As you may appreciate, the party themes suggested for the children on this website all have a common theme and that is the ocean.

Some themes relate to underwater activity and others relate to the seashore. This would affect the mood you are trying to create for the children by the decoration that you put up. Of course, we all know that children love a variety of shapes and colours so don't be afraid to experiment with colour, just as long as the overall theme relates to the ocean one way or the other. Try and focus on two or three colours, which would be enough to create an impact and don't forget to have music as well.

How much you want to use of your house, to host the party, is of course up to you. The following tips are all based on the use of a single room for the party.

Bearing in mind the above, following are a few general decorative tips for both underwater themes and seashore themes:

Underwater themes:

Coral Reef: First place large pieces of blue mounting cardboard on the walls, enough to cover the room one time round. Using medium sized, (approx 50cm long) pieces of cardboard, of different sizes and colour, attach them to the mounting cardboard around the room, in batches, creating the effect of a coral reef. Feel free then to draw or paste fish shapes, shark shapes, octopus shapes etc. Also, don’t forget to draw bubbles in different sizes and in different areas of the mounting boards.

Sea Forest: As above, against a backdrop of blue mounting cardboard, paste or draw plant shapes. The more material you use to do this, the better. Tissue paper and cellophane are especially good for decoration.  Again, feel free to draw or paste fish shapes onto the mounting board in between the plant shapes and to compliment them with bubble shapes.

Whatever you do, make sure that the mounting boards and the pieces of decoration attached to them are high enough to be out of reach of the children.

Seashore themes:

· Using enough large white mounting cardboard pieces, create a single wave effect around the wall by attaching the mounting boards to the walls around the room and then sticking blue and white tissue paper to them, so that you have a single wave line going all around.
· If you can get hold of some, sand on the edges of the room would be a great idea to create the feeling of being near the sea- maybe even a beach umbrella in the corner of the room.
· A beach ball will always be fun for kids. If you are inviting a lot of children, then make sure you have enough balls to go around. Maybe one for every five children.
· A No Fishing sign!

You can complement both of the above themes with:

Balloons- see if you can get star-shaped balloons to look like star fish or even fish-shaped balloons. Normal balloons will of course do- probably in green and blue to give the feeling of the ocean.
Children always love bubbles and a bubble blower would be a great idea. You will find that most toy stores stock these and children will have endless fun with them.
Fish or shell decorated plastic plates, cups and napkins. Blue cutlery and plates will also do as they are the colour of the ocean
Fish or shark decorated party hats
Green and blue confetti and streamers are also a good idea.
Fish shaped candles and if you can’t find any then blue and green candles will do.

Lastly, don’t forget fish-themed goodie bags. Use your imagination with little gifts with fish on them (pens, pencils, little toys) and fish-shaped candy.