And she is 12! How time flies! My darling first-born is now a blossoming tween who wants to fly as fast as time itself! My inspiration in life for the most creative things, my daughter has inspired me with her varied passions to throw some wonderful birthday parties for her. For her very special 12th birthday before she turns into a teen, we planned an Around the World birthday party. It would have been too long a post so I am breaking some details into separate posts. I hope you enjoy this trip around the world with me!
For my travel-loving daughter’s 12th birthday party, we had an ‘Around the World’ theme!
Around the World Birthday Theme
My kids are as crazy about traveling the world and getting to know about different cultures as their parents are. To celebrate this mutual love for globe-trotting, I suggested an Around the World birthday party theme and my daughter loved it instantly! I immediately sat down to brainstorm ideas on how to create an ‘Around the World’ atmosphere for the party. I had created a pretty neat ‘red carpet’ for her Movie Awards/Red Carpet birthday party last year. But as much as I love DIY, it was simply not possible for me to do it my own this time. I needed some professional touches and I cannot thank Untumble Parties enough for helping me bring my visions to reality!
I will tell you more about their superb creations as we continue with the party details. So fasten your seat belts and get ready for the take off as I unfold all my travel themed party ideas in pictures.
Invitations
Invitations have always been an important part of my birthday party planning. The right type of invitations help build an anticipation in the guests. I usually design my own invitations and get them printed by online printing companies. But this time, I had something special in mind which needed more creativity than just plain printing. I wanted a mini-booklet – a pretend Passport – for the invitation! I had ordered from Untumble for my youngest daughter’s first birthday party and knew they can create anything that you can imagine. And I chose the right people for the job! They are pros at designing custom invitations and designed the perfect passports for our party!
The passports contained several pages and every element was made for a purpose. I am sharing all the Passport details in a separate post. Please read it to fully understand how we used them throughout the party.
Passport Invitations for Around the World Birthday Party
Around the World/Travel Themed Decorations
A travel around the world cannot be imagined without iconic landmarks! We had to have some of the most famous landmarks of the world to set the scene for a perfect Around the World birthday party.
And this is the second time that I was thankful for Untumble Parties for bringing my party to life. They created these 3 ft tall monument cutouts our of foam board and shipped it in perfect condition to me! You will see many more glimpses of all the monuments in further pics and on the separate post for all decoration details.
See all detailed decoration pics in this post:
Around the World Birthday Party Decoration
Welcome Aboard the SSS Airlines
My kids named the imaginary airlines that would take them all around the world with their initials – SSS. The siblings of the birthday girl played an important role!
The Birthday Girl with the Pilot and Air Hostess of SSS Airlines!
Little bro was the Captain Pilot and Lil Sis was the cute Air Hostess for SSS Airlines!
Captain Sameer with Flight Attendant Simi! (Why isn’t there a Heart Emoji in Blogs?!)
And that’s the two of them together :). Involving them in such important roles made the party as much theirs as it was their sister’s. And the idea was a super duper hit! The guests, older girls of my daughter’s age mostly, couldn’t stop cuddling the two of them!
The Game Plan!
The guests were all made to sit in our drawing room until everyone gathered. The Pilot and the Air Hostess were given strict instructions to not go down and reveal their costumes (read uniforms!). When all ‘passengers’ had arrived, they were ushered to the party area!
The pilot and the Air Hostess were ready to welcome them. Notice the door to the right? That was kept closed. That’s the room where the main decorations were put up.
Remember we had asked all the guests to bring their passports to the party? They were allowed to board only after their passports were duly checked! Once checked, they sat down on either side of the aisle on the given seats.
I’ll say the aisles and leg room of SSS Airlines were less roomy than even a bus, but our pssengers did not mind LOL!
Using the birthday girl’s school belt, our little Air Hostess demonstrated the use of a seat belt.
The Air Hostess of SSS Airlines explaining the use of the safety seat belt 🙂
She forgot what she was supposed to do so the Pilot stepped in to help!
Once this was done, the doors to the room were thrown open and it was time for the activities!
