Ice Cream Social Tips

• For decorations, bunch balloons together to look like an ice cream cone. Use brown balloons for the cone, and different colors for the different flavors of the ice cream! Another way to make balloons look like ice cream cones, and have a centerpiece for your party table, is to attach helium-filled balloons to party hats.
• Make a sign welcoming your guests to your child's "Ice Cream Parlor."
• Play some old fashioned ice cream parlor music to get your guests in the mood of the party theme as they arrive.
• On the party table, place old fashioned stick candy in brightly colored pails as an additional decoration and treat. It will look festive!
• Match your tableware to the ice cream colors you choose. If you choose a plain white tablecloth, further decorate by either sticking ice cream cone cutouts all over it, or by drawing an ice cream parlor on it.
• Enjoy a sundae bar with toppings, nuts, chocolate sauce, cherries, caramel, etc. Make "Creamy Cones" by using standard ice cream cones and providing whipped cream for the kids to fill them up with. The kids can top their cones with chocolate shavings, sprinkles, gummies, etc. They will love this one as well.
• Play a version of the Pin the Tail on the Donkey, where you pin a cherry on a sundae or an ice cream cone!
• Organize a game for the adults where they match the Ben and Jerry's flavors to their names. This could be challenging!
• Make paper soda hats.
• Have an ice cream eating contest!
• As a favor, buy some vintage sundae cups at a thrift store, and fill them with Baskin Robbins' flavored candies. Add a Pixie Stick candy as a straw for the ice cream soda.
• Ice cream socials and birthday parties are sure to be a huge hit and to cool everyone off!

Lisa Kothari is the founder and president of Peppers and Pollywogs, a kids' party planning company that provides parents with ideas, entertainers, and interesting web-based tools (customized rhymes and cards for your invitations!) to make kids' party planning easy.