Pirate Party For Kids

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What kind of party do you throw for a 10-year-old who is obsessed with the book Treasure Island? A pirate party for kids!

I did theme my grandson’s party specifically around Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. His parents read him, and his siblings, the book over the course of a couple of weeks during their family reading time. All of my grandkids loved it (ages 4-10)! I highly recommend it if you have some would be little pirates.

I took to Pinterest and saw pretty impressive pirate parties out there! I love going on Pinterest and looking for inspiration for all of my parties, but man oh man, does that occasionally make me feel overwhelmed. I don’t know about you, but some of those pirate parties look like they cost an absolute fortune. Don’t get me wrong, I love a well-themed party but when it comes down to it, spending more doesn’t equal a better party!

The most important thing is that your kid feel special on their birthday and that they have fun with family and friends. Let me share how I did that AND didn’t spend a fortune!

Pirate Party Decorations

When you’re throwing a pirate party for kids, you have sooooo many fun options! I didn’t take too many ideas from Pinterest for this one. I decided to lean heavily into Treasure Island by printing out some of the kids’ favorite quotes on some beige distressed craft paper. I added some skull and bones images straight from Canva’s clipart library. Once printed, I trimmed them down into uneven edges and took them outside to burn the edges to create this effect:

Front door featuring a quote from Treasure Island for this Pirate party for kids.

I’ll include a free printable at the end of this post with these quotes! I included some black plastic pirate flag bunting and some cheap sisal rope to round out my front door decor. There is a supply list below!

The whole front door decorated for a pirate party.

Additional pirate party decor for the front porch.

Upon entering, party guests were immediately met with some pirate-themed decor.

fishing nets and pirate bunting decorations

Around the main party space, I continued to decorate with pirate party decorations that really brought everyone into the fun.

pirate party for kids decorations: fishing nets, stuffed octopus and star fishes.

Pirate flag decoration. — Our cowboy hats on top of the hutch add a nice touch, haha! What can I say, we’re horse people.

The entry table decorated with pirate party decor — This quote was one of my grandson’s favorites, but also contained personal info so I blurred it out!

Pirate Party For Kids Supplies

I had a lot of these on hand from previous parties so I didn’t have to buy all of these things to create my decor. I found several of these things originally at the Dollar Store. Yay, for cheap pirate party decorations! Plan this party early so you’ll have time to shop dollar stores and possibly borrow some of these things.

Fish nets which I put EVERYWHERE
Sisal rope, which is also spread around
Treasure chests – I originally purchased a 3-piece set but sadly, it’s no longer available
Gold coins
Jewels
Octopus – This also doubled as a gift for my grandson
Starfish and other shells
Pirate flag – This is a must have! I already had this on hand, but this one is very similar
Plastic pirate bunting
Skeleton keys and skeleton keys on a ring

Close-up of Treasure Island quotes for pirate party decorations.

Pirate Party Bathroom Decorations?

Yes, I even decorated my bathroom! I mean, what’s a pirate party theme if you don’t take it into the bathroom?!

Pirate treasure chest and skeleton keys on a ring.

Pirate Party Gift Wrap Idea

This was a super simple DIY. I just used plain blue wrapping paper and wrote on it with a silver marker. It may not be the most elaborate gift wrap job, but he loved it and I bet your little pirate will too! I used the last of my fish nets, a treasure chest filled with gold coins and jewels, as well as a cute little pirate parrot I found on Amazon at the last minute, to decorate the gift table.

Pirate Party Food For Kids

I have a confession to make, I did not make pirate-themed food for this party. This party was at dinnertime and my grandson requested his favorite food: enchilada-style breakfast burritos. But luckily, there are a ton a great pirate-themed treats out there that I can share with you!

Cannonball Meatballs

These are perfect and on theme for your pirate party food table! Just bake some premade frozen meatballs and toss them with whatever sauce your child likes: BBQ, marinara, etc. Or better yet, leave the sauces on the side for the picky eaters!

Pirate Peg Legs

You can use this title for lots of different things, but it sounds like a main dish food to me: Chicken drumsticks! They even look a little like peg legs!

Pirate Swords

Corndogs! Everyone already naturally has sword fights with them anyway so let’s just call them what they are: Pirate Swords!

Octopus Veggie Tray

Look at this adorable veggie tray! This is so much fun and so simple….two of my favorite things when creating a themed party! I truly love this website too. There are so many cute food ideas on here.

Shark Cups

These are always a hit.

Easy Pirate Party Cake

This amazing pirate party cake is one that someone can recreate without a ton of cake decorating skills…just my type of cake! If you’re throwing a pirate party for kids, you definitely need this cake!

Pirate Party Activities

I didn’t come up with any original ideas here. I definitely borrowed from those who have pirate partied before me! I found some super fun pirate party games and they were, in fact, very fun.

Treasure Chest Piñata – Piñatas often make an appearance at my parties. They’re fun for the kids and honestly, they always provide some good-natured laughter.
Temporary Tattoos – Tattoos are very pirate-y.
Treasure Hunt or Scavenger Hunt – Get this free printable treasure map and send the kids on a pirate adventure!

Desert Island – This one is very simple. It’s basically a version of musical chairs. Cut out a few “islands” from brown construction paper and scatter them around the room. Make sure there is one less island than the number of kids playing. Have the kids walk from island to island while you play some music and when the music stops, everyone scrambles to get on an island. As kids continue to get “out”, keep removing islands so that in the end there is only one winner. You can play this game over until everyone wins or just play once and have one big winner.

Pirate-Themed Board Game

My grandson received the game Plunder for his birthday so we did play that game after most of our guests left. He loves board games so this was an easy pick for our “after party.” If you enjoy the more complicated strategy games, you’ll love this one! This game was an instant hit in our family.

Pirate Party Favor Ideas

Pirate party favors can be as simple as a single serving bag of Pirate’s Booty.

But if you’re looking for a few more ideas, check out these pirate party favors:

Free Pirate Party Quotes Printable

As promised, here are some printable pirate quotes for you! These are direct quotes from the book Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

For best results, print them on beige distressed craft paper or cardstock. I trimmed around the edges with scissors and then burned lightly along the edges with a long necked lighter.

Final Thoughts

This pirate-themed birthday party was so much fun to plan and throw. I did have several of the party decorating supplies from previous parties, so it was quite affordable. If I was starting from scratch, however, I would definitely be looking for some free pirate party printables.

Have a swashbuckling good time at your pirate birthday party!