Update: Our party was a smashing success, and dozens of other parents have posted their stories too! Also, there are finally some cute mario party supplies to help supplement these ideas. If you need the supplies you can support this page at the same time by ordering them here.
My son turns six this month and would like to have a Mario Party Party. It’s a fun idea really, but I’ve noticed that mario birthday party supplies and favors are a bit hard to find. (Not anymore!)
So this time around in addition to posting my ideas as to what worked and what didn’t, I realized I could check with you! Here’s what I’ve got so far:
(I’m updating as I come up with ideas, and there are tons of other mario party ideas readers posted in the comments below!)
- Mushroom cupcakes made with red icing and white candy spots or orange frosting and red candy — or green frosting with white, for that matter — maybe all of them? Let the kids decorate?
- Ice Cream shaped like a star using a star shaped cake pan
- Star shaped mylar balloons for party favors – just add eyes! I gold star shaped mylar balloons, 20″ across for 99 cents here, or you can get a 3′ star shaped mylar balloon for $2.99 . These also make excellent additions to any mario-themed costume 🙂
- Chocolate (Or bubblegum) coin hunt
- Pizza – oh and set the table with a red/white checked tablecloth
- Mini Games (haven’t figured out which ones yet but stuff like a beanbag toss, frisbee throw, etc. would probably work – I should go play mario party with the kids for more ideas)
- Yoshi Egg Piñata
- Mushroom Invitations (pattern posted below)
I did find some red newsboy/cabbie caps that’d be adorable on the kids. A bit over (my) budget for mario birthday party favors but it’d be fun for someone I’m sure. Maybe I could make some out of .. I dunno, foam visors and fabric? who knows 🙂
So anyway.. If you’re looking for mario party ideas for your kid, there are a few, and if you’ve got some I’ve not thought of, please feel free to contribute.
There are some cute Mario Birthday Party invitations available now along with favors and other party supplies, but if you want to make your own, here’s the pattern I made for our party. These look like the 8-bit mushrooms you might remember from Super Mario Brothers. Print caps.pdf on orange, red, or green cardstock. Paint the spots.
Print stems.pdf on white cardstock, and then print envelope.pdf on goldenrod 4.25×6.25 envelopes.
Cut out the caps and stems. Fold forward along the dotted line on the cap to form a tab to glue the stem to the mushroom cap. Let the glue dry first, then put the cards in a heavy book to get their folds crisp.
You could do the same thing with a smoother mushroom look, but I think the 8 bit pixelated thing is a bit fun and unexpected. Enjoy!
And I totally love these wall stickers. I can’t afford them, but if I could I would totally turn my apartment’s living room with it’s nearly black wall into World 3-1, and then it’d be like having a Mario Party every day!
Have fun at your Mario Party!
Legend of Velda 
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! I felt lost when my 4 year old wanted to have a Mario Kart party until i found this!!! What great ideas!!! I used some of them and sparked a few of my own. I got the red and green painters caps from Oriental trading and instead of Ms and Ls I put white labels on them and wrote the childs name on to use the hat for name tags. I also had those cheap paper tiarras from new years that the girls used as princess peach. I bought stick on furry mustaches too for the kids to wear. We had a coin hunt with gold chocolate foil coins. We had an obstacle coarse that i made out of chairs and pillows, etc. and gave the kids cake size paper plates that they decorated as steering wheels and they ran around the obstacle coarse like a Mario Kart race track. I made a pinatta of sorts. I used a cake box that i bought from a craft supply store in the cake decorating section. I filled the box with goodies and closed it like normal. I cut and curled several links of curling ribbon and attached them all to the tuck in portion of the box lid. I then wrapped the whole box in colored tissue paper and fed the ribbons b/t the tissue paper and the box lid to hang out of the back. I put a big question mark cut out of white paper on the sides of the box. I held the box up so that the tuck in portion of the lid was north and the ribbons were hanging down. Then when the kids pulled the ribbons all at the same time the lid came open, ripping the tissue and spilling the goodies. The kids had a great time and of coarse we had mushroom cupcakes. Thanks everyone!
