AWESOME (Disney) Planes Birthday Party Ideas
Hey! Welcome to this post about creating a birthday party themed around the Disney movie Planes! We love the movie cars and our Cars party went down very well, so we thought what better than do a whole separate one for planes!
In this post we share top tips and tricks for games and activities you can use in this super fun Disney Pixar Planes birthday party! All our ideas are creative and affordable, keeping the focus on fun and imagination, rather than purse strings and Pinterest!
I’m Zoe and before starting the Parties Universe site, I worked for many years as a professional children’s party planner. I know what works well and am here to share all my tips and tricks to make the day as fun and stress free as possible for you and your children!
So, to Planes lovers everywhere, here are our suggestions for the ultimate Planes birthday party.
Disney planes party games
1. Character bingo!
Kids run around the room and whenever the facilitator calls a character, children have to do the associated action!
- Dusty – hover low to the ground, like dusty prefers to fly
- Skipper – hand on hips, look grumpy
- Dottie the forklift – hand out in front
- El Chupacabra – hip wiggle like he does when he’s trying to impress Rochelle
- Ripslinger – arms out, and tilt sideways like ripslingers final move at the finish line, just as dusty overtakes
The slowest to do the action is out (or the fastest can be rewarded, depending on the age of the children)!
2. Crops Crops Mountains!
This game is like duck duck goose but Planes themes. Dusty is a crop field plane and he hates the mountains as he’s afraid of heights!
3. Hanger Disco Statues!
Have a hanger disco! This is what all planes love to do after a long day of flying. There’s a cute party scene in the movie where the characters sit around tables with fuel bottles in Germany and you could imagine them having a good dance!
This game is like music statues, children dance when the music plays and have to freeze as soon as it stops! Anyone who wobbles is sent out! (or for younger kids, you can reward the best statues)
4. Four corners- around the world
This is a very exciting, high fun and high-anticipation game. It will get their adrenaline pumping!
Children run around the room and when the facilitator begins counting down from 5, they have to choose one corner to stand in (you can give each corner a country linked to one of the stops in the movie).
- Germany
- Mexico
- India
- New York
The facilitator stands in the middle, eyes closed and spins around arm outstretched until the end, pointing at one of the 4 corners. Any of the children standing there are sent out and the game continues!
To make it more fun– rather than sending the kids ‘out’, you can say that anyone in the corner has to go and dive into a pile of jello in the middle of the room! They can have great fun doing a huge imaginary splash into it!
Disney planes party activities
1. Treasure hunt for dustys new parts!
In the Movie there is a very scary scene where dusty has a little crash in the stormy scene and needs to be pulled out by a helicopter. His racemates all donate plane parts to him to give him the chance of finishing the race.
This game is a treasure hunt for those parts that they offer him! Before the party print little pictures of the parts and tape them in secret locations around the room. Tell the children how long they have to search and set them off!
Parts could include:
- Propeller
- Spoiler
- Rudder
- Wheels
- Radio
- Monitoring equipment
- Navigator
To add extra suspense, make it a time challenge. Tell the kids that they need to find the parts for Dust before the race starts in 30 minutes and have them race against a 5-minute timer! (depending on the age of the kids this might need adjusting).
We suggest suspense music while they search for added drama! For instance this YouTube spy detective background track.
2. DIY Paper Plane creation craft activity
This is a lovely craft activity where children get to colour and design their own plane to trial at the grand takeoff ceremony! (see next activity…)
Let the children do this however they want but if some are unsure, you can print out some instructions. Give them plain paper, coloured pens and crayons and maybe even some glitter tape, feathers and sequins!
Get them to name their planes (either their name or a super cool speed racer plane!
3. Flight take-off celebrations!
This could be the highlight of the party! get the kids into groups (or ‘heats’) and have 4 or 5 fly their planed from a start line at the same time while others cheer from the edges.
Impress upon the children the importance of cheering for all the planes, it’s more fun for everyone that way! And you can use Dusty as an example….not all winners win on the first takeoff!
To add drama use a bench or chairs for the children to stand in tiers and if you choose to use the flag props, have them wave their flags! You can use background airshow music for extra atmosphere 🙂
4. Go on a Dusty theme round-the-world adventure!
Take the children on an imaginary flight where they all, arms spread, run around a room and take on all the challenges that Dusty faces using their imaginations!
Set the scene by having kids sit in a circle, close their eyes and imagine the setting of the take off, play some magical music and tell them there is magic flowing around the air and when they open their eyes they will be really life planes in the movie!!
Praise and encourage those to join in the imaginary world, and to anyone who does join in ‘sprinkle more magic on them’ until they do.
NB- The first few parties I tried this at, I was always a little worried kids wouldn’t join in fully- but years later, I’ve never had one where they don’t all get involved and love the make-believe! (this is mostly for 4 5 and 6 year olds)
Here are the adventures you can imagine flying through:
- Fly over really high mountains
- Fly through strong wide-ways winds
- Fly through a canyon obstacle course, randomly changing direction to avoid the canyons
- Fly over fields of tractors, waving to them as you go
- Fly over stormy seas!!
- Fly through a tunnel
While flying you can either have magical music playing or you can use the movie soundtrack itself if that’s familiar to most of the children, to add atmosphere!
Disney Planes Party Decorations
Here are our top 5 tips for decorations for the Disney Planes Party:
- Big sky theme wall hangings to get the right ‘atmoshpere’! To do this in a thrifty way, we suggest these cloud pattern party tablecloths that you can pin to the walls
- Balloons in light blue, white and orange! Balloons, as those who had read my content before will know, are my favourite decoration- they are just so festive and happy!
- We’ve found this very cute large photo backdrop that you could use as a photo background and also general decorations for the party. It’s inexpensive and very evocative of the Planes race adventure! THe maps is also great reference tool for kids!
- Props! we think pros make the best decorations as interacting with them is so much more immersive than just viewing. We suggest little colourful flags for the kids to wave at the plane launch! WHen not in use, prop them up in a few jars and they are also lovely colourful decorations.
- Music! Use soundtracks to bring the atmosphere of the party to life! use plane zooming noises, and crowd cheering noises and magical imagination music to complement the activity. Kids will LOVE this- it’s worth a million balloons!
Goodluck!
We hope you liked these ideas and suggestions!
Ultimately, the aim of the game is for your child to have a great time, and to be present with them in marking this milestone of their growing up. Only take on what you can manage!
Be sure to take loads of photos to treasure the memories of the day!
Best of luck, Zoe x
