EPIC Cowboy/Cowgirl & Western Theme Party | Top Ideas!
Howdy party goers and welcome to my site where I share the best ideas for creative games, activities, food snacks and decorations for the ultimate birthday party! I’m so glad you’re here for my tips and tricks on the best cowboy cowgirl western party!
I’m Zoe, a professional kids’ party host, now the creator of this blog where I hope to share all of the best advice from years of testing and improvement.
Ideas for Cowboy/Cowgirl western theme party games
1. Day in the Life of a Cowboy Game
In this game, the facilitator calls instructions and kids must do the action corresponding to that instruction. The slowest is out, or, for younger kids, you can play the other way around and reward the fastest!
- Lassoo– Kids swing arms above heads like a lasso and shout ‘Yeeehaaa’
- Round the Cattle – Kids gallop around the room as though on horseback
- Blacksmith – Kids squat down, one fist on their knees as though holding a horseshoe, and hammer at it with the other hand
- Out on the range– Run to one side of the room
- Refresh at the saloon – Run to the other side of the room and pretend to drink something
The great thing about this game is depending how often you call ‘Out on the Range’ and ‘Saloon’- it can get them doing a lot of running, and really burn up some energy!
2. Cowboy Statues
Music statues in one of the funn-est party games ever and a great energy zapper if you need kids to get some energy out of their systems. Use cowboy tunes and encourage dancing with plenty of hooping and lasso-throwing moves!
Typically when the music stops, the slowest to freeze is sent out but you can modify this depending on the children and instead reward the funniest statues or the first to freeze!
3. Horse Horse Cowboy
This game is similar to duck duck goose but with a theme. It’s a great one to play as children arrive (or as children might get tired of lunchtime at different rates) as new players can easily join and it’s fun and familiar to them.
Children sit in a circle facing inwards. Child A walks around the outside of the circle and gently taps the group one by one on the head as they pass saying horse, horse, horse….then, they choose one child (child B) to say cowboy!
Child B jumps up and chases Child A around the circle. Child A has to run around the whole group and sit back in Child B’s space. If they manage, Child B becomes Child A in the next round. Otherwise, Child A has to play again until they succeed.
As well as this Cowboy party post, we have a number of other great party themes such as Witches and Wizards Party or Outer Space Party that you might love to explore.
Ideas for Cowboy/Cowgirl western theme activities
1. Western Day at the fair, fair games
This fair can make the whole theme so evocative and will definitely be one for the memory books! You will need at least 3 adult or older sibling helpers to run these stalls (but it’s a great thing for older siblings to be able to get involved with).
Either divide the kids into groups and have them rotate across stalls or allow them to free roam and also interact with the photo booth prompts and dress up during this time.
Option 1) Lassoo toss!
Tie something round onto the end of a string and have the kids toss it from about 3m away into a pole, or broomstick, or if you already have a hobby horse– that would be perfect!
Option 2) Shooting targets
This might need some trial and error to get the difficulty/distance right. You can place very light balls such as ping pong balls on top of empty bottles and using light pellet or ring cap guns, kids have to shoot off the balls for points.
We’ve found these incredible-looking western guns, made from plastic online for inexpensive that you might want to explore (Even as a birthday present?)
Option 3) Gold panning
Take a huge tub or gardening tray and fill it with muddy water. Inside disperse some of these gold coins! Alternatively, you can buy kids gold panning kits online for inexpensive- we suggest combining a few for a massive search area. You could even have kids exchange these for lemonade at the watering hole!
Option 4) Skittles
This is a classic for a reason. Fill water bottles with a small amount of water to give them a bit of stability and let kids roll a tennis or baseball at them from about 5 yards away and try to knock over as many as possible. Full strike wins!
For an authentic look, use tinted blue or green plastic bottles for a more authentic feel- we’ve linked to these S. Pellegrino bottles just as an example. Be sure to enjoy the fizzy water in the weeks before and use tap water for the game- else they will fizz up!
Option 5) Hobby Horse Racing
Set up two parallel race tracks, perhaps along a garden, around a cone or a chair and back and allow kids to race each other on a hobby horse! Encourage other kids waiting in line to whoop and cheer like spectators.
Additional fairground activities- Photobooth, Dress- up stand, Lemonade booth, Photo op with a cut-out lifesize western board. Check out these links for inspiration, but a lot of these projects would be easy to DIY.
