For Hugo’s 7th birthday this year, there was not a doubt in my mind he would ask for a Star Wars birthday party. We’d been to Disney World a few months before, where he fell in love with Galaxy’s Edge and all things droid.
Pinterest was chock-full of great ideas, but as a Star Wars fan myself, I was able to come up with some great food puns and DIY decorations of my own, too! (That’s right, it’s not just for boys. Girls can like pew pew space war stuff.)
From the handmade invitations to the unique games and edible party favors, I cannot wait to share this Star Wars party with you. Oh, and how could I forget the cake? Make that cakes – plural. Because I don’t know when to stop.
If you’ve been to BCM before, you know that my parties are always over the top. But please know that I actually do operate on a budget, so a lot of what you see is handmade, purchased on sale, and planned months in advance.
Steal the ideas that stand out to you and forget about the stuff you won’t have time for. Your loved one will appreciate what you do for them no matter what!
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A DIY Droid Invitation to Make Your Head Spin
My son’s favorite thing about Star Wars is all the different droids, so I knew I wanted to incorporate that into his invitation. BB-8 is not one of his favorite droids, but he is mine, and I knew his unique body type would lend itself well to a cool invitation! (I know how narcissistic that sounds, but once I showed him my idea, he was fully on board.)
I pulled out all my resources for this one: Procreate on my iPad, Canva, Photoshop, and Cricut Design Space!
First, I traced an image of BB-8 in Procreate to make him look like a cartoon. In Photoshop, I separated his head from his body and cut out a sort of semi-circle that lined up with one of the circular designs on the edge of his body.
I used Canva to create an orange-bordered circle larger than his body with text placed in a circle near the edges giving the party details. Then I uploaded this circle, his head, and his body to Design Space and used the Print-Then-Cut feature with my Cricut Maker 3 to cut out all the pieces.
To make assembly easier, I added a tiny crosscut right in the center of both circle pieces before cutting them. Once I had the pieces ready, I stuck a small metal brad through the center of both circles so that the body could freely turn and the cutout would show different details of the invitation as it did! A small line of glue held his head onto the larger circle.
BB-8 was sized so that he would fit in 5×7 card envelopes. While I was nervous about mailing him with regular stamps, the metal brad caused no issues with delivery!
Easy and Fun Party Decorations
Chalkboard Signs
These days, I never forget to decorate my easel chalkboard for a birthday party. The front features Chopper drawn in dustless chalk because that’s Hugo’s favorite bad-guy droid.
But here’s why the episode title is totally perfect: The Force Awakens is actually Episode VII in the saga, and this was Hugo’s 7th birthday!
On the way out, guests saw a message only real fans would understand.
Front Door
The front door itself was decorated in some simple Cricut cardstock projects I put together in Design Space. Hugo ended up with the Star Wars logo and Jedi symbol on his bedroom door after the party.
Entryway
As soon as guests came in the front door, this display greeted them. Normally I have a handmade backdrop, or a collection of things carefully placed on the wall (like at my daughter’s Encanto birthday party). But I found this backdrop so cheap – and huge! – that I took the opportunity to save myself some work.
If you get super-close to it, the image quality isn’t perfect, but as you can see in the photo it looks great from a modest distance. Plus, given the low price, it was exactly what I expected.
The cabinet held all the party favors except for the lightsabers, which I had to put in a tall cardboard box. BB-8 on the left is an old remote-controlled droid that’s no longer sold (sorry!).
I have a letter board I always change up to have a funny quote related to the party theme. I’m aware Yoda never actually said “Party We Will” in any of the movies, but if he were gonna talk about partying, that’s definitely how he would say it.
Peep the LEGO Grogu my son already had in his room! (Yes, I also know Grogu and Yoda are two different characters. I don’t need my fellow nerds nitpicking me, haha.)
DIY Paper Lantern TIE Fighters
In addition to droids, Hugo is a big fan of all the different spaceships in Star Wars. So I hung up some TIE fighters around the house!
The inner ball is a gray six-inch paper lantern turned on its side, and black foam board pieces are hot-glued to the sides. To save money, I bought three large pieces of black foam board and used a box cutter to slice them each into four sections (I made a total of six TIE fighters).
I used a silver Sharpie to draw on the wing designs. Fishing line ran through the openings of the paper lantern and were knotted together for hanging.
Paper Lantern Yodas
For once, I found a pre-modified paper lantern decoration! Walmart had a pack of three Yoda lanterns, green with stick-on ears. (Officially they are branded as Mandalorian Grogu decorations, but it works either way.)
One of these Yodas and one of the TIE fighters from above were also hovering over the hallway entrance near the front door.
Life-Sized Cardstock Chopper
When Hugo picked Star Wars for this party theme, I thought I’d have an easy time coming up with decoration ideas – but it ended up being harder than I thought. So I got creative, and decided to make a life-size version of Chopper from cardstock!
