This may be one of the best parts you will ever do. Jungle themed parties are really easy and fun for everyone. Here are some ideas to get you immersed in your own adventure.
- Get a jungle sounds CD. This will really start things off right. Whether we pay attention to it or not, background music plays an important role in the atmosphere. Hearing the howling of the monkeys, the chirping of the birds and the rain, will truly welcome everyone to your jungle home. Tape gray paper “elephant footprints” to the driveway leading to your door.
- Place potted plants or silk trees throughout the house.
- Use shredded, twisted and taped brown paper bags to make jungle ‘vines’. Cut out sheets of green paper (or pick them up at the store) and glue them to your ‘vines’, and string them all over. Make it look like they are right in the center, with crisscrossing vines all around. .
- Make signs to put on the walls like ‘Deeper Africa’ or ‘Madagascar’.
- Get safari hats and scarves for everyone to wear during your stay in the jungle.
- Have the kids go on a ‘jungle safari’. Stick the footprints in a path around the house to try to find the ‘treasure’. Place stuffed animals here and there for them to see and hide little treasures along the way for them to find. Create a spider web with string in one corner that they have to crawl through to move on.
- Decorate a large brown box with brown paper, tie it with a rope from the ceiling, and use it as treasure at the end of the expedition. Fill it with candy and use it as a piñata. Use the scarves they are wearing to cover their eyes and a stick to hit the box.
- Any other old waiting game can be modified to suit the occasion. ‘Pin the tail on the elephant’, etc. Be prepared with a few extra games in case you need to move on, but don’t be afraid to let everyone stick with one game for a while if they still have fun with it.
- The food can be anything related to the jungle. Fruit Salad, Celery Sticks Stuffed with Peanut Butter and Raisin ‘ants’, Animal Crackers Dipped in Peanut Butter, Animal Cut Cheeses, Gummy Worms, Trail Mix, Banana Split, Green Punch with pop ice cubes and rocks into it to make it fizz are just a few.
- Make a worm-shaped cake and top it with green frosting and licorice antennae, M&M flecks, or let your own imagination do the work.
- Party favors can be a brown bag filled with gummy worms and small plastic flies and bugs, cheap binoculars, animal stickers, or let them keep the hats and scarves they were wearing.
The most important thing is to let your imagination run wild!
