If you are looking for a super fun party idea that every kid will love, consider a karaoke party! Karaoke is such a great activity that keeps everyone engaged with very little effort from the adults (the best kind of activities!). You can glam it up and make it girly, like I did, or give it a rock star vibe. Adults love karaoke too, so you can adapt this idea to fit your particular group.
I had so much fun planning every detail of this glam Party Like a Pop Star party. Everyone who came had a blast. If you’re looking for some fun ideas for a pop star party, a karaoke party, or maybe even a Taylor Swift themed party – I hope you’ll find some inspiration here. For items that are no longer available, I’m linking alternatives that are as close as I could find!
How To Throw a Pop Star Karaoke Party:
1. Karaoke Invitations:
It was a bit of a challenge to find a karaoke or pop star themed evite that was fit for kids. A lot of the karaoke invites I found were for adults. There were some great printable invites, but I’m a big fan of evites for kids parties. Here’s the invite we ended up going with. If you’re going for a “In My Birthday Era” themed part, you could also go with an invitation for that, such as this one.
2. Set The Stage:
I wanted the pop stars to feel like they were stars from the second they entered. I had boys in security shirts and sunglasses who checked for their name on entry, then the pink velvet rope was lifted and they were able to strut the pink carpet.
It was definitely a splurge to buy gold staunchions and a pink velvet rope for the entry, but I have a feeling we’ll be using these for many parties to come. Our guests had the biggest smiles on their faces as they entered and it really set the tone for the rest of the party. I wanted this set of pink staunchions and ropes, but went with gold so they would work for other party themes down the road.
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3. Karaoke Party Decorations:
We loved picking out all kinds of sparkly, stage-themed decor. While we went for a girly glam theme, most of these decorations come in lots of colors. The sparkly, fringe backdrops were so pretty and easy to put up. They have a sticker top that easily attaches to walls and the arches. To get them to look full and opaque like you see here, you’ll need to double up. I layered two sets of them on top of each other. To cover a full gold arch took 4-6 sets of the curtains. I think I used 16 or so sets to decorate the entire area. I also used them to cover any windows that people could peek through as well, just to give the kids added privacy. I wanted my little pop stars to feel as comfortable as possible performing. Here’s the cute In My Birthday Era banner that I used as well.
Let’s take a second to talk about the gold square arches. These are perfect for parties. Since we had two hours to set up at the clubhouse before party time, we pre-built them in half, so they fit in the car, and then we connected the two parts at the location. If you try to build them from scratch the day of your party, it will take awhile. If I was setting up a party at home, I would build them all the night before to save time.
I love using balloons for parties. I used these gold music note and gold microphone balloons. For the balloons that I stuck to the backdrops, I used a plug-in balloon pump and then attached them to the tinsel using sticky dots. Highly recommend these. They attach things easily, but come off without any damage to paint or furniture. To save time on set-up, I blew up all the balloons the night before and put them in big bags, so all I had to do on the day of is attach them. For the balloon bouquets on the table, those were ordered and picked up from the local party store. They are not the original balloons I purchased, because I purchased balloon sets on Amazon and when the party store tried to blow them up, they had holes or popped and were very poor quality. For that reason, I’m not linking those. They kindly replaced them with these sets they had in stock.
For the tables, I used pink tablecloths from the dollar store! I love using items from the dollar store to save on decor. If you’re not shopping your local dollar store for super affordable party finds, put it on your list for next time! Here’s what I grabbed from the dollar store for this party:
- Pink plastic platters, bowls, and trays for the food
- Pink napkins
- Pink paper plates
- Pink tablecloths
- Clear tongs for the food
The beauty of these dollar store pieces is that after the party, I bag them all up and throw them away.
4. Karaoke Costumes & Dress-Up:
Something I learned as a teacher many years ago is that if you take a shy kid and put them in a costume, they usually stop being shy and start having fun. I was always pleasantly surprised to see how a costume emboldened kids that otherwise wouldn’t have wanted to participate. So, I knew I wanted to put together a costume area where kids could grab props and put on costumes to feel more confident. This was super popular. Everything was used, the clothes were traded, the wigs were shared, the sunglasses went home in the glam bags, and the inflatable guitars and microphones were a hit. I wish I could show you the group photo where everyone grabbed their favorite props. Trust me when I tell you, this is a great idea, especially for kids! Here’s links to everything I used:
- Inflatable Guitars – I blew these up the night before to cut down on prep time.
- Inflatable Microphones – Same as guitars. I blew them up and bagged them in advance.
- Rolling Clothes Rack – So useful. Loved the narrow silhouette and white color.
- Wigs – So fun.
- Wig Stands – Gotta show off those props so kids know what they are!
- Blinking LED Sunglasses – Huge hit.
- Dress-Up Clothes – We used old dress up clothes that we had, like princess costumes, sparkly dresses, sequined bomber jackets, etc. I didn’t buy anything for the dress up rack.
I finished the area with a sign I created on Canva letting them know that this dress up area was for them! I use these silver frame stands when displaying signage at parties. I’ve used them so many times now. Such a great investment.
