15 Fun and Stress-Free Tween Birthday Party Ideas
As the parent of a tween, you’re navigating your kid’s transition from child to near-teenager. We’ve got tons of tween birthday party ideas for their big day, with themes perfect for every personality, from outgoing and sporty to crafty and calm.
You can make many of these ideas work for smaller budgets if needed, and most of them are pretty easy to pull off, so you won’t be staying up till midnight getting things ready.
Top 15 Tween Birthday Party Ideas
Browse this list of tween birthday party ideas and pitch your favorites to your tween. Together you’ll land on the perfect party plan that they’ll remember for years to come.
1. Trampoline Park
What’s better for a group of highly energetic 9- to 12-year-olds than an hour or two of bouncing on trampolines?
Most trampoline parks have areas for different age groups and risk levels. Many also offer American Ninja Warrior-style obstacle courses, competitive birthday party games, and referees to lead games like dodgeball. The kids will go wild, in the best way.
2. Roller Skating
Design: Signature Greenvelope
Matching Invitation: Let’s Roll Invitation
A roller skating party is great for all ages — the chaperones can have just as much fun as the kids. Check whether your roller rink offers a party package that includes skate rentals, food, and cake to make the day even easier to manage. You could also do ice skating in the winter.
3. Slumber Party
While many parents are opposed to sleepovers for Gen Alpha, you may have a group of parents you’ve established trust with who’d love a slumber party.
If you know you’ll get RSVPs, prep a classic living room movie night with a popcorn bar, movie theater candy, and root beer floats with vanilla ice cream, and rev up the Disney+ account!
4. Themed Party
What does your kid love more than anything right now? Whatever it is, make that the party theme to show them that you care about their interests. This is your chance to tailor a tween birthday party idea to their interests, which is one of the best ways to make sure the whole thing is a hit.
Whether they’re obsessed with Labubu, a popular anime, or Taylor Swift, embrace it as your theme and make it happen. You could even make it a 6-7 party!
5. Arts & Crafts
Design: Noonday Design
Matching Invitation: Arts and Crafts Invitation
If you’re always running out of space on the fridge for your tween’s masterpieces, host an arty party so they can let their creativity shine among friends. Provide three to four different craft stations so everyone can pick what they want to do.
Queue a playlist of their favorite artists, set out a few of their favorite snacks, and cover every surface with butcher paper that everyone can draw on or sign.
Here are some tween-friendly DIY ideas:
- Small paint-by-numbers canvases
- Diamond painting
- Friendship bracelets
- Woobles kits
- Tie-dye
- Decorating sunglasses
- Loom weaving
- Bookmark making
- Origami
- Flower crowns
6. Cookie Decorating
Kids will love going to town with frosting, sprinkles, crushed candy and cookies, and food coloring in a cupcake or cookie decorating contest. You can also find seasonal decorating kits, like gingerbread houses or haunted houses, for a team competition.
Our favorite idea for a sweet treat competition is to cut out gingerbread man shapes (using sugar cookie or gingerbread dough) and use that for the base. Provide royal icing in different colors and plenty of bits and bobs for detail work. Kids will get creative making their ginger people into all sorts of things.
If you want to add to this tween birthday party idea, award small prizes for things like the most creative, weirdest, funniest, most realistic, or most delicious-looking cookies.
7. Escape Room
Design: Jen Montgomery
Matching Invitation: Iconic Party Hat Invitation
Tweens are at an age where an escape room becomes a fun activity they can realistically achieve. Ask the escape room near you whether they have good options for the tween age group, and tell them about your kid’s interests.
From there, all you need to do is help your birthday kid invite all their closest friends and prepare for a mysterious, heart-pounding party.
8. Karaoke
This idea is tailor-made for theater kids and Disney+ addicts — take them to a karaoke room and let them sing “How It’s Done” by HUNTR/X or any of their favorite Disney and pop songs as many times in a row as they want. You could also do this at home with a karaoke machine.
If you want to stick to a theme, like Disney, musicals, or their latest favorite shows, ask party guests to dress up on your digital invitation. Have the birthday kid get their playlist ready ahead of time so they can sing all their favorites on their big day.
9. Laser Tag
Design: Jen Montgomery
Matching Invitation: Laser Tag Invitation
Laser tag is a fun birthday party idea that doesn’t need a lot of planning, and it’s fun for older kids and little kids alike.
Head to a laser tag facility for one to two hours of gameplay and rent their party room after for food and dessert. Party guests will get their wiggles out and enjoy seeing their outfits light up under the blacklight. For extra blacklight fun, try letting them decorate white shirts with highlighters ahead of time.
10. Spa Day
A popular hobby of many tween girls and boys is skincare. If this is something your tween enjoys, bring their favorite “get ready with me” TikToks to life with kid-safe beauty products, like fragrance-free facials, serums, moisturizers, and lip masks. Complete the spa day with nail polish and hair stations.
Perfect party favors for guests to take home are face masks and scrunchies! (Set aside a goodie bag for yourself, too.)
11. Video Game Tournament
Design: Signature Greenvelope
Matching Invitation: Retro Gamer Invitation
If your kid can hardly be separated from their Switch, host a video game competition for the kiddos. You can have kids bring their controllers to your house for an at-home marathon, or head to an arcade.
Your kid probably knows what games they want to play, so ask them for a list. Try Minecraft, Stardew Valley, or Mario Party if you feel stuck. Want to give them a throwback from your generation? Break out Dance Dance Revolution, or dust off the old Wii.
12. Attend a Sports Game
This tween birthday party idea has a casual vibe that’s perfect for kids who love watching and playing sports. Take your kiddo and their friends to see soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey, or whatever their favorite is. Grab some popcorn and nachos for the kids, and enjoy the game together.
13. Pool Party
Design: 2birdstone
Matching Invitation: Confetti Cake Invitation
For a pool party, you have lots of options:
- Go to a community pool
- Head to a waterpark
- Use a backyard pool
- Go to an indoor pool
- Rent a pool by the hour from Swimply
If you’re hosting the party without lifeguards, recruit a parent or family member to watch the preteens in the pool at all times. You’ll inevitably need to take your eyes off them to prepare food, show kids the bathroom, and handle other host duties, so having a backup pair of eyes keeps everyone safe.
14. Dance Party
This tween birthday party idea seems tailor-made for an 11 to 12-year-old crowd — throw a dance party! Pass out glow sticks, queue up some pop songs, and let them go crazy. You can have a dance-off or play musical chairs if you want to include an activity.
For decor, consider disco balls, floating balloons to cover the ceiling, and a shimmering backdrop for photos. Alternatively, pick a theme and have kids dress up. You could do a favorite musical artist, a costume that starts with the same letter as their name, their favorite color, or a past decade.
15. Mini Golf
Design: Hudson Meet Rose
Matching Invitation: Mini Golf Course Invitation
Mini golf gets kids outside, helps them practice their skills, and, most importantly, is tons of fun in a self-contained area (a huge relief for you as the chaperone). Head to your closest mini golf course and gather ‘round for birthday cake at the end.
Happy Birthday to Your Tween
Soon your tweenager will be all grown up, so enjoy this special in-between year. This is one of your last years before you move on to celebrating with a teen birthday party, so enjoy this special day!
We can help you with invitations — at Greenvelope, we specialize in fun, colorful, beautiful kids’ birthday party invitations. Once you send it out, you can easily track RSVPs, communicate with guests, and schedule auto-reminders before the party. Consider us your pocket party planners.
Enjoy the party and hug your birthday kiddo tight!
