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Party Under the Big Top

Clown Afro	Jumbo Clown Bowtie	Jumbo Clown Long Tie	Clown Nose	Jumbo Sunglasses
Top Hats & Derbies	Tuxedo Vest	Jumbo Foam Hat W/ Flower	6' Clown Balloon	Carnival Balloon Kit
Animal Paddle Game	3" Animal Finger Puppets	Child's Safari Glasses	Silly Circus Baby Gift Wagon	Popcorn Bowl

Step into the Big Top, come everyone;  for cotton candy, candy apples, and corn dogs. See animals, acrobats, clowns and lots of circus fun! 

Oh the excitement of a circus with a big top tent, animals doing tricks and of course the clowns! This party planning guide is filled with fun activities, decorating tips, and recipes to create a fun Circus or Clown party. Start by bringing that excitement to your party with a fun clown and circus party theme. Add all of the accessories you need to make yours the best party under the big top.

The key to pulling off a coordinated event: Evoke your theme throughout the affair. Whether that theme is as general as a season or a feeling, or as specific as a special character, it should be the subtle thread that ties everything together. Your location, invitations, flowers, menu, cake, and favors should all cleverly reflect one common concept. Then, get as creative as you can!

Slogans:

After deciding on a circus theme for your party, choose a slogan to use in your invitations, and to use in tying in decorations and personalized favors to your circus theme.  Find the perfect slogan for your party by trying one of the following, or by thinking of one that suits your precious child

• “We’ll be Clownin’ Around at Cara’s 4^th Birthday Party!”

• ”Admit One to the Greatest Party on Earth…McKenzie’s Birthday Bash!”
• “Party Under the Big Top”

• “Blake’s Big Top Party!”

Invitations:

Let your young guests know that they’ll be missing the “Greatest Show on Earth” if they don’t make it to the party:

Invitations can be tickets cut from construction paper . Write on each invitation with colored markers: Admit One to Mary Jones (your child's name) Circus, Saturday, May 8 at 3 p.m. & the address Or print computer generated invitations with clown faces, a big top or a slogan like "Greatest Show on Earth". Send a Clown Nose  along with the party invitation: "Come join the greatest show on earth at my birthday party…become a lion tamer, strong man, clown, juggler or trapeze artist."

Consider attaching one inflatable Animal Print Shoe to the invitation with curling ribbon.  The invite could say, “Only you can fill this shoe at Annie’s Clownin’ Around Birthday Party.  Please join us, and the other shoe will be waiting for you!”

Decorating & Party Tips:

Be the master of ceremonies at your circus in an inexpensive Top Hat and Tuxedo Vest
. Also check out the Rainbow Clown Afro Wig..

Remember that the tops of your tables create a very large surface area and using a themed tablecloth is the fastest and most economical way to change the look and feel of your room.

Don't get carried away using all themed plates, cups, napkins and etc. To create a designer look use themed tableware mixed with solid color tableware. Since solid color tableware is less expensive this will also save you money.

Shindigz by Stumps offers a number of great decorating items for a Circus or Clown Theme. Like those listed below:

As Guests arrive have them step up to a kid-sized Ticket Booth from shindigz by stumps. Or use it to have guests collect favors, snacks, and more! The sign on the front of the the cardboard and corrugated ticket booth is personalized! This whimsical booth will add a brilliant splash of color to your party.  Purchase several, and you can use them to set up game booths and a snack stand.  When the party is over, keep one or two for your child to play with, and donate the others to your school or church carnival.  Everybody wins!

Children won't be able to resist climbing inside this festive Circus Tent (also by shindigz) that's just their size! This delightful “big top” will fill a large space (indoors or outdoors) with festive color.  With this perfect photo backdrop, take pictures of each guest with the birthday child, and several group shots. You’ll capture some priceless moments. The Circus Tent  features: twinkle lights, stars, and cool gossamer curtains. The kids can play in it long after the party is over!   

