My daughter requested a mermaid party for her birthday party this year, and of COURSE I said yes.
What little girl doesn’t dream of swimming carefree under the sea with her favorite sea creatures?
With my love of all things nautical the mermaid party theme was just perfect!
I’m all about the invitations when it comes to planning a party, so I was thrilled to find some adorable invitations from my friend Jen at Jen T by Design, who offered to design the printables for the party.
She’s got the most amazing mermaid party printables, and I knew they would set the perfect tone for the whole party.
Mermaid Party Decorations
While planning the party I tried to stick with a light pretty color palette of light blue, turquoise, pink, purple, and touches of gold.
I created the party table backdrop by hanging aqua fabric on a backdrop stand.
I draped and overlapped two different nets over that to add to the ocean/sea theme.
Sparkly pink, purple, green, and blue net and tulle was cut to resemble seaweed swaying in the ocean water (thanks to the wind, it actually did sway!).
I tucked starfish and little seahorses and sand dollars that I die cut from mat board using my Sizzix Big Shot and the Mini Sand & Sea Sizzix dies.
In the middle of the backdrop hung a lovely mermaid sign that I printed on multiple pages to make a larger sign.
I trimmed each page, and glued them onto a large piece of foam board from the Dollar Store.
I love how inviting and pretty it looked! Real seashells, sand dollars, coral, and starfish were also scattered across the tables.
I made these paper lantern jellyfish a few years ago for my daughter’s under the sea party, but they would be perfect for a mermaid party too!
These paper lantern fish would also be great in your party colors!
Be sure to check out our fun paper lantern fish tutorial.
Mermaid Party Food
My daughter’s mermaid party was during dinner time, so I had the kids eat first, then swim and play mermaids.
Everyone likes their sandwiches their own way (and my kids are picky eaters), so let everyone make their own sandwiches with a variety of meats and cheese and other sandwich toppings.
I had glued googly eyes on toothpicks to turn the croissants into “crab croissants” for the sandwiches, but I couldn’t find the eyes anywhere to put inside the bread!
Such a bummer. Of course I found them right after the party, ha!
Shell salad made from shell pasta noodles was delicious, as was the ice cold watermelon.
Each food had a cute food tent card next to it that matched the invitations and other printables.
Of course we drank sea water at our mermaid party, which was served on my favorite drink dispenser from Pottery Barn.
I recently took a sugar cookie making class and fell in LOVE with the process of making sugar cookies with royal icing.
I figured I would try making mermaid and ocean themed sugar cookies for my fourth time making them.
On some of the cookies I added small “balls” (not sure of their exact name) to add more detail.
They turned out beautifully, and it made me feel great when all the moms at the party asked where I had ordered the cookies from!
I brushed an edible gold luster dust on some of the cookies and they turned out beautifully!
Once I tried the luster dust I wanted to paint ALL the cookies gold, so I had to restrain myself and do some of the cookies pink, purple, and turquoise too.
With the cookies I also served chocolate seashells that I made using white chocolate bark, a seashell mold, and more edible gold luster dust.
I’m still amazed at their gorgeous gold color!
There are a few treats that I made for my daugter’s Under the Sea birthday party a few years ago that would be perfect for a mermaid party too.
Did you know that you can make edible sea glass? You can make it in any flavor.
It’s a hard candy that the kids just suck in, and it really is easy to make.
You’ll love this edible sea glass recipe and the easy directions.
Oyster (or clam) cookies are another easy treat to whip up for the party.
I found these cookies at one of the Dollar Stores, colored some frosting pink and put a spoonful on top of a cookie, then placed another cookie on top so that it was slightly open.
You can see these cookies in action at our under the sea party.
Be sure to use more frosting in the back to hold it open, then add a yogurt covered raisin in the middle for the pearl.
I kept these in the fridge until it was time to serve since it was hot, and the frosting wanted to melt and close the cookie up.
They were perfect after being in the fridge though!
“Ocean water” blue suckers are also a hit.
I shared how to make your own suckers in this how to make homemade suckers post if you’d like to give them a try!
For my daughter’s birthday cake, I decided to go simple.
I wanted an ocean-themed cake, but I didn’t have enough time to get fancy and spend hours making my own, and I didn’t want to spend a ton of money on one either.
Don’t tell, but I took a big shortcut, and it totally worked!
I started with one of those grocery store pre-made cakes- you know the ones, with all the bright-colored frosting that it overly decorated?
So I bought one of those for under $10, then I scraped the blob of colored frosting off the tops, as well as all the large confetti sprinkles.
Next I sprinkled crushed graham crackers and brown sugar over the top to resemble sand. Easy!
I also sprinkled some of the gorgeous mermaid sprinkles over the top from Baker’s Party Shop.
They came in the perfect colors for the party!
I added more of the gold seashell chocolates that I made, then put a large 8 candle in the middle.
It was SO easy to decorate this cake.
I still can’t believe I put it together in under 10 minutes for less than $10! The girls all loved it.
Mermaid Party Activities
The activities for this party was the easiest part.
After everyone ate, I just let the kids all swim in the pool.
Luckily I have a creative bunch so the girls all played mermaids and dolphins and came up with all kinds of cute names for themselves.
They were disappointed when I told them it was time to get out for cake and presents because they were having so much fun.
It was a nice chance for us adults to catch up while the kids were all swimming.
Mermaid Party Favors
My daughter and I made some cute (and easy) party favors for her friends.
I made some sweet little party favor bags and decorated them using my Sizzix Big Shot and some of my seaweed dies.
You can see exactly how I made them in my mermaid party favors post.
Inside each little bag was a gold shell necklace that we made.
I’ll be sharing a tutorial for these soon, but I was pretty thrilled that I made them for free using supplies that I already had.
The girls absolutely LOVED them!
They all decided that they were going to wear them on the first day of school, which was pretty cute.
Each girl also received a bag filled with swirly marbled sidewalk chalk with a lovely favor tag attached at the top made by Jen.
The colors matched the chalk really well and I love how it all coordinated with the rest of the party.
Thanks for letting me share my daughter’s mermaid party with you!
We all had a wonderful time, and I’m so grateful to have such a sweet girl to celebrate.
I’ve said it many times, but I love throwing birthday parties for my kids.
It’s a ton of work, but they are only little for so long, and I want them to look back at their parties and know that I loved them and wanted to create something incredible for them on their special day.
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