**This post contains affiliate links. Please read my full disclosure here.**
I both can and cannot believe I am just now posting this. On the one hand, I was so excited to post this party that it makes ZERO sense to me that I’m only now getting around to it!! ….On the other hand, life. So that part makes sense.
My son is about to celebrate his ninth birthday, and requested a Harry Potter theme for his party. As you may have noticed from my previous Disneyland, Avengers, CARS, Super Mario, and 1930’s parties, I tend to get – well – caught up in the theme. 😀 Well, his request immediately made me start planning, and as I did, I realized that I never posted his fantastic party from last year – The Greatest Showman!
I had some of my most stressful moments and also some of the most fun ever in creating this party. I am incredibly thankful for my amazing family that is always willing to lend a hand – and most definitely helped elevate this party to circus level quality!
Between one cousin making the cake for me and a few others helping to rig up the decorations, we definitely hit the nail on the head with this party!!
You don’t have to break the bank to throw your own crazy circus. Most party stores will stock some basic circus elements you can use, and my large red and white “tent” banners pictured above are simple plastic table covers, pinned and accented with basic paper wheels in the same red and white pattern.
GET MY SHOPPING LIST HERE
I had three main components to make this party stand out.
Number One: Make a Grand Entrance
You might recognize this sign from my Harry Potter Halloween display. YEAH. THAT POST happened before THIS post. OOPS. I had a lot of creative fun practicing my lettering while making this sign. I grabbed this sign from Party City, and used my favorite Chalkola white marker for the lettering.
We also made sure to use some basic streamers in circus colors to dress the front door, along with a little poster to dial in to the Greatest Showman theme.
This turned out to be a super cute display sort of on accident! I got these plastic top hats as party favors, and used a hula hoop and a leftover black and gold decoration from my 1930’s party to add in to the circus theme. The stars on the fan decoration lends well to the “Rewrite the Stars” song that accompanies that scene.
Number Two: Fantastical Food!!
For snacks, we had peanuts in shell and popcorn, for starters.
My amazing cousin lent her talents to creating some DELICIOUS cupcakes (and cake) for the party. These cupcakes were done two ways – topped with popcorn, as well as drizzled with caramel. They were a huge hit and visually outstanding. Don’t ask me at all about the main star, the cake, because I have NO IDEA how she made this thing!
I found the circus elephant at Hobby Lobby and knew I had to use it somehow. The peanuts around the tent cake were a clear must.
\
Number Three: All the Extras
Food and Decor are a no brainer when it comes to planning a stand out party. But sometimes, its the little things that add to it. I had let my family know about the theme well ahead of time, and my aunts found this awesome top hat for J to wear for the party.
In addition to that, I searched these designs and had these shirts made for myself/hubs/boys/Nana to wear at the party.
My husband went one step further and got specialized lightbulbs for our living room and kitchen that could be set to different colors and even had them flicker and change color in sync with the song “This is the Greatest Show” from the movie. It was pretty fantastic, though hard to capture visually. Below is one of the kitchen light fixtures with the colored lights. We also played the soundtrack on repeat (for the first hour, lol, on Spotify via our Alexa.)
This Was the Greatest Show(man Birthday Party)!!
You Might Also Like:
Super Mario Party (and Free Printables!!)
Finding Nemo/Finding Dory Party
Sip and See Party from FruElegance
Wow! Looks like a great party! You sure did nail it! I bet the kids had a blast and you didn’t break the bank!