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I found the mario mushroom (toad) at Bed, Bath & Beyond. They are small and filled with tiny toad candy. They were 2.99 and come in red, green, and blue. I am going to use them as decorations and then give them away at the end. We created the ticket invitations and then I printed them on magnet paper (this was a bit expensive). Very nice to just slap on the fridge! We are going to take that same image and make iron on decals. We are going to give each child a shirt for their favor. Love all the previous ideas and hope these ideas will help someone…
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Ah, 2.99’s a better deal. They do have the mushroom tins online too at the link I’d posted up there, but they’re 3.99 a piece. We bought one to try it out & I didn’t like the candy very much (in fact the kids haven’t eaten it all yet and it’s been a few months) but the tin itself is really cute.
I -love- the idea of making a fridge magnet out of the invitation! That’s awesome. What do your ticket invitations look like?
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I found the mario mushroom (toad) at Bed, Bath & Beyond. They are small and filled with tiny toad candy. They were 2.99 and come in red, green, and blue. I am going to use them as decorations and then give them away at the end. We created the ticket invitations and then I printed them on magnet paper (this was a bit expensive). Very nice to just slap on the fridge! We are going to take that same image and make iron on decals. We are going to give each child a shirt for their favor. Love all the previous ideas and hope these ideas will help someone…
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Ah, 2.99’s a better deal. They do have the mushroom tins online too at the link I’d posted up there, but they’re 3.99 a piece. We bought one to try it out & I didn’t like the candy very much (in fact the kids haven’t eaten it all yet and it’s been a few months) but the tin itself is really cute.
I -love- the idea of making a fridge magnet out of the invitation! That’s awesome. What do your ticket invitations look like?
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The vinyl peel and stick: I bet you could print out photos, and bring then to your local copier and have some stickers made up for less…not likely to be hundreds or dollars like the real deal.
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I thought about that too, but these look like each decal ‘block’ that’d make up the 8 bit world would be just about 8 and a half inches tall and wide with some pieces taking up the space of two. So essentially it looks like it would be the cost of getting the images together, plus cutting and pasting time, as well as a good $30-50 in copies. They’d be hard to use more than once unless you laminated them, and by then the direct cost would be way over what it’d take to buy them outright.
But another option that’s cheap and good for a party is to just buy a black or blue plastic tablecloth and make yourself a brick stamp out of a large sponge. I have done that. Quick, cheap, and by the time the party is over it’ll be ready to be thrown away. Kinda messy and hard to hang, but that’s OK.
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My boys were Mario last year for Halloween. I made their costumes by making denim overalls (very difficult, LOL, little did I realize). I sewed big yellow buttons for the button part of the overalls, and they wore red sweatshirts and white “magic” gloves that I got for 99 cents at Walmart. For the hats though, I just bought NE Patriots red ball caps. I covered the Patriots symbol on the front with a M decal that I made with craft felt. I used the Heat & Bond Lite to make the M stick permanently onto the background, and then I hand-sewed the M emblem onto the hat. That way, when they no longer want Mario hats, I can remove the M emblem and they have Patriots hats! This year, my 7yo wants a Mario birthday party, so now I’m working on that. Love that papercrafts website. Craziness.
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Great ideas! Searching for Mario party ideas lead me to this great site!
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I’m glad you like them! There certainly are a ton of ideas here! I almost need to split this article into several pages so the server (and your eyes) can handle it… but it is totally worth it to have all this info on one page. I love that so many people have contributed so much information here.
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Wow..some great ideas for my son’s upcoming bday party!! Just thought I would add another idea I found while researching for games, decorations, etc. Remove the wrappers from aero, caramilk chocolate bars and make new labels on the computer with mario clip art. They make great thank you or goodie bag treats.
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i printed characters, wrote clues on back, and lamenated them for a great outdoor scavenger hunt. every fourth clue led them back to me for a “minigame” #1-filled approx 100 white plstic eggs(covered in colored dot stickers = yoshi eggs)with various plastic coins, 10 of which were gold. they had to find the gold coins to get the next clue #2-drew king boo on lrg foam board, cut out mouth, and tossed thru orange “fire balls” – had to make 5 total #3buried princess peach in sandbox to dig up. Her clue led to “beating bowser” to win – used soccer ball pinata covered with bowser faces. covered cake table with gold foil coins and stars. filled homemade “?” boxes with same, plus some cheap star tattoos and mario stickers found on ebay. for the most part used easily found and ready made items. 8yr olds loved it!
