Despite the fact that we have never had a pet cat, my daughter Lily has always been obsessed with cats. (Kittens, to be specific.) But I have to admit that when she asked for a cat-themed birthday party, I felt intimidated.
It’s not that I hate cats or anything. In fact, if they didn’t scratch everything, I’d love to have one again! But I wasn’t really sure how well I could incorporate cats into a birthday theme for kids.
I’m known for going all-out on a theme – check out her Frozen birthday and Encanto party for examples. But cats? It’s such a generic theme, I didn’t have a movie or anything to inspire ideas.
In the end, I pulled it off, and I want to share the aesthetic I achieved with you! From the cute kitty invitation I designed to the hilarious food labels, this party ended up being better than I thought it would be.
You can steal my ideas for DIY decorations, cat cupcakes (not every party needs a big cake), fun games, and an “Adopt a Cat” party favor station!
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Kitten Invitations
Since the theme for this party was really simple, I designed simple (but super cute) kitten invitations.
I found the watercolor images of kittens in party hats and a paw print through Google. The rest of the invitation is just carefully placed text against a clean, white background.
Since I’m old-fashioned, I ordered custom 5×7 card prints through Mpix and sent them to friends and family by mail.
Purr-ty Decorations
There are surprisingly few readily available cat-themed birthday party decorations. Well, there aren’t a lot of cute ones, anyway.
But that’s okay! I’m used to DIYing most of my kids’ party decorations, so that’s exactly what I did.
The Front Porch
As everyone approached the front porch, they saw this greeting on my beloved easel chalkboard.
Here’s a funny confession: My kids’ parties are often held on Sundays to make sure I have plenty of time to decorate and make the cake. This time, I specifically held Lily’s party on a Saturday just so I could use the pun “Caturday” on this sign!
The bright colors are courtesy of my dustless chalk, which I much prefer over regular chalk or liquid chalk markers.
On the way out, they got this cute thank-you message I drew on the other side.
The Entryway
Once guests stepped in the front door, this was their first impression of the theme!
That little cabinet always holds the party favors and some fun decorations. Then I like to decorate the wall above it, too.
The paws were made out of cardstock using my Cricut Maker 3. I cut them in three different sizes and in various color combinations befitting the best kinds of cats.
The cat faces were paper fan decorations from Hobby Lobby with Cricut-cut details hot-glued on. You should always be VERY careful with hot glue, but particularly when gluing paper to paper, as the heat will come through both sides very quickly.
I always put out my letter board with something cute to say related to the party. My daughter helped me come up with this one!
Cat Garland
I found a cat garland on Amazon that I thought was pretty cute. Unfortunately, it was also rather small – but that meant it was just right for the fireplace mantle.
The Kitchen
The food, cake, and sometimes even games happen in the kitchen, making it a hot spot during parties. So I focus my decorating there.
I decorate the wall above the server, and usually have things hanging from the ceiling. There are almost always paper streamers fanning out from the chandelier, because they are a cheap and easy way to make a big impact and help it feel like a party!
The black, white, and pink theme was my choice based on Lily’s favorite color (pink) and the colors I thought would look good with it. If you look closely, you can see that I tied some pink tulle around the backs of the chairs too.
Faux Yarn Balls
I had yarn balls hanging all over the ceiling – in various lengths so that “cats” (guests) of various heights could bat them around!
Wondering how balls of yarn stayed securely attached to the ceiling? Well, this was actually a DIY decor project – they’re all made with styrofoam balls! That way I could wrap a minimal amount of yarn around them to keep them from being too heavy for tape to hold them up.
The yarn is the Peaches & Cream brand from Walmart. A dot of hot glue kept the balls from unraveling as they hung. The foam balls came from Hobby Lobby in a bag of assorted sizes.
DIY Cat Birthday Banner
I wanted Lily’s birthday banner to match the color scheme of the rest of the party, so I made this one myself using my Cricut. The various cat face designs were purchased in a package from Printable Cuttable Creatables, and I used a silhouette of one of them for each of the letter banners.
Cute Cat Backdrop
For the main part of the backdrop over the server, I wanted to make a GIANT cat face. But I quickly realized while looking at the ears, eyes, nose, and mouth, that it wasn’t visually striking enough.
So I added a sparkly crown and giant paper flowers to the cat’s head!
All of this was done on my Cricut using silhouettes found on Google that I turned into SVGs. The paper flowers were made following Jennifer Maker’s tutorial, with hot glue to hold them together (because that much cardstock was too heavy for regular glue).
