Need great ideas to bring your car themed party alive? These tips will shift your kid's race care birthday party and teen's drivers license celebration into overdrive!
Pinewood Derby, NASCAR events, Indy 500, Soapbox Derby or Cars --- whatever your reason to celebrate ………. a kid's birthday party, a 16 year old earning his license, or a Cub Scout function, you can incorporate one of these car themes into your event. Car themed parties are a natural fit for any time of the year. They lend themselves easily to incorporating the automobile theme into the food, decorations and invitations. Read on for some fun and easy ideas for creating your own car themed celebration.
Invitations
- Traffic Violation Invitation: using your computer, create a mock traffic ticket as your invitation. Use the details of the violation report (i.e. date, location, reporting officer) to divulge your party details.
- Race Ticket Invitation: using your computer, create a faux event ticket to a NASCAR or Indy 500 race. Again, details of the ticket should tell the recipient about the location and time of the party
Decorations
- Color: black and white is the traditional color theme for a car party. However, it's okay to think outside of the box and use any color that you like. If you incorporate shiny silver and metals, you'll create more of a garage theme. Red, yellow and green are indicative of a traffic school, driver's education party or basic cars and trucks theme.
- Décor: use checkered flags, stoplights/traffic signs made from poster board, auto parts, used hubcaps, old license plates, trophies and other automobile paraphernalia to create your race theme, garage theme or automobile theme
Food
- Serve typical race track food such as concessions (hotdogs, brats, burgers, fries, chips, soft pretzels, popcorn, peanuts in the shell).
- For beverages, non-alcoholic beer certainly would be appropriate, but the audience may not appreciate it! So offer assorted soft drinks in cans for a viable alternative.
Cake
- With the availability of cake transfers, there is a huge number of options for cool car cakes. You can transfer a color picture of your favorite vehicle, racing venue, or NASCAR driver onto a sheet cake at your local bakery, grocery store or wholesale club's bakery.
- Conversely, you can customize a standard sheet cake by decorating it with a racetrack of black frosting and placing Matchbox cars around the course. Don't forget to include a crash or two by placing a Matchbox car at an odd angle, heading off of the frosting racetrack.
Tablescapes
- Create a Race Track by covering the table with green astroturf, fleece or a felt tablecloth. Make a black racetrack made from fleece, foam core, poster board, slot car tracks or felt. Scatter Matchbox cars or slot cars along the racecourse and in the infield
- Create a Winner's Circle tablescape by covering the table with a black tablecloth. Create a large trophy using an oversized plastic urn planter that's been spray painted gold or silver. Create medals using red/white/blue ribbon and a wooden disc that's been spray painted gold or silver and has a jewelry jump ring inserted through a hole drilled into the top of the disc. Place the trophy at the center of the table and drape the medals out of the trophy and decoratively on the table. Scatter Matchbox cars along the table. Carry out the theme by using gold or silver metallic or faux metallic plates.
- Create a Monster Garage tablescape by covering the table with a paint oversprayed drop cloth (white or off-white canvas). Scatter garage paraphernalia along midline of table, such as hubcabs, oil cans, tire gauges, and pyramids of oil cans/filters. You can check with your local mechanic for décor, such as his cast-off wiper blades, oil filter boxes, etc. You can also use a black Sharpie marker to sketch cars on the drop cloth. These sketches should include detailed notes for whatever rebuild your mechanic is planning (i.e. converting a VW Bug into a Swamp Buggy). Obviously, these sketches don't have to be realistic -- just fun and clever!
© Text by Janice Benoit. [January, 2007]. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use will constitute an infringement of copyright
The copyright of the article Car Themed Party Plans in Entertaining is owned by Janice Benoit. Permission to republish Car Themed Party Plans in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