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i printed characters, wrote clues on back, and lamenated them for a great outdoor scavenger hunt. every fourth clue led them back to me for a “minigame” #1-filled approx 100 white plstic eggs(covered in colored dot stickers = yoshi eggs)with various plastic coins, 10 of which were gold. they had to find the gold coins to get the next clue #2-drew king boo on lrg foam board, cut out mouth, and tossed thru orange “fire balls” – had to make 5 total #3buried princess peach in sandbox to dig up. Her clue led to “beating bowser” to win – used soccer ball pinata covered with bowser faces. covered cake table with gold foil coins and stars. filled homemade “?” boxes with same, plus some cheap star tattoos and mario stickers found on ebay. for the most part used easily found and ready made items. 8yr olds loved it!
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Thanks for all the great ideas. Your page saved the day (or the party!).
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Glad to hear it! You’ll have to let me know how the party turns out 🙂
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Hey we are doing a mario birthday party this year for my soon to be 4 year old and instead of “goody” bags i am going to get tshirts and iron on different characters that way all the kids are in character and they get to take something home that wont be thrown away. loving the ideas from everyone else and thanks for the help!
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My son’s 5th birthday party is this coming weekend and boy have I had Mario on the brain.
I went to that coolpartyblog.com but honestly did not have the time to cut out the hats. So, instead, I printed the “M’s” and bought plain red party hats and glued them onto the hats. They came out awesome.
I went to the dollar tree and got blue, red and yellow gift bags with the handles. In case no one is aware, there is an a free design and print online program on avery.com. I printed “Thank you for coming to my party and for all the great gifts, love Brandon” on a business card template and used an image if mario from mariokart (as that is my son’s favorite game). Some scrap book paper, curling ribbons and glue and a special bag for all (personalized with child’s name as well with scrapbooking stickers). Inside the bags were copies of one of the old Super Mario show dvds, fruit snacks, cookies, magic towels (in the shape of dinosaur eggs for Yoshi), home-made coloring books and candy. We are doing the cupcake stand using the images of Mario characters on craft/popsicle sticks and a friend’s mom is also making a fondant cake. We have a blow up bouncy that I made a sign for “Bowser’s Castle: Inside the Egg the Princess Lies, Find PEach and win a prize” – there will be easter eggs in the bouncy with pics of the characters and two of them will have PEach in there and will win a prize. I am still brainstorming but these are the ideas I have come up with.
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My son is Mario obsessed! His 5th birthday in next weekend and we are going all out. I as everyone else couldn’t find anything at the party supply stores so I went to birthday express and ordered just plates, cups, and place mats or really cheap. Then I bought some red 9in balloons & poster board. I drew eyes on a 3in strip of the board and painted white spots on the balloons and taped the baloon on top of the rolled up strip of poster. They made AWESOME mushrooms! And SO cheap to make. Next a found cardboard boxes and drew bricks and question mark boxes on them. You can spray them with cooking spray to make the color of the bricks darker. They also look great and cheap… I got this idea offline: use black marker to draw ghosts faces on white balloon then tape or glue white cones (paper) on the balloon for arms. They look great! I have lots of plastic gold coins to spread around the table and ordered a really Amazing expensive cake but since I saved so much on the decorations I was able to splurge on it. You can also find a techno remix or Mario theme songs online. Really fun! So excited! Hope this helps!
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What great ideas! The Balloon Boo’s and mushrooms are ingenious 😀 And yeah that Celebrations Express (Aka Birthday Express) has some really fun mario party supplies (and I’ve got a free shipping link here on the site), and Think Geek has some fun favors too. Totally love the techno remixes too – in fact I always play the Super Mario Bro’s techno whenever my kids are supposed to help clean up and it gets them really excited. And they’re not even five anymore. hehe. It sounds like your Mario Party is going to be a smashing success!
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We have had Mario on the brain for weeks. My son’s 5th birthday is this month.
