Organizing a party for your teen’s birthday may seem challenging, but you can have a grand celebration with proper planning. Teen birthday party ideas should be colorful and exciting. The smile on your teen’s face at the end will make it all worthwhile. So, if you feel confused and are looking for some birthday party ideas for your teen, keep reading.
Birthday Party Ideas for Teens
Birthdays are not just about cakes and gifts. They need to be lively with different themes, fun activities, and great decor. Check out our cool birthday party ideas that your teen will fall in love with.
1. Bonfire birthday party
Few things can beat the pleasure of a night out with friends, music, and bonfire. It is also easy to set up outdoors rather than frantically cleaning every corner of the house. It’ll be a great idea during winters. Where: Your garden or backyard What you need: Small chairs, sitting mats, Bluetooth speakers or a guitar (optional), fairy lights, small candles What you can do:
Decorate the place with candles, fairy lights, small cushions, chairs, and sitting mats. If your teen’s friends love playing musical instruments, ask them to get them. Maybe, they can all tune in together for a warm party. Keep the s’mores, roasted marshmallows, cake, pizza and refreshing drinks ready.
2. Carnival birthday party
A carnival party in the backyard is going to be a hit with the teens. Where: Home backyard or a local park What you need: Patio furniture, bright-colored linen, balloons, and strings of different colors What you can do:
Convert your patio furniture into a carnival food tent. Use a bright cloth to cover the table. Fix a big umbrella over it, and hang small, colored balloons and strings from the top of the umbrella. Use colorful fabrics and light blankets to make the booths. Hang them from cloth lines or ropes. Arrange some fun DIY games at these playbooths. Cotton candy, popcorn, cakes, edible flowers, chicken nuggets, nachos and mini hot dogs will set it all right.
3. Instagram-themed birthday party
Bring in some social media into your savvy teen’s birthday party. It surely will be the most exciting and stylish birthday parties of the year! Where: Home What you need: Photo props such as 3D glasses, 3D nose, mustache, printable Instagram icons, ribbons, gumballs, printable cupcake wraps and printable Instagram photos of all the guests What you can do:
Make a backdrop for the party spot using chevron fabric and colorful tassel garlands. Place the cupcakes and printable Instagram icons such as hearts, likes and love, on cupstands. Use a printable cupcake wrap to decorate the cakes. The birthday cake can also be a simple store-bought cake decked with colored gumballs and chevron ribbons to tie around. Make cookies by melting chocolates and Oreos. Use a combination of colors like green, blue, purple and hot pink for the theme. Keep a photo prop table with 3D eyeglasses, 3D nose, mustaches, fake teeth and banners.
4. A luau or Hawaiian birthday party
A luau party is one of the most loved party ideas as everyone can let their hair loose and enjoy. Where: Home or any outdoor area with beach What you need: Paper/ real flower necklaces, small lights, blue and green streamers, grass skirts, surfboards What you can do:
Ask the teens to wear their Hawaiian beach clothes. Greet your guests saying “Aloha” and of course leis for all the young souls. Place lantern lights for the mood, palm tree cutouts for the greenery, a combination of green and blue seaweed streamers to deck the party spot. Lay grass skirts on tables and surfboards as serving tables. To make this party rock to the core, keep fruit salads, grilled fish, coconuts and tropical fruity drinks with skewered fruit cubes. For memorable pictures, set up a photo booth. Play some music and let everyone do some great Hula dancing!
[ Read: Luau Party Ideas ]
5. Karaoke birthday party
If your teen is a music lover, have a karaoke birthday party this time. Where: Indoors, preferably your teen’s bedroom What you need: Karaoke machine, several karaoke songs, fog machine, disco lights, spotlights (optional) What you can do:
You may place a floor rug and floor cushions to set up the stage. Hang curtains behind this stage prop to give it an authentic look. Add a silver shower curtain in front of the door that will act as an ideal stage curtain. Hand over fun props, such as wigs and sunglasses, to your guests to ace their act and own the stage in style. As the teens keep singing and jamming, be generous with the party foods such as fresh beverages and finger foods, besides the grand birthday cake. Make a DIY photo booth with photo props like boas, party hats, masks, and fun accessories.
