How To Throw A Mermaid Party On A Budget

For many children, their birthday is their favorite time of the year. They get a fun party, presents, love and attention, yummy food, and time with their favorite people.

You can make a birthday party extra special by having a special theme! It might be unicorns, Star Wars, dinosaurs, or fairies. My favorite theme for a kid's party is mermaid, or under-the-sea.

A mermaid party will be a magical blast that people will remember for years. But can you throw the best mermaid party on a tight budget?

I'm going to share with you some tips and ideas for throwing the ULTIMATE low-budget mermaid birthday party, from invites, to decor, to games and activities.

Mermaid party invitations

The perfect mermaid party starts with the perfect invitations. Buying invites and envelopes, then writing down everyone's names and addresses and shipping them out can be expensive and time-consuming.

My first tip is to save money on invitations by sending them out digitally! You can use Canva to make an adorable mermaid party invitation. Either design your own, or use a template. Canva has many free templates, but you can also find some great invite templates on Etsy, like this one from my shop. You purchase the template for $3, add the changes in Canva, then print it out or save as a PNG to send digitally.

Another option is to make a Facebook event, but some people might not see it, or might not have Facebook.

Make sure to send out texts and get confirmation that people know about the party and to find out if they can make it 1-2 weeks before the party.

Mermaid party decor

Party decorations don't have to be costly. There are many ways to save money on decorations, while still transforming your house into the prettiest under-the-sea landscape.

If you have a printer, you can easily make your own wall decorations. Simply print out photos of sea creatures and mermaids, or use Canva graphics.

You can print out a whole school of fish to tape to the walls.

Another idea is to use green streamers from the Dollar Tree to make seaweed decor.

For the dessert, food, and presents tables use green, purple or blue plastic table covers from the Dollar Tree. Scatter shells around the table. Also available at Dollar Tree.

Blow up some white balloons to look like pearls, or translucent balloons to look like bubbles, as shown in the image above.

You can also find some great printables on Etsy, like this editable welcome sign that comes in a bundle of 13 printable party pieces.

Food

Food will probably be the most expensive element at a mermaid party, with the rising grocery prices. My best tip is to shop at Aldi or Walmart. You can also find some good drink options at the Dollar Tree.

Part of the fun of a mermaid party is having themed signs to label the food. For example you could have a bowl of gummy worms labeled "fish bait," or some Cheetos labeled "orange coral."

Another easy snack is pretzel rods. You can make a little sign that says "drift wood with sea salt."

Something fun that also counts as a decoration is to have a glass bowl from the Dollar Tree (fish bowl) full of goldfish crackers.

To save money on desserts, make your own cake and cookies if you already have most of the ingredients. Baked goods typically require flour, sugar, baking powder or baking soda, eggs, milk, salt, vanilla, and butter. However, it will be more cost efficient and less time-consuming just to buy baked goods if you don't have most of the ingredients already.

Here is a mermaid cake I made with ocean blue frosting, white chocolate seashells, pearl candies, and a mermaid tail that I printed out.

For more mermaid cake ideas, check out this article.

For drinks, I recommend making a fruit punch with blue juice and sprite, which you can label as "mermaid water" or "seawater." Have a pitcher of ice water labeled "River water," and make homemade iced tea that can be labeled as "lake water."

Cupcake toppers can easily be made by printing out cute mermaidy graphics and taping them to a toothpick.

You can find these designs in my ultimate mermaid party printable bundle.

Mermaid games and activities

For a lowkey game that can be played at guest's leisure, set up a little bowl of shells or candy and have people guess how many pieces are in the bowl. You can get a little glass bowl at the Dollar Tree. Look for one that looks like a fish bowl.

Find some seashells here.

Party printables are also a great option for games and activities. You can make or buy activity pages, paper crafts and more. Here's a bundle from my Etsy shop that includes four games, 3 activity pages with things to color, word searches and mazes, and a printable mermaid party magic wand craft.

Freeze dance and musical chairs are free games to play that only requires a way to play music. You can use your phone or laptop, and if you have speakers then you're good to go.

Here is a list of the best mermaid music that can be used for freeze dance, musical chairs, or mermaid karaoke.

Get this set of temporary tattoos for just $6.99.

Temporary tattoos are a fun party activity to include that leave kids with pretty designs to show off for the rest of the day.

As a professional mermaid, I've found that kids ab-shell-utely love them!

There are so many easy paper crafts you can prepare. If you have a printer, or can draw well, you are one step ahead. You could have kids cut out and color their own mermaid crown or mask, or cut strips of paper

and decorate them to make bracelets, or print out some colorable book marks.

Party favors

Party favors don't have to be anything huge or elaborate. A simple candy bag will do. You could throw in some stickers to make it a little more exciting.

You can most likely find some simple favors at the Dollar Tree. They have a party section that will be your best friend for throwing a mermaid party.

If you have $8 to spare, you can purchase these slap on bracelets with fun mermaid designs. To this day, I still think it's fun and satisfying to slap one of these bad boys onto my wrist.

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That concludes this mermaid party article! Hope you have the most mermazing birthday party ever. Don't forget to take loads of pictures and make the best memories with your little mermaid.

*This article includes some affiliate links. If you shop from them I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps keep my website afloat!

About the author

Shello! My name is Mermaid Liv, a professional mermaid and content creator. I share my love of mermaiding through this blog, along with my Youtube channel.

If you've never heard of it before, mermaiding is a hobby, profession, and sport that involves wearing mermaid tails made for swimming.

I began making tails in 2013 and have continued my mermaid journey, starting my Youtube channel, working at a mermaid festival, performing at gigs, and being featured in the Netflix Docu Series MerPeople.

Follow me on Instagram for mermaid photos and videos: @the_real_mermaid_liv and be shore to check out my Youtube channel.