Happy 1st Birthday to your little one! It is finally time to prepare and think about what theme you will do for his or her birthday! Check out 21 adorable first birthday themes for boys and girls! Whether you are doing a small party with a few family members or larger party with favors and bouncy houses, this post has ideas that you will fall in love with!
After planning a bunch of birthdays for my own children, I have learned so much along the way! We are here to share some tips and tricks on creating a beautiful party and staying on a budget! Like tackling a DIY to save some money and stay within your budget. We share balloon arch tips, treat table ideas, and decorating tips so you don’t have to pay someone to do it for you! These tricks will save you hundreds!
In this blog post, we will show you first birthday themes that will inspire you! From first birthday themes boy to first birthday themes girl, we have ideas that will make your babies first birthday a special one. After reading this post, you will be able to find the perfect theme so that you can start the party planning process.
*Please note that I am an Amazon associate and earn a small commission through my links.
This blog post is all about first birthday themes.
What you need for any party theme:
- Food/Drinks
- Utensils, Plates, Cups, Napkins
- Music
- Cake, Cupcakes, or Decorated cookies
- Games or activities for guests and children
- Balloons
- Seating for your guests
- Photo Backdrop or Photo area to take pictures!
- Party Favors
What you need for DIY balloon arch:
- Balloon arch kit
- Double sided tape
- String
- Command hooks
- Arch (optional)
How to make your party stand out:
- Soft play area for babies
- Bounce House
- Party Favors
- Photo area
- Games
No matter how big or small your party is, making it fun for your baby is the most important part! Don’t stress the small things and just have fun creating an adorable party so they can look back on and see all of your efforts!
Best First Birthday Themes
1. Peppa Pig Birthday Party
Peppa Pig is an adorable and a super easy theme to recreate! This was a small birthday party that we did for our daughter! Although it was just her and one other baby, I still wanted to make a cute birthday that she could look back on for pictures! This birthday set up was under $100!
To recreate this look, you need this fun bounce house! This bounce house is the perfect size for 1–3-year-olds! This was small enough to tuck away in a corner and they had an absolute blast climbing inside of it! If you want an outdoor birthday, you can also use it outdoors as well!
*Disclaimer your child will love this bounce house, and you will have it blown up in your house for days to come!
Now for the decorations we suggest using this balloon arch with a kit! Pastel colors look beautiful with Peppa and her whole family. This balloon arch kit is $11 and comes with everything that you needed to create this beautiful arch! All you need is some extra tape (we used painters tape) to help secure it to your wall without damaging your paint! Since the kit comes with a lot of balloons, you can blow some extras to decorate throughout your house.
To complete the look, you need Peppa Pig balloons! We blew them up and taped them on the bounce house! Since the balloons are pretty big, she was so excited to see Peppa was almost the same size as her! Secure these balloons with tape throughout to bring the look all together!
Top this off with a happy birthday banner and you can get a small cake or cupcake to sing happy birthday to your little one! For food we decided on some homemade pasta for the adults. This theme is perfect for smaller parties and very budget friendly!
2. One Happy Dude
One happy dude is a super cute retro look for a first birthday party! This simple birthday theme is perfect for simple birthday parties and one of our favorites! All you need is some black and yellow balloons for an arch and a cute birthday banner! You can get an entire birthday decorating kit from amazon for under $30!
3. One Year Fluttered By
Butterflies symbolize transformation that your little butterfly is finally 1! This theme is super cute for little girls! For this theme you can get a balloon arch kit that has purple and pink balloons! Keeping it simple is and adding hints of butterflies throughout your decor is the perfect touch so you are not over doing it! There are a ton of party favors you can do for a butterfly theme for your guests! Some of our favorite party favors for this theme are soaps, chocolates, and photos!
4. Construction Theme Birthday Party
We threw my son a construction themed birthday party for his first birthday! He loved playing with dirt and playing with construction vehicles, so this was right up his alley! Since we had a ton of kids invited for this party, we made sure to get a kids table! In this table we did arts and crafts! They also ate here and made a mess which was perfectly fine and easy to clean up!
We used the bounce house that we had purchased previously from our daughters Peppa’s theme birthday party (linked above). We also purchased a larger bounce house for the bigger kids! This is something we have reused every year until today! This was an investment but worth every penny! Definitely beats the price for just renting a bounce house for one day!
Like the other themes, we also used a balloon arch kit for our DIY balloon arch! We outlined our banner with balloons and secured it the best we could for a windy day! We recommend using command hooks and securing them to your house with painters’ tape. From there, you can tie your balloon arch with a string, and it will not move.
This party was a little bit pricier since we bought the large bounce house but other than that, the decorations were fairly inexpensive! We got a construction cake as well as some little treats for a treat table. As for food, we catered some food from our local restaurant!
