DIY Gingerbread Birthday Party

I thought I was being so smart when I set out to throw my son a Gingerbread Boy themed birthday party.   His birthday is December 12th and I just knew there would be plenty of gingerbread decor out with the holidays around the corner.

Not so much the case...

So, that meant I had to get creative!  Which actually turned out to be pretty fun since I hadn't waited until the last minute.  Had I waited, I would have totally caved and gone with something else because it was not easy finding items that fit the look I was going for.

I ended up stretching the gingerbread theme a tad and incorporating a lot of red, white, and green candy that would be on a gingerbread house since those items were easier to find for utensils, plates, etc.  I think it all tied in pretty nicely and the kids all enjoyed the treats and decorations.

I didn't serve a meal since the party was at 2:00 in the afternoon, but we had plenty of sweet and savory snacks on hand for the guests.  I really went with the green and red theme since it was so easy and honestly, I know this is the last year I get to choose the theme so I rolled with it.  Next year it will probably be Blaze or Ninja Turtles or something the little man requests.

I printed the cupcake markers from this shop on Etsy.   I was able to instantly download them and print them myself.  I found some cake pop sticks in the clearance bin at my local grocery store and just cut them in half.  I attached the cupcake topper to the stick with festive washi tape.

One of my Beachbody teammates has a little dessert business on the side and she makes incredible cookies.  I ordered these gingerbread men as favors for each child that attended the party.

In lieu of party bags I gave each child the gingerbread cookies above as well as a gingerbread man cookie cutter with a gingerbread play-dough recipe to make at home.  The play-dough is incredible!  It smells just like gingerbread.

CT was super excited about the cupcakes...obviously.  

I made the fabric bunting using gingerbread and candy themed fabric following this tutorial.

I had a really cute gingerbread man shirt made for CT, but it was uncharacteristically HOT so we had to resort to this t-shirt for the party.  His shirt was long-sleeve and it was entirely too hot for that.

Who would have thought it would be 75 degrees on December 12th?!

Leggings from JCPenney

He loved opening his gifts and wanted each one "out" as soon as it was opened.  

The next morning he woke up and played with his new toys for hours!  It makes me so excited to see what Christmas morning is like.