Unicorn party ideas: Start with lots of sparkle

An important thing to decide when you’re throwing a Unicorn Party: Is it about unicorns or for unicorns or inspired by unicorns? The answer will determine the direction of your Unicorn Party Ideas. It’s this kind of question Hallmark Signature Designers Lisa H. and Piper W. wrestle with, y’all. Because it is their job. 

Unicorn party ideas: Girl blows out candles on unicorn cake; garlands on backdrop

Hallmark Signature unicorn birthday card as place setting on pink-rimmed china

Stack of birthday gifts in Hallmark gift wrap; balloons and garlands as backdrop

PIPER: We spend all this time playing with iridescent foil. And one day we thought, “This needs to be all over everything.”

LISA: We work with sparkles all day.

PIPER: So we wondered if it would be cool to have a unicorn birthday party.

LISA: Things escalated quickly.

PIPER: My daughter is seven and loves all things glitter. So we invited some of her best friends.

LISA: It was all about being inspired by your daughter and the magic and wonder of childhood. And it was super girly. We were basically living out our childhood dreams.

PIPER: And my adult dreams. But…we were trying to think like little kids. It’s not about what we want—it’s about what they want.

Unicorn Party ideas: the basics

LISA: You don’t have to have unicorns everywhere.

PIPER: We didn’t want the traditional face on a unicorn cake.

LISA: Instead, we were trying to capture the essence of the magical, mystical unicorn.

PIPER: You don’t have to get hung up on everything matching. It’s all about magic and sparkle.

LISA: You’re really trying to capture a feeling. We wanted ours to feel like a fancy tea party.

Unicorn Party ideas: Table covered with layered, shimmery cloths, set with mis-matched china, balloons and garlands as backdrop

Overhead view of Unicorn Party treats: unicorn cookies, candy, meringues and unicorn bark

Printable unicorn table decor hand-colored and decorated with gemstones and glitter

Pro-tips:

  • Start with a simple palette of 3-4 colors. For this Unicorn Party, it was pink, lavender, aqua, and glitter. And yes, “glitter” counts as a color.
  • Plan your table, decor, and food around the color palette. Go to your grandma’s china cabinet, your craft closet, party stores, and thrift stores with your color palette and start pulling things together.
  • Remember the sparkle. Look for iridescent, opalescent, and otherwise shimmery materials—fabrics, papers, ribbons, attachments.

Unicorn Party decoration ideas

LISA: We did lots of layering. We layered different fabrics—a silver table runner over a purple table cover.

PIPER: Cyrena M., one of our Designers, made a backdrop of balloons and balls and flowers and garlands.

LISA: We used a bunch of mismatched plates, platters, and bowls. You could also go to a party store and get solid color plates to mix and match. And fancy plastic champagne flutes.

PIPER: We wanted things to feel light and airy. Oh! And confetti. Lots of confetti.

Unicorn Party wall decor: balloons, paper flowers, honeycomb balls, garlands

Girls drinking blue-colored milk at Unicorn Party

Pro-tips:

  • There is no such thing as too much—of anything. For wall decor, we started with three different kinds of garlands: tassels, strung confetti, and sewn circles. Then we added balloons, honeycomb balls, and paper flowers (see examples here and here and here and here).
  • Chaos can be beautiful. We threw confetti all over the table, piled candy and cookies high, and let balloons bob around on the floor.

Unicorn Party activities & extras

LISA: Megan R., our Creative Assistant, made adorable unicorn headbands. The birthday girl, of course, got the special golden horn.

PIPER: We had a coloring activity—these printed unicorns the girls could decorate.

Headband decorated with unicorn horn and ears

Girl wearing headband decorated with unicorn horn and ears

Printed Unicorn paper craft (available in blog)

Girl coloring unicorn paper craft with colored pencils

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE UNICORN STAND-UPS, PRINT THEM ON CARD STOCK, AND CUT THEM OUT. HAVE MARKERS, GEMS, GLITTER, AND GLUE ON HAND FOR DECORATING.

LISA: You could have extras for the girls to put on—tutus, spray on hair glitter, nail polish.

PIPER: All of our Unicorn Party ideas should do one thing: make each girl feel super-special.

Girl opening presents at Unicorn birthday party

Two girls reading a Signature unicorn birthday card

Four girls dancing and throwing balloons

LISA: After all the sugar, we put on fun music and had a unicorn dance party.

PIPER: Things got a little rowdy.

Unicorn Party Menu

Editor’s note: While it is awesome to have a team of crazy-talented designers to help with your Unicorn Party, you can also do it with your crazy-talented friends, or just your crazy-talented self and maybe Pinterest.

Cake frosted in white with lavender drizzle; topped with pink and blue sprinkles, meringues, and unicorn bark and "yay" lettering in gold glitter

Unicorn cookie

Girls at table with cake, eating unicorn cookies

White lace-edged plate holding unicorn cookies; bowl with rock candy in pink, purple, and blue

Cake sliced to swirled colors on the inside

Girl eating a slice of birthday cake

  • Meringues: Use this recipe, but gently swirl two colors of food coloring into the egg white mixture, stopping before they’re completely mixed.
  • Unicorn bark: Instead of nuts and cranberries, add fancy sprinkles.
  • Birthday cake: We (and by “we” we mean Creative Assistant Kelsey D., who also made the bark) swirled different shades of food coloring in the batter for each layer, frosted it in white, drizzled it with lavender glaze, and topped it with meringues, unicorn bark, and fancy sprinkles.
  • Unicorn cookies: We did not make these gorgeous things, because we have Bernard S.
  • Flavored milk: Our local Shatto dairy makes this amazing cotton-candy milk. You could use strawberry flavoring or add food coloring.

So…be honest…are you inspired to throw a Unicorn Party? If so, we wanna see your pictures. And if you have more unicorn party ideas, share those, too! Tag us on Instagram or share on Facebook.

To see the Hallmark Signature unicorn cards that inspired this whole thing, go here. And check out our unicorn-party-appropriate gift wrap, too.

Comments

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  1. 7.25.18 | Reply

    Wow, this entire party was so tastefully done! I love the color scheme unicorn coloring hand-outs. Going to try something similar for my daughter’s party next weekend!

    • 7.25.18 | Reply
      Trish B. wrote:

      Thank you and YAY! Please-oh-please show off your photos! (You can tag @think.make.share on Instagram…)
      —Trish

  2. 2.26.19 | Reply
    Desiree wrote:

    where can i find that purple table cloth and sparkle runner? love the shade of purple, perfect!