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 
Wow, age 6 sure seems to be the year of the Mario Party! My son will be 6 in July and I am planning his Super Mario themed party. I created his invites using Mario graphics I found on the internet, and printed onto full-size label paper that I bought at OfficeMax. Then I cut them out and adhered them to cardstock paper that I folded into invitations, and which I had already typed out all the party info. The goody bags on E-Bay and Amazon were too expensive, so I bought solid red paper goodie bags from my local party store (Party City) and again, adhered a giant Mario label to the outside of each bag, and typed on the label above and below the pic of Mario, "Jimmy’s 6th Birthday!"and "Thank you for coming!" I also found Super Mario candy at the same party store; each candy container has a figurine of Mario in his go-cart on the lid ($2.50 each, I bought 12). Then I filled the bags with gold coins and regular candy. I found pics of Super Mario cakes on the internet, and was able to find a bakery who will duplicate the cake from the picture, but due to copyright issues, the baker will put a"J" (for Jimmy) on Mario’s hat instead of the "M." No need for games as the party is at the bowling alley where they will do "glow bowling" and lazer tag, and of course eat pizza! One of his gifts is a Super Mario backpack that I found at Target (online only) and a Super Mario monopoly game, a Super Mario Plush doll, and figures of the whole crew, Luigi,Peach,Donkey Kong – – all ordered off the internet at different toy sites. It think we’re set. I hope I’ve inspired someone!
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Wow, age 6 sure seems to be the year of the Mario Party! My son will be 6 in July and I am planning his Super Mario themed party. I created his invites using Mario graphics I found on the internet, and printed onto full-size label paper that I bought at OfficeMax. Then I cut them out and adhered them to cardstock paper that I folded into invitations, and which I had already typed out all the party info. The goody bags on E-Bay and Amazon were too expensive, so I bought solid red paper goodie bags from my local party store (Party City) and again, adhered a giant Mario label to the outside of each bag, and typed on the label above and below the pic of Mario, "Jimmy’s 6th Birthday!"and "Thank you for coming!" I also found Super Mario candy at the same party store; each candy container has a figurine of Mario in his go-cart on the lid ($2.50 each, I bought 12). Then I filled the bags with gold coins and regular candy. I found pics of Super Mario cakes on the internet, and was able to find a bakery who will duplicate the cake from the picture, but due to copyright issues, the baker will put a"J" (for Jimmy) on Mario’s hat instead of the "M." No need for games as the party is at the bowling alley where they will do "glow bowling" and lazer tag, and of course eat pizza! One of his gifts is a Super Mario backpack that I found at Target (online only) and a Super Mario monopoly game, a Super Mario Plush doll, and figures of the whole crew, Luigi,Peach,Donkey Kong – – all ordered off the internet at different toy sites. It think we’re set. I hope I’ve inspired someone!
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Now we can all just print and fold to make Mario Characters!
Nintendo Paper Craft
Also you can make original Mario level look-alikes here Super Mario Brothers Papercrafts at http://nerd-craft.blogspot.com
Took me FOREVER to find these links so hopefully they help someone out. Enjoy!
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Yay! Thanks Sam. My little video-game fanatic that started all this also happens to be a big fan of Origami and Kirigami.. He will love this! Downloading the .zip NOW before it gets removed 🙂
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Yay! Thanks Sam. My little video-game fanatic that started all this also happens to be a big fan of Origami and Kirigami.. He will love this! Downloading the .zip NOW before it gets removed 🙂
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Wow, can I just say, those models are freakin awesome!! These papercrafts must be the ones Michelle mentioned earlier. Too bad the site is so ad-laden.
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Wow, can I just say, those models are freakin awesome!! These papercrafts must be the ones Michelle mentioned earlier. Too bad the site is so ad-laden.
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You are welcome. I stumbled on this one also. http://www.cubeecraft.com/ I’d say that about exhausts the googling. Have fun!
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Awesome blossom.. they will love this! When I have a minute I’ll have to post links on my links area too. Thanks again!!