Because everything at the circus is larger than life, shindigz has created a Popcorn Standee that is sure to delight little guests…it is as big as your guests and filled with white and yellow balloons! It will provide another great spot for picture taking and memory making.

Shindigz by Stumps also offers a number of other decorating items that would also work well with a Circus or Clown Theme. We would suggest using items like:

Give your walls, chairs, tables, and ceilings animal prowess with versatile animal print gossamer!  Gossamer is an awesome decorating tool. It swags, ties, and drapes with ease. Mix tiger and zebra print and lay over a tabletop for a unique decorating experience. Tie huge bows with animal print gossamer across the top of each chair back.  The bows can be cut to any length, and even look great with tails trailing on the floor.  Make bows to hang anywhere and everywhere…doorways, tree trunks, stair rails, deck posts, gift packages, or table-ends.  The gossamer also looks terrific draped over a doorframe. 

No Circus would be complete without some wild animals, these photo image Animal Cut-Outs are sure to bring a smile to faces and will serve as a great photo backdrop.

This gentle giant will be tons of fun as a decoration or accessory to your circus party. The Baby Elephant Standup is approximately 5' tall and 3' wide and stands on it's own. 

Never underestimate the power of decorating with balloons!  Use lots of Balloons in decorating. 

Balloon Drop
Each balloon bag comes with 100 6" colorful balloons. Follow the directions and pull the cord to add excitement to your party.

Use helium to fill wild animal print balloons.  Tie curling ribbon to balloons, and group them together. (Odd numbers look best: 3, 5, or 7) Place groupings of balloons around the party room. Tie a bunch of helium filled balloons to the birthday child’s chair, or tie one to the back of each chair. If you choose not to use helium, tie balloons to varying lengths of curling ribbon, and hang balloons from the ceiling, or from a light fixture over the party table

Display your birthday cake in the center of the table…the kids will love the close up view!

Pinatas make great centerpieces and can serve as the final activity to bring your party to a close.

Turn a inexpensive top hats upside down and use for serving dishes for dry snacks such as chips, pretzels or candy. Top Hats also make great centerpieces. 

Favors:

Jumbo Sunglasses  have been given out on the dance floor for years. They are very popular for the party scene.

Animal Print Shoes  take a walk on the wild side.

Animal Print Bandanas
Roar of the Jungle! Our 22" square animal print bandana can also be used as a napkin. Great look when your theme takes you on a safari.

Jungle Beads
Party Animals! Our jungle beads come assorted in bronze, black and gold. Six wild animals will look great at your Circus Party. Wrap around a napkin for an interesting napkin ring.

3" Animal Finger Puppets
Safari for Your Fingers! Our 3" vinyl finger puppets are fun for kids of all ages. Use over the handle of your table wear to accent your theme or dance with animals on your fingers.

Use Animal Slap Bracelets for napkin rings or bracelets. 

8" Bean Bag Animals
Collect Them All! Our colorful assortment of Bean Bag Animals make great gifts and favors. Each of the animals are about 8". Assortment may vary.

Safari Hat
Jungle Theme! Our white plastic safari hat is an inexpensive way to take your guests on a safari. Don't forget to see our animal foam visors in our foam visor section to add to your safari.

Animal Print Fedora
Roar of the Jungle! Accent your party with the this new animal print fedora. The zebra stripe comes in assorted colors.

Animal Print Derby
Roar of the Jungle! Accent your Safari Party with our new zebra striped derby in assorted colors.

Faux Animal Bucket Hats
Real or Not Real! Only you will know for sure when you wear any of the 3 assorted Faux Animal Hats!

Animal Print Jester
Faux Animal Jester! Our velvet animal Jester will be a great accent for your safari.

Asst Plush Animals

Animal Wind Ups

Push Up Animal Bubbles

Wild Animal Tattoos

40mm Animal Super Balls

Games & Activities:

Don’t wait for the Ringling Brothers™ to come to town.  You can organize the “Greatest Birthday on Earth” with the help of some willing friends and family members.  