A Special Room Sign
I couldn’t resist designing a special sign to put on the bathroom door during the party. Everyone got a kick out of it!
Extra Space
Our basement always has a table set up during the party for those who like to eat and hang out away from the chaos that tends to happen on the main floor.
I used the same cute cat-themed table cover as the upstairs kitchen table, and had two sets of balloons in matching colors floating above. These covers actually match the garland that hung from the mantle!
Centerpieces
I made my own cat centerpieces for this party!
These vases are old finds from the Dollar Tree, and they were filled with black glitter sand from Hobby Lobby.
The number 9, name card, and cat designs were all made in Cricut’s Design Space and cut out on scrapbooking paper I already had on hand. I taped them to skinny craft dowels to stick down in the black sand.
I also found the glass bowls at Dollar Tree, and filled them with more faux yarn balls like the ones that hung from the ceiling.
They were fake because I don’t keep a lot of yarn on hand and I didn’t want to buy a ton just for the party, so I was able to make a LOT more balls of yarn by wrapping what I had around foam cores.
Fun Foods and Drinks
My party food offerings are always based on puns, but this was one of my funniest – and yummiest! – menus ever.
- Cat Food: This was a crock pot full of homemade BBQ pulled pork, which incidentally resembles wet cat food!
My recipe? Fill the bottom of the crock with sliced onion, place a couple of tenderloins on top of them, cover the tenderloin with minced garlic, and pour in about 20 ounces of root beer. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, drain the liquid, and the meat will easily shred with two forks. I add barbecue sauce straight to the pot and mix.
I had lots of sandwich buns nearby, and we used paper plates featuring cat faces!
- Cat Sandwiches: I know some kids don’t love pulled pork, so I wanted to have an alternative main dish. These are pimento cheese sandwiches made with bread cut into cat-head silhouettes! I used a large cookie cutter I found on Amazon.
- Cat Paws: Cheetos makes paw-print chips! These aren’t sold at Walmart, where I usually shop, but I was able to find them at Kroger.
- Catnip & Crackers: I love a good cheese ball! This one had green “catnip” onions mixed in for a great flavor. I added a couple of Wheat Thin crackers to the top of the ball to resemble cat ears, too! It was also served with club crackers. You can get the recipe here!
- Meow Mix: I couldn’t not use this pun, so I set out a bowl of trail mix just to do so. I went with Walmart’s Mountain Trail Mix, but your preferred mix will work just as well.
- Scratching Posts: Pretzels are a great grazing snack for a party than can be left out for a few hours without getting gross. And wouldn’t you know, they look just like cat scratch posts!
- Feline Fruit: Every party has at least fruit available, if not fruit and veggies, to try and balance out all the junk food. The apples and caramel trays always get eaten the best.
- Sushi: I loved this idea SO MUCH I was smiling the whole time I assembled these. Each “sushi roll” was made with half a mini Rice Krispie Treat square (the rice), one Swedish Fish gummy (the fish), and just enough Fruit by the Foot to securely wrap around it (the seaweed).
- Hairballs: This one cracked me and was almost as clever as the sushi! I made Oreo truffles (which I usually reserve for Christmas time) but instead of topping them with crumbled Oreo cookies, I coated them in coarse chocolate sprinkles so they would more closely resemble the things cats sometimes expel from their bodies.
Every single one was eaten. Grab the recipe I use here!
- Wet Your Whiskers: This common phrase for grabbing a drink works very well with a cat-themed birthday party, so I made a special sign for the drink station including it!
- Le-Meow-nade: Instead of punch, I made good ol’ pink lemonade for this party. The color fits the theme well enough, and most people enjoy it. I’m partial to the Country Time lemonade mix.
- Kitten Milk: These chocolate drink cartons are actually a fairly new product from Hershey’s that is shelf-stable and designed to be healthier for kids than alternatives. I got just enough of these for the kids to enjoy and kept them in the fridge until the party started so they’d be cold.
The wrappers were designed in Canva, printed on copy paper, and taped around the cartons. I took the straws off first, then reattached them with a spot of double-sided tape!
For a bit of added fun, I used a white chalk marker to draw cute cat faces on black party cups. I highly recommend using a silver Sharpie marker instead, as they took forever to dry and still smeared once the cups got sweaty from cold drinks.
Homemade Cat Cupcakes
Instead of a big cake, Lily chose cupcakes that looked like cats for the main dessert. I have one acrylic cupcake tower I sometimes use when I make cupcakes in addition to a regular cake.
