by Silva Payne

Created on: August 28, 2010

Monkey theme parties are great fun for boys and girls. They can be as boisterous and noisy as you can stand, and leave the children tired but happy. A few tips on creating a monkey theme for your child's party will help them have a party to remember.

Your first item to monkey-fy are the invitations. You might be able to find some ready made invitations with a jungle or monkey theme on, but if not you can make your own. Look online for monkey clip-art or images and copy and past these into a word document.

Type up the details of the party (where, what time, the occasion etc) and paste the images around the words. Try to fit 2 whole invitations onto a single page. When you print them off, simply cut the sheet of paper in half.

For small children, you might want to have a fancy dress monkey party. Costumes for monkeys are very simple. Just a black or brown long sleeved T-shirt or sweatshirt, with some black or brown leggings or sweat pants make the monkey body. You can use a beanie or balaclava knitted hat and sew on some big monkey ears. Alternatively you can add monkey ears to a hair band for girls.

To make a monkey tail, take a stocking or cut one leg from an old pair of tights (hose). Scrunch up balls of newspaper and push into the leg to fill it. Tie the end closed and sew roughly onto the back of your child's leggings or sweat pants.

If your party is to be in the summer, you may want to have it at an adventure playground. This allows the kids plenty of space to run around and climb on things just like real monkeys do. Older children may prefer to go to an indoor climbing wall instead where they can be supervised with all the right safety equipment.

If your party is to be at home, you will need some monkey themed games to entertain the children. Passing a banana down a line of kids without using their hands is a fun game to play. Musical Monkeys is a fun version of musical statues as the children have to pretend to be monkeys instead of just dancing until the music stops.

Decorating your home for a monkey party is also very simple. Anything tree-like will add to the atmosphere. You can also make your own bunting, using leaf shapes instead of the traditional flags or triangles.

Monkey party food can be based on a banana theme too, although monkeys do eat other things as well! Instead of the usual jelly and ice cream, you could make some individual chilled banana and custard pots. You may have to cater to children with a range of food allergies, so having monkey decorated plates, cups and tableware may be an easier alternative.

The birthday cake will be the centrepiece of the party table. You can make a simple monkey cake by making a round cake for the face with a smaller round cake cut in half to make 2 ears. Piece together with jam, cover with brown fondant icing and use coloured fondant shapes for the face.

Monkey theme parties for children are easy to organise and are great fun for the kids.

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