Candyland Party (2-5yr) Lots Of Decoration Details

I decided to have a Candyland birthday party for my son's 5th birthday and my daughter's 2nd birthday (which are a week and a half apart). I had this theme in mind for a year so I was able to pick up a few things here and there when I saw them.

INIVITATIONS: For the invitations I took a picture of our Candyland game board and printed them out and used them on the front of the invitations. I wanted to use these so that everyone, young and old, would see the version of the game that we had and were basing the party off of. In the inside it said : Come and join ____ & ____ in a sweet birthday adventure in Candyland! Meet all of the characters as you make your way through Candyland and help ___ celebrate his 5th birthday and ____ celebrate her 2nd birthday! Below that was the basic party information. I added some candy stickers to the inside and also on the envelopes.

DECORATIONS/ACTIVITIES: The decorations took me months to prepare, but they were all worth the effort. We held this party in our church fellowship hall, so we had a large room that was able to accommodate all of the many decorations. I will describe them by places on the Candyland path. The kids made their way through Candyland guided by me and either played a game or did an activity at each stop along the way. They were given colorful paper lunch bags that had their name on one side and a Candyland sticker on the other. I added handles to bags by punching holes in the top, attaching colorful eyelets, and then stringing bright colors of ribbon through for the handles and knotting them at the ends (I made up a couple of extra bags in case anyone ripped theirs). These were their goody bags that they used to collect their prizes throughout Candyland. I made the path that lead through Candyland from a large box of colored construction paper and taped the ends to the floor with clear packing tape. I pre-sorted the paper in the color pattern from the board game to save time on the day of the party. I also made all of the specially marked spaces from the board indicating the place and the three licorice spaces. The path was cleary marked with cardboard arrow signs (we used pvc pipe and wooden bases to make them free standing). Each sign said the place, which was made using a Cricut machine (scrapbooking die cut machine) and was labled and decorated on each side. When the kids first arrived they were able to either watch the Candyland movie I had playing on a small T.V. or they could color in their personalized Candyland coloring/activity book I made them until everyone arrived at the party. I made the coloring books by making copies out of a coloring and activity book I had found. I made there were four sheets (2 to a page) of activities for each place & character from Candyland. Then I made covers out of different colored cardstock with Candyland Coloring & Activity BookThanks for coming to _______ birthday party! On the front.

GINGERBREAD TREE: The sign for the Gingerbread Tree I left the cardboard brown and painted light purple frosting accents. I made the Gingerbread Tree using larges pieces of carboard and painting the details. I also added gingerbread men to the leaf area of the tree that I had from a game I made for my son during the Christmas season. Next to the Gingerbread Tree was a gingerbread boy I had made from another large piece of cardboard. I painted some of his features on, used gumdrops for buttons, and added a lollipop to his hand. At the base of the Gingerbread Tree I placed three large stuffed gingerbread men that my mom had made for one of my sister's Christmas decorations. On each side of the tree I placed a cluster of green and purple balloons. I used gingerbread ornaments for balloon weights. At this station I placed a round table covered with a bright green table cloth. In the middle of the table was a gingerbread house my mom made. At this table the kids got to decorate their own gingerbread man cookie. At each spot I placed a cookie, a snack size bag filled with frosting (I used clear packing tape to seal the tops so no frosting exploded from it) which I snipped off one corner of the bag to make their own frostings bags, a colorful stripped cupcake liner filled with an assortment of candies (divided equally among all of the cups for fairness), and a plastic knife. Around the table were also small tubes of colored icing, sprinkles, and food scissors to trim any candy (like licorice). When they were done we placed a label (which I pre-made with their names and a gumdrop stamp) and covered them with plastic wrap.