We have Mario Scratch off- Made with business cards and a scratch off dot ( really cheap; like 7 dollars for 50 dots) the one with the right age (5) wins a prize.
Ordered a Mario Pinata ( ebay; his choice)
Ordered Mario figurines (ebay ; 13.99 inc ship; US stores wanted $40.00 for 6 I got 13) these will serve as my cupcake tower decor. Oriental trading( cannot find hats)but we got gold coins- colored lollipops,white eggs ( yoshi’s egg hunt)
sold gift boxes will stick shipping labels to them) will also add labels to water bottles as part of thank you gifts. Also made cupcake piks with circle dots and a small popsicle stick.
Making Chocolate lollipops w edible images that say Jack’s 5th Birthday w mario characters on them. Got papergoods from Birthday express-
Made several pirahna plants using foam balls,dowels,floral tape and white modeling clay. to place in yard and on table . ( thanks for the checkered tablecloth idea. I am also making boxes in question marks and bricks – We have an obstacle course and a bounce house ( bowsers castle)
Pizza- spagetti, salad and cheese sticks – for menu- Cupcakes and Luigis for dessert
Still looking for a “warp tunnel” idea- ( thought of a large drum ( they are so expensive)
But thats that-
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Lots of great ideas, thanks to everyone. I was thinking maybe for decorations (or a race) If you are doing Mario Kart. You could take black trash bags and cut them into rectangles. Paint white dash’s down the middle and you have a track.
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Where is the link for celebration exprss, free shipping? I missed it.
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I might need to get a fresh one. This will do: Free Shipping on orders $75 or more – BirthdayExpress.com
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As party favors for the bigger kids I gave out real venus fly traps and put a label on it with a mario clip art and a message saying “thanks for coming to my party!” For the younger kids we gave out glow in the dark stars, coloring pages and star shaped cookies with the two black dots as eyes.
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Venus fly traps for piranha plants? That is awesome!!
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I haven’t posted in a while, but we did a Lego party for our son back in November 2009. So I decided to do a blog and I just added some pinatas that I have done. There is a Toad, Bob Omb and Boo Pinata. Also check out the rest of the pics at my husbands photo stream on flickr.com, search SGA Creative. I’m thinking of maybe selling my custom pinatas on etsy.com or something. What do you think? Thanks. By the way I love the ideas for Mario parties. Mario Galaxy is coming out soon…that means more parties!
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I forgot to post the website for some good ideas. craftypartyideas.blogspot.com
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My son is turning 7 in a couple of weeks and this has been a huge help! I am doing a Mairo Kart relay and thought someone else may enjoy our take on it:
*3 Teams:
Luigi: my son and the boys
The Princesses: the girls
The Bad guys: the older kids (so they dont feel left out.;)
*3 cradboard boxes(appropriate sizes)with top and bottom removed. Painted in 3 different colors with car details (very optional! lol)
1 Green (for my sons favorite color & character)
1 Pink (for the girls)
1 Black (for the “bad guys”)
*2 string/rope shoulder straps attached to each box so that the boxes hang on their shoulders when they are inside.
Divide the 3 teams in half
(we’ll have 6 total teamates/team 3 on one end, 3 at the other)
1 half at one end and the the other at the oppostie end of the “race track” (yard) facing each other and GO!
The first child runs to their teammate at the other end of the yard and then they have to pass the car on and then the next child has to run back to the other end of the yard (repeat depending on number of kids) first team to cross the finish line wins!
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MY SON IS TURNING 5 IN A MONTH AND I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO KNOW HOW THE “?” BOXES ARE MADE. THANK YOU AND I LOVE ALL THE IDEAS ON THIS PAGE
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LOLLLLL, i love how everyone is like “my SON is turning FOUR and he wants a mario party”…
then there’s me, a GIRL, turning SIX…
TEEN.
:’)
and i personally think that a mario party IS THE BEST IDEA EVER!!
love all the ideas! think i’ll deffo be making those cupcakes! ;D
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Hey there Jessica! I think I replied via email, but just so everyone’s got it, check out the Paper Polyhedra here: http://www.korthalsaltes.com/model.php?name_en=cube
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Love those ideas, Ana and Michelle 🙂
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LOVE ALL OF THE IDEAS, GONNA USE THEM ALL. ALSO, I FOUND A STORE WITH INFLATABLE KARTS FOR THE WII THAT IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE CONTROLLER. KIDS ARE GONNA LOVE IT. THANKS, MALIKA.
