Create a red carpet theme birthday party for your child. Great ideas for red carpet themed party invitations, decorations, food, games, costumes and prizes.

Pre-teen and young teen girls will love playing movie star for a day, and this great party gives them their own 15 minutes of fame. You’re never too old to walk the red carpet.

Red Carpet Invitation Ideas

• Make a mock movie poster advertising an upcoming film starring the birthday girl. The premier could represent the date, time and place of the party, and your guest could be billed in the supporting role.
• Make an invitation that looks like an ‘Admit One’ ticket to the Oscars, and write all the party details on the back.
• Cut out a whole crowd of celebrities from a magazine, paste them on a card, and leave a space for a black silhouette. Add a heading that says ‘Someone’s missing?’, then on the back write ‘They’ve gone to Courtney’s Party, and we want you to come too’. The rest of the party details can follow.You don’t have to cut and paste for every card. Simply colour copy the original and write in each guests name by hand.
• Cut a Hollywood star out of gold card and write your guests name on the front. Write all the party details on the back, and for extra effect fill the envelope with gold glitter.

Red Carpet Decorations

You can really go overboard with this theme, and why shouldn’t you? After all it is a red carpet event! Put fairy lights all around your front door, and have a strip of red carpet from the entry to the party area. Make a huge cardboard cut out of a limousine, and take photos of your guests behind the window.

Pull out all the halogen bulbs from Dad’s workshop and set them up like studio lights, put fake trophies around the mantle piece, and make oversized cameras from cereal boxes and egg cartons. If you can rustle up enough friends and family, get them to act like paparazzi or groupies as each guest arrives.

Red Carpet Games and Activities

• Treat your celebrity guests to an extreme makeover. Set up a mini salon where they can have their hair done, make-up applied, and nails manicured, and be sure to have the camera on hand for before and after shots. You could hire a professional beauty therapist, or just rope in a few friends with a little bit of imagination. A friend’s teenage daughter may be only too happy to help.
• Let all your guests make their own ‘Walk of Fame’ paver. Simply cut the bottom off a plastic bucket, and pour in quick set concrete which has been made to the manufacturers’ instructions. As soon as the concrete starts to set, get your guests to make a handprint and write their name with a stick. When the concrete is properly set, the bucket can be removed and the paver is ready to use.
• Given that most celebrities at the Oscars are performers of some sort, you could have a mini showcase of their talents. Have a game of charades, a round of Sing Star, or get each of the kids to make up an acceptance speech. Have certificates or trophies ready to present to each guest.
• Let all your guests make a piece of jewellery to wear with their red carpet outfit. You can get jewellery making kits from any good craft store, and putting a piece together is easy. Remember, diamonds are a girl’s best friend!
• Divide your guests into teams of two, and tell them that one is the celebrity and one is the stylist. Give each team a pile of newspaper, some scissors, pins and masking tape, then set the stylist to work creating an outfit for their celebrity. After a specified time limit, get all your celebrities to do a catwalk and decide on the best outfit.

Red Carpet Party Food

A red carpet party is a great chance for children to play grown ups. Make yourself a mini cocktail party by creating antipasto platters that the children will enjoy, and serve them with sparkling grape juice in champagne flutes or fancy mock-tails with paper umbrellas. (Just like the post-Oscar parties!)

Some of the things you may want to include on your platter are chocolate dipped strawberries, fancy cheeses, pickled onions, different sorts of crackers, French bread and pate, plus cold meats and sliced fruit. With food like that you may even get some Mum’s staying to help.

Red Carpet Costumes

Costumes for this party are limitless. You could come as a celebrity in flash clothes and dark sunglasses, a member of the paparazzi with cameras hanging around your neck and a press pass attached to your shirt, or a pop star ready to go on stage with a microphone and head set.

Most costume shops have general red carpet costumes, and many have outfits depicting specific celebrities.

Red Carpet Prizes and Loot Bag

Instead of a traditional loot bag, why not create a ‘sponsors bag’ like those that celebrities take home from the Oscars. You could fill it with a mini moisturizer, some nail polish, make up samples, and a piece of inexpensive jewellery or celebrity magazine. Be sure to add a square of red carpet for prosperity sake, and if you really want to match the Oscars, throw in a voucher for a day spa and a limousine ride home!