5. Pop Star Glam Bags:
Everyone knows a pop star doesn’t go anywhere without her glam, but in lieu of actual makeup, we decorated makeup bags! I think this might have been the fan favorite activity. The girls went crazy over it! Plus, the glam bags became the perfect place for them to put their things throughout the night, such as sparkly sunglasses, their coloring pages, and their photos from the photo area. It was incredibly easy, too. You just buy the items and put them out on the table. Kids automatically know what to do. I did display an example to give them an idea of how to do it and how many patches to use. I made sure to buy enough patches for every girl to have 4 or 5 per bag. Make sure to buy stick-on patches. A lot of options were iron on, and then one set that I ordered said it was stickers, but when it arrived, it was iron on. Those were returned, so make sure to order with enough time to return and replace.
- Zipper makeup pouches – While these worked great for the party, although they were a little more cheaply made than I was hoping.
- Stick-On Patches – This is a great set full of lots of options.
- Stick-On Patches Set 2 – This set had a rainbow bear that my daughter had to have, so I picked this one up, too.
- Stick-On Bow Patches – My daughter really wanted pink bow patches, so I grabbed this set of bows to have extras.
I used dollar store pink bowls for some of the patches and created another sign on Canva to finish the space.
6. Pop Star Coloring Area:
I have done coloring areas at so many kid parties. It’s an easy win and a great alternative for quieter kids who might want to watch the action from. safe place. There was always at least one or two kids coloring. What I do is have cups of crayons and then I spread some crayons out on the table and put coloring pages out at the seats. I find that if things look a little bit messy, kids will jump right in. If the table is too perfect, they’ll stare at it and be afraid to mess it up. So, spread out those crayons and encourage them to get creative. My daughter pre-colored a couple of them as examples and then I had stacks of extras out on the table, too.
You’re welcome to use this printable at your next pop star party. Click the link below to see more.
Click here to download the pop star printable
7. Pop Star Photos:
Another huge win! I set up another arch with metallic fringe and a cute phone shaped photo cutout. For the photos, I used my Fujifilm camera with Instax instant film. They have so many cute designs and they all pop out right away, just like Polaroids. They have even fancier instant cameras now where you can approve the picture first, but this worked great. We bought enough film for every girl to be in 2-3 photos. It was a big hit. They loved it and they put their photos in their glam bags when going home.
8. Pop Star Snacks:
Pop stars gotta eat! We try to keep food simple, especially at kid parties. This time we had a little fun with a special dessert table. Chocolate fountains are so much more fun for kids than adults, because they get so excited!! Here’s a picture of the chocolate fountain setup. We put out cubed rice krispies, sliced strawberries, and marshmallows. I didn’t get a good picture of the rest of the food, but I’m sharing ideas below.
- Pop Star Punch – Raspberry lemonade, pre-made, with edible glitter! I used these adorable pink smiley cups with pink striped straws.
- Pop Star Popcorn – Popcorn with fun sprinkles put into these themed karaoke popcorn boxes.
- Fruit Stars – We made little fruit skewers with these gold star skewers.
- Heart Shaped Macaroons – Found at Costco!
- Chocolate Fountain – We rented from a local company. They delivered, setup, made the chocolate, and came after to pick it up. We didn’t even have to clean it!
- Cupcakes – Simple store bought cupcakes that I stuck karaoke themed toppers in. I’ve bought custom cakes and super fancy cupcakes over the years that end up getting thrown away. These store bought cupcakes from Raley’s are super cheap, easy, and I get way more comments from people on how good they are! You can order them in advance and ask for certain colors and flavors.
- Pizza – Picked up from a local place. Pizza is such an easy win for kids. I could have spent hours making microphone shaped sandwiches or something and then would have thrown most of them away. Buy what the kids will eat!
I could have gone even crazier. But, I’ve learned that food for a kid’s party should be stuff they want to eat. At the end of the party, pretty much everything was gone, so I knew I nailed it on the food.
9. Karaoke Area:
Can’t forget the real VIP of the party – the karaoke machine! This was her big birthday gift this year and was perfect for her karaoke party. It’s very nice and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. The machine itself has a built-in screen that shows lyrics. The sound quality is fantastic. The microphones magnetize in place for easy charging and the strap makes it convenient to carry. Plus, it is WiFi enabled, so you can connect it to your devices or even to a bigger TV. Overall, a great purchase. I almost rented a big karaoke machine for the party, but since she wanted one for home, we got this one instead. Definitely recommend.
10. Microphone Party Favors:
When I saw these fillable microphone party favors, I knew I had to get them! Originally, I was going to get custom colored M&Ms, but honestly, they were so much more expensive and the Valentine’s Day blends were just coming out and had most of the same colors. I filled them up with a few bags of them and they were ready to go. So easy, but a big impact. The reactions from everyone over these party favors was so much fun.
*****
This is definitely one of the more extravagant parties I have planned, but so worth it. I always keep any party decorations that I could reuse and recycle them for future parties. After this one, I’ll certainly have a lot of fun props I can bust out in the future.
Have you ever planned a pop star karaoke party? Let me know your favorite tips in the comments below.
Have a fabulous day,
E