2. Cowboy line dance class
Run a line dancing class for the kids, either improvise, with a professional, or, off youtube! This is great fun, and will really get them in the spirit of the theme.
It’s also fun, and you could ask parents coming for pick-up to arrive 5 minutes early so the kids can perform their line dance number.
3. Cowboy Pinata!
Pinata is perfect for this theme! imagine the picture, children lined up, cheering the ‘smasher’, western music in the background.
It might not be authentic to the theme but It also kinda fits perfectly! We have had a look to find our favourite horsey pinata for sale online, or, check out this DIY mini-horse pinata option that you could make with your kids ahead of the party!
We suggest some suspense background music playing, such as this: Epic Wild Western Music – Cowboys & Outlaws Track on youtube.
4. Dress up and photoshoot
We have found some awesome photo backgrounds, perfect for a photo shoot with kids dressed up in their cowboy outfits!
This is a Western street scene, here is a western stable interior and this one is of a cowboy tavern!
They are inexpensive- but will add such atmosphere as they can be decorative backdrops for the party too. We suggest getting the kids to dress up, either in their own outfits or providing some extra bits and pieces like cowboy hats or fringe jackets.
Have you also seen our Ultimate Pirate Party or Under the Sea Party theme ideas?!
7. Craft activity: Horse theme candy bags
A craft activity can be an awesome thing to do at a party for a bit of downtime, or at the start when kids arrive and need something to get stuck into so they forget about being shy!
I got inspired by these awesome horse party favor bags from my friend’s super creative website that would be such a lovely thing for the kids to decorate and have filled with candies as their going home pressie! that would be so cute!
For a Western theme, I suggest brown paper bags and maybe some gold pens to decorate!
Ideas for cowboy/cowgirl western theme decorations
Our top 5 suggestions for the best decorations for a cowboy or cowgirl, western-themed party:
- ‘Wild West signage’ We have found these great themed signs for a wild west party: Bank Rail Road
- Costume Props, for example, cowboy hats, suede vests or colourful neckties that the children can try on and photo shoot in will be great fun. There are hats out there for buying in bulk that could also be going-home presents for the kids.
- Burlap wall hanging and furniture drapes. Adding burlap to drape over any 21st-century appliances, bookshelves or non-theme relating home furnishings will be the fastest way to transform the room into an otherworldly space. If you can’t get this locally, it is easy to order off amazon.
- Photo-shoot backdrops. This will be the statement decoration, as we suggested earlier, a bold wild west theme backdrop will instantly transform a space and will be a super fun interact prop too for dress-up photo shoots!
- Music! Having epic Western background music will add so much atmosphere are energy to the party and really bring the theme to life. Find youtube playlists or search on Spotify. We’ve done that and recommend this youtube option!
Cowboy/Cowgirl Western theme party food
Here are our top 5 tips for western themed party foods!
- Party food idea: Brown, straw and golden-themed tablescape. Can you find some gold cloth to drape across the table? EIther gold or burlap would look brilliant. Brown, straw and golden includes loads of food ideas such as potato waffles, chicken nuggets, cheese garlic bread, mini sausages, meatballs and corn on the cob and for sweets: wafers, chocolate fingers, any chocolatey biscuit, chocolate mousse, cupcakes, melon, dark red grapes and pineapple chunks!
- A few gimmicky foods, such as these coco-puffs cowboy hat treats or these cowhide milk bottles!
- Have juice jugs with cowboy-theme juice names: Cactus Cooler, Rocky Mountain Raspberry, Sundown Sangria, Dusty Desert Dune or Texas Twist.
- Serve food on platters or in bowls lines with these paisley, cowboy necktie bandanas!
- A centrepiece cowboy cake! We suggest a browse on Pinterest for some simple but effective ideas. We love this rider cake for a perfect balance of simplicity and wow-factor!
Goodluck!
We hope you have loved some of the ideas on this site, and feel pumped to host this epic wild-west birthday party!
To help you even more, we have created a step-by-step guide with a timeline for kid’s party planning which includes this PDF party planning checklist, and a PDF list of tasks you can be delegating. These are ALL FREE, no email is required either, simply download.
Above all, make sure you are present for your child and that they are having fun! Birthdays are special times, and parties are a lovely way to gather with friends. They are joyous, not stressful, so only arrange what feels fun for you- your kids will have fun if you have fun!
Best of luck,
Zoe xx
