Rainbow Party

The rainbow theme party has become one of my favorites. It’s so colorful and provides so many opportunities to use your imagination and get creative. And don’t worry – that doesn’t mean you need any special artistic talent or have to spend a small fortune. For a rainbow theme party simply adding curved stripes of color to your rainbow party decorations/invitations/wrappings/food presentation makes them so bright and cheery – and they can be made suitable for all ages.

Last month our daughter was eager to celebrate her birthday with a rainbow theme party. She had begun asking for a rainbow theme party some time ago, so I had plenty of time to come up with rainbow theme party ideas. I know that most mothers of small children are tremendously pressed for time, so I am happy to be able to share these ideas with them. Below you will find everything you need in order to throw a colorful and fun rainbow theme party – games, decorating ideas, and printable invitations, decorations, banners, and wrappers.

Let’s start with the main attraction of any social gathering  – the food! Online you can find myriad recipes for colorful snacks and deserts for a rainbow theme party, but most of them are full of food coloring and sugar. To maintain a good balance of junk food and healthy snacks, be sure to include appetizing fruit and vegetable platters, which can easily be arranged in the shape of a rainbow. Simply arrange a variety of green, yellow, blue, orange, and red colored fruit and vegetables in a rainbow shape, as shown below.

 

You might be luckier than I was and have your party when more colorful fruits, such as strawberries and blueberries, are in season, but you get the idea.

Kids want what kids want, so I wasn’t able to completely avoid sugar and food coloring, but with all those fruits and veggie’s on the table I felt a bit less guilty.

It is no surprise that the main attractions of my daughter’s rainbow theme party were the rainbow cake and rainbow cupcakes. The cake disappeared in seconds (I used the recipe from here: https://divascancook.com/easy-rainbow-cake-recipe-from-scratch/) and during the entire party the rainbow cupcakes were in great demand. 

 

 

For tablecloths, we used several different colors of disposable tablecloths. We also hung a lot of various-colored balloons around the table and play area.

10 Rainbow Party Games

Now for the real fun – 10 rainbow theme party games and activities suitable for different age groups:

1. Dance on a Rainbow

On the dance floor, spread either a large sheet of paper or white cardboard with rainbow designs or (easier) a lot of different colored cardboard circles. Put on some music (you might want to download Dolly Parton’s “I Am a Rainbow”) and instruct the kids to dance to the music, but not to look down and see where they are stepping. When the music stops, the kids freeze in place and you pick a colored circle out of a bowl. Anyone who has a foot on the color you picked, is “out.”

2. Rainbow Piñata

Buy a colorful rainbow piñata (or make one at home). Fill it up with candy and/or rainbow party bag fillers. The children take turns – while blindfolded – trying to break it open, with you cheering them on. It’s great fun and one of the best ways to get all the kids paying attention and engaged in what’s going on.

3. Rainbow Relay

Search your closets for a lot of colorful clothing (hats, scarves, shirts) and put it all in a box. Divide the kids into 2 teams and organize each team in a line, with the box of clothing between them. The first child in each line puts on at least 2 items from the box as quickly as possible, races to the other side of the room and back, and returns the items to the box. The next child in line does the same, until everyone has completed the activity. The first group to finish is the winner.

4. Arts and craft –Rainbow Necklaces.

Dye uncooked penne pasta in blue, green, purple, red, yellow and orange and let them dry so the kids can string them into rainbow necklaces and bracelets. All you need is string or thin elastic. You might want to make one rainbow party necklace or bracelet ahead of time as an example for the kids.

5. Arts and crafts – Rainbow Streamers.

Get blue, green, purple, red, yellow, and orange crepe paper streamers and a paper plate for each child. You will also need a few staplers and pairs of scissors for them to take turns using. Ask the kids to cut out the center of the paper plate and staple rainbow streamers to the paper plate. For younger kids have the plates already pre-cut for them.
Another option for girls is making a rainbow tutu skirt. Simply buy elastic, cut lengths of it to fit around the girls’ waists and tie it. Then let the girls attach the colorful paper streamer to it. Play some fun music and let them dance with their new rainbow tutu skirts (while the boys dance with their streamers).