Around the World Party Activities
We had a riot of activities planned for the 6 different places we traveled to. Some were games that won prizes, some were just fun activities.
The 6 Main Activities of the party were:
- France – Fashion Doll Dressing Up
- USA – Red, White and Blue Game
- Hawaii – Hula Dancing Lessons
- Japan – Traditional ‘Fukuwarai’ Game
- Africa – Find the Animals Game for Toddlers
- Egypt – Mummy Wrap game
More pics and details of these activities in a separate post! See all games and activities here:
Around The World Birthday party Activities
In between the engaging activities, the flight attendant brought snacks for the passengers in her brother’s toy truck 🙂
With her little ‘trolley’ filled with snacks for passengers, our Flight Attendant took care of the guests while they were busy traveling the world.
Around the World Themed Birthday Cake
Blended into the theme of the party was the spectacular birthday cake! I would love to show the cake from different angles and point out all the details. Dedicating another post to it.
See more cake pictures and details here:
Around the World Birthday Cake
Around the World In-Flight Menu
Our passengers were treated to different dishes from all over the world. We tried to keep the menu in keeping with the theme but stuck to popular favorites that our Indian guests would love.
The In-Flight Menu consisted of:
- Pasta from Italy
- Nachos and Salsa from Mexico
- Samosas with American and Spanish Filling
- Cotton Candy or Candy Floss (From USA or UK depending on what you call it!)
- Chhole Poori from India
As always, I don’t have enough photos of food but I managed to click some during prepping. Sharing all of them in a separate post along with details of each item.
Around the World Party Food Ideas
Party Favors of Return Gifts
You cannot travel around the world without some luggage! So we put up a ‘Baggage Claim’ station where the guests could pick up their luggage before they left.
Baggage Claim Station – My kids wanted me to install a conveyor belt here!!!!!
Details of how I made the Suitcase Gift Wrapping and what was inside them in a separate post:
Suitcase Gift Wrapping for Travel Themed Party
Handing out the favors as the guests leave
The party was a huge success! The kids didn’t want to leave. They wanted to dress up dolls and turn into mummies forever. Some said they wanted more pics with the monuments. Others wanted another go at the Fukuwarai game! Some did not get a chance to wear the Hula costume. So I told them they could come again on Sunday to have their fill of it all. And they did not forget. On Sunday, we had a gang playing in that room – dressing up dolls, doing Hula and what not! I was happy to see the party made such a wonderful impression on them 🙂
Mind boggling bday party lata, really hats off to you, kids must have had a blast 🙂 Bday gal must be over the moon and last but not the least kisses to the cutest airhostess and the dashing captain
Thank you Noopur! Those two stole the limelight 🙂
Post se hi humne itna njoy kiya to jo wahan paety attend kiye wo kitne khush hongey
Bahut hi accha laga ,aise ideas rahy to party success honi hi hai
Air hostess ne show steal kar liye, bahut cute hai
Thank you so much Anita ji :). Aapke comments ka hamesha wait karti hoon!
Wow dr it looks like everyone had lots of fun. My favourite part was siblings part in birthday party. Both the kids enjoyed b’sis birthday. And second was wonderful cake & games as per theme.
Yes, I was so happy to be able to include them actively!
Birthday cake is super cute and unique .. luggage and games all are so intresting when ever I planned a budget birthday party I do take you help
Thank you Sumita! And of course, I will be happy to help 🙂
I was anxiously waiting for all the details as soon as i had seen the invites and I am more than impressed for all you’ve done! Great job mama
Thank you so much Soumaiya 🙂
My god I can’t believe what I read…it’s really awesome to read and can’t imagine how much fun they all had in the party. Wish I to can have such bday in my childhood. Really great job mommy dear..everything beautiful and perfect from food to decor to suitcases. Di you always amazes us with your lovely blog and dis one d best. I was eagerly waiting for this party to be published. The captain and airhostess was d stealer of show. Overall fun filled Masti and I too enjoy through u. So happy to be a part.
This is the best ever party theme I have come across …must say the kids are blessed to have u as their mommy …lots of love to the cutie pies (I couldn’t take my eyes of the air hostess and pilot ❤)