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Awesome blossom.. they will love this! When I have a minute I’ll have to post links on my links area too. Thanks again!!
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I like the painter hat as a treat for the kids. any suggesstions as to where to find the ‘M’ and "L" iron-ons.
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I like the painter hat as a treat for the kids. any suggesstions as to where to find the ‘M’ and "L" iron-ons.
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Mario Supplies at Last!
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Mario Supplies at Last!
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My son is turning 6 next month and wans a Mario Kart Wii birthday. I have though about doing a "tournament" on the Wii, but really don’t want the kids playing video games the whole time. I like the Mario Bingo game and musical chairs to Mario music. I am trying to come up with a Mario Kart relay race but am having trouble with it. I also found 4x4x4 in mug boxes at the craft store which I covered in paper pieces my son and I had water colored to make look like the rainbow question mark boxes in the game- these will be the favor boxes. Does anybody have input on a relay race?
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My son is turning 6 next month and wans a Mario Kart Wii birthday. I have though about doing a "tournament" on the Wii, but really don’t want the kids playing video games the whole time. I like the Mario Bingo game and musical chairs to Mario music. I am trying to come up with a Mario Kart relay race but am having trouble with it. I also found 4x4x4 in mug boxes at the craft store which I covered in paper pieces my son and I had water colored to make look like the rainbow question mark boxes in the game- these will be the favor boxes. Does anybody have input on a relay race?
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Hi Megan – Relay races? Let’s see. How about an egg and spoon race, where you’ve painted the eggs with green spots to look like Yoshi eggs? You could boil the eggs (I’d be too chicken to use raw eggs with six year olds) and then paint on spots using a q-tip with green food coloring mixed with a little white vinegar.
And your kid might not remember when Mario caught feathers in addition to mushrooms, fireflowers, and stars, but you could do a feather relay race where they have to keep a feather up in the air across a short distance without dropping it.
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Hi Megan – Relay races? Let’s see. How about an egg and spoon race, where you’ve painted the eggs with green spots to look like Yoshi eggs? You could boil the eggs (I’d be too chicken to use raw eggs with six year olds) and then paint on spots using a q-tip with green food coloring mixed with a little white vinegar.
And your kid might not remember when Mario caught feathers in addition to mushrooms, fireflowers, and stars, but you could do a feather relay race where they have to keep a feather up in the air across a short distance without dropping it.
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Great ideas! The only problem with the feather is that in Mario Kart there are no feathers in the boxes- I’m thinking maybe some sort of obstacle course…
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Great ideas! The only problem with the feather is that in Mario Kart there are no feathers in the boxes- I’m thinking maybe some sort of obstacle course…
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Obstacles.. hmm… Well, I guess you could have them carry three helium balloons through whatever you set up as obstacles or stations (like a hula hooping station, or you could maybe have them zig-zag through some pillow goombas or something). Balloons would double as decoration before and favors after. I think some kids would cry if their balloons pop though ;-p
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Obstacles.. hmm… Well, I guess you could have them carry three helium balloons through whatever you set up as obstacles or stations (like a hula hooping station, or you could maybe have them zig-zag through some pillow goombas or something). Balloons would double as decoration before and favors after. I think some kids would cry if their balloons pop though ;-p
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— also just one note, I have noticed with my kids that the games really don’t have to do THAT much with the actual theme. Like pin the hat on mario or whatever…. it wouldn’t even phase most kids that its not actually Kart related. We had ours play Mario in the Middle, putting a mario hat on one kid and trying to keep him from catching this ridiculously huge beach ball. Little to do with Mario, but they ate it up 🙂
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— also just one note, I have noticed with my kids that the games really don’t have to do THAT much with the actual theme. Like pin the hat on mario or whatever…. it wouldn’t even phase most kids that its not actually Kart related. We had ours play Mario in the Middle, putting a mario hat on one kid and trying to keep him from catching this ridiculously huge beach ball. Little to do with Mario, but they ate it up 🙂
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My son is having a Mario Bros party for his 9th birthday next month and I found party supplies from BirthdayExpress.com. They have plates, napkins, banners, standups, pinatas, favor boxes, etc. At least that part will be easy and now it’s on to these other ideas to top off the day.