6. Rainbow Pass the Parcel

(This is a British game that is sort of a reverse Hot Potato – the kids want to be the one left holding the parcel.) Buy some small rainbow party gifts, such as rainbow rings, rainbow keyrings, rainbow flying discs, or any other small colorful trinket. Wrap one gift in wrapping paper, but keep it easy to open, e.g. not a lot of tape. (You can also consider folding it up in newsprint instead of wrapping paper). Take the next gift and wrap it AND the first gift in another layer of wrapping paper (or newspaper) and repeat many times, until you get a large parcel that is filled with layers of presents, in which it is easy to open each layer separately. Wrap the parcel in rainbow wrapping paper.
Have the kids sit in a circle. Play some music and let the kids pass the parcel around the circle until the music stops. The child left holding the parcel then gets to unwrap a layer and receives the present in that layer.
If the party is for older kids and you would like to make the game slightly more interesting, you can prepare questions (about the birthday girl/boy) that the kids have to answer before opening the layer of their gift.

7. Rainbow Bean Bag Toss

Take a large cardboard box and wrap it in rainbow wrapping paper. Cut circles in the box, their size depending on the age of the kids. Pour beans into old socks (the more colorful the better!) and tie the ends. The kids take turns trying to toss the bags through the circles into the box.

8. Rainbow Candy Relay

Fill 2 bowls with colorful candy (jelly beans, M&Ms, or similar. You may prefer individually wrapped candy, since you know they’re going to eat it, even the ones that have fallen on the floor several times). Place those bowls on one side of the room and two empty bowls on the other side. Divide the kids into 2 teams and give each team a spoon. Their goal is to transfer the rainbow candy from the full bowl to the empty one, using the spoon. (As in any relay, if the child drops the candy he is carrying in the spoon, he has to go back and start over.) The first team to empty their bowl wins.

9. Rainbow Bowling

Take seven empty plastic bottles and decorate them in the 7 colors of a rainbow. Set them up in the formation of bowling pins and use a colorful rainbow rubber ball as a bowling ball.

10. Guess Which Magical Bean

Prepare a jar of jelly beans and a piece of paper. Line up the kids and blindfold each child in turn. Place one magical bean in their hands, let them eat it and try to guess which color it is. If they guess correctly they get a point. They then go to the back of the line and the next child has a turn. You keep track of how many point each child earns. The child with the most points wins a bag of magical beans to take home.

DIY Rainbow Party Invitations and Decorations

If you want some extra personalization, check out some of our Rainbow printables, below:

Rainbow Party Invitations

Edit this rainbow party invitation with the details of your own party and print high resolution party invitations for your child’s guests.

Rainbow Party Decorations

Below are some decorative items to bring even more color and personalization to your child’s party.

This rainbow party pennant banner for your rainbow theme party can be edited with your own text – e.g. “Happy Birthday” or “Johnny Is Eight” or “Dare to Dream” or “Dreams Come True” or any other text you wish to put on it.

These rainbow party cupcake wrappers looked terrific on the rainbow cupcakes I made for the party. Just bake the cupcakes in regular paper liners, then print, cut, and glue the ends of the rainbow wrappers together and place your cupcakes inside them.

The rainbow party cupcake toppers pictured below can be used for your cake and/or cupcakes. Personalize the text on the toppers with your child’s name, age – or any other message. Attach them to toothpicks or any wooden sticks and put them on your rainbow cake or cupcakes. Voila – a personalized rainbow desert.

Use the fun rainbow party food labels below to create rainbow theme food items. For example, on a jar of colorful candy put a label saying: ‘Rainbow Seeds’.

Will you be serving water or juice bottles? Personalize them with your rainbow party theme and your child’s name using these cute rainbow party bottle labels.

Use the rainbow party welcome sign below to welcome your rainbow party guests. You could also make signs for game areas, etc. All the text is editable – meaning, you can change or delete any part of it.

Personalized Rainbow Party Favors

Here are some ideas for personalized rainbow party favors or rainbow goodie bags that your child can hand out to their guests.

These rainbow candy bar wrappers can be personalized with your own text on the front. You can even edit the ‘Ingredients’ section (e.g., include: ‘Dreams’, ‘Love’ etc.).

Create this magical rainbow party treat bag. Just put some colorful candy in a 4x6 inch cellophane bag and attach your personalized rainbow party label to the top of it.

Want to thank your guests for coming? We have the perfect rainbow party thank you cards, just for that. You can edit or delete the text – or add your own handwritten message for a more personal touch.

Note that if you would like to purchase more than one of the rainbow party decorative items, you might prefer to get them all – in our super cost-effective rainbow party decorations bundle:

And last but not least – enjoy your colorful rainbow party!