Ice Cream Birthday Party

Today I’m sharing my daughter’s ice cream birthday party, with all the details so you can create a fantastic ice cream party of your own!

This ice cream party was for my daughter’s 7th birthday in the middle of summer, and it was amazing! The guests loved the ice cream sundae bar, and I loved how easy it was to host! No baking required, and hardly any prep work either. I just put out all the sundae toppings in little bowls, and brought the ice cream out of the freezer when it was time to serve. I helped the younger guests make their sundaes and the adults helped themselves – so easy! From now on, my girls will only be getting ice cream birthday parties lol!

If you’d like to recreate this party, or get a few tips for your ice cream party, read on for all the details!

Ice Cream Birthday Party

I used my ice cream party printables (available in my Etsy shop) to decorate this party. I also used a DIY ice cream shoppe backdrop and some party supplies I picked up from the dollar store and Michael’s.

Ice Cream Party Printables:

• “Ice Cream Shoppe” pennant banner
• “Happy Birthday” pennant banner
• Ice cream cone garland
• “Welcome to our ice cream party” sign
• “Make your own ice cream sundae” sign
• Cone wrappers
• Food tent cards for labeling the toppings
• Party circles for labeling the sauce bottles, and adding a fun touch to the toppings bowls
• Water bottle wrappers
• Favor bag toppers

All of these printables (plus a few more) can be purchased as part of the Ice Cream Party Printables Package from my shop.

I printed all of these on white cardstock and trimmed them out with my paper trimmer.

I hung the banners on fishing line with mini wooden clothespins, which matched with the wood spoons and waffle cones. This also made it super easy to hang and adjust as needed (no poking holes in the paper to get string in!). I tied the fishing line to the pallet backdrop for one banner, and to the table legs for the other.

I attached the sauce labels with a simple white string, and I taped the toppings party circles to wood popsicle sticks, because toothpicks would have been too short to stay up in my bowls.

Ice Cream Party Supplies and Other Decorations:

• Wood pallet (painted white and pink)
• 2 white 8×10 picture frames
• White cotton table cloth
• Turquoise double bucket
• Pink bucket
• White cake stand
• Pink and white striped paper bowls
• Yellow napkins
• Wood spoons
• Acrylic craft paint (white, pink, yellow, turquoise)
• Wood popsicle sticks
• Fishing line
• Mini wood clothespins
• Tape
• String

Tip: Set up your party table at least a day before your party and do a practice run of your decorations and placement of food (use empty dishes or place holders). If you’re able to, set them up completely and leave them until the party. If you can’t fully set up early, gather all of your things and work out how they will be hung, what dishes you’ll use and where they will go, and make sure you have everything you need for the party.

DIY Ice Cream Party Decor:

I made two crafty DIY party decorations for this ice cream party.

1. Painted wood pallet party table backdrop.

My husband collects old wood pallets for building stuff, so I took one from his stash and used it for my table backdrop. (You can often pick these up for free! Look for one with small gaps between the boards.) I painted the boards white and light pink to match the vertical stripes of my party printables.

2. Painted wood spoons.

I picked up these wooden spoons from the Michael’s dollar bins, but they had red and green designs on the handles. So I painted over the handles of each of my 32 spoons, using a small paintbrush and acrylic paints in light pink, yellow and light turquoise. About half of the spoons needed a second coat because the old design was showing through. The paint dried really quickly, so I was able to do the second coat almost immediately, and the whole project only took about 15 minutes total. I love how they perfectly matched the rest of my party decor!

Ice Cream Birthday Party Food:

I served vanilla ice cream, with these sundae toppings:

• Chocolate sauce
• Strawberry sauce
• Caramel sauce
• Chocolate chips
• Salted roasted peanuts
• Mini marshmallows
• Sprinkles
• Chocolate and cream sandwich cookies
• Cherries

Tip: If you don’t have enough of a topping to fill a bowl (and you don’t think you’ll need more), put a filler at the bottom of your bowl like a white napkin, wax paper etc. before adding the topping, to visually fill up the bowl.

I bought a can of whipped cream for the party as well, but I forgot to bring it out of the fridge, oops!

I set out waffle cones, waffle cone bowls, and wax paper bowls for guests to choose from.

We also served hot dogs and potato chips during the party.

For drinks we had water bottles, and juice boxes for the kids.

I didn’t have a birthday cake or cupcakes. Everyone was happy with ice cream, and my daughter got to blow out her candle on top of her sundae 🙂

For more ice cream party food and treat ideas, see this post.

Ice Cream Birthday Party Fun:

I didn’t plan any activities or games for this party – it was in our backyard where we have a playground, sandbox, playhouse and kitchen, as well as a trampoline, so the kids had a blast playing together in between eating and opening presents.

For five great ice cream party activities, check out my ice cream party ideas post here.

Even though I found 40 awesome ice cream party ideas, from DIY pinatas to ice cream cake cupcakes, my goal with this party was NOT to stretch myself to do EVERYTHING, and to keep it fairly simple. Sure I could have done even less, but I think it was a nice balance between party prep, and enjoying the summer heat. I actually went to bed at a decent hour the night before, slept well, and I wasn’t at all stressed about it – which is so unusual for me!

I’m super happy with the way the party looked, and how everyone had a good time at the party including me! It was my favorite party to host thus far, so I’m definitely taking some lessons away for next time!

I hope I’ve inspired you with some tips and ideas for your ice cream birthday party!