6. Pool birthday party
Your teen has a birthday during the summer? A pool party could be the right one. Where: Poolside of your home or any club What you need: Towels, bath essentials, music system, wicker basket, paper garlands and lanterns What you can do:
Create a small, separate lounge area for the teens to unwind and rest when they want. Lay out towels, sunscreens, and lotions for them to freshen up. Keep several wicker baskets for the young ones to keep their essentials like keys, phones, and wallet. Deck the place with paper flower garlands of bright colors, paper lanterns, and paper straw garlands. Besides the delicious birthday cake, serve watermelon margaritas, fruit skewers, and tasty finger foods like sandwiches or stuffed tomatoes, while good music plays. Play fun pool games, but make sure that everyone is safe in and around the pool. If it is a night party, let the teens make use of glow sticks and tiki torches to enjoy a magical swim.
7. Emoji-themed birthday party
What better way to share the emotions than with funny emojis? Where: Any indoor area or living room What you need: Double-sided tape, yellow construction paper, markers, food coloring pens, yellow paper plates, yellow balloons, and popsicle sticks What you can do:
Decorate the wall with printed emojis. You can also keep a yellow, round cut-out and stick it with double-sided tape on the wall. Have another cut-out, so that the teens can make their own emojis and stick them on it. Call it the “Pin the Face” game. Serve mini pizzas and use the toppings to create faces. You may also use food-coloring pens to draw expressions on cheese slices. Let the guests take yellow paper plates, permanent markers and construction papers to draw emojis and stick them to popsicle sticks. Blow yellow balloons and draw emoji faces on each. Tie them up with white strings and let them float about.
8. Glow-in-the-dark birthday party
There’s no better way to celebrate your boy’s birthday with all his closest mates glowing by his side. Where: At home, preferably living room What you need: A pack of glow sticks, a strobe light, some fun music of your teen’s choice, face paint that glows in the dark, glow stick bracelets, neon plates and tumblers (optional) and glow masks What you can do:
Using the glow-in-the-dark face paint, the boys can paint each other’s faces and bodies. Some peppy music will turn your living room into a happening dance floor. Add a strobe light or a twirling disco light somewhere in the middle to get an even glow. Hand them over the glow masks and bracelets to enjoy the night away. Do serve your delicious party snacks or dinner in the neon plates.
9. Spa birthday party
Invite your teen girl’s friends for a pampering birthday party, where they have the spa experience at home. Where: The living room of your home What you need: Spa essentials, face towels, scented candles, aromatic oil, soothing lights What you can do:
You will need spacious room for this; so choose the lounge area or living room. Play some relaxing music, light up scented candles and add up some soothing lanterns or lights. Keep the bathroom clean, with enough face towels. Have cucumber cut-outs for eye masks, whip up some homemade face mask and arrange for some pedicure, manicure and light massage for the girls. Give them head massages and tie up their hair into different hairstyles. Plate up marshmallows, cupcakes, and strawberries covered in chocolates for a delightful birthday party. Serve some refreshing drinks for the girls.
10. Runway-themed birthday bash
If your teen is a fashionista, celebrate their birthday with what they love. Where: Your living room or any room that is long What you need: Camera, rug or carpet, curtains, music system What you can do:
Choose a fashion-themed cake such as a purse cake or high-heel cakes. Use cookie cutters and shape up the snacks into fashion related items. Organize a fashion show for the guests to prep up their walk and postures. Ask the teens to come dressed. For the runway, spread out a red rug as their red carpet and have curtains so that the models can get ready before their catwalks. You can act as the MC and give each one of them compliments on their dressing and style, as they walk. Make sure you have a good collection of upbeat music, giving the guests a really cool fashion walk experience. Take lots of pictures to make this party memorable.
Now that you’ve checked out the themes, why not plan your games and activities too? Your event will be way more fun if there’s more to do than just stand around eating snacks and trying to think of things to say.
Birthday Games and Activities For Teens
Games and activities are a great way to break the ice, make your party memorable, and get everyone involved in the fun.
1. Hula hooping
Get hula hoops and challenge the young guests for a contest. You will need: Bunch of hula hoops, gold-colored bracelet, ribbons How to play:
For prizes, make a hilarious golden hula band by looping ribbon through the gold-colored bracelet. Make enough such prize ribbons for: Longest hula hooped Craziest hula hoop style Funniest hula hoop moves
2. Hoop the marshmallows
This is a great fun game for an outdoor birthday party. You will need: A hula hoop, mini marshmallows, PVC pipe (optional) How to play:
Hang a hula hoop from a tree and ask the players to throw as many marshmallows as one can in a minute. If you don’t have a hoop, cut a PVC pipe about ten inches long. Start the timer and each player has one minute to shoot as many marshmallows through the hoop as they can. Another way of playing this game is to pair up the teens and make them throw marshmallows into their partner’s mouth.
