Thumbelina Themed First Birthday Party Ideas

Thumbelina is the story of a fairy-sized child who goes on an adventure that leads her to marrying a fairy prince. This makes a great theme for a birthday party since it has such fantastic decorative possibilities:

Send Creative Fairytale Invitations:

1. Buy small glass tubes and fill them with glitter to create a vial of fairy dust.

2. Print out details of the party on a sheet of pretty paper and roll it up to fit inside the vial. Before corking the tube shut, insert a thin strand of pretty ribbon with handwritten note attached that says "Open Me."

3. Send the vials in a padded envelope, and write guest's addresses in a flowery, whimsical hand lettering.

Whimsical Woodland Decorations:

Create oversized mushroom stools for guests to sit on, and hang big flowers and tissue paper pom poms overhead for a magical woodland ambiance.

1. Martha Stewart featured a super cute and creative way to make toadstool chairs from tree trunks topped with felt-covered foam pillows. All of the instructions on how to craft them are featured as a video on her site. They take a bit of work, but would look fabulous for a Thumbelina birthday party and will be cherished by your children for years in a playroom.

2. Create giant flowers to hang overhead with tissue paper and some floral wire (inspired by Martha's tissue paper pom poms).

• Using 10 stacked layers of 20" by 15" colorful tissue paper, fold them accordion-style every 2 inches down the 20" side.
• When you have one accordion-style piece that is 15" by 2" long, use a 20" piece of thin-gauge green floral wire to tether the folded pieces together in the middle of the 15" length.
• Tether the tissue paper together by folding the wire so there is a 4 inch short piece and 16 inches on the other side. Place the tissue paper in the crook of the folded wire and twist the wire together around itself to hold the tissue paper in place.
• Cut a half-circle into each end of the squared ends of the tissue paper accordion, making sure to cut through every layer of tissue paper.
• Spread each side of the tissue paper accordion out like two fans. Begin pulling each thin piece of tissue paper out and toward the middle so it fluffs out like a big poofy flower.
• Once the flowers are done, hang them with green ribbon from the ceiling above the party area, and attach green tissue paper or felt leaves from the ribbon to make them look more realistic.

Serve Whimsical Looking Food and Beverage:

Pour guests cups of flowering tea, serve dainty miniature versions of all your favorite party foods, and finish the party off with a modified Yule Log (Buche de Noel) that has miniature fairy figurines on top as well as the usual flora and fauna.