All aboard! This Train Birthday Party Is Off The Track.

We're about to embark on a great train birthday party adventure. The whistle blows and the wheels begin to turn. We're on our way!

Invites

Ticket Please!

What better way to set the mood than to send out invites in the form of a train ticket. You can create these yourself at home on your computer or even from cardstock with a little creativity.

By adding a little flair to the way you word your invites, you'll have plenty of enthusiastic guests when the day of the party arrives.

Here's a template to work off of:

"All aboard!
You are invited to attend [your child's name]'s birthday party!
You can find the train station at [your child's name]'s house at [your address].
Be ready to arrive at [time and date]
To confirm your ticket, call [your name] at [your phone number]
and let us know if you can make it!"

Try to make the invitation look and sound like a train ticket and you'll have plenty of guests excited to see where you'll be taking them.

See more Train birthday invitations ideas here!

Decorations

Decorating for your train birthday party can be lots of fun. Involve the birthday child and spend some great quality time together.

Try some of these simple ideas:

• Gather some large but variously sized cardboard boxes. By adding a little poster paint and cutting out windows, you can stack and line them up on your front yard to make a train as a signal to your guests that they've found the right house....uh, I mean station!
  Don't forget to cut out some circles for the wheels to finish off the effect.


• Hang a sign above the party room door with your child's name followed by the word "Station". Below it add the word "Track #" and your child's age.


• You can also cut out some wide strips of cardboard and then glue or tape them together like an "X". Finish these off with a longer strip as the post and you have a crossing sign to place in a corner of the room.


• One final touch to finish off the room. If you've bought a party pack or other supplies from your favorite online store, you can add streamers and balloons in matching colors to complete the theme.

See more Train party decoration ideas here!

Games

Preparing your train birthday party also involves having some planned games in advance. Nothing will quite make a child feel more involved than a party game they can all participate in. It will be a good idea to have two or three party games ready to go just in case one happens to be a flop.

Here are a couple of party games to try out:

• Load the carts - Have some cardboard boxes decorated like train cars – simply dressing them up with colored fabric and maybe a construction-paper window is fine. Have the children stand behind a line, taking a turn at "loading the cart" with bean bags. Make the distance far enough that it will be a challenging shot (but not impossible) to load the bean bags in the cart. To spice it up, split up the teams into two and have them compete against each other in the first round – but make sure everyone ultimately wins.


• Train Chairs - A game of musical chairs, with a twist: the kids have to take a position in the train while walking around the chairs. If the kids at your party are very small, you don't want to make this too competitive and make them feel left out, so try to include enough chairs for everyone. To keep the game competitive, give out treats to the first in their chairs who shout "Choo! Choo!" Make sure the area is empty and there aren't any sharp corners around.


• Rather than train birthday party games, you can set up several "Stations" where the kids can participate in different activities. Activities could include decorating train sugar cookies, face painting, coloring a train picture or anything else you can think of. You may also consider handing out "Travel Passports" (designed by you) as guests arrive to your party and require the kids to have them stamped at each station. At the end of the party, the kids can show the completed passport and received their goody bags as they leave.

See more Train birthday game ideas here!

Costumes / Props

Make all of your guests feel the spirit of your train birthday party by supplying some basic props as they arrive.

By simply handing out a light blue engineers cap, a red bandana and a whistle, everyone at your party is immediately transformed into a Train Engineer.

See more Train birthday costume ideas here!

Food and Drink

Just about any healthy food or snack can be incorporated into a train birthday party theme. Just add a touch of imagination.

Try these out:

• For a fun lunch spread, arrange some basic veggies such as cut up carrots or celery into the shape of a train track on a white table cloth. Cut some sandwiches (your child's favorite) that you've made in half. Place a toothpick through and attach some cucumbers for wheels, line the sandwiched standing up like a row of trains.
  You can use your entire table for this idea since the kids will strip them away as they eat them up.


• Bake some train shaped sugar cookies and sprinkle them with candy sprinkles or coloured icing for a snack.

See more Train party theme food ideas here!

Cake

A train birthday party would not be complete without a cake. There are all kinds of ways to incorporate a train idea into your cake. You can either bake it yourself or have your local professional baker design it for you.

For those who choose to bake themselves, you have several options.

You can choose to go with a basic round or sheet cake and decorate it with icing and/or candies into a picture of a train.

Another option is to use several smaller sheet cakes and line them up into a row of train cars.

Lastly, you can purchase a custom cake pan, which will produce a beautiful cake shaped like a train. You'll still have to master the decorating part however.

See more Train birthday cake ideas here!

Party Favors / Loot Bags

Well, if you've followed our advice above, each child already has an engineers cap, a whistle and a red bandana.

You can also prepare a little bag to hand out at the end of the party (as each child hands over their completed passports).

This bag can contain such items as train coloring books, stickers, train toys and perhaps a little bit of candy. There's no need to go overboard by filling the bag.

Just a few simple items will do and that will make any child happy that they attended your train birthday party.

See more Train party favor ideas here!