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My son is having a Mario Bros party for his 9th birthday next month and I found party supplies from BirthdayExpress.com. They have plates, napkins, banners, standups, pinatas, favor boxes, etc. At least that part will be easy and now it’s on to these other ideas to top off the day.
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I agree that the Mario Party theme is fun to tackle when it comes to planning a child’s birthday. But its the details from the game that make it fun to implement into a party. Sure you can play generic games, like "Pin the nose on Mario", but I have found that kids really enjoy games that relate to the theme. Its good to have at least one un-generic party game planned. Like for my son’s Mario Party (and his Mario Sonic party) we played a game that I created myself. We like to call it "Yoshi Egg Smash". Basically I emptied, washed and dried out real egg shells. Stuffed them full of confetti, and sealed them up. Only 4 out of the 12 eggs had a golden star inside. The object of the game was to throw/smash the egg at the target on the wall, if your egg reveals a star, you win a prize. The kids LOVED this game!!! Take a look at what I mean, this link will show you the game and several other Mario party ideas.
http://www.coolpartyblog.com
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I am going to make coloring books for all of the party guests from these pages I found on the net
http://jimboscoloringpages….
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I am going to make coloring books for all of the party guests from these pages I found on the net
http://jimboscoloringpages….
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Thanks so much for all the great ideas. Does anybody have a picture of their mushroom cupcakes?
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Thanks so much for all the great ideas. Does anybody have a picture of their mushroom cupcakes?
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Hey there – well the kids decorated them, so they were a little funky .. between the bumpy frosting and the extra toppings, they were not much like mushrooms by the time they were done expressing their creativity. Still, they had a great time. Next time we do cupcakes here I’ll model a few for this article.
One thing with the cupcakes: Use white wrappers (of course) but use more than one so they look extra white.
If YOU want to make them so they’re better-looking than what the kids might do, you might consider cutting spots out of fruit leather, or if you iced them red, cut spots out of white mystery-flavored AirHeads.
Also if anyone feels like sending a photo, I’m happy to link to it or post it here. But I’ll see if I can get around to it one of these days. Maybe for Halloween since my kids are heading out in Mario and Peach costumes. 🙂
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Hey there – well the kids decorated them, so they were a little funky .. between the bumpy frosting and the extra toppings, they were not much like mushrooms by the time they were done expressing their creativity. Still, they had a great time. Next time we do cupcakes here I’ll model a few for this article.
One thing with the cupcakes: Use white wrappers (of course) but use more than one so they look extra white.
If YOU want to make them so they’re better-looking than what the kids might do, you might consider cutting spots out of fruit leather, or if you iced them red, cut spots out of white mystery-flavored AirHeads.
Also if anyone feels like sending a photo, I’m happy to link to it or post it here. But I’ll see if I can get around to it one of these days. Maybe for Halloween since my kids are heading out in Mario and Peach costumes. 🙂
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Great ideas!!! Our pary is going to be in a hall so we have some room. Doing mushroom cupcakes, red & green and will use mentos for the white spots. Found a video on You Tube for making hats out of poster board. http://www.youtube.com/watc… Also doing a Yoshi’s egg on the spoon/obstacle course with cardboard boxes decorated as brick boxes. Or doing the stuffed egg with confetti idea and doing an egg toss with partners using the stuffed eggs. Doing a gold coin hunt…person with the most gold coins wins a prize. Also, musical chairs…going to download Mario music to use for the game. And lastly, find Wario or Bowser…winners get prizes.
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Check out Oriental Trading! I just ordered Red & Green holiday baseball hats to make Mario & Luigi hats and furry stick on mustaches. The are on sale for 9.99 a dozen right now!!http://www.orientaltrading…. They also have crowns that work for Princess peach hats for girls too.
