There is just something about Carnival parties that makes me smile.  Maybe it is because I have so many wonderful childhood memories of loving the carnival atmosphere – the rides, food, games, excitement.

There are so many ways to decorate, games to play and treats to serve and I love to see each person’s spin on the popular carnival themed birthday party.

This carnival party by Amy is simply precious (as is her daughter!)

Amy styled her party using our printable Vintage Carnival collection.

I adore her dessert table and how she put a piece of furniture on top to add a striking backdrop.

Amy used our printable party logos as cupcake toppers.  How adorable are the paper cups that the cupcakes are in?

Her daughter is just precious.  How cute is her dress!?  Coca Cola bottles really help set the tone of a “vintage” carnival party.

Classic foods like hot dogs, animal cookies and more…..

The kids were BUSY with loads of games and activities.

Face painting, sack races, carnival games and more.

Amy even had a ticket redemption station so that the kids could pick their prizes and use tickets that they earned at the games.  This truly feels like a real carnival!

Great job, Amy!  You put a lot of hard work into the party and it shows!  Thanks for sharing!

Here are some more party details in Amy’s words:

“I couldn’t have done this party without the help of some fabulously talented friends, one being my fellow party planner, April Hudson.  She truly is talented, and she sewed the top of the canopy for the booth.  It looked like we had ordered it from a store.   My husband is active duty Navy and was deployed for the party, but before he left, he constructed the two wooden booths.  He wanted to contribute something for our little girl that would add a very special touch to the party.  For the tables, we covered a craft table (from Costco) with teal colored vinyl tablecloths from Party City.  Then we used the striped red and white roll from Oriental Trading and cut pieces out to gather all around the table.  We duct taped it with white all around the teal tablecloth- in the end, it was a cheap and awesome looking table to sit the booth on top of.  🙂  April also sewed the darling little red and white striped apron, which added a great touch!

The boppy game was a huge hit at the party, even for the adults 🙂  The kids also absolutely loved the potato sack races (I bought the sacks at Party City).  We made up our own “Go Fish” game and “Match a Duck” game.  The disc drop game and spinner game from Oriental trading were very popular with the kids.  They kept going back for more.  Another game was “The Kissing Booth” which was a large apothecary jar filled with Hershey kisses and the kids had to put their guess as to how many in a bucket.  The winner got to take home all of the kisses.  The kids won tickets for the games and then were able to go to the prize booth, and they bought their prizes.  The prizes were a great mix of vintage toys- silly putty, chatter teeth, whoopee cushions, mustache glasses, jumping beans, etc.

We had an old radio flyer wagon that we filled with vintage popcorn boxes, and my son pulled it around the Carnival.  We passed out hot dogs in vintage wax wrappers that resembled something you would get at the fair.  I also spray-painted a wooden dowel and put it on a stand that we stacked hot pretzels on so the kids could snack on those as well.  Another big hit was the vintage bags of peanuts.   The sweets table was very popular too.  I used an old bathroom cupboard that was sitting in our garage, dusted it off, and secured it on the table.  I set  small, glass coke bottles on it to give it some character.  I filled the table with apothecary jars full of nostalgic candy.   The gumball machine was sitting next to it, and the kids would get their pennies from the tickets/prizes booth and then come get their gumballs.  They loved it!

Each child got to take home all of their goodies, prizes, and also a box of Animal Crackers with the adorable thank you printables from Anders Ruff.

Olivia absolutely loved her party.  She definitely took everything in, and she is still talking about her birthday party.  She may not remember it when she is older, but we will always have the pictures, and she can look back and see how much work went into her party and how much fun we had.  I wanted to throw a party for neighbor kids and friends of all ages.  I think the vintage carnival did just that.  We had children from 2-11 years old, and all of them had the best time.

Thank you for the special printables that added such a great touch to the party.  The invitations with Olivia’s picture were precious.  ”

Our printable vintage carnival party is available in the shop here.