Both of our kids love story time. Every day, I let them pick out books to read before nap, and they almost always choose from our many Dr. Seuss books. Since my daughter loves those books so much, I decided to throw her a Seuss party for her 3rd birthday. While some of the decorations were bought online or from the store, I was able to save some money by making the rest of the Dr. Seuss party decorations myself. This was a very fun party to decorate for because Dr. Seuss’ work provides plenty of colorful imagery for inspiration.
The party guests were met at the front door by a Cat in the Hat inspired welcome wreath. I will share the easy tutorial for the wreath later this week, so be sure to check back in!
I have used dollar store poster board to make decorations for almost all of my kids’ birthday parties, and this year two sheets of poster board was enough to make several signs and decorations. The cool thing about a Seuss theme is that the drawings don’t have be precise and no lines need to be straight. The wonkier it is, the more Seussical it looks!
Our collection of Dr. Seuss books provided more decoration around the house. I just propped them up on the mantel and on tables all around the living and dining rooms.
Another poster board decoration invited the guests to have a little snack when they first arrived. Again, the Seuss-based drawings were just freehanded and colored with the kids’ markers. Nothing fancy, but still a fun touch.
I found the cute felt birthday banner at Goodwill, but when I hung it up, I found out why it had been donated. There was a pretty obvious misspelling! Thankfully I had some green felt in my fabric stash so I could fix it before party time.
The Seuss characters around the door were part of a set I ordered from Amazon (affiliate link). I maybe could have made them myself using poster board and saved some money, but in this case I was willing to spend a few more dollars to save the time and effort.
Most of the party decorations were centered in the dining room where the buffet was set up. I used a red dollar store tablecloth and made a colorful runner from a roll of dollar store wrapping paper.
I also hung lots of colorful tissue poms from the ceiling — the tutorial for those is coming soon too.
The table centerpiece was made from feather covered foam balls skewered onto bendy straws. The straws were stuck into floral foam, which was then covered with plastic shred. Almost all of the elements of the centerpiece were from the dollar store!
On one wall of the dining room, I hung quotes from Dr. Seuss books to see how well the party guests knew their Seuss. I found the cute papers in Target’s dollar spot earlier in the year and hung them on the wall with dollar store washi tape. I used the same red and white striped tape on the serving bowls and party favors to tie things together.
TIP: Dollar store washi tape comes in lots of cute patterns, but doesn’t come off as easily as regular washi. It has a price tag-like quality to it; it leaves some adhesive behind when you try to remove it. It comes off eventually, but it takes a bit more work.
So, how well do you know your Seuss? Can you identify the books that these quotes came from?
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- “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
- “Today is gone. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one. From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!”
- “I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny, but we can have lots of good fun that is funny.”
- “For a host, above all, must be kind to his guests.”
- “This was no time to play. This was no time for fun. This was no time for games. There was work to be done.”
- “If you will let me be, I will try them. You will see.”
- “What do you know about tweedle beetles?”
- “Then he got an idea! An awful idea!”
- “No, Pat, No! Don’t sit on that!”
- “X is very useful if your name is Nixie Knox. It also comes in handy spelling ax and extra fox.”
I will be sharing the rest of the homemade details of my daughter’s Dr. Seuss throughout the week.
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