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Excellent ideas Cheri! Ethan and Mary were Mario and Peach for Halloween this year, and I’m telling you the Mario mustache made the costume. It was so big on him we actually cut it up so part of it could be bushy eyebrows for him. Giving mustaches out as party favors is a fabulous idea.
Another idea: We painted eyes on golden star-shaped Mylar balloons, and then tied them on the kids for the costumes… the stars would work really well as party favors as well.
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Excellent ideas Cheri! Ethan and Mary were Mario and Peach for Halloween this year, and I’m telling you the Mario mustache made the costume. It was so big on him we actually cut it up so part of it could be bushy eyebrows for him. Giving mustaches out as party favors is a fabulous idea.
Another idea: We painted eyes on golden star-shaped Mylar balloons, and then tied them on the kids for the costumes… the stars would work really well as party favors as well.
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Alright folks, my kids are asking for another Mario party, this time for their shared birthdays. I’ll blog about how that turns out. I just ordered some mario party supplies too … not all of them mind you, since I’m into making my own stuff. But I’ll post reviews of those as well once I get them
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Alright folks, my kids are asking for another Mario party, this time for their shared birthdays. I’ll blog about how that turns out. I just ordered some mario party supplies too … not all of them mind you, since I’m into making my own stuff. But I’ll post reviews of those as well once I get them
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Hi Velda! Its my first time here and googling for ideas on Mario party for my 4 year old. Your site is really very very helpful. Im getting a lot of ideas here. Im looking for some templates or cut-outs that i could use for the party decorations. There are several links shown here but the address seem to be incomplete so its not directing me to the right site (?). Im particulary looking at the one suggested by Sam for print and fold to make Mario Characters!
Can you direct me to it please? Will greatly appreciate it!!!! Thanks again!
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Oops! Looks like those Mario craft links died on me. No worries though! I’ve got new ones for you at nintendopapercraft.com – which has lots of Nintendo characters to fold as well as nerd-craft.blogspot.com ‘s Super Mario Brothers level dioramas. Hoping that helps!
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Hi Velda! Its my first time here and googling for ideas on Mario party for my 4 year old. Your site is really very very helpful. Im getting a lot of ideas here. Im looking for some templates or cut-outs that i could use for the party decorations. There are several links shown here but the address seem to be incomplete so its not directing me to the right site (?). Im particulary looking at the one suggested by Sam for print and fold to make Mario Characters!
Can you direct me to it please? Will greatly appreciate it!!!! Thanks again!
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Oops! Looks like those Mario craft links died on me. No worries though! I’ve got new ones for you at nintendopapercraft.com – which has lots of Nintendo characters to fold as well as nerd-craft.blogspot.com ‘s Super Mario Brothers level dioramas. Hoping that helps!
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Thanks soooooo much Velda!!!! This is gonna be a big help! Luv it!
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Thanks soooooo much Velda!!!! This is gonna be a big help! Luv it!
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No problem Alona! Thank you for saying thanks! 😀
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No problem Alona! Thank you for saying thanks! 😀
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I am having a Mario Galaxy party for my soon to be 8 year old next month. I picked up some gems and coins for the kids to find. I figured on making gold foil stars for putting all over. There will be an obstacle course for the kids to go through. The big thing was the favors and cake. Stuck there. Also, what about a craft? Do I want to do that? Thanks for your help.
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Hi Michelle. There are tons of mario party favors available now or you can make your own. One easy & fun one for Super Mario Galaxy? Lumas made with helium filled, star-shaped Mylar balloons 😀 Super easy!! I suggest using black electrical tape cut in little ovals to make eyes rather than trying to use a sharpie, because the chemicals in a permanent marker will peel the shiny stuff right off. You could kinda use that for a craft too if you wanted to. (Editing this comment to post pictures and links!)
You can also do a cute star-shaped cake with jelly bean eyes. So ridiculously easy. Easiest way obviously is with a star-shaped cake pan (which might be a worthy investment). Or you can do a planet shape cake (Cook it in a bowl or even one of those bowls that does an icecream cake for you).