PEPPERMINT FOREST:  The sign pointing to Peppermint Forest was bright red with white lettering and had cute little swirly candy canes hot glued to it. I used a small artificial Christmas tree and four other slightly smaller fake fir trees that I use for decoration in my house to create the forest. Each tree was decorated with wooden candy cane bead garland, candy canes, and candy cane ornaments. The Candyland path ran through the forest where trees were placed on either side. Underneath the trees and around Peppermint Forest I laid down Buffalo Snow (which is a cotton like fake snow). Sprinkled throughout the snow were wrapped peppermint candies. Hanging above the forest were large sparkly candy canes. I also used large pvc type candy canes and large plastic swirled candy canes (found after Christmas at Wal-Mart, etc.) and had my husband cut little squares from some leftover white wooden shelving to make them each stand on their own. These were placed throughout the forest. The game at Peppermint Forest used on the stand from an outdoor game my husband made from pvc pipe (known as polish golf, golf ball toss, etc.). I used red electrical tape to make the white pvc pipes into candy canes. Instead of  the golf balls on the strings we used these knitted candy canes that had a thick wire inside that kept their shape and were attached on  a long red piece of thick yarn. I found these at a garage sale and they were meant to be a garland, but I cut them into pairs to use for the game. They worked great twirling around the rungs of the game and were soft so they didn't cause any damage indoors. After the game they received a red and white swirled drinking straw from Mr. Mint (I'll explain the characters later).

GUMDROP MOUNTAINS: The sign for Gumdrop Mountains was painted pink with purple lettering and had gumdrops glued all over it. I made Gumdrop Mountains using huge pieces of cardboard that I cut into three different heights (5 total) and then painted bright colors. I waited until they dried and used Mod Podge (clear craft glue) to cover the entire surface and then sprinkled on glitter. I made Jolly from cardboard also. I used a book I had (a four pack of Candyland board books) to draw Jolly freehand by looking at his picture in the book. After I painted the entire thing, I used a sharpie marker to outline all of the details and make them stand out. Above the Gumdrop Mountains I placed a garland of artificial glittery gumdrops.  On each side of the mountains I had a cluster of balloons in various colors held down with clear bags of gumdops. The game for this station was Gumdrop Drop. Each child would climb up a step ladder (assisted by me if they were young) and was given ten gumdrops (one at a time) to try and drop into a clear glass container below. When they finished the game they received a sparkly colored note pad (which were held in a little purple tin bucket).

LICORICE FOREST: The sign for Licorice Forest was painted black, had red lettering and had red licorice hot glued to it. Licorice Forest consisted of a black artificial tree that looked very similar to black licorice (from Halloween). On the tree my mom had bought various types of licorice, some were even spirals that I've never seen before. She used paper clips to make hangers for them and then hung them from the branches. On the ground around the tree we puddled black plastic and the laid red pool noodles that I cut in half (to resemble licorice). On each side of the forest were clusters of red and black balloons weighted down with red licorice (unwrapped). The game for this station was Lord Licorice's Licorice Limbo. Here Lord Licorice blocked the path and wouldn't allow the kids to continue on their way to Candy Castle unless they could limbo under his licorice stick (red pool noodle). Once all the kids completed this task they were given a red cellophane treat bag filled with different types of licorice that was tied shut with a black ribbon.

PEANUT ACRES: Next on the path the sign pointed to Peanut Acres (which was a brown sign with white lettering and shelled peanuts hot glued to it). Here we placed two large fake trees / bushes and then six cardboard bushes. I had made the six bushes from cardboard (with a little cardboard stand) and painted both sides a dark green. I then hot glued on tons of peanuts to all of them. Peanuts were also scattered on the ground throughout Peanut Acres. There were also three clusters of green and yellow balloons which were weighed down with clear bags of peanuts. Here the kids played a game with Gramma Nut where she asked them to feed Basket Dog some peanuts. Each child tossed 10 peanuts into Basket Dog and then received a Nutter Butter Bar from Gramma Nut.

