Our third son has been soccer (or football depending where you live!) mad since he was little. We only have a big party with friends every second year and for as long as I can remember he was telling me he wanted a soccer party for his 6th birthday, like his older brother had when he was in prep.
Thankfully the rain that poured down on his older brother’s party didn’t repeat itself. They are both born in April, with just 10 days difference in the date. April is always a risk for having an outside party in Melbourne. It actually rain quite significantly earlier on in the day of the party, but thankfully rained itself out by the time the party came around.
The party was after school on a Friday night from 4pm – 5.330pm. With our sport filled weekends at that time of the year, it was the only time we could fit it in so he could have most of his family at the party too! As it was one brother left early for Futsal, very kindly taken by an aunty.
Soccer Party Theme Printables
This was the first time I have bought printables online to help me decorate for a party. I bought this set on Etsy and had in personalised with his name. It cost $USD29 and I felt it was worth it. Design skills are not my strength and I would have spent so much time trying to create it myself, paying for it to be personalised was a much better use of my time.
The set let me:
Make an entrance sign for the party.
Create our own labels for their water bottles – there was going to be lots of running around!
Colourful backing for the lolly bags.
Decorations for their snack boxes.
Personalised happy birthday bunting.
Soccer Party Themed Food
Popcorn in paper soccer cups. I picked these up at a local party shop.
Soccer ball cookies
Soccer ball rice bubbles (crispy) treat.
Honey joys (they are one of his favourite party food).
Oranges for half time.
Individual snack boxes with mini hotdogs, chicken balls and oven baked fries.
Soccer Party Themed Activities
We kept the activities pretty simple. Each child was given a coloured t-shirt to represent the team they were on and they then played a series of mini soccer games. His older brothers went referee and the games moved along well with all kids participating.
Then just before the food, we finished up with some penalty shoot outs against dad.
Then it was time for birthday cake. He requested ice cream cake, so I reset icecream in a lasagne dish, then sprinkled it with grated mint bubbly chocolate (his favourite) topped it with some soccer figurines and we had our soccer birthday cake!
Master 6 is a keen dancer, so had requested we finish the party of with some dancing. Add a few glow sticks and the boys had a ball!
Then it was time to hand out the lolly bags and for everyone to go home. I do think 1.5 hours is the perfect length for kids this age. They had a great time and I could keep all 16 of them occupied so no trouble ensued!
How do you keep large groups of boys occupied at parties?