ULTIMATE Ratatouille Theme Birthday Party! | A Guide
Join us in a world of foodie delight and a heartwarming friendship with a Ratatouille movie-themed birthday party! In this post, we suggest games, activities and decorations for a brilliant ratatouille-themed kid’s party.
I’m Zoe, a previous professional party planner and now the creator of this blog where I hope to make the party planning stage as simple as possible, taking the street out of the joyous day. Ratatouille is one of my favourite animated movies, and I had great fun developing this plan!
The movie is about a rat with the most extraordinary culinary skills ever practised in this fine Parisian Restaurant! Join us in this celebration where extraordinary friendships and the love for food take centre stage.
Ratatouille Theme Party Games
1. A Chef’s day
In this game, we learn all the things chefs do in the kitchen! In the game, the facilitator calls instructions and the children have to do the associated actions listed below- the slowest to do the actions is out! (You can also adapt this to reward the fastest if you want to avoid sending kids out)
- Stir the pot – Making huge stirring motions
- Chop the vegetables – Pretend to chop on a cutting board
- Chef Salute – “Yes chef!”
- To the freezer – Run to one side of the room
- Celebrities in the house – Run to the other side of the room and peek out to spot them
- End of shift – Children drop to the floor exhausted
It’s a fun, fast-paced and high-concentration game- great to bring to group together for a full team spirit!
2. Sneaky chef’s footsteps
The head chef has his back turned and the children need to try and creep up on him without him seeing! (the game is a little like grandmother footsteps!)
When he turns, the children must freeze, and anyone who wobbles can be sent back to the starting line. The first to tap the chef on the shoulder wins! This is a quick game, and you can usually play it a couple of times back to back.
3. La ratatoullie opening party!
This game is like music statues but set at the opening party of Remy, Linguini and Collettes now Bistro: La Ratatouille! Set up a disco with your kid’s favourite songs and any disco atmosphere you can- disco lights, bubble machine, mirror ball or even just a disco lights video on a screen!
Every time the music stops, kids have to freeze! You can either send out anyone who wobbles, or reward the stillest statues!
Ratatouille Theme Birthday Party Activities
1. Super simple Ratatouille Pizza cooking
This is a super easy DIY cooking activity- use mini wraps to help the kids design their own mini pizzas! What better to do at a ratatouille party than some cooking?!
Lay out wraps, have some bowls of pre-made tomato sauce and shredded pizza cheese and maybe have some fun veggies out for kids to sprinkle on! They take about 7 minutes in a hot oven and are delicious!
You can use greaseproof paper on over trays, and write the child’s name in pencil on the paper before it goes in the oven so you remember whose is whose.
2. Super-human nose guessing games!
This is like a super-human-nose puzzle treasure hunt! It’s a really fun game. There are 3 boxes with something inside and without seeing it children must guess the item just by smelling it.
Children have to sniff one or two boxes and choose which smells they are sniffing. There are some guess cards- if they sniff the right guess card, they get it, and on the back is a picture of the location of some hidden treasure! (for example, you can hide some chocolate coins or sweets)
We have some suggestions for the most recognisable smells: Orange, banana, lemon, crayons, cheese, vanilla, baby powder, any shower gel with a strong smell.
For instance, you can have the following boxes “banana”, “lemon”, “coffee”, and on the back of each card is are some letters. For example the letter could be “D” “oo” “r”, and behind a door could be the prize!
If kids are much younger, simplify this by just having them guess the small and if they guess right give them their treat!
3. Light sheet- shadow game!
This game is a little like Charades. You set up a white sheet in the middle of the room with a light shining on it from the back and children sat at the front. Kids take it in turns to stand alone or in pairs between the light and the sheet and create a shadow through the sheet.
The aim is for the kids on the other side of the sheet to guess their actions!
Kids can act out any type of sports or games that are easy to guess 🙂 It’s definitely novel and has a ratatouille theme to it!
As well as this ratatouille party- have you seen our Ice Age Party and our Brother Bear party pages?
Ratatoullie party decorations!
Here are our top 5 tips for ratatouille party decorations:
- Costume prop chef hats! We always think that props make the best interactive decorations, meaning they create way more atmosphere than decorations you would otherwise just look at! You can find disposable ones online fairly cheap and they will really liven up the vibes. To make this even more fun, cut out some little ratatouille printouts and stick them to the hats!
- Ratatoulie backdrop! On Etsy you can find these personalised Ratatoullie backdrops which can be a very fun way to add a theme into a play, depending on what it costs to print massive posters near you, it can be an affordable option- and very impactful. It also makes a great photo background.
- Music – Music can be such a great way to create an atmosphere. In the restaurant theme games, play background kitchen ASMR sounds, and for more front-of-house vibes, play elegant classical. Atmosphere creation from music is a really fun way to breathe life into a party! Youtube will have a playlist for everything.
- Use a red and white gingham tablecloth for the children to eat their Ratatoullie wrap pizza! This is very Parisian and will add some great atmosphere!
- Red carpet restaurant entry! This could be a very cute decorative feature! As children arrive they walk along a red carpet, as one might in a very sophisticated Parisian restaurant. Again the interactivity of this decoration is brilliant and sets a tone for the party. They are also available for under $10.
Goodluck!
We hope you have got some good inspiration from this post and feel excited about creating this special day for your little one.
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