If the grown ups don’t want to dress in full clown regalia, we’ve got a  Clown Afro ,Jumbo Clown Bowtie ,Jumbo Sunglasses, and bright Clown Nose  for each one!  

Let little guests wander from booth to booth participating in whichever games or activities they choose, and then bring the whole gang together for cake and ice cream, picture taking, and a few group activities. 

Ask each child attending to come dressed as their favorite circus performer. If you really want to have fun have each child come with a circus act that they will perform or have a group of kids dress up as lions and another as the lion tamer and do a pretend Big Cat Act - lions jumping through a ring (hula hoop). 

• Give the lion tamer a Top Hat and a whip made from a long paper roll (rolls from gift wrap work well) with long crepe streamer stripes. 
• Other Circus Acts might include a strongmen; flying trapeze; juggling; balancing.
• Have children pretend to be prancing horses (high stepping around the ring); bareback riders doing fancy tricks);
• Circus Elephants (walking in line (tails to trunks), moving very slowly, balancing on a beam or "barrel").
• Tightrope Walkers (arms out at side as they balance along a masking tape line on floor - doing one legged turns, bows, etc. Add the balance beam and an umbrella.
• Acrobats (forward and backward rolls, cartwheels, splits etc).
• Elephants balancing; Lions and Tigers (jumping or stepping through hoops, prowling around the cage - snarling and lunging at the trainer, jumping off "barrels" pretend wrestling with each other).
• Be the Ringmaster of the circus in this Tuxedo Vest . Add a Top Hats or Derby.

Have a Circus Parade

Have guests dress-up & decorate their bikes, wagons, scooters, big wheel cars & etc. for a circus parade around the house or block. Fill a cardboard cage  with "Wild" Animals (stuffed animal toys).

Take a smaller box for each child and let them create their own wearable Circus Wagon. Cut a hole in the bottom of a cardboard box large enough for the child to slip his body through and slide down to waist level (Remove flaps and turn box over so the hole is at the top). Cover the boxes with bright colored self adhesive vinyl or paint boxes in bright circus colors (do this prior to the party). Place a cutout figure of a circus animal on both sides of the box (use coloring pages for the animals and have them blown up at a photo copy center). Take strips made with construction paper and glue over the top of the animals to form the bars for the cages. On other boxes just glue circus figures like acrobats, trapeze artists, jugglers, a elephant balancing on a stand, clowns & etc. The children can paint or color the pictures prior to gluing them to the boxes. To make straps for the kids to wear their circus wagons, staple a length of ribbon (or heavy string) on both sides of the front of the box, extend these over the top of the box and staple to the back of the box. Make sure the length of ribbon is long enough so that the child can slip them over there shoulders and the box will be a waist height. Criss Crossing the strips on the shoulders will prevent them from slipping off. Now you are ready for a Circus Parade.

Have an Air Band:

This is one of the best ways to kick-off a party! Hand-pick ten outgoing and enthusiastic people from your guest list to participate. These participants will be called to the front at the beginning of your party or just prior to the dancing. They will be introduced one by one as great musicians to fanfare and adulation. Each will be given an inflatable instrument to "play", guitars, saxophones, keyboards and even drums. The band will be asked to "warm-up" by playing a song together. They won't know what they will be playing until they hear the first few notes from the sound system, but once they do, it's wild! Your audience will go crazy watching and clapping along to your band (give it a catchy name). By the end of the song, your entire group will be up on their feet, and if you are having a dance, most will be on the dance floor. Although you are only five minutes into the event or dance time, your party will be in full swing.

For small children, give each child an  inflatable instrument and let them march around and pretend to play their instruments as you play Circus Music.

Set Up Booths

Game booths add to the décor and will provide the activities for the party

Hire a face painter or do the face painting yourself with a face painting kit.