The SVG came from Laser Craftum, and I had to do some modifications in Design Space since I was blowing it up huge and slicing it into chunks to fit my available cardstock. In the end, it was totally worth it and now it’s on the wall in my son’s bedroom!
(Those smaller, oddly-colored versions of BB-8 and Chopper are from our 2023 trip to Disney World!)
Giant Mylar Balloons
Jumbo mylar balloons are never good at floating – and if you read the descriptions closely, you’ll usually see that you’re not supposed to put helium in them anyway.
With that in mind, I got these balloons of R2-D2, BB-8, and Grogu from Amazon, blew them up with their little included straws, and set them up around the living room for the kids to play with during the party. I was impressed that none of them ever got popped – and R2-D2 is still inflated months later!
Fireplace Decorations
Before I found an actual Star Wars birthday banner, I came across this Mandalorian one at Walmart. I decided to hang it under the fireplace mantle rather than return it to the store – because it was only $2!
Regular Balloons
Believe it or not, these black balloons were packaged together with the giant character mylar balloons above! The latex balloons featured various Star Wars images, and it came with the silver star balloons. The balloons were split into two groups to float on either side of the living room TV.
Also, this is a small decorating detail, but do you see the yellow star on the wall? I had a TON of those in many different sizes taped all over the walls of the house!
Happy Birthday Banner
Since I couldn’t find one in a local store, I ended up ordering this birthday banner on Amazon. It hung on the wall where the ceiling height drops going from the living room to the kitchen.
You can also see all the Star Wars themed ceiling decorations and metallic swirls!
Streamers
I will always hang streamers in my kitchen for a birthday party. We had a couple of parties without them, and the vibe just isn’t the same. It’s like these simple paper decorations completely transform the kitchen!
Kitchen Table
The kitchen table was covered with a fun official Star Wars plastic cover. I placed both cakes in the center and surrounded them with some table standees I found at Party City.
Buffet Backdrop
This was the empty wall space above the buffet. The words and stars were designed and cut out with my Cricut. I took a large piece of black foam board (I actually had to buy a tri-fold and cut off the folded sections) and glued everything to it.
Then I used one of my husband’s tools (was it an ice pick? a medical device? I have no idea) to punch holes in the foam board large enough for Christmas lights to fit through. Using a 100-light string, I wove them around the back of the poster until every hole had a light in it (but not all of the lights were in a hole so there would be a glow coming from behind it too).
Scotch tape held the lights in place, and we have an outlet right behind the server for plugging them in. I ended up using two giant Command hooks that held onto part of the light string to hang it, as it had to stick out a good bit due to the lights.
IT LOOKED SO COOL LIT UP. The picture doesn’t do it justice. But I wanted to jazz up the wall a little more, so I used my Cricut to cut out a bunch of cardstock Print-Then-Cut droids to place around it.
Food and Drinks Full of Force Puns
There was so much food for this particular party, I had to utilize both my server and the stove and surrounding counters to hold all the food. Everyone ate on silver plastic plates from Party City because they felt very spacey to me.
Also, I don’t always label the cup of plastic cutlery, but this was hilarious.
The black and silver forks are actually disposables I found at Dollar Tree! They’re very Death Star-chic.
The Food
- Han (Solo) Sandwiches: These were, in fact, ham and cheese sandwiches on Hawaiian buns. I realize the pronunciation of Han’s name can be a source of great debate in the Star Wars community, but for the sake of the pun, we’re going with Lando’s way.
- Tatooine Turkey Sandwiches: What’s ham without turkey? Besides, it gave me an opportunity for alliteration.
- Mando Mayo & Mustafar Mustard: The sandwiches were made plain so guests could dress them up as they pleased. In my neck of the woods, mayo and mustard are all that should go on a deli sandwich.
I designed the stickers in Canva after measuring the original labels and made them on glossy inkjet sticker paper using Print-Then-Cut with my Cricut!
- Padme Pizzas: Did I make too much food for this party? Yes, yes I did. But the puns were too good to give up! Since we also had sandwiches and a LOT of side dishes, I went with Bagel Bites instead of ordering pizza, which the kids enjoyed just fine.
- 7-Leia Dip: A play on 7-layer dip, this is exactly that: a cold dip assembled by layering (from bottom to top) drained salsa, refried beans mixed with taco seasoning, sour cream, guacamole, Mexican-blend shredded cheese, sliced black olives, and sliced green onions. There was none left!
- Chopper Chips: You can’t have dip without tortilla chips! There’s nothing fancy about these, but Chopper is my son’s favorite droid, so I had to name something after him.
