My daughters are a little obsessed with “The Greatest Showman” right now and I’ll admit that I am too. My oldest even wants to have another Vintage Circus party even though she had one when she turned 6 in 2016. Looking at the pictures reminds me how much fun everyone had at this classic themed party.
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To save money, I made an invitation using PicMonkey that fit in with the vintage theme we were going for.
Bright and Classy Decorations
The entrance was made out of appliance boxes that we picked up for free from an appliance store and covered in wrapping paper we purchased on clearance after Christmas. We made the popcorn signs using PicMonkey then attached to the boxes using double-sided tape. White and yellow balloons from Dollar Tree filled the boxes to look like popcorn. It was a windy day so we had to add double-sided tape to the balloons so they would stay together in the boxes. PVC pipe wrapped with red streamers held up a banner of red paper to welcome the guests.The letters were printed using PicMonkey and attached with double-sided tape.
We made a ticket booth by covering part of our wooden play-set with wrapping paper and encouraged all the guests to wear a clown nose and have fun! All of the signs and food labels were made with PicMonkey.
We used teal and red paper lanterns that we found at Target during their summer clearance and hung them from the tent we purchased on Amazon a few years ago. It has come in handy for many parties and was a great investment. For this party, we removed the side walls to make it more open. The teal and red linens were the perfect finds at an annual warehouse sale held by a decor company. We made a table runner with the same Christmas clearance wrapping paper (we bought A LOT of wrapping paper!) and a roll of burlap which was also purchased on clearance. The centerpieces were made out of popcorn containers we bought at a garage sale then filled with yellow shredded paper from Dollar Tree. We printed vintage circus images we found online and attached them to skewers to stick in the popcorn containers. The metal buckets we re-used from a previous party. They were tied with red burlap ribbon and vintage ticket garland that we found on clearance at a department store.
All of the backdrops were made by covering our re-usable wooden and PVC backdrops with burlap. We scored rolls of red and white mesh on clearance after Christmas and used it to help create the look of a Circus tent and curtains. The picture frames we used on the backdrops were found at flea markets and they definitely added to the vintage look we were going for. We made the banners with letters printed using PicMonkey which were taped onto jute twine from Dollar Tree.
Fun Circus Food
The cake table had a selection of sweets including circus peanuts, licorice sticks, and circus animal cookies. All were purchased from Dollar Tree. For the ice cream, we spread vanilla ice cream in a pan then mixed in crushed circus animal cookies and re-froze. We scooped the ice cream into paper lined muffin tins and kept it in the freezer until it was time to serve the cake. It saved so much time when it came to serving everyone! The cake was inspired by this beautiful circus striped cake from The Girl Inspired. It was so much fun to make! Sadly, we didn’t get a good picture of a perfect slice but you can tell by the mess on the cake stand that it was a hit. The elephant came from my daughter’s toy animal collection (well-washed, of course). It stood on a red cupcake liner and wore a party hat which was also made from a cupcake liner. A bunting found at Michael’s was the perfect finishing touch to the cake.
No circus is complete without corn dogs, nachos, peanuts, and popcorn. It’s also the perfect menu to serve to a crowd of 45 for as little money possible. As always we shopped sales and used coupons to help save money. We scored the popcorn machine at a Black Friday sale and it has now been used many times for movie nights.
And finally, what’s a Circus party without some fun and games! We had a tin can toss, cornhole and a circus animal toss through the ring of fire. The ring of fire was a hula hoop covered with red, yellow and orange tulle. We hung it in the tree then found stuffed lions, tigers and elephants at garage sales and thrift stores for the kids to toss through it. For the tin can toss we covered recycled cans with scrapbook paper and used a wooden box, small bushel basket, and baseballs we had on hand. The cornhole set was a neat garage sale find! For prizes, we had a selection of goodies that we picked up when Target had a 90% off sale in their dollar spot. Instead of party favors, the kids each received a brown craft paper bag to put their prizes in. The bags were decorated with a thank you tag that was made on PicMonkey with a cute vintage circus image we found online.
In addition to games, we also had a craft station where the kids made clown faces out of small paper plates and pom poms. Everything was from Dollar Tree, of course! Another fun touch was a photo booth. We were lucky enough to find the animal masks on clearance at Target after Halloween. For even more fun, we added in some feather boas and oversized sunglasses. We had a selfie stick set up with the props so guests could take their own selfies at the photo booth and everyone had a blast with it!
I broke my “$150 per party” rule because I decided to splurge and hire a clown but it was the best decision I made for this party. The clown kept the kids entertained the entire time with face painting, balloon animals, a magic show, dance party and games such as tug-of-war and sack races. There is nothing like old-school party games and activities to add to the fun!
Overall this was a fun and relatively inexpensive party to plan and execute. We chose the theme several months in advance which gave us plenty of time to score decor items on the cheap. Music from “The Greatest Showman” would have been icing on the cake!