Have a face painting booth, palm reader, dunking tank, fishing game, cake walk and other carnival type games set up. Be sure to have lots of help to run the different booths.( neighborhood teens are a good to enlist for this). Have lots of party favors for prizes at the booths.

Lollipop Pulls

Lollipop Pulls are a fun activity. Purchase at least one large lollipop   ( Blow pops or Tootsie pops) per guest. Decorate lollipops with clown faces, animal faces, Circus characters & etc. Select one lollipop and color the bottom of the stick "red". Stick all the lollipops into a Styrofoam base, making sure the "red" tip of the special lollipop is hidden. Set the base & lollipops on a table or in a booth. In turn, have each child pull out one lollipop. If it is the special, red tipped lollipop, the guest gets a prize. You can also make several special lollipops with different colored tips to correspond to prizes hanging on the wall with the same color code. For example: A green stuffed frog hanging on the wall would go to the child who picks the lollipop with the green tip. 

Clowns & Jugglers

Hire a clown to make balloon sculptures of animals for the kids. Jiggling is also a fun activity to include.

Circus Acts & Performers

Rather than hire a performer you may be able to find a teenager who does magic tricks who would come and do a few tricks for a few dollars. You can locate simple magic tricks under party favors. Check with a gymnastics school and hire some kids to come and do a routine or one of the kids attending the party may be in gymnastics and could do a acrobat routine. Don't forget the kids that take dance lessons, they could perform or those who play musical instruments. Is there a child who doesn't like bike, skateboard, roller blade tricks? Check with the moms of the party guests and find out if their child has a special talent and would like to perform. The ideas for acts for your Circus are limitless. I usually just tell the kids that we are having a circus and that they can perform their act at the Circus, you will be amazed at the things kids can come up with. Never require that a child perform, some are very shy. That's fine, they are the audience, along with the adults at the party.

Peanut Relay

Have a Peanut Relay. Give each child a spoon a roasted peanut in shell and see who can be the first to cross the finish line. You can also have them push the peanuts with their noses.

Mime Game

Have children pretend to be Mime's acting out animals, or circus characters for the other kid's to guess. Place ideas on a piece of paper in a hat, children pick a piece of paper, then imitate, without talking the animal or character that was drawn.

 Lion Tamer Game

One player is selected to be the "Lion Tamer" and the other are the "lions".  The Lion Tamer holds the ring (hula hoop) and wears a top hat. The game starts with the Lion Tamer holding the ring at ground level for all the lions to climb though, after the last person has climbed through the ring is raised slightly and the lions again must go through the hoop. This continues until a lion cannot make it through the hoop. That lion become the Lion Tamer and play starts again.

Tightrope Game

Make a tightrope on the ground using a 2 x 4 piece of lumber, have the children walk the tightrope. To make the game more challenging, have them walk holding an umbrella, with a book on their heads, holding the umbrella with a book on their head, wearing sunglasses with a thin layer of vasoline smeared on the glass lens & etc.

Animal Acts

Know someone who has animals ( dogs, talking birds, ponies & etc.) that do tricks? Enlist them for a circus acts.

Petting Zoo

There are usually Petting Zoo & Ponies listed in your yellow pages under entertainers.

Fun Games & Activities

• Go to a real circus performance

• Guess how many jelly beans in a jar.

• Ball, coin or ring toss games.

• Have a Balloon stomp.

• Jump rope games.

• Pin the nose on the clown or pin the trunk on the elephant.

• Relay Races

• Sack Races

• Teach juggling

• Giant bubbles

These activities will work best with the whole gang together.  Let the birthday child pick his or her favorites prior to the party:

Circus Arts & Crafts Links

Suggested book titles for a Circus Theme.

Food:

Set up food "booths" by setting up the treats on small tables with striped table cloths like a circus tent. Decorate them with brightly colored balloons and put up signs indicating the food served at each "booth." 

