Dora and Friends Party Decorations

Fun decorations can really make your party memorable. Here are our tips for your Dora and Friends theme birthday party.

Outdoor decorations:

Our adorable monkey standee, carries a warm hello message, and makes a wonderful front door greeter for your little guests!  Boots, Tico and Senor Burro will love him!

Enter Dora’s computer animated world through the “Fiesta Forest.”  Hang Die Cut green vines and balloons overhead in the area where the children will enter the party.  Add water gossamer in front of the door, or in a hallway to create ”Crocodile Lake”…the first obstacle to cross!

Attach a bouquet of helium filled balloons to a light post or mailbox so there will be no mistaking where the fun will be that day!

Indoor decorations:

Our Palm Tree Screen will fill a large space with festive color, and it also provides a perfect photo backdrop when teamed with our Monkey Standee or some playful Jungle Monkeys!  Take a picture of each child with the birthday girl, and make this the second stop along the way to a grand birthday adventure. The photos can be sent to each guest with a thank you note at a later date.

Use the decorations in the Dora the Explorer Kit to create a fun birthday scene. The kit includes Dora tableware for 8, blue star confetti, orange latex balloons, yellow latex balloons, light blue curling ribbon and a pink tablecover. The Deluxe Kit also includes a Dora and Friends mylar balloon, a Dora banner, orange crepe streamers, lavender crepe streamers and birthday candles.

Table decorations:

You can also use your Dora and Friends Kit to decorate your tables. A well-decorated table can really bring your theme together.

Start by creating a vibrant base with the Dora tablecover. Over the top, sprinkle blue star confetti. Next, add the Dora and Friends Centerpiece featuring Dora, Boots and Swiper.

Set each placesetting with Dora and Friends Tableware. Create bundles of the cutlery using the Dora napkins and curling ribbon.

Add favors to each placesetting. They look great as decorations and guests can take them home with them after the party. Place items such as Dora cone hats, Dora bubbles, personalized stickers and an activity placemat at each setting.

Check out the rest of our Dora and Friends Party TipZ!

Party Favors for a Dora and Friends Birthday Party

Party favors are a way of giving your guests some fun even after the party’s over!

Create a favor pack for your guests by selecting a favor box or bag from our selection and filling it with an assortment of favors from our party favor store. We suggest a Beach Pail and Shovel Set filled with Dora bubbles, a compass ring, sequin slap bracelet, binoculars, a Dora zipper pull, beanie monkey and fun dough, all packaged in a fun purple inflatable backpack.

You can also create your own favor packs by ordering favors individually in any combination.

Other great Dora the Explorer party favors include Dora cone hats, Dora sticker activity books, personalized buttons or stickers, or tons of other personalized items such as picture frames, albums and stadium cups!

Check out our Dora and Friends Party Activities too!

Invitations for a Dora and Friends Fiesta

After selecting this theme for your party, choose a slogan to use in your invitations, and to use in tying in decorations and personalized favors to your Dora theme.  Here are our suggestions for a Dora party slogan:

• ”Feliz Cumpleanos Jessie!”
• “Join us for a birthday Fiesta with Dora and Danica!”
• “She Did It!  Maria turned 4!”

Next, create invitations to make sure everyone knows when the fiesta is!

The Dora and Friends Party Kit includes a fun Dora invitation and thank you notes. You can just add your party details and a pinch of confetti and send them through the mail.

If you’re going to hand-deliver your invitations, print some up on the computer and tie them with curling ribbon to a sombrero or a pair of toy binoculars. These fun invitations are like preview favors for your Dora the Explorer Party.

Be sure to check out the rest of our Dora and Friends Party TipZ.

Dora and Friends Activities for a Birthday Party

A Dora party just wouldn’t be complete without some fun games and activities.  Treat the birthday girl to a Dora the Explorer costume to wear at the party, so she’ll be a standout.

Let those who arrive early play with bubbles while they wait for the other guests to arrive.

Recruit a sibling or neighbor to play the role of Swiper the Fox.  As each party guest arrives with a gift, have Swiper swipe the gift, fill his black sack (a black trash bag will work), and escape.  We have a terrific little black mask that will disguise a big brother enough to have the kids yelling, “Swiper no swiping!”

Using our Mini Soccer Balls, you can play a Dora style obstacle game.  Just like Dora and her friends, the kids will have to overcome obstacles before getting to the goal.  The goal of this game is to try to find the presents that have been swiped!  The kids will need to see a map showing them what they will need to do to complete the obstacle course.  “Kick your ball around the big rock in the garden (slippery rock), through the sand box (icky-sticky sand), under the leaves of the big oak tree, over the snaking sprinkler (bridge), and finally into the goal!” Each child who reaches the goal gets to keep the special soccer ball.  When everyone has had a turn, have Swiper reappear with the gifts, and lead the gang as they sing the “We did it song!”

We offer a wonderful Dora the Explorer Pinata, and we’ve yet to find a child who doesn’t want to grab some goodies from one at a party!   Ask the children to join in as you count in Spanish – uno, dos, tres tries for everyone!

Play this game using the same concept as the classic game of musical chairs…one less hat than there are children for each round.  Place a pile of Sombreros on a table that the kids must walk around while the music is playing.  When the music is turned off, the kids must scramble to put on a hat. The child without a hat must leave the game, and the game continues with one less hat until there is one child remaining – the winner.

Play “Dora, Boots, Swiper”, which is a simple variation on the timeless “Duck, Duck, Goose” game.
Instead of “Simon Says”, play “Dora Dice” (this is the Spanish word for “says”, and it is pronounced as dee-say.)

If you have extra time because the children have moved quickly through your planned activities, play Leap Frog, Freeze Tag or Freeze Dancing.

Backpack Cake for a Dora the Explorer Party

All the little party guests will be encouraging each other to “Come on, vamonos!” when you say it’s time for backpack cake and ice cream!

Sing Happy Birthday in Spanish!  The tune is the same, and here are the words:
Feliz cumpleanos a ti, Feliz cumpleanos a ti, Feliz cumpleanos a ti, Feliz cumpleanos a ti!  (Cha cha cha’s are optional.)

What you’ll need for a Backpack Cake:
• 1 cake mix
• 1-16 oz. container of ready-made frosting
• One board for displaying the cake
• One 9 X13” cake pan
• Violet and red gel or paste food coloring
• Two Hostess Snowballs
• One tube of Black writing gel
• Purple or lavender colored Airheads candy to form backpack handles

Bake cake according to the directions on the box.  After the cake has cooled, place it on the cake board, and cut in the shape of Backpack.  Frost the entire cake with the violet tinted frosting.  Add the Snowballs as the eyeballs, using black writing gel to make the pupils.  Using red tinted frosting, pipe an outline for the mouth, and then fill in the outline.  The Airheads candy strips are soft and pliable, and can be shaped to create straps for the backpack.

If you are serving more people than can be accommodated by one boxed mix, we recommend that you either bake extra cupcakes, or an extra rectangular cake. All can just be frosted simply, and cut and served behind the scenes.

Food:
• Set up a little Fiesta that will expose the children to another wonderful taste of Latin culture.  Serve mini tacos, empanadas, simple cheese quesadillas, salsa and chips, and Estrella Pequeno (little star sugar cookies).  Our sombrero makes a wonderful “basket” for chips.

• As the excitement is so high at children’s birthday parties, most young children will eat very little, and the waste can be disheartening.  Schedule your party during a time when parents will not expect that their children will eat a meal…and serve only cake, ice cream, and a few other munchies.