Does your little girl want to be a mermaid when she grows up? Is she begging for a mermaid birthday party? Take a deep breath. By following the steps below, you can throw a mermaid birthday party she’ll be talking about for years. From mermaid birthday invitations to DIY mermaid tails, we’ll take you step by step through how to throw a mermaid birthday party.

Step: 1 Pick a Venue

Before you do anything else, decide on a party venue that’s fitting for a mermaid birthday. While hosting a mermaid party at home is a surprisingly do-able option, water-centered venues can help provide a splashing good time for the birthday girl and her guests.

Here are some options:

• Home
• Public or private swimming pool
• Community aquatic center
• Indoor or outdoor water park
• Aquarium

If you choose a venue outside the home, do a little sleuthing ahead of time to see if the venue requires a reservation, has time restrictions for party area rentals, or allows outside food and drink. It’s also important to learn if the venue will charge each guest an admittance fee or if they offer group admission rates.

Step 2: Send Mermaid Birthday Invitations

Get your daughter’s guests excited about her mermaid themed party with mermaid birthday invitations. Invite Shop lets you customize any of the mermaid birthday invitations available on the website with your preferred colors, fonts, and trims.

Invite Shop also provides the option of creating your own mermaid birthday invitations using backgrounds and embellishments pulled from throughout the website.

Remember to include on the invitations that guests should bring swimwear if the mermaid birthday party will be held at a swimming pool.

Step 3: DIY Mermaid Party Decorations

With a little ingenuity and elbow grease, you can make your home or a rented venue look like a mermaid haven. Here are some great ideas for starters:

Seaweed Streamers

Twist green crepe paper streamers up the walls of your home or party room to create a rippling seaweed effect or let them dangle in a dreamy seaweed garland. We love the under-the-sea backdrop featured on the A Girl With No Strings blog. The backdrop below features crepe paper seaweed running vertically over crepe paper ocean waves running horizontally.

You could also try your hand at a DIY seaweed photo backdrop using dark and light green crepe paper. We love how this creative backdrop featured on the Chasing Down Madison Brown blog used paper “bubbles” and starfish as fun accents.

Decorated Fishnet

Another easy idea for DIY mermaid party decorations is a decorated fishnet. Take colorful cardstock and cut out sea-inspired shapes, like starfish, seashells, and seahorses. The decorated fishnet can be draped on the walls or over the top of the gift table or dessert tabe. We love the example below featured on Girl Inspired where the blogger used sea creature cookie cutters to create the shapes of her cut-outs.

Step 4: Mermaid Themed Party Food

We love the mermaid themed dessert table below featured on the Made of Sugar and Spice blog. When it comes to mermaid themed party food, however, it’s all about creative labeling. Create colorful labels to go in front of otherwise normal foods. 

Here are some ideas:

• Coconut jellybeans and white pearl shimmer Sixlets = ocean pearls
• Rock candy on a stick = sea coral
• Cheesy shell pasta = golden seashells
• White cheese sliced into triangles = shark teeth
• Sandwiches cut into the shape of stars = starfish snacks

Mer-Cupcakes

Bake regular cupcakes and add a clever cut-out in the shape of a mermaid fin. If you’re the crafty type, you can make your own out of cardstock and Popsicle sticks. However, if you’d rather leave decorating to the pros, choose one of the many custom mermaid fin cupcake toppers available on Etsy, like the example below from Bird in a Cage Creations.

Candy Sushi

One of the most creative ideas we’ve seen for mermaid party food is candy sushi. These clever little showstoppers are made from a Rice Krispies treat bed, a Swedish Fish, and a strip of green fruit roll-up. Check out the tutorial featured on the WonkyWonderful blog.

Step 5: Mermaid Party Activities

If your mermaid party is at a pool, swimming and pool games will be the obvious activities. For a party at home, however, you’ll need to get creative. Here are some ideas for mermaid party games and activities:

• Paper Bag Mermaid

Our favorite mermaid themed craft is a paper bag mermaid. This adorable craft featured on the I Heart Crafty Things blog lets all the girls create their own mermaid puppet to take home and enjoy.

• Colored Sand Art

Make your own colored sand and have the birthday girl and her friends make little bottles of colored sand. The My Frugal Adventures blog provides helpful tips for doing this fun craft using table salt, sidewalk chalk, paper plates, construction paper, and a corked glass jar.

• Painting Seashells

Buy a bulk bag of plain white seashells (you can find them on Amazon), some Crayola Washable Kids Paint, and some paintbrushes. Let the kids create their own painted seashell masterpieces. The Fantastic Fun and Learning blog has a great blog post on pulling this fun activity off with flair.

Step 5: Mermaid Outfit for the Birthday Girl

No mermaid party is complete without a mermaid outfit for the birthday girl (and her friends, if you’re feeling ambitious!).

DIY Mermaid Fins from Towels

Many bloggers have discovered clever ways of creating DIY mermaid fins out of beach towels. Check out the mermaid towel tail tutorial featured on the See Vanessa Craft blog. This is a great option for toddlers since the “fin” still allows them full use of their legs.

Etsy Mermaid Outfits

If you don’t have a crafty bone in your body, it’s Etsy to the rescue. We love the mermaid skirt below available through the Carken Design Etsy shop. It’s a great option if your little one just wants to dress up like a mermaid and doesn’t plan to take her outfit into the water.

Swimmable Mermaid Fins

Some of the most beautiful, swimmable mermaid fins are available through FinFun, which makes swimmable mermaid tails for children and toddlers.

Another option is the FINIS mermaid swim fin, which is essentially a footpocket monofin with straps. Children can glide through the water like a dolphin while wearing this contraption.

Step 6: Mermaid Party Favors for Guests

Mermaid party favors are fairly easy to throw together. Bubbles and strings of plastic pearls are both simple, affordable party favors, as are little baggies of goldfish crackers. One of our favorite ideas, however, is pictured below.

A kid-sized portion of aqua-colored Jelly Bellies, blue gummy sharks, goldfish crackers, and shell gummies in a snack bag. Swedish Fish would be a fun addition as well!

Step 7: Mermaid Thank You Cards

Last but not least, don’t forget to pick out some mermaid themed thank you cards to thank your little girl’s guests for their presence (and their presents). Invite Shop offers mermaid thank you cards that match one of their mermaid birthday invitation designs so that you can complete your theme in style.

We hope these fun ideas help your mermaid birthday party go swimmingly!