PLAN WITH LEANNE

When you turn 10, you’ve officially lived through a whole decade—so what better way to celebrate than with a decade-themed birthday party? For my daughter’s 10th birthday we celebrated each hour of her party with a different decade! I had the party from 5:30-9:30pm– yes 4 hours long but I had so many fun decade activities I wanted to include! Each hour of the party took us on a journey through a different era, filled with era-appropriate activities, music, and decorations. Here’s how we made it happen!

**notice the mantle decorations- a lava lamp, trolls, a lite-brite- any retro toys we happened to have!

1950s: A Classic Diner Experience

The party kicked off with a step into the 1950s, where we transformed my kitchen into a retro diner. We had a red and white checkered tablecloth and napkins, and I bought a roll of black butcher paper to cut out music notes, records, and 50’s style dancers. The kids had a blast eating sliders, fries and of course root beer floats while listening to some rock ‘n’ roll.

1960s: Flower Power & Tie-Dye Fun

Next up, the groovy ‘60s! Everyone got into the hippie spirit by making their own tie-dye t-shirts and crafting flower crowns. Now clearly tie-dye should be done outside- but the weather was freezing so that wasn’t an option. Instead, we simply put down a tarp, and gave the girls old t-shirts to wear. I also supplied each girl with a t-shirt (I just bought a back of white under shirts). I had bought two packs of tie-dye but one set would have been enough for 11 girls. For decorations I cut out a bunch of hippie flowers and made sure to play a 1960s playlist.

1970s: Limbo & Disco Fever

What’s a ‘70s party without disco? The kids got their groove on learning some iconic disco dance moves under disco ball decorations. I taught them the standard Saturday Night Fever dance moves, the shopping cart, the sprinkler and more. And, of course, there was a limbo competition! With the Bee Gee’s playing, everyone had fun dancing. Right after this we did cake and presents!

I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of the cake! But I bought a white sheet cake and then printed out an image from each decade that my daughter colored- then glued those to bamboo skewers and used those as cake toppers. Fun to have a personalized element!

1980s & 1990s: Crafts, Games, and Nostalgia

As we moved into the 80s and 90s, the activities took a creative turn with classic childhood crafts and games. The kids decorated decoupage boxes! No one had dont this before- so it was alot of fun. I got a bunch of free magazines from the library and then they went to town cutting out letters of their names and other fun things. Then in case you have never decoupaged- you apply the magazine cutouts to the box using mod podge! As the boxes dried we played some classic childhood games: musical chairs, Twister, and a hula-hoop contest! Musical chairs was by far a favorite game.

Wrapping Up a Groovy Celebration

After traveling through five decades in one evening, the girls left with, hopefully, a new appreciation for some classic songs, and some fun memories! They brought home their tie-dye, decoupage boxes, and flower crowns!

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