How to Throw a ‘Bluey’-Inspired Birthday Party—Without Spending a Billion Dollar-Bucks

Are you even having a kids’ party in 2024 if the invite doesn’t include a punny (or insider-y) reference to the theme and your spawn’s age? Are you?! Eyeroll all you want, but you know that it’s part of the fun. Here are a few ideas that parents shared:

• This Episode of Bluey Is Called…[NAME]’s Birthday!
• [Name] Wasn’t “Born Yesterday”—She’s [AGE]!
• Wackadoo, [NAME] is 2!
• Like Muffin, [NAME] Is Young, Wild & 3
• Goodbye Trifficult Twos, [NAME] is 3!
• Four Real Life, it’s [NAME]’s birthday!
• Are You Cereal?! [NAME] is [AGE]!
• Oh, biscuits! It’s [NAME]’s birthday!
• Break out the duck cake, it’s [NAME]’s birthday!

To set the mood, all you really need is a photo backdrop and a tightly edited color palette. Blue, orange, tan and navy is an obvious choice here, and will make the room feel decorated, without forcing you to cover every inch of the party area.

For $13, this backdrop-and-props combo is a solid (if flimsy) choice, letting people rock Rita and Janet’s granny glasses or pose with Chattermax in front of the Heeler family home.

If you’re feeling extra—and want something a little more elevated—try ordering an on-trend metal arch and covering one side with a blue balloon arch. Flank with a pair of Bluey and Bingo 32-inch-tall balloons, add some streamers overhead and coordinating tablecloths, and you can call it a day.

Recreating Bandit’s infamous duck cake (complete with a potato chip beak) is a solid option, though I’ll be honest: Recreating Bluey’s face out of cake is a fun afternoon project that’s pretty hard to mess up. Honestly. After making it for my daughter’s birthday using a 9”x13” pan and gobs of buttercream frosting, a few friends asked for a step-by-step breakdown, which I shared on Pinterest. Since then, I’ve received nearly a dozen DMs from people who’ve made Bluey and Bingo variations, all much better than my original homage to the Blue Heeler.

Cake aside, you can’t go wrong with any of these bites inspired by the show:

• Banana and peanut butter mini sandwiches (or cheese and jam, if your kids’ tastes are more Bluey than Bingo)
• ‘Muffin’ muffins
• Hammerbarn Sausage Sizzles (or pigs in a blanket, if you prefer)
• Hammerbarn Pineapple Pizzas (red onion and arugula optional)
• Fruit(bat) Kabobs
• Pavlova Bites
• Edamame

Ah, Bluey—kudos to you for keeping kids’ imaginations alive with plenty of (free!) games. The show itself is rife with easy activities to replicate, such as:

• Pass the Parcel (Lucky’s Dad’s version, of course) — Cover a treat or small toy in layers and layers of wrapping paper. Start playing music, instructing kids to sit in a circle and pass the item from person to person. When the music stops, the person holding the present gets to unwrap one layer. Repeat until the gift is unwrapped, and whoever’s holding it gets to keep it.
• Keepy Uppy — Grab a red balloon, fill it with air and do everything you can to keep it from touching the ground. Once it does, the game (or that round) is over.
• Toilet Tag — Imagine freeze tag, only anyone frozen has to sit down and pretend to be a toilet until someone who’s not it comes by and “flushes” them to free them. Anyone transformed into a toilet three times is out, until you have one victor remaining.
• What’s the Time, Mrs. Wolf? — Like Red Light, Green Light, one person (aka “Mrs. Wolf”) stands at one end of the room, with their back turned to the crowd. Everyone else stands on the opposite end and shouts, “What’s the time Mrs. Wolf?” Mrs. Wolf whips around and announces a time, such as “3 o’clock,” before turning her back to the group once again. The time = the number of steps people can take toward our dear wolf. Once everyone gets very close, watch out—Mrs. Wolf can answer that “it’s dinnertime!” and chase the other players. If she tags someone before they return to the starting line, they’re the new Mrs. Wolf.

…or Granny glasses. Setting up a craft station where kids can make either accessory from the series is sure to be a hit.

• For the Featherwands: These blue and gold feathers are a pretty solid match for the ones in the show. To take things to the next level, you could put out ¼-inch dowels, ribbon, strings of plastic beads and tape, letting kids go wild designing their own, fancier wands. Just watch out for any “heavy!” commands afterward.
• For the Granny glasses: Order spectacles-style sunglasses in bulk, and put out a range of items to accessorize them with, from rhinestones to buttons to feathers to Bluey stickers. Adhesive dots can help hold things in place, unless you want to arm two parents with hot glue guns and let them man the “application and cooldown station,” so the tools stay away from little hands.

No, not tantrums—those can occur naturally enough on their own. I’m talking party outfits, because there’s a whole world of Bluey merch worth exploring. Hanna Andersson offers swimsuits and pajamas alike, perfect for a sleepunder or pool party, Target has cornered the sundress market and there are all kinds of shirts—even buttondowns for the Bandit Dads among us—worth considering.