- Obi-Wan Kabob-ies: Fruit kabobs are much more likely to be picked up by party guests than loose pieces of fruit. We kind of made these to resemble lightsabers using a line of grapes topped with strawberries.
- Vader Veggies: I hoped a good label might entice some of the kids to actually eat the vegetables this time. You don’t see any greens on this platter, because it would’ve been a waste of food. But alas, the fruit skewers won the battle – much like Obi-Wan beat Anakin (aka Darth Vader).
- BB-8 Cheese Ball: BB-8 is my favorite droid, and I loved the idea of turning him into a cheese ball! I have a preferred cheese ball recipe I use from One Sweet Appetite. After mixing it, I split it into two portions, one a little bigger than the other. The smaller portion was shaped into a hemisphere and the larger a full ball before being separately wrapped in plastic and refrigerated.
An hour before the party, the two halves were unwrapped, assembled, and decorated to resemble BB-8 using slivers of American cheese and chopped bits of sliced black olives. He sat on a plate surrounded by club crackers for everyone to enjoy him with!
- Thermal Detonators: The kids love it when I serve Cheese Ballz at a party. They may not be silver, but they’re about the right size to be detonators!
- Grogu Cradles: Most people in my family love deviled eggs, and they make a pretty convincing baby carriage like Grogu’s. I mixed some avocado into the filling to make it green like him, but I should’ve used less mayo as well, because it came out a little bit runny.
Still, once we added the celery-piece ears and chopped black olive eyeballs to each egg’s filling, I think it was pretty easy to see what we were going for! Perhaps most important, though, is that we learned avocado deviled eggs are delicious.
The Sweets
- Lightsabers: I love chocolate-covered pretzels, and big ol’ chocolate-covered pretzel RODS are even better. Since I couldn’t decide on one lightsaber color (Should they be Jedi or Sith sabers?), I went ahead and ended up making them in three colors!
I made blue for Luke, red for Darth Vader, and used green on the broken pretzel rods since Yoda’s saber is shorter than the others.
Melt ‘Ems candy melts are good quality and come in these beautiful bright colors. I’ve found them at Walmart and Michael’s near me. I used mason jars to display the colors separately.
- Ewok Treats: If you close your eyes and look at Teddy Grahams, they kind of resemble those adorable Endor creatures.
The Drinks
- Refueling Station: Most of the drinks are kept on the end of the kitchen counter, so for this party I gave the space an official title!
- Blue Milk: We actually tried the blue and green milks when we went to Disney World, and blue milk is my favorite – it’s more fruity, while the green is more floral. I tried to recreate the blue one, and in the end mine didn’t taste anything like it. It tasted interesting, though.
But the ingredients I chose did do this cool separation thing in the drink dispenser (it all mixed fine when coming out of the spout), which fit the space theme pretty well! If you want to give it a go, this is what I combined:
- 64 oz. unsweet coconut milk
- 52 oz. watermelon juice
- 59 oz. pineapple juice
- 34 oz. passion fruit cocktail
- 64 oz. rice milk
- 3 oz. lime juice
- Yoda Soda: This was a much more basic, kid-friendly punch made of a 2-liter of Sprite and a gallon of Green Berry Rush Hawaiian Punch.
- Sweet-Tea-P0: I made this sticker label with my Cricut, too. I couldn’t leave my boy C3P0 out of the droid puns, could I? (The jug is empty because I almost forgot to take a picture of it!)
Jedi Training Games
Star Wars Pinata
I was overjoyed to find this pinata at Party City, because it had many of Hugo’s favorite Star Wars elements on it – Darth Vader, a Stormtrooper, R2-D2, Chewbacca, and the Millennium Falcon.
Dum-dum suckers, Smarties, and Fruit Chews filled it up, because chocolate often begins to melt in the Kentucky heat before the kids can get a pinata busted open.
Don’t Drop the Stormtrooper
None of our parties have ever included an egg-and-spoon race before, and I thought Stormtroopers would go well on eggs. Do we actually want to keep them from harm? I dunno, maybe if we pretend it’s Finn under the helmet.
I drew the helmet designs onto hard-boiled eggs with a black Sharpie. But I didn’t tell anyone I’d boiled the eggs, so they thought a big mess would be made if they dropped one.
The kids went first and had to make it to me about fifty feet away without dropping their egg to win. I had little prizes from Five Below for the winner to choose from.
But then I also asked some adults to play a round (with different prizes)! And I have to say, watching six grown men speed-walk toward me while holding up spoons was a highlight of the party. I laughed till I cried!
Stormtrooper Target Practice
This was a DIY game that I thought was cute, because if you’re shooting at Stormtroopers, you really don’t have to worry about return-fire. HA!
I asked my husband to save a dozen soda cans, which I then spray painted white on top and covered in copy paper I’d printed Stormtrooper faces onto.