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We are doing a Mario party at a local pizza place. Since thy provide plates, cups its easier on me. I will be doing a red tablecloth with white paper cardstock “M” glued on. Dk green paper favor bags with white dots and card stock bottoms, black skinney eyes, for mushroom bags. Yellow Foil Star Ballons I found at party city. I will cut and glue with rubber cement, black felt skinney eyes. Found gold chocolate coins at CVS. Wilton has a marshmallow fondant recipe you can make for a few bucks. My 8 year old wanted the fondant cupcakes with the mario shapes to look like Mario World. You can get icing color to add to the fondant.
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We are doing a Mario party at a local pizza place. Since thy provide plates, cups its easier on me. I will be doing a red tablecloth with white paper cardstock “M” glued on. Dk green paper favor bags with white dots and card stock bottoms, black skinney eyes, for mushroom bags. Yellow Foil Star Ballons I found at party city. I will cut and glue with rubber cement, black felt skinney eyes. Found gold chocolate coins at CVS. Wilton has a marshmallow fondant recipe you can make for a few bucks. My 8 year old wanted the fondant cupcakes with the mario shapes to look like Mario World. You can get icing color to add to the fondant.
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These are some good ideas, im living over seas and difficult to find mario products. I decided to print some posters, primary colors, i made a few ? blocks filled with some sand and used them as balloon holders, ive also printed a brick pattern cut and pasted on a box for a cake stand, i bought red sash bags and stuck iron on decals i made saying game over thanks for playing and a mario pick, i also found a mario hat pattern and sewed mario and luigi hats.Im making the cake, printed water bottle labels, made a star pinata, i had a sand up mario made. If you would like the patterns or picks email me and ill be happy to share.
Nancy
mysweetboys003@gmail.com
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These are some good ideas, im living over seas and difficult to find mario products. I decided to print some posters, primary colors, i made a few ? blocks filled with some sand and used them as balloon holders, ive also printed a brick pattern cut and pasted on a box for a cake stand, i bought red sash bags and stuck iron on decals i made saying game over thanks for playing and a mario pick, i also found a mario hat pattern and sewed mario and luigi hats.Im making the cake, printed water bottle labels, made a star pinata, i had a sand up mario made. If you would like the patterns or picks email me and ill be happy to share.
Nancy
mysweetboys003@gmail.com
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I’m doing Mario Kart for my 6 year old as well and the only idea I came up with not already posted was using 1/2 a banana w the peel splayed out on a tray. We’ll see how that works out.
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I love reading everyone’s ideas and tips. I have a thought for a game that I plan to try this coming weekend at my 5yr old nephews SuperMario party. I am going to draw on poster board or cardboard a couple of goombas(bad mushroom) and maybe a hoopaa shell(turtle)or the flower monster and and then glue them each to a yard stake and make a game of throwing a ball (red fire ball or blue ice ball at them from a specific place…each kid gets points for everyone they knock down and the winner gets a prize. I also plan on using the mushroom cup cake idea with white chocolate melts for the white spots. I also like the yellow star balloon idea w/the eyes. Anyway thought I should thank you for your site and its very creative and helpful idea…I am actually excited about this theme now.
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You’re very welcome! Thanks for the comment & your mario party ideas! Here’s hoping the ideas here make your super mario party the best ever!
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Hi,
I was wondering about the mario envelopes. Will the invitations fit inside? The envelpe size looks a bit small for the mushroom caps.
Thanks,
Jenn
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I would love to know how you hung your piñata and what you used to paint it?
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Hi! Which piñata? There were a few ideas posted here.
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Oh sorry I loved the chomp one, which looked really cool!
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That was from Heather & Joe. They hung it on an old chain from a light fixture, which I thought was totally brilliant. They did the last layer of paper mache with black construction paper and then probably also painted it. You could do the eyes, mouth, and teeth with pieces of tape, I’d think.
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