Entertainment

How To Throw A Lego Party That Doesn’t Suck

And without spending too much money on those tiny plastic bricks.

by Hudson Lindenberger

It’s hard to deny the power of Legos. As one of the most popular toys of all time, they have been brought delight to generations of kids, and their parents, since their creation in 1932. And though some of us might want to get our hands on less-contemporary old-school Lego sets, the popularity of The Lego Movie alone means kids are going to ask for a Lego-themed birthday party.

But, with so many Lego related things out there — from theme parks, movies, cartoons, custom creations — it’s overwhelming to know which kinds of Legos to build a party around. “Create a space that encourages them to play with Lego’s from the moment they arrive until they leave,” says Patricia Zutman, owner of All Four Seasons Events, “that’s really what they want to do. If you can do that your party will be a hit.” In other words, remind yourself that Legos are inherently about creativity and a variety of applications, so, don’t stress if the way the kids play ends up being different than you planned.

Lego Birthday Party Decorations:

You can create a birthday banner using colored construction paper and spell out your child’s name in round circles to look like the Lego’s blocks rearranged their dots just for them. “One of my favorite ideas is to make items for the tables out of different colored Lego’s,” says Zutman. “Silverware and napkin holders are easy to make, plus you can make runners under other items out of them to.” Finish it off by serving everything in yellow plastic cups and plates that you have created different Lego faces upon. If you don’t have time to make the banner yourself, these things can be purchased for less than $40 bucks.

Lego Birthday Party Favors:

This is Lego party, so yes, you’re going to have to give these kids some Legos. For gift bags, Zutman suggests taking colored party bags and using different colored markers to make them look like Legos, then filling them with related merchandise you find at the party store. She recommends avoiding giving out actual Lego kits because that can get expensive quickly. However, there are gift-bags specifically made for this purpose. For example, you can easily get 8 Lego gift bags from $26 bucks, and each bag lets the kids build the same little rolling vehicle. You can also get pre-sealed bags of mini-figures for $20 bucks.

Lego Birthday Party Activities:

“The whole idea of this party is for the kids to play with Lego’s so build as many activities as possible around keeping them busy creating things,” says Zutman. Get things started by having a Lego building contest. Let each party guest build their own Lego creation from a big pile of bricks and accessories to work with. Give them a good amount of time to work with, and enjoy the silence while visiting with the other parents.

Once it is over you can award prizes for different categories. Alternately, if you’re worried about chaos, you can just have the kids all build the same little Lego car or plane from similar gift bags, and organize a race right after.

Lego Birthday Party Food:

This one is pretty simple: Start by ordering some square pizzas from your local restaurant, or make yourself, and use pepperonis to create the Lego pattern for each piece you will slice. A simple snack is to make Rice Krispie Treats and use M&M’s to turn them into, you guessed it, Lego’s. For beverage get a clear plastic drink dispenser and draw a Lego face on it. Then fill it with yellow fruit punch, the kids will love it and find it fun to drain the color from the head. Stick with a basic sheet cake decorated to look like a Lego instead of trying to go all Cake Wars by creating a multi level cake. You will already of done enough, and building a cake is not quite as playing with Lego’s. For the record, there is not a Lego cookbook, but there are plenty of great cookbooks about Rice Krispie Treats.