We set them up on a card table in the basement, spacing them out so it would be hard to take out more than one at a time (but not impossible).
Each kid took a turn firing a Nerf rifle with a full clip of Nerf darts at the cans, and the person who knocked down the most got a prize.
As I did with the egg-and-spoon race, I also let the adults (and by that I mean all the dads) compete – from farther away – for their own prize. Let’s just say it was obvious who the dad of all boys was!
Bonus Game Idea!
We didn’t use this game for this party because my kids have played it before, but please check out my Star Wars scavenger hunt! There’s a free printable set for a picture-match game, or you can get my more advanced scavenger hunt for older kids (and even adults).
TWO Cakes from the Dark Side
The Dark Side Fondant Cake
I made far too much cake for this party, but I couldn’t help it. My son wanted a strawberry cake that looked like Chopper, and I hadn’t served strawberry in years so I wasn’t sure how many people would like it.
But really, that was just my fragile excuse for also making the cake I really wanted – one that featured Darth Vader holding a candle like a lightsaber. And I used devil’s food and white cake for these, so I knew there would be something everybody liked.
This, of course, is a fondant cake – and it gave me lots of trouble (as evidenced by the black fondant patch strip circling the top). It was my own fault for rolling it too thin and having too much weight hanging off the edges. Hugo still thought it was cool, though, especially since he loves Vader and Stormtroopers.
Darth Vader is the four-inch figure Walmart carries. To my surprise, I had to order solid red candles from Amazon because NONE of my local shops had any!
Once I got them, my husband whittled down the base of one so that it would slide into Vader’s hand. He also made a backup in case it broke, as they had to be quite thin (and therefore became fragile) to fit.
In case you’re wondering whether or not I actually lit the candle Darth Vader is holding, the answer is yes, yes I did – and it looked really freaking cool!
Buttercream Chopper Cake
Chopper is a simple all-buttercream cake. I spread gray frosting all over it and only decorated the top beyond that.
My cake decorating skills are NOT high enough for me to frost something like this from a movie still, so I made a simplified design of Chopper’s head in Photoshop to look at while I worked.
I outlined all the areas with gray frosting and a #301 round Wilton tip first, then used the #21 star tip to pipe everything on. To finish, I re-did some of the outlines (like around his camera “eyes” and his tool storage) with the #301 tip.
There was no need to be worried about the fact that he was strawberry, though – he was the first flavor choice for almost EVERYONE at the party!
Memorable (and Edible) Party Favors
Favors are just about my favorite thing to put together for birthday parties – after coming up with the food ideas, of course
Light-Up Bracelets
Party City had these cute little kids’ bracelets! They snap on securely and you can either push the button for a temporary light or slide it to keep it turned on.
Pool Noodle Lightsabers
You may be shocked to find out that these foam lightsabers didn’t require any effort beyond designing and printing the sign I taped to the cardboard box holding them.
Why? Because the kids and I still had the pool noodle lightsabers we made ages ago! And they were comfortable with parting with them at this point. (To my delight, my Kylo Ren lightsaber is still in our house.)
R2-H20 Bottles
My son loves R2-D2 almost as much as he loves Chopper, and I couldn’t resist making custom water bottle labels featuring him. R2-H20. See? Star Wars puns are so easy to come up with!
I designed these labels in Canva and printed them on regular copy paper.
Droid Bags
I was originally going to make the party favor bags look like Stormtroopers, but Hugo specifically asked me at some point to make them R2-D2. How could I say no?
The design came from Printabelle and I formatted it to fill the available space on my white paper bags after they were closed and stapled shut.
My printer can’t handle paper bags, so I just used copy paper, trimmed it down, and used double-sided tape to adhere it to the bags without any bubbling.
I’m a big fan of food favors rather than cheap dumb toys. This way I can give them to adult family members, too!
First, I made a s’mores kit (with a custom Force pun sticker) featuring two large graham crackers, a full-size Hershey bar, and two large marshmallows. I put the food in the bag the morning of the party so they’d be as fresh as possible.
The Wookie Cookie was just a Star Crunch with a sticker on it, but how cute is it??
Lightsaber Bubble Wands
The adult guests didn’t get these, but I specified some of the favor bags to be for the kids and included these bubble wands. I bought a six-pack of jumbo bubble wands from Walmart, then painted the handles gray with acrylic paint. A small dot of red paint finished the lightsaber look as an activation stud!
The acrylic paint on plastic handles was delicate and chipped easily, but I didn’t expect (nor need) them to stay perfect forever.
I know that was a lot, but that’s all of it! Hugo thoroughly enjoyed his party, and it included some of my best party food ideas ever.
Please take all the ideas that you like, but remember not to overdo it. Stick with a plan that doesn’t take too much of your available time and focus on enjoying your little one (or husband/brother/dad, perhaps?) on their big day!
