A Star Wars Party

Yesterday we celebrated our son's 6th birthday with a Star Wars themed party. He only recently discovered Star Wars, but being the sci-fi fan that he is it was love at first sight. As always, the party was done on a budget with lots of home made elements.

The invitations were designed by Benny's Uncle and printed at a local print and copy shop. Ben absolutely loved them.

I made each young Jedi a costume which sounds arduous but I made it easy on myself by deliberately choosing a non-fray fabric so I didn't have to sew much. The brown robes were a basic rectangle with a v neck hole cut for the head. I then sewed on a rectangle of calico for the names and made a calico tie for each robe. All up the costumes were around $20 for 10.

As well as a Jedi robe each guest chose an inflatable light saber. I found them on eBay for $1 each.

The party was an afternoon tea so it was mainly just finger food. Everything was gluten and egg free so the birthday boy could eat to his heart's content. We had Ewok Food chips, Jabba the Hummus, R2D2 water bottles, grape light sabers, padawan mini pizzas, Wookie cookies and Han Solo jelly.

The activity of the day was the Jedi training course which was run by my husband the "Jedi Master". The kids practiced with their light sabers, jumped over some rocks in our backyard, balanced along a bench seat, defeated the storm trooper balloons and tackled the crepe paper laser beams. Throughout the day we had 4 tracks from the Star Wars movies playing which really helped make the day exciting for the kids. I downloaded them from itunes for $1.60 per track.

At the end of the training was the final test. Could the Jedis defeat Darth Vader himself? The Jedi Master did a quick costume change and there was much excitement as he snuck around the corner of the house.  

After eating we had Pass the Parcel and then the Pinata. We made the Death Star Pinata by covering a beach ball in paper mache. My husband painted all of the detail on and even though it was a bit thin (I blame GF flour) it lasted through all of the kids before it broke open and the treats spilled out.

The goodie bags were brown paper bags I bought for .40c each at a packaging store with a print out I made stuck on the front. Inside were some space stickers ($1 a sheet - I bought two then cut them into 10 portions), some Star Wars colouring in pages, a bubble wand light saber, their Jedi Training Certificate and their costumes and inflatable light sabers from the party.

Ben had a vision for his cake right from the start and he couldn't be talked out of it. He wanted Darth Vader's severed hand in a black glove, with wires hanging out the back. As you know, he's gluten and egg free - so making any kind of cake is a challenge let alone a hand! My amazing sister pulled it off though. The hand is melted chocolate and lollies which was set inside a food friendly latex glove and then covered in home made fondant. Just before the party she brushed over some more black food colouring to give it a shiny leather glove look. The cake it's sitting on is a GF packet chocolate cake with buttercream icing made with DF margarine.

As well as the Jedi costumes I made a C3PO costume and a Princess Leia dress and belt (using a sheet and a nightgown pattern). The party was so much fun, the kids had a ball.

Resources

Jedi Certificate and food labels were downloadable PDFs from Etsy

R2D2 labels were adapted from these cup labels 

The light sabers were bought on eBay for $1 each

The goodie bags and silver plates were from a bulk packaging shop

The tablecloth, plates and napkins were from a party shop

The key to creating a cool Star Wars party on a budget is start early! I started around 3 months ago by looking on eBay and Etsy now and again for things I thought I could use. By starting early I had time to have things like the light sabers sent from overseas and I could pace myself with the costumes. If I'd left it to the last minute I probably would have bought some branded Star Wars party stuff, which is hideously expensive. Lots and lots of time to ease into it is the way to go - it allows you to enjoy the party planning process without the panic.

This party was around the $100 mark for 12 kids, including the food.