Since I knew that wouldn’t hold enough cupcakes for all our guests, I bought a pack of two disposable pink cardboard cupcake stands that were perfect for the color scheme.
The white and tabby cats were vanilla cupcakes, while the gray and black cats were chocolate. I had leftover paw print cupcake liners from Hugo’s Paw Patrol birthday party!
The cat “faces” were made with stiff homemade buttercream frosting and a #233 Wilton grass tip. I doubled up the “fur” in triangles to give the impression of ears, filling them with pink using the #352 leaf tip.
For the eyes, I altered between candy eyeballs and simple silver candy pearls. So some cats looked cute, and some cats looked startled, haha! The muzzles were large balls of white frosting pressed down a bit with a clean fingertip, adding the “whisker” dots with an edible black marker.
Special Activity
At the time of Lily’s party, my sister had recently gotten into face painting for local community events and Halloween haunted houses. I asked if she would be willing to paint cat faces on the kids at the party, and she was happy to have the excuse!
Lily went first and picked the colors and style she wanted. It was a unique look, since she decided she wanted a full muzzle, but she was very happy with it.
Fun Cat-Themed Party Games
Pin the Yarn on the Kitten
Lily specifically requested this game, pinnable balls of yarn and all! Since I couldn’t find one, I made it myself. I found the adorable image on Google and Photoshopped the red yarn ball out, then turned the yarn ball into separate playing pieces (like the tail of the donkey).
I put a strip of double-sided tape on the back of each yarn ball for each child’s turn to see who could place it the closest with a blindfold on.
Scoop the Poop
When I came up with this idea, I knew it was going to be messy, and I accepted that. Which is why I made the kids play it in the hardwood hallway!
I set up a brand-new litter box with a mega-sized box of Rice Krispies cereal, with a couple dozen unwrapped Tootsie Rolls buried inside.
Each kid had two minutes to scoop out as many Tootsie Rolls as they could – with the stipulation that they would have points docked for excessive cereal falling outside of the litter box. Because I knew some of the kids would just start throwing cereal everywhere to get to the chocolate quickly.
This was one of the funniest – and most fun – party games we’ve ever played. The poop scoop was also brand new, don’t worry.
Pawty Favors
I may have gone a little overboard with the party favors for this party, but I had so many good ideas and I didn’t want to give any of them up!
Cat Ears
I found a big pack of plastic cat-ear headbands so that everyone attending could have a pair to wear during the party, not just the kids. A full paper towel roll made a great way to display them and saved valuable cabinet-top space.
Kitten Adoption Center
A total of eight kids were at this party, and if there had been more I wouldn’t have been able to afford this. I set up a “Kitten Adoption Center” sign next to a collection of eight different Ty cat plushies for the kids to choose from!
These guys can be hard to find, but I realized you can order them straight from the Ty website – at a lower price than most retail stores – and get free shipping! I got a mix of Beanie Bellies and small Beanie Boos.
Printed Water Bottle Labels
I set out mini water bottles with customized cat labels that showed things like “Lily’s MEOW 9!” Even if these aren’t consumed during the party, most people like to grab one for the ride home.
White Cat Favor Bags
The party favors were placed in white paper bags from Michael’s that I turned into cats with cardstock ears and Sharpie faces!
Inside the bags were lots of edible goodies for everyone to take home. In my opinion, consumables are a far better party favor than junk toys.
The bags were meant to go along with the adoptable plushies as a beginner “care kit” of sorts. Inside were Cat Treats (goldfish crackers) and Cat Medicine (a plastic cup of Skittles). I designed the stickers and made them on inkjet sticker paper with Print-Then-Cut in Cricut’s Design Space.
The runaway hit from the favor bags, though, were the milano cookies I decorated myself. I dipped one end on one side in white chocolate, then piped pink “toe beans” (paws) over that with a premade tube of royal icing.
No two were the same and some definitely came out better than others. But how CUTE are these tasty little paws?
That’s everything! I didn’t go into the cat party theme with the intention of a sophisticated aesthetic, but overall, that was the vibe we ended up with – and I’m not mad about it.
Sure, it wasn’t as decked-out as, say, her Beauty and the Beast birthday party. But it looked pretty, clean, and bright, and it was a nice contrast to some of the other chaotic, over-decorated parties I’ve thrown (I’m thinking of you, Mario party).
I hope my ideas help you plan the perfect cat-themed birthday party!