Serve:

• Hot dogs

• Corn dogs

• Candy apples

• Popcorn

• Popcorn ball clowns (recipe)

• Peanuts

• Clown cupcakes decorated with sugar sprinkles or animal cracker. 

• Rent a cotton candy or popcorn machine or serve up sweet treats just like at the circus.

• Make your own treat station where children can compile their own candy bag or ice cream sundae.

• Fill tubs with ice and set up a soda bar. 

Cotton Candy
Serve up sweet treats just like at the circus! Rent a Cotton Candy Machine from a local party rental company.   

Popcorn Ball Clowns
Popcorn Ball Clowns can be placed as favors at each place at the table. Prepare Popcorn Balls ( recipe below). To make clown faces, press small candies (life savers for eyes, red hot for nose & etc.) and nuts onto popcorn balls. Attach ears of candied fruit slices with toothpicks. Stick toothpick into the top of the popcorn ball; place an pointed ice cream upside down over the toothpick for hat. ( press gumdrop slices onto cone) Add a construction paper bow tie.

Pink Popcorn Balls
Place in large buttered bowl 7 cups of popped popcorn. In the bottom part of double boiler, heat about 1 inch water to boiling. Place in top part of double boiler, 3 cups miniature marshmallows, 2 tablespoons butter & 1/4 tsp. salt. Set over boiling water and stir until marshmallows are melted. Tint pink by adding a few drops of red food coloring. Pour marshmallow mixture over popcorn and stir gently to coat. Grease hands well with butter and quickly shape popcorn into 10 medium-sized balls. Makes 10 popcorn balls.

Popcorn Cupcakes
Make by using mini marshmallows, cut a slit in each one to make it look like popcorn, then cover the top of the frosted cupcake with the marshmallow popcorn.

Monkey Pops 
Peel bananas and cut in half (across the middle). Push a Popsicle stick through the flat end, until it’s inserted at least halfway through each banana. Place bananas into freezer bags and place into freezer until party time. Dip frozen banana pops into yogurt or chocolate sauce and serve. 

Clown Cone Sundaes 
Scoop a large round ball of ice cream into each bowl. Add an upside-down sugar cone to each scoop as the clown hat. Next push gumdrops into the ice cream to form eyes and nose; also press 1 onto end of cone for a hat pompom. Cut a piece of licorice to form mouth. Drizzle sauce to form hair. 

Big Top Lollipops 
Put hard candies (bulk candy stores are great sources for this) in a variety of bright colors into plastic bag and crush into 1/4-inch chunks with hammer. Invite everyone to design their own Big Top in any color combination they wish by placing candy chunks together on foil-covered cookie sheets. (Keep each Big Top pile about 3 inches apart.) Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees until candy melts together nicely (about 5-10 minutes). Remove from oven, immediately press end of a lollipop stick into bottom of the Big Top Lollipop. Cool and serve. 

Balloon Cake

Suggested Circus Book Titles

• If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss-Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Walt Disney's Dumbo-Reading level: Baby-Preschool
  
• The Circus of Words by Richard Lederer, Dave Morice (Illustrator), Lederer Richard-Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Harold's Circus by Crockett Johnson-Reading level: Baby-Preschool
  
• Circus! : A Pop-Up Adventure by Meg Davenport (Illustrator), Lisa V. Werenko, Andrew Baron (Illustrator)-Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Clifford at the Circus by Norman Bridwell-Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Circus Stickers (Dover Little Activity Books) by Nina Barbaresi-Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Felix Joins the Circus by Annette Langen-Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• See the Circus (Lift the Flap Series) by H. A. Rey-Reading level: Baby-Preschool
  
• Morris and Boris at the Circus (I Can Read) by Bernard Wiseman-Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Circus Act (Nancy Drew Notebooks, No 42) by Carolyn Keene-Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Thomas Goes to the Circus (Toddler Board Book) by Josie Yee- Reading level: Baby-Preschool

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