5. Barbie Theme
Barbie is perfect for any birthday! Whether your baby is 1 or 10, this party is all about glitz and glam and everything pink! Barbie has been very popular the past couple of years! For this birthday you will need a balloon arch and sparkles! You can also decorate with streamers!
6. Holy Cow I am 1!
This has to be one of the cutest first birthday themes boy! This is perfect for any Summer or Fall birthday and is a more unique take on the animal theme! You can get a banner and choose any color combination! This birthday theme is age appropriate and something your guests haven’t seen before! Again, you can make this as big as you want or you can simply decorate a photo area where you can sing to baby!
Add pops of cow print throughout your decor to bring it all together!
7. Ballerina Birthday
This gorgeous theme is perfect for any little girl’s birthday! You can’t get any more girly than pink, bows, and ballerinas! This theme is all about being dainty and sophisticated! With touches of blush pink everywhere along with ballerinas, you don’t need a lot of decorations! Less is more! You can get some floral accents from your local store and hot glue or tape them to your tablecloth to achieve this look!
8. Space First Birthday Themes
This space theme birthday is adorable! We love how simple you can make this or how detailed you can make this! You can get an entire decorating kit on Amazon with everything you need for your space party!
9. First Birthday Themes Summer
We love these orange birthday parties! They are so adorable and perfect for any summer party outdoors! It is also something different from your typical pinks and purple themes for little girls!
We absolutely love these decorations for your orange theme! Don’t forget to add some greenery and some fresh fruit to keep the theme light and fresh!
10. One Happy Camper
This cozy birthday theme is perfect for that crisp chill in the air when the weather starts changing! This is adorable and easy to recreate! This theme includes a lot of browns and greens. You can make some adorable favors such as a s’mores kit for your guests! You can include a bar of chocolate, crackers, and marshmallows! Flannels is also another perfect touch to add for some texture in your decor.
These party favor bags are super cute! Put your smores or whatever party favor you would like inside them. Use some orange and yellow tissue paper to make it seem like it is a campfire.
11. Oneder the sea!
This Under the Sea birthday theme is so fun! The vibrant colors just makes you feel happy! Although this looks hard to make, this theme is fairly easy to recreate!
If you want to create the beautiful number balloon, you can buy a number cut out and blow some balloons about the size of your hand. Make each balloon different in size and use some double sided tape to secure them inside the number!
12. Cookies and Milk
What one year old doesn’t like milk? This adorable cookies and milk theme is simple but unique! You can simply get an assortment of cookies for your guests and use them as decor. For your balloon arch, you can buy your balloons and add in pops of cookie balloons to complete the look! This can be done for under $20!
13. Circus Theme
This is the perfect first birthday party theme for outdoor parties! Whether you want to hire a clown to do cool party tricks for the children or you just want to have a lot of colors and a variety of activities to do this theme is perfect for any kid’s party! Party favors are endless, but our favorite party favor for this theme is popcorn!
14. Pumpkin Birthday
This is the perfect theme for October babies! If you are anything like me and you are pumpkin obsessed, you already have a ton of pumpkins lying around your home as decor! Use these for the parties and just add a simple balloon arch and you are fully decorated for your party! This is an easy yet super cute way to celebrate your little one in the cozy months!
15. First Birthday Themes Girl
Unicorns are the perfect birthday theme for any little girl! With these gorgeous, beautiful pastel colors, you just can’t go wrong!
16. First Birthday Themes Boy
A Cars themed first birthday party is an adorable theme for boys! With this theme you can get a cute balloon arch kit and have a bunch of cars for the kids to play with!
17. Mickey and Minnie
If your kids are anything like mine, they love Mickey and Minnie Mouse! This is the perfect first birthday theme for boys, girls, and even twins! You can even DIY your own cake with adorable decoration kits!
*Pro tip: Save money and buy a sheet cake or a plain cake from your local grocery store and place your own decor directly on the cake to save hundreds!
18. Bluey First Birthday Themes
Bluey! Every kid is obsessed with Bluey this year which is why it’s the perfect choice for a first birthday party theme! Add pops of Bluey and bingo around your party space with a balloon arch! This theme can be for boys and girls!
19. Ms. Rachel Birthday
It’s safe to say that Ms. Rachel is very popular for all babies! This is probably one of the first shows your baby has watched on tv! This theme is one of the most unique ideas! For this theme, you can take different color balloons and your baby’s favorite song by Ms. Rachel.
You can print a Ms. Rachel cut out through Etsy or if you have a cartoon picture, you can print it in your local CVS or Walgreens!
20. Sweet One
Sweet one! For this theme you can get a variety of sweets for your guests! Making your decor super colorful is key for a beautiful party!
21. Dino Birthday
Dino birthdays! This is another birthday theme that is perfect for both boys and girls! Have fun with the theme by encouraging the kids to dig for fossils and dinosaur bones!
This blog post was all about first birthday themes.
Leave a Reply