Simple Space Themed Birthday Party (So Easy!)

Here’s how we put together a fun and inexpensive Space Themed Birthday Party when my son turned five years old! It is the perfect, easy birthday party to host if you have a future astronaut, solar system lover, or planet obsessed kiddo on your hands. I’m sharing my space themed birthday party snacks, space themed party favors, and space themed party decoration ideas.

Hosting a Space Themed Birthday Party

Today’s post is a little more mom and a little less food blogger. As you may have read, Logan turned 5 last week. We had our Solar System birthday party on Saturday and I have to share pictures and details.

We were all so happy how it turned out, especially birthday boy. And the nice thing too is Logan and his friends are all at that age where they just play, instead of all the moms telling all the kids what they should be doing. Everyone was just so excited about everything. Definitely a fun party!

The weather really cleared up in the afternoon and the kids were able to play in the backyard for quite a while with the sun shining.

A few moms were there with the kids while others dropped the kids off. It was the perfect balance of having a little extra adult help without feeling over crowded.

Space Themed Birthday Party Snacks

Here are the space themed birthday party snacks that I prepared for Planet Birthday Party:

• Alien Heads = Grapes (Try Freezing Grapes)
• Saturn’s Rings = Lifesavers
• Shooting Stars = Star shaped cheese (sliced cheese cup with cookie cutters)
• Flying Saucers = Round Crackers
• Asteroids = Popcorn (You can even make your own Microwave Popcorn)
• Crescent Moons = Apple Wedges
• Astronaut Water = Capri Sun Roarin’ Waters
• Planet Cupcakes = Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes with Vanilla Almond Frosting

I kept the birthday party snacks simple and inexpensive, because I didn’t want to go totally crazy with preparations or spend a ton of money. They’re just 5 year olds.

The kids were CRACKING UP LAUGHING at all the funny names I had given the birthday party snacks, like it was the most hilarious thing they had ever heard.

For the Planet Themed Cupcakes

For dessert, I made these Chocolate Cupcakes. To keep things super simple, since 5 year olds don’t need anything complicated to be happy, I printed out photos of all of the planets on card stock.

I found high resolution images on NASA’s website. Then, glued them onto popsicle sticks and placed them in each of the cupcakes. There you go! Super easy Planet Cupcakes.

To display the cupcakes, ! covered our kitchen island in a black tablecloth and arranged the planets in order of their location in the solar system with tons of glow in the dark stars all around the planets.

I had a bright yellow plate that I used to represent the sun. This space themed birthday was so easy and PERFECT for my 5 year old.

Space Themed Birthday Party Favors:

I couldn’t have a Solar System Birthday Party without space themed party favors. Here’s what I came up with for the kids:

• Orbit Gum – get it??? Like a planet’s orbit. TOO PERFECT. I couldn’t pass it up when I saw it in the candy isle.
• Bouncy balls with silver glitter inside – pretend the silver glitter pieces are stars
• Glow in the dark foam star stickers
• The Planets, by Holst
• A solar system booklet I put together and got printed on card stock at Kinko’s. They ended up being too thick to staple, so I put them together with rings instead. That also gives the flexibility to add more pages if you want to.

Again on keeping it simple. I bought the gum in multi-packs so it cost less, balls and stickers were inexpensive. The biggest cost was the booklet, at about $1.66 each.

I made the cover to match his invites and had pages on each of the planets with a little fact. The cover of the booklet was the only page that I printed in color (cost less). The inside was printed coloring book style.

I had really wanted to let Logan decorate the brown sacks with space stickers, but I couldn’t find any! Everything is characterized these days, so we printed NASA’s logo and he taped them on.

Space Themed Birthday Party Decorations

For our decorations I put a disposable black tablecloth with glow in the dark stars all over on our kitchen table. We hung blue and black balloons on each chair at the table and then big clusters behind the table around our windows.

Logan loved all this presents and has been having so much fun this weekend playing with them. We went to the park this afternoon and flew his new kite and built a lego car this morning (his first set of big boy legos). I really love this book he got. Isn’t it perfect??

I really owe a big thanks to all my friends on Twitter for helping me put together this Planet Birthday Party. You guys were invaluable sources of ideas and creativity for this party when my brain was too tired to think.

We had a very busy week with lots of appointments that weren’t near our house. I had so much to do and wasn’t sleeping well and was so worried about how the party would turn out.

In the end I pulled it together. And it was worth it! Logan can’t stop being so amazed at the cool party and the fact that he’s now FIVE years old. I can hardly believe it myself!

More Party Ideas

Looking for more fun, easy birthday party ideas? Here are a few other easy kids birthday parties that I’ve put together for my kids:

Carnival Birthday Party – One year for my daughter’s birthday we hosted a carnival themed party. I shared all of our easy snack ideas, decoration ideas, and birthday treats. Included in the post is a free birthday invitation printable and thank you card.

Logan’s Birthday falls near Dr. Seuss’ Birthday, so one year we had a simple Dr. Seuss Themed Birthday Party. Check out our snack and activity ideas.