Kid Party. Adult Drink.

This blog will never be about just a laundry list of ideas — and in this case, a bunch of themes for a kids birthday party. What this post is about though is a hack to get you and your kid’s friend’s parents a little more engaged in the party beyond making sure little Timmy is behaving in the bouncy house. Adult beverages. On theme.

I have made custom cocktails for the past couple years at my niece’s birthday parties and it has been a hit. It’s something a little stronger than beer to help take the edge off of a stressed mom and dad, lets the single Aunt or Uncle have a little fun and it is a conversation piece that adds to the party theme the parents worked so hard at bringing together.

I will share my last couple ideas below, but first a little “formula” to help you come up with ideas for your kid’s party.

First. Think of key components of the party theme. Is it character driven (Sesame Street, Paw Patrol, Spiderman)? Maybe you develop a drink around them. Is it a more general theme (cars, a sport, firemen/women)? Here you can focus on words or colors.

Second. Think of a cocktail that you want to make that you already like but that can also easily fit into your theme. If you want to explore a little, google different types of cocktails. So for instance...you like tequila? And the party is Spiderman? How about “Peter Parker’s Paloma”? (Say that after a few drinks).

Third. Find a way to take the cocktail just over the top a little. The paloma...maybe make it red for Spiderman. Add some grenadine to make it red. Just keep it a little sophisticated. Don’t put a spider ring or something in every drink. You already are all at a kids party. Keep this for the adults.

Bonus. If you like to design and have the right software (actually I have used PowerPoint before), make a little signage. Put it in picture frames. Put it on an iPad. Whatever you want.

Ok, now for what I did. Their first birthday the theme was Summer fruit — pineapple and watermelon. So I made drinks based on those and named the drinks after the birthday girls’ names. I made a pineapple daiquiri and a non-alcoholic rosemary watermelon lemonade.

For this year, the theme was Sesame Street — with Elmo and Cookie Monster as the main characters. So I did a riff on a strawberry daiquiri (Tipsy Elmo) and a Blue Hawaiian (Cookie’s Boozie Milk Chaser).

As I continue to evolve what The Party Hack is all about, I also recently did custom cocktails for a friend’s kid’s birthday — where I created drinks based on her input, outlined name ideas, included all the ingredients, where to find everything, etc. If this may be of interest, you can reach out to me in the “Contact” section.

Sample pages from custom cocktail program document

And I know there is a lot going on at a kids party. You can make these drinks to order if you want, but with enough going on, try batching them and letting your guests serve themselves (see both my posts, “Let Your Guests do the Bartending” and “Cocktails by the Bottle”).

Or have the fun, single Uncle bartend for you:)