3. How many skittles?
Why not put skittle to some funny use with this game? You will need: Plenty of skittles and straws How to play:
Pour the bag of skittles into a big bowl and hand over straws to your guests. Place a cup beside each player to collect the skittles in. Start the game with a timer and the players have to collect as many skittles as they can by sucking through their straws. They cannot use their hands. You may also keep the cups on another table to make the game a little harder and also funnier. The players may treat themselves with what they have earned.
4. Play sardines
This is one of the funniest and most exciting games to be played. You will need: A space large enough for the teens to hide How to play:
One player will hide somewhere and the rest of the players look for that player. When one finds the person who was hiding, he or she will hide with that player too. The game will continue until everyone is hiding and only one player is looking for everybody else.
5. Truth and lie party game
Here’s a twist to truth or dare. You will need: Cards and pens How to play:
Take three cards and write ‘truth’ on the back of two of them and ‘lie’ on the other. You will first need three players to pick one of the three cards. Now, you will have to ask a crazy, fun question: “Say, what was the craziest thing you’ve done? or “Who’s your latest crush?”. Each player has to answer the question, where two will tell the truth and one will lie. The friends must try to find out which one among the three is lying. Everyone has to reach an agreement to point out one as the “liar”. If the liar is caught, he or she has to perform a dare. However, if the liar is let loose then he or she will get to pick anyone else to perform a dare. So much fun!
6. Teen choice awards
You can get really creative with this.
Your teen’s friends will cast their votes and win trophies for hilarious titles. Here are some fun category awards:
a. Already very famous b. This person is dating secretly c. This person is going to be very rich d. This person is most likely to travel the world e. This person is most likely to doze off first tonight f. This person will be lazy forever g. This person is going to win hearts of everyone h. This person has the best dance moves i. This person looks great all the time j. This person has the best sense of humor
Discuss with your teen and their friends to come up with some hilarious titles. Provide all the players with the paper slips and pens to cast their votes. You can tally the votes and decide the winner. Conduct an award show and let the winner say a few words. Make sure you have small yet sweet little prizes for each teen.
7. Paper bag relocation
Test the guests’ determination and concentration skills with this game. You will need: Five paper grocery bags How to play:
Get five small paper grocery bags and cut each one to a different height. Line up the bags on one end of a room or hallway. Each player must move all the five bags to the opposite end. The trick is they can only use their lips to pick up the bags and their hands cannot touch the ground. The player who accomplishes the task the fastest wins.
8. Pyramid stack race
It might sound like a child’s play, but you will see the teens struggle to make the glasses stand. And that will bring in the laughs to the party. You will need: 36 disposable cups and a whistle How to play:
Each player gets 36 cups. When the time starts, blow a whistle and say “go”. Each player must construct a pyramid with the cups with a base of eight cups. Each row will have one cup less until the top of the pyramid, which will have a single cup. The teen who builds the pyramid first wins. For a slight variation, you can also pair up two to four people to compete at a time and then have the winners of each pair compete against one another.
9. Knockdown
How strong is their breath? Test that with this game. You will need: 20 disposable cups and balloons How to play:
Take 20 paper cups and line them along the edge of a table. Each player has to knock down all of these cups, only with their breath. You may bring in a variation and give each teen an un-inflated balloon. Ask them to blow up the balloon and use the released air to knock down the cups. The player that accomplishes the task first wins.
10. The mummy
Make your young guests prepare a mummy and let them unleash their creativity. You will need: Toilet paper and clock How to play:
Break people into groups of two or three. Each group gets a roll of toilet paper and picks one person to be the mummy. When the clock starts, all the teams have to wrap their mummies using the whole roll of toilet paper. Two teams win — the one that rolls up its mummy the fastest and the team with the most creative mummy.
11. Encore
If your guests are crazy about songs and know lyrics for almost every popular song, then this is the right game for them. You will need: Game cards and markers How to play:
Prepare game cards by writing words that are common in songs, like “rain,” “stay,” and “hand”. Break the party into two teams. Flip over a card and show everyone what it says. Each team takes turns singing songs that have that word somewhere in the lyrics. When one of the teams can’t come up with a song even after 30 seconds, they lose the round, and the other team is awarded a point. The first team to earn 10 points wins.