LOLLIPOP WOODS: The sign pointing to Lollipop Woods was painted a bright purple with white lettering and had lollipops hot glued all over it. On both sides of the Candyland path we placed a green plastic table runner and trimmed it to look like a grassy area. On top of the grass we placed twenty or so colorful balloons that were on extra tall colored balloon sticks (Oriental Trading) that were in their own individual wooden stands (again extra white shelving). The game here was Lollipop Ring Ross. I had made a sucker ring toss game using a large box that I wrapped with solid purple paper and then poked holes in rows and filled them with suckers (Oriental Trading). For the rings I used those little hard plastic bracelets that kids have (my daughter had lots of them in her dress-up box). I allowed reach kid to throw the rings until they got five lollipops, they then kept those.

SNOWFLAKE LAKE: The sign pointing towards Snowflake Lake was a large corner piece of white lattice. From this we hung lots of snowflake decorations and outline the whole thing with snowflake garland and tinsel. The lake itself was a thick blue show curtain cut into a lake shape. Around the lake was thick silver tinsel that looked like frosting. Placed next to the lake was a pair of white ice skates that we added pom-poms to the laces. On either side of the lake were containers that were filled with ice and then coming containers were large white sparkly decorative branches. There were also clusters of baby blue and clear snowflake printed balloons that were weighted down with white snowflake ceramic ornaments around Snowflake Lake. The game at this station was using five faux crystal snowflakes (about 2 inches in size) and sliding them across the lake and trying to get them to land on one of the many large snowflake stickers (that were stuck to the lake). Regardless if the kids actually got their snowflakes on the stickers they received two snowflake pencils.   

CHOCOLATE SWAMP: The sign for Chocolate Swamp was left cardboard brown with dark brown lettering and had unwrapped pieces of Hershey's bars attached to them (I used double stick tape). Chocolate Swamp was made from a brown tarp that I cut into a wavy circle shape. Gloppy was fashioned out of a roll of chicken wire and another brown tarp. I then painted his facial features on with paint. He was placed in the center of Chocolate Swamp. Around the swamp were clusters of brown balloons that were weighed down with Hershey's bars. The game at this station started by having all of the children sit in the swamp around the edge. I then asked them how it felt to be sitting in Chocolate Swamp. They all answered things like: sticky, gooey, wet, etc. Then I told them that they were stuck in the swamp with Gloppy and could only get unstuck if they held the magic chocolate bar. We then played a hot potato like version using the chocolate bar and whoever was holding the bar when I said stop was able to get out of the swamp and get a treat from Gloppy. The treat was a chocolate pudding cup. We played until everyone was free from the swamp and received their prize.

CANDY CASTLE: The sign for Candy Castle was painted a bright yellow with multicolored lettering and then had multicolored circles in various sizes glued all around it. I made Candy Castle using several very large sheets of cardboard. There was the main entrance to the castle that had a large tower coming out of the top. Next to that was a hug bright blue gumball machine, I used paper to make tons of large gumballs to attach to it. On either side of the entrance and gumball machine were two towers in four different colors. I used tons of paint to cover all of the pieces and then used paint and black markers to add the details. These pieces took me weeks to make, but were the main focal point of the party. Leading up to the castle from the Candyland path I used these large colorful round plastic mats from the Twister Scram game my son got for Christmas. They worked perfect and resembled the same candy path just like on the game board. On either side of the castle were clusters of multicolored balloons that were weighed down with clear bags of various candies. The activity for this station was Candyland necklace making. The kids all sat at a table (yellow table cloth) and they received a colorful stripped cupcake liner filled with foam beads (I spent a lot of time dividing up the beads equally, so all of the kids received the same number of each type of bead) which included gingerbread men, candy canes, gum drops, peppermints, and candies (Oriental Trading). I tied dull needles to the end of silver thread (so they wouldn't slip off) and then put a piece of colored electrical tape at the ends (so their beads wouldn't fall off).*CHARACTERS: I decided to have live characters for the party to make it even more fun for the kids. All of the characters were live people except Jolly (Gumdrop Mountains) and Gloppy (Chocolate Swamp).    

