How to Make Pirate Party Centerpieces

Create your own pirate treasure chest with a foam cooler.

Pirate themes are popular choices for children's birthday parties and can be created using craft store supplies and costumes. To create a perfect pirate party, allow children to dress as swash-bucking pirates with plastic swords and serve fish-shaped foods to recreate the life of a pirate on the sea. Make the party more festive with treasure maps that lead to a prize and a cake decorated like a pirate ship. To create a pirate party centerpiece, make a pirate's booty chest using a foam cooler.

Things You'll Need

• 11 1/2-inch by 8-inch foam cooler
• Paint
• Craft foam
• Chocolate gold coins
• Plastic gold coins
• Beaded plastic necklaces
• Gummy fish candies
• Toy jewels

Instructions

1. Paint an 11 1/2-inch by 8-inch foam cooler brown or black. Paint the interior and exterior surfaces of the cooler for a more realistic look.

2. Cut craft foam into shapes for the foam pirate chest. Create one chest latch piece and two foam pieces that look like the metal joints on the chest. Glue the pieces onto the chest as desired, creating an authentic pirate chest appearance.

3. Fill the chest with chocolate gold coins, beaded necklaces, plastic gold coins, toy jewels and fake jewelry. Place some coins and beads on the table surrounding the chest to create the appearance that the booty is overflowing from the pirate chest. Customize individual pirate chests by filling one chest with candy, one chest with beaded necklaces, another with jewelry and another with plastic coins.

4. Make a balloon centerpiece by placing a plastic pirate hat in the center of your table. Cut a slit in the top of the hat. Attach helium balloons to ribbons and thread them through the slit in the hat. Secure the ribbons to a weighted bag of sand placed under the hat. You can create this weighted bag by filling a balloon with sand.

5. Seashells and sand can also be arranged in the center of the table to create an ocean centerpiece that depicts the pirate's life on the sea.

References

• Party Merchant: Pirate Theme Party
• Coolest Kid Birthday Parties: Coolest Pirate Birthday Party Ideas