their vehicles and flying them into their mouths.

I purchased Star Wars temporary tattoos from Amazon here and here. This is always a super inexpensive and low prep activity that is well loved.

I added a simple sign to invite kids to make a Lego droid out of my son’s huge Legos collection as another easy to set up party activity. The kids really enjoyed this no prep activity that also did not cost us anything.

I added a few signs to my kids’ play kitchen to turn it into Unkar Plutt’s Concession Stand where he traded droid parts and gear for food. Some of the younger siblings who came as well as my kids really enjoyed this space.

We made a Death Star pinata out of a large box, some thinner cardboard for the sides, paint, and a little black crepe paper streamer. I simply cut out the largest circle I could make out of the sides of a large box, traced it onto another side, and used thinner cardboard in between, adhering everything first with masking tape, then covering everything up with gray acrylic paint.

Here is my middle daughter taping everything together. It’s become one of my kids’ favorite birthday traditions to help make and break these.

Food:

We included the birthday boy’s favorite foods as well as a lot of homemade kid friendly favorites. My son loves twice baked potatoes. Normally these are covered with bacon but as we had several friends who were vegetarian coming, we omitted it this time around.

My son also enjoys queso and mac and cheese.

My kids love helping me to come up with themed names for all the food. The food tents are available above and also include the R2D2 label that can be added to any glass container filled with something white.

We filled a trifle bowl with these delicious white shrimp chips that my husband fried. We were gifted this gorgeous charcuterie tray filled already with a wonderful cracker and cheese spread from PNW glass artist Terri Shinners. She creates more glass art here. Lastly, I used a Sharpie to turn some string cheese into stormtroopers.

My son requested Papa Johns pizza as he loves their stuffed crust cheese so we also ordered a few large pizzas. Needless to say no one left hungry.

We had a hot cocoa bar. This is something we really like to serve for any gatherings we have in the fall and winter. I followed this recipe from Wishes and Dishes to make the crockpot hot chocolate and laid out some simple toppings (mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, chocolate sprinkles, and these lightsaber pretzels).

My oldest daughter made the lightsaber pretzels by adding colored icing gel to white candy melts and then dipping the pretzel rods into them. She used a spoon to evenly coat them, waited for one end to dry, before dipping them into gray colored melts to create the handles. Lastly, she added M&M’s as lightsaber buttons.

She really did such a great job and these were all quickly devoured.

We scooped out vanilla ice cream and mixed it with a few bottles of root beer to make a Chewbacca colored drink/root beer float. The party sign as well as printable Chewie bandolier is free to download above for personal use.

We served these delicious egg rolls. We make the egg rolls as a family usually one to two weeks prior and freeze them. On the morning of party day, I just dump them all into a large roaster oven to reheat them and keep warm to serve. We usually make around one hundred and don’t have much leftover.

My son requested an Oreo ice cream cake shaped like the Millennium Falcon. I doubled this recipe to make the chocolate cake and baked it in one 10 inch and one 12 inch cake pan. After I removed the cakes, I used the same pans to shape two 48oz containers of Tillamook Cookies and Cream ice cream to add on top. I did not add another layer of cake on top of the ice cream as I wanted the cake to look flat like the Millennium Falcon.

My oldest daughter helped me to piece the cake together and frost it with this stabilized whipped cream frosting from Sugar Spun Run. We just added a little black icing gel to tint it a light gray. We had to work quickly and refreeze it all to set twice before finishing.

When we finally took it out, we had to wipe the edges of the cake and add a little more piping to clean up the look. The cake was a success and almost completely devoured by the end of the day.

I also made some simple cupcake toppers, adhered them to toothpicks with some scotch tape, and inserted them into vanilla cupcakes. I used this recipe for the vanilla cupcakes and the buttercream frosting is from Two Sisters. I liked how quick they were to put together… just print, cut, and tape to a toothpick. The toppers are available above for personal use and include ages 1-18. I have used them before to label my daughter’s softball team treat bags in the spring around Star Wars Day. I make more cupcake toppers here.

Favors:

My son requested plain labels so they just say Thank You in Death Star font. I purchased these plain white paper bags from Amazon and printed the labels onto regular paper. My kids glued them onto the bag and filled them with these Star Wars stickers, stress balls, and galaxy slime.

They were given to each guest at the time of the pinata to collect candy.

My greatest joy in creating these parties for my children is seeing all their excitement and happiness.

Here is the birthday boy posing with some of his presents. My son said that he felt like he just had a birthday and two Christmases. I really enjoy planning and creating with my kids. I also love helping them to see that we don’t have to go out and buy all the things and can easily make a lot from what we already have.

I create more printables for kids here.

To see my other kids’ parties click here.

If you use these printables or party ideas, I would love to see it! Please use #sodangfun on social media, tag me @sodangfun on Instagram, or post to my Facebook page.

I hope this post inspires you to create something simple, low budget, and fun to celebrate your favorite Jedi!