MR. MINT: (my sister) I found red jeans at Goodwill and spent 4 hours stamping and hand painting white candy canes and snowflakes all over the pants. I also attached foam candy canes and mint candies to all of the belt buckle loops. The pants were held up by red suspenders. I found a red and white stripped polo shirt at Goodwill also. I found a red and white stripped fuzzy scarf at a craft/gift store. For the hat I bought two foam hats / visors (red and white) that had a cut out swirl at the top (resembled a mint candy). I glued the two together so you could see both colors in the swirl and attached foam candy canes and mints to the brim. She also wore red and white tennis shoes with red and white stripped socks. My mom made red arm cuffs from felt that went on her wrists next to her yellow workman's gloves. She carried a candy cane axe (pvc pipe with red electrical tape stripes and the head of one of my son's fake azes from his fireman costume) and also a large candy cane (about three feet tall) fashioned from two large wire/garland type candy canes.

LORD LICORICE: (my husband) He wore black pants and a black shirt underneath a red and black vest (with big puffy sleeves) my mom made. That was topped off with a red cape that was coverd in licorice (red swirled rope). He wore big black rubber boots with black felts cuff my mom made. He wore long black gloves with more black felt cuffs. Hi hat was made from a red foam hat (dollar store) that looked just like the style from the game board. I originally tried hot gluing black licorice to the hat but it wouldn't hold very well. I purchased another hat and my mom sewed on some different types of licorices and some trim that resembled red licorice. His costume was topped off with a black licorice pipe and a big red foam mustache.

GRAMMA NUT: (my mom) My mom made her entire outfit by hand starting off with peanut material for her dress trimmed with bright green material and a bright apron. She found a large green floppy gardening hat, purple shovel, purple socks, and the craziest neon green high heel tennis shoes, and lots of large beaded jewelry. She loaded her large apron pockets with peanuts. I lucked out and found a peanut shaped basket at Goodwill and added felt facial features to make Basket Dog along with a bandana handle.

PRINCESS LOLLY: (my daughter) I used a beautiful sparkly dress my daughter had in her dress up box that had beads that looked like candy along the collar and lots of tulle skirt liners to make it poofy. I added bright felt lollipops to each of the 5 pointed pieces that hung down the front of her dress on the skirt area. Along the bottom of the tulle layers my mom sewed on tiny lollipop charms. I also had my daughter wear pretty fair wings just like Princess Lolly wears. She wore tights under her dress and sparkly white shoes I found at Goodwill. She carried around a sparkly fake lollipop. She was supposed to wear a purple crown, but didn't like wearing it.

PRINCESS FROSTINE: (me) After scouring many different stores and second hand shops I couldn't find a pink dress to wear and decided on switching the dress color to blue instead of pink. Decorations for Snowflake Lake were mainly white and blue and I decided to go that route instead (it was the only character that was exactly like the game). I found a sleeveless/strapless dark blue dress at Goodwill. It was about eight sizes too big, but it was perfect in every other way for my costume so I had my mom take it in and sew it back up. We sewed on white plastic glittery snowflakes (found at a garage sale) along the bottom of the dress and a few on the bodice. We also added white snowflake buttons along the top of the bodice topped off with white fur trim at the top. I wore a long white sleeved shirt underneath it. I found two dark blue wooden bangles (bracelets) at Goodwill and hot glued snowflake buttons (after cutting off the button loop) all around them. I wore white tights and white slipper / shoes. My mom made my a cape out of blue sparkly material that was line with white fur. I wore a tiara with white fur trim (from my daughter's dress up box). I made a snowflake wand from a wooden dowel I painted white and one of the plastic snowflakes (like on the dress).

