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GOING-TO-HARVEST PARTY
The air is crisp, the nights are cool, the leaves on the
trees are changing their colors. It’s fall—and it’s a great
time to plan a party around all the fun that the season has to offer. If your child has a birthday party anytime from September to mid-October, a fall harvest theme can’t be beat.
THE VENUE
Your backyard or the neighborhood park are easy, breezy choices, but a local farm stands out as the top choice if you are able to find one that allows parties. Complete with hay rides, plus apple and/or pumpkin picking, a farm captures the fun of fall.
THE INVITATIONS
Cut out leaf shapes or autumn harvest shapes and either place them on card stock and include all the information inside or place the party information on the back of the pictures you have cut out.
THE DECORATIONS
For your party decorations, orange, brown and yellow are the colors of choice for the balloons, streamers and tableware. Leaf-patterned tablecloths and plates also fit the theme nicely. Set out mini pumpkins as your centerpiece and, should you be so inclined to go the extra mile, tall corn husks and bales of hay take the look to the next level.
THE ACTIVITIES
Paint and decorate mini pumpkins and let the kids take them home as a souvenir.
Make scarecrow candy necklaces.
Sponge-paint place mats with leaf shapes.
Bob for apples.
Have a pumpkin-rolling contest. Divide the kids into two teams and provide a pumpkin to each team. Have the kids roll it to one end and back and pass it along to the next person.
Throw a hula hoop around a large pumpkin.
If you have bales of hay, have the kids jump over the bales of hay as an obstacle relay race.
Enjoy a hay ride, if the party is at a farm.
String up donuts and tie the kids’ arms behind their backs. Have them eat the donuts off the line without using their hands.
Have a scavenger hunt outdoors. If at night, hand out glow sticks for the kids to search for the loot.
Fill a large cardboard box with leaves and place toys in the leaves. Have the kids put their hands inside the box and pick out a toy.
Play Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin.
Play Hot Pumpkin (a version of Hot Potato).
THE MENU
BBQ is always good for this type of party. You can spice things up with spareribs.
Chili is also an excellent option. Have all the fix’ns so that people can enjoy topping it off.
Make corn bread muffins.
Make Rice Krispies Treats and add orange food coloring to them. Stick them on a popsicle stick for a treat.
Serve apple cider. As an added treat, place caramels on fancy sticks and have the kids use them to stir their apple cider for hot caramelized apple cider.
Make caramel apples.
Make sugar cookies cut out into autumn shapes. Have the kids decorate the cookies with frosting and candies.
Make a batch of cupcakes and ice them with orange frosting and little black, orange and white sprinkles. The kids can always do the decorating.
As a party goody, purchase small plastic pumpkins, which are so popular as trick-or-treat containers this time of year. Fill it with all things fall, like caramel apple cider packets with a cinnamon stick, little themed notebooks, pencils, erasers, pumpkin candy and candy corn packets.
Enjoy the season with your family and friends!
Lisa Kothari is the founder and president of Peppers and Pollywogs (www.peppersandpollywogs.com),
a kids’ party-planning company that provides parents with ideas, entertainers and interesting web-based tools (customized rhymes and cards for your invitations!) to make kids’ party planning easy. She has recently written and published Dear Peppers and Pollywogs… What Parents Want to Know About Planning Their Kids’ Parties, which is available at www.amazon.com and www.peppersandpollywogs.com.
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