Easy Nautical Favor Ideas for a Boy’s Birthday Party!

Throwing a kiddie birthday party with a sailor or nautical theme is huge fun! But putting together the seemingly endless details can be a real challenge. So here we are to the rescue, with 4 quick and easy nautical favor ideas! All it takes is a creative eye for something sweet and “seaworthy,” plus minimal assembly skills to come up with cool packaging. Once you get the basic concept, feel free to let your imagination set sail and create your own variations!

‘Pirate Treasure’ on Each Place Setting

Imagine the delight of the birthday boy and his guests as they spy bundles of “treasure” waiting on their party plates! These are really just gold chocolate coins and Hershey’s Nuggets tucked into open-weave mesh pouches. Simply add a nautical-style favor tag and you’re done!

Hints:

• – Leading up to the party, you can build up a stash of these mesh pouches from buying fresh produce at the grocery or farmer’s market.
• – You can also substitute colorful gummy fish in place of the gold chocolates to look like “the bounty of the sea”!

“Yo-ho-ho!” A Treasure Chest Favor Display

If you’d like to play up the pirate angle of a nautical theme, we suggest presenting the same favors above in miniature treasure chests. These could form part of the party dessert table, or would make eye-catching centerpieces for each guest to take their favors from.

Hints:

• – You could craft your own pirate chests using wooden recipe boxes. Just dress them up with strips of leatherette, some brags as “studs,” and little odds and ends of hardware you may have at home.
• – Nestling the boxes on a bed of sand with sea shells scattered about creates a nice beach effect, too!
• – Check out craft stores and online party sites that may carry mini treasure chests.

Sweet and Snappy Star Cookies!

How can you go wrong with iced cookies in themed shapes? Bake up a batch of star (or boat or anchor) cookies and frost them in snappy nautical colors. Tuck them into cello bags, and finish with gingham ribbon and striped tags. How easy and appealing is that?

Hints:

• – Not exactly the world’s best baker? You can always look out for shaped cookies at the supermarket. Then simply decorate them with a candy melt coating and sprinkles.The kids will still love them!
• – For extra cute packaging, buy 4-inch size toy buckets made of tin or plastic. Wind a bit of sisal rope around the handles, then fill the buckets with the cookies and other treats.

Candy in Shell Dishes

This last idea would probably work best for a party where moms are guests, too. They’d just love these handcrafted seashell dishes, while their kids would enjoy the brightly-colored taffy. And isn’t that cute checkered bow such a darling finishing touch?

Hints:

• – For an all-kiddo guest list, you could easily switch the dish to a little plastic boat. Add a cardboard sail, and you have a handy way to personalize each favor.
• – Then, for fillings you can choose from jelly beans, gumballs, M&Ms, Kisses, Lifesavers, or gummy bears!

What other sailor-themed favor ideas can you suggest? Remember, the easier and cuter, the better! Share them in the comments below.