KING CANDY: (on's costume started off with red wool tights and a bright yellow long sleeve shirt. My mom made him a yellow body suit complete with stuffing to make him look pudgy in the middle just like King Candy. He wore a purple crushed velvet cape with white fur trim (my mom happened to have made it for him last Christmas, it was perfect) and red rubber boots that I added foamy candy stickers to. My mom made him a crown from a yellow foam pre-made crown that she added purple crushed velvet (leftover from his cape) to the inside to make the dome like shape for his head. She added lots of wonderful fake candies around the outside of the crown. His outfit was topped off with lots of large beaded jewelry (Goodwill) that looked like gumballs and a fake mini gumdrop garland we made into a necklace. He carried around a bubblegum septor that we made from a wooden dowel I painted yello and a clear plastic ball (ornament type thing from the craft store) that I filled with bubble gum. ***ADULT GAME: I always try to include an adult game since our parties are for our family and there are lots of adults in attendance. For this party I made a Candyland trivia game. I did have a hard finding enough information about Candyland, but ended up having a nice amount of questions. Most the questions had multiple choices. The winner received several different big packages of candy that was tied together with lots of different colored cording.

FOOD/CAKE: At this pay we didn't do a full meal, but had lots of snacks and munchies. Besides the main food, I included at least one type of food from each place in Candyland. All the food was placed in bright colorful bowls. The cups, napkins, and plates were various bright colors. I pre-mixed them all so that the colors of each item was in a pattern and  not just individual stacks of colors. At each  of the food, cake, and eating tables I placef different bright tablecloths.  In the center of the eating tables I placed a large placemat that looked like two lollipops with swirls. On top of the placemats I put one of the four Candyland board books (people who weren't familiar with the game could look at these and see exactly what we based everything off of). On the food table I place a bubblegum machine and other various candies in the middle. The punch and cake table held a large punch fountain and the Candyland cake and board game. I also used a Candyland card game (garage sale) and placed these around the walls behind the tables. Next to the cups I placed white labels (that were stamped with colorful gumdrops) and a pen for people to mark their names on their cups and save on wasting so many cups.

CAKE: For the cake I made a large sheet cake and frosted it with a bright green frosting. I used unwapped starburst candies for the Candyland path, the gingerbread game pieces from our game, gingerbread boys and trees from a box a gingerbread cookies (I used toothpicks behind them to make them stand up) = Gingerbread Tree, mini candy canes = Peppermint Forest, different sized gumdrops = Gumdrop Mountains & Gumdrop Pass, red and black licorice (cut into shorter pieces) = Licorice Forest, circus peanuts = peanut acres, rainbow stripped gum = Rainbow Trail, mini plastic swirled lollipops (actually charms that I cut the top loop off of) = Lollipop Woods, white frostings and cream cheese mint snowflakes = Snowflake Lake, melted Hershey's bar and individual Hershey's pieces = Chocolate Swamp, tiny colored ice cream cones, gumballs, mini candies = Candy Castle. We served the cake and ice and also candy cane cookies (like the kind you make at Christmas) and beautiful snowflake cookies that my mom made.

FAVORS: The kids at the party received all of the prizes and items they made throughout Candyland, their coloring books, and a large cluster of balloons with the candy weights. Several of the kids also asked if they could take home my cardboard pieces (like Jolly, Candy Castle, etc.). I didn't mind as I didn't have to try and haul them back home, although I did make sure they asked their parents first. I always have a little favor for the adults also. We made cream cheese mints (with crushed peppermints) in snowflake molds, they were sooooo good. We packaged these up in little cellophane bags and ties them up with light blue ribbon and a little thank you note. The note said We hope you had a SWEET time at our Candyland birthday party. Thanks for coming! We love you, ________. Then I added a pretty snowflake clipart next to the wording.

All in all the party was a huge success and my kids had an amazing time. I was completely burnt out and exhausted after all that planning and preparation, but I thoroughly enjoyed doing it for my two kids!