Gruffalo Birthday Party Ideas 

Gruffalo Birthday Party Ideas: It is getting close to that time of year again when I start thinking about organising Charlie’s Birthday party and it is putting me in a reminiscent mood. So tonight I thought I would share Charlie’s second Birthday party. I organised this when blogging wasn’t even a blip on my radar so some of the photos are not the best, so you will just have to bear me with a bit! When I asked him about a month before his birthday what he wanted he requested a Gruffalo Birthday cake. With this in mind, I started thinking about a themed birthday party and hurriedly pulled together the below Gruffalo party. Note the word hurriedly. Our themed party did not take long and included some really quick ideas around Gruffalo games and Gruffalo party food for when time is short and if like us you have left planning to the last minute.

Gruffalo Birthday Party

Invites & Thank You Cards

I brought Gruffalo invites, although you could used the ones on Julia Donaldson’s website here, especially if you are doing this for an older child as they could colour their own. For thank you cards I used a photo I had taken of Monkey dressed as the Gruffalo just before his birthday and used a photo box to turn it into a thank you postcard.

Gruffalo Decorations

I was hoping for good weather and had planned a series of hiding places outside for a pre brought Gruffalo treasure hunt. However, typically on the day of the party, the weather was not good! So I needed to bring some of the decorations inside! The decorations were pretty much all homemade, the idea was that we would read the story. And then each part of the story would have been in the garden for the children to explore including the deep dark wood. However, with young children, there was no way we could run around in the rain. So we brought it all inside including the party table.

I set up owl’s treetop house, snake’s log pile house and fox’s underground house in the conservatory which turned into the main party room. From the skylight, I hung the pinata and some paper honeycomb decorations. The kitchen became the food room and was set up with little tables and chairs, balloons, hats and paper plates. All with a Gruffalo theme that I had found from one of the big party supply stores. Despite the weather putting a damper on things we still had lots of fun.

Gruffalo Games

As well as reading Charlie’s favourite book. We played pass the parcel, with Gruffalo stickers and chocolate buttons in each layer and a Gruffalo memory game at the centre. I was a little nervous about trying to get ten 2-year-olds to sit down but it worked!!

We also had to stick the wart on Gruffalo’s nose which was a real hit. If you would like to use the same one you can download it at madebybronwyn.co.uk here, and the treasure hunt. This was pre brought at the time but I am sure you could probably make your own. Once they had completed the treasure hunt they got their little party bag as a reward (see below). It was just about the right level of activity and Gruffalo games for a child’s party.

Gruffalo Birthday Cake

Considering it was the idea of a Gruffalo cake that started the party theme off. I knew that the pressure was one to produce a homemade Gruffalo Birthday Cake while working full time. So I decided that I needed to make it as easy as possible for myself. Yet at the same time deliver on what the little man was after.

It turned out so well and I was so proud of the Gruffalo birthday cake that I made, as I am not really a very good cake decorator, I just don’t have the patience! First of all, I started by making a model of the Gruffalo sitting down using chocolate fondant. I didn’t use any fancy tools just took my time and followed a picture from the book. Chalie is Summer born so it did mean that I was making the cake in the heat. I had not given much thought to modelling fondant in 26 degrees. It was a bit of a sticky process because of the heat and I think the chocolate element of the fondant melted. Once it was done I stored it in the fridge.

I brought a square cake board and iced it myself using green fondant. Before making a chocolate two cake using a mould. Then came the easy bit. Using a mould for an ivy leaf I just cut out lots of leaves from various shades of green fondant and covered the cake in them. Until you could not see any of the chocolate cake. Starting at the top and working my way down overlapping them slightly as I went. It was pretty time consuming but so easy. Doing it this way looked so much more professional than if I had tried to cover it with a normal flat layer. It was definitely one of my favourite things from the party.

Gruffalo Party Food

I wanted to have themed food around the story. However, I wanted to keep it reasonably healthy and it could not take too long to prepare. I opted to set up a food table in the corner of our kitchen and use party supplies to cover it in a themed table cloth. Each type of food had its own label and sticker that matched the part of the Gruffalo it related to. We had the following Gruffalo party food:

• Terrible Tusks & Terrible claws – slices of honeydew melon
• Black Tongues – liquorice pinwheels
• Roasted Fox – carrot sticks
• Mouse Sandwiches – I brought a mickey mouse cutter and filled them with cheese spread and peanut butter
• Orange Eyes – cheese balls
• Poisonous Warts – green grapes
• Owl Ice Cream – vanilla cones
• Knobbly Knees – chocolate rice crispy cakes
• Gruffalo Crumble – strawberries, Granola, natural yoghurt, icing horns and eyes made out of orange fruit dots with black icing
• Purple Prickles – blackcurrant jelly
• Scrambled Snake – homemade popcorn funnels
• Purple Prickle Juice

The kids thought it was great fun. I just wish I had taken more photos of the Gruffalo Party food to share here.

Gruffalo Party Bags – Gruffalo Party Ideas

I am not a believer in party bags with little bits of plastic which don’t last five minutes so I made each child a story bag with a picture of the Gruffalo on and inside some crayons and a Gruffalo colouring book. These were so simple, I just brought some natural drawstring bags which were really cheap. Then using my printer at home printed a picture of the Gruffalo on transfer paper before ironing it onto the bag. We still use our bag for our Gruffalo Story Sack!

There were also some little treats added to the party bags keeping to the story of the Gruffalo

• Mouse Droppings – chocolate covered raisins
• Poisonous Warts – green flying saucers
• Jelly snakes represent snake sliding away

READ MORE – Gruffalo Story Sack

Gruffalo Pinata

My final Gruffalo party ideas which I made is the pinata out of paper mache and card. I didn’t paint it, instead, I used brown tissue paper which worked really well. I used card for the legs and arms which I folded to make it stronger. We grew quite attached to it. Which meant the kids did not bash it as one of the Gruffalo games. So what happened to the pinata I hear you ask? I couldn’t bring myself to let the kids wreck it so it is now living in our kitchen but its days are numbered! Writing this has reminded me of what a lovely day it was, I can’t wait to organise his third Birthday. He has requested ‘Going on Bear Hunt’ next year so watch this space….

You can see my Pinterest board for the party below

Related Articles

• Going on a Bear Hunt Birthday Party

• Birthday Planning Checklist

• The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure

• Alice Holt Gruffalo Trail

• Gruffalo Story Sack

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