Birthday party ideas with a theme

A year-you-were-born party

Pick the birthday person’s birth year and build the evening around it. Read out events from the birth year pages and ask guests to guess the month. Ask everyone to bring one thing from that year, or something that looks as if it could be. Finish with the Christmas Number 1 from that year as the last song.

A dinosaur party

Bury plastic “fossils” in a sand tray for a dig, then sort the finds into meat-eaters and plant-eaters. For a quiz round, the dinosaur quiz on dinosaurs.im picks ten questions at random, and every answer comes with its source.

For a bigger game, the Dinosaur Escape Room, a printable puzzle game for kids (paid download, $5.99) turns the party into a team challenge.

A space party

Make planets from balloons in the right order from the Sun, and hand out name badges for each one. The planet file on planets.im has the facts for a quiz, from the Sun out to Pluto.

Want a ready-made game? The Space Escape Room, a printable planet puzzle game for kids (paid download, $5.99) is made for a group.

An aircraft party

Hold a paper aeroplane contest with prizes for the longest flight, the best loop and the most stylish landing on the cake table (well away from the candles). Then try the Identify that aircraft quiz on aeroplanes.im. Born in 1976 or 1986? Concorde is in both years, and aeroplanes.im has its story.