How To Throw the Ultimate Pee-wee Herman Party!
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In honor of the soon-to-be-released movie, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, I am sharing my son’s Pee-wee-themed 5th birthday party from a few years ago. We are all BIG Pee-wee fans and very excited for his new movie, which starts streaming on Netflix on Friday, March 18th at 12:01 A.M.!! Use any of these ideas to throw your own Pee-wee viewing party!
The Pee-wee theme was the idea of our birthday boy (above) who had a few requests:
- A piñata based on Pee-wee’s talking globe friend “Globey”
- Red velvet cupcakes to match Pee-wee’s red bow tie
- “Pin the Bow Tie on Pee-wee”
- A Pee Wee costume for himself
We stuck with red decor, based on the bow tie, and filled out the rest of the party with some easy craft activities.
Invite: My son drew a picture of Pee-wee, which I scanned and used for the invite and for little stickers to seal the goody bags. (Excuse the badly blurred-out personal details!) I made the stickers by printing onto full-sheet adhesive label paper and cutting them up with a paper trimmer.
Red was our color, per my son, based Pee-wee’s red bow tie. What we didn’t know at the time was that red and white striped straws show up a few times in the new movie, as Paul Rubens mentioned in this NY Times interview, first in milkshakes, which we will now be serving at our viewing party!
As I mentioned, this party was a few years ago. At the time I got most of these items from the amazing Shop Sweet Lulu which has a great selection of red party stuff. I don't see the baking cups there anymore but found them over on Etsy here.
The Oh Happy Day Shop has a bunch of fun red stuff and even this red bike temporary tattoo, just like Pee-wee's beloved red bike, a perfect party favor!
The Favor: My son and I agreed that Pee-wee would want the favor to include some items for being creative along with some silly stuff. We gave out our favorite blank book, a bunch of colored pencils, a pencil sharpener, a red (of course) swirly lollipop, eye finger puppets (a birthday boy favorite), a mustache, and a fortune teller fish. They were packed up in red paper lunch bags from Target (super cheap!). The bags were sealed shut with the homemade Pee Wee stickers.
Cupcakes- I used this red velvet cake recipe and got rave reviews! For the picks, I printed out some Pee Wee heads onto cardstock, cut them out and hot glued them to toothpicks.
Ok, this part is luck...my creative sister-in-law, Kat, and her family had just been to see Pee-wee's Broadway show and had dressed up as Playhouse characters so they came to the party in their homemade costumes. Here is my brother-in-law, Greg, who wore his Pterri (Pee-wee's pterodactyl friend) costume.
Greg also happens to be an artist and art teacher and he taught the kids how to make simple paper flying Pterri's. They loved it!
My niece, also dressed as Pee-wee, led a game of "Pee Wee Says" (aka Simon Says), along with my sons. My older son dressed up as Pee-wee's friend, Cowboy Curtis. Fun fact: Cowboy Curtis was played by Laurence Fishburne!
Our Pin the Bow Tie on Pee Wee poster was created minutes before the party by my 8 year old son, my brother-in-law (aka Pterri), and my mom, who cut out the 25 red paper bow ties.
My nephew dressed up as Cool Cat, Pee-wee's beatnik bongo-playing friend. He and my son led a game of freeze dance, always fun!
The Globey piñata was a hit though my kids had mixed feelings about seeing it get smashed. They seemed to forget their troubles when the shower of candy and toys came down!
And lastly, of course, we watched an episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse and snacked on some popcorn! (The cute popcorn bags are from here.)
As I just found out in the aforementioned NY Times interview, root beer barrels are Pee-wee's favorite candy so we will be serving those (and root beer) at our viewing party! I hope you'll host one too...enjoy!
**this post is NOT sponsored**