Um, I use the word Easy alot. There are tons of really not so easy favors you can make too and I think there are links to a few blogs within this post that have some fun ideas too if you’ve got lots of time to make it work. I just work a lot so I aim to keep my own stuff simple when I can!
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Oh and an example of a harder but REALLY cool mario party favor… One mom hollowed out eggs by blowing them out, boiled the shells, cut a small hole in them, and filled them with prizes. Then she covered the hole with paper or something and added spots. Intense! But I’d give her mom of the year award. My kids are lucky to get a few hours with me not working so they’re always glad with whatever I can pull off 😀
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Oh and I was just looking around in my links and found this as part of a fairly cool table decoration for a Mario Galaxy party.. the multi-colored star sprays remind me of the little star bits you collect for your lumas 🙂
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I am having a Mario Galaxy party for my soon to be 8 year old next month. I picked up some gems and coins for the kids to find. I figured on making gold foil stars for putting all over. There will be an obstacle course for the kids to go through. The big thing was the favors and cake. Stuck there. Also, what about a craft? Do I want to do that? Thanks for your help.
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<a href="http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-3359634-10380652?url=http%3A%2F%2 Fwww.shindigz.com%2Fcatalog.cfm%3Fpgp%3DZBB127&cjsku=BLMSTE_GOL” rel=”nofollow”> Hi Michelle. There are tons of mario party favors available now or you can make your own. One easy & fun one for Super Mario Galaxy? Lumas made with helium filled, star-shaped Mylar balloons 😀 Super easy!! I suggest using black electrical tape cut in little ovals to make eyes rather than trying to use a sharpie, because the chemicals in a permanent marker will peel the shiny stuff right off. You could kinda use that for a craft too if you wanted to. (Editing this comment to post pictures and links!)
You can also do a cute star-shaped cake with jelly bean eyes. So ridiculously easy. Easiest way obviously is with a star-shaped cake pan (which might be a worthy investment). Or you can do a planet shape cake (Cook it in a bowl or even one of those bowls that does an icecream cake for you).
Um, I use the word Easy alot. There are tons of really not so easy favors you can make too and I think there are links to a few blogs within this post that have some fun ideas too if you’ve got lots of time to make it work. I just work a lot so I aim to keep my own stuff simple when I can!
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Oh and an example of a harder but REALLY cool mario party favor… One mom hollowed out eggs by blowing them out, boiled the shells, cut a small hole in them, and filled them with prizes. Then she covered the hole with paper or something and added spots. Intense! But I’d give her mom of the year award. My kids are lucky to get a few hours with me not working so they’re always glad with whatever I can pull off 😀
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Oh and I was just looking around in my links and found this as part of a fairly cool table decoration for a Mario Galaxy party.. the multi-colored star sprays remind me of the little star bits you collect for your lumas 🙂
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If anyone is interested by the way – I was able to pull off a wonderful Indiana Jones B-day party for my 7 year old last year (down to the HUGE paper mache’ boulder!) and am happy to send pics of the cake and ideas for the scavenger hunt and decorations to anyone interested…
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Sure! If you’ve got your own blog send your link right along. I am careful with who I link to here so the place doesn’t get too spammy, but I’m all over sharing ideas. Or if you’d like I’d be happy to post something here for you too. My kids haven’t been into Indiana Jones just yet but I am sure they will be soon!
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If anyone is interested by the way – I was able to pull off a wonderful Indiana Jones B-day party for my 7 year old last year (down to the HUGE paper mache’ boulder!) and am happy to send pics of the cake and ideas for the scavenger hunt and decorations to anyone interested…
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Sure! If you’ve got your own blog send your link right along. I am careful with who I link to here so the place doesn’t get too spammy, but I’m all over sharing ideas. Or if you’d like I’d be happy to post something here for you too. My kids haven’t been into Indiana Jones just yet but I am sure they will be soon!
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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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