How to throw a Tropical Themed Birthday Party

Emily wanted to have some of her friends over for her birthday. We could only have 10 people in our home at one time because of COVID. Thankfully it has opened up to more people now. Em said that I could do whatever I wanted – music to my ears!!! After seeing a really nice table runner at Myer I decided to go with a tropical themed party in pink and green tones.

Em wanted something simple out under the tree. Sticking with the relaxed vibe she wanted I decided to prepare food boards so they could help themselves. If you haven’t visited the Reluctant Entertainer‘s website, you should, she has the most amazing food board ideas.

Tropical themed birthday party – table decorations

The colour tone was set by a beautiful table runner I found at Myer. You can see all the details of the table decorations in this blog post.

Tropical themed birthday party – Hanging decorations

The following decorations were used around the table area:-

• Round white lanterns were hung from the arbour where you entered the party. Mine were from my party collection but you can get similar ones at Big W.
• Mix of balloons in tropical colours plus a giant pineapple balloon.
• Streamer garland on the screen. Found this at Kmart.
• White tissue flowers. I’ve had mine for a few years but I found similar at Big W
• Palm Leaf shaped fan decorations which I found at Big W.
• Palm Leaf garland.

Fireplace seating area

I served a starter board by the fireplace. We used the chairs from our patio. As its still cool at night in September I added some throw blankets as well as a basket full of warm wraps. I added a coffee table for service and some battery operated lamps and string lights. Lights were added to the underside of the umbrella.

The girls started the night with some cocktails. I kept with the girly tropical theme and served Midori Splices and Pink Gin and Tonics with lemon and strawberries.

Starter board

The girls started off with a snack board that included:

• Corn Relish dip
• Grapes,
• Strawberries
• Honeyed Macadamia Nuts
• Cranberry nut mix
• Lollies
• M&M’s
• Olives
• Dried Peas
• Lindt Blueberry balls
• Carrot sticks
• Cucumber
• Tropical Cream Cheese Balls. These balls were made with cream cheese, crushed pineapple (drained well), red capsicum and chopped chives. They were then rolled in chopped macadamia nuts. I served them with a tortilla cracker.
• A variety of crackers and cheese

I also included a small plate with brie and crackers and a tray of fresh pineapple that I dipped in chocolate and rolled in toasted coconut (delicious!!!)

Potato board

Ok I will definitely being do the potato board again. It was super easy and the girls loved it.

You can go nuts with toppings if you’ve got a big enough board but I kept it pretty simple and included the following:-

• Potatoes
• Sweet Potatoes
• Cooked bacon
• Beef mince – I just threw this together with mince, can of tomatoes, tomato paste and seasoning and simmered for an hour.
• Grated cheese
• Chopped tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes because I like their sweetness)
• Avocado
• Spring Onions
• I filled in the gaps with corn chips

NOTE For ease of cleaning I lined all my boards with baking paper. This worked a treat because I needed to use the smaller board again for dessert.

Chocolate dessert board

In keeping with the relaxed theme of the night I decided to serve a chocolate dessert board along with the birthday cake.

The birthday cake was a hummingbird cake, decorated in a tropical theme. You can see the process here.

The chocolate board was super easy. The items I included were as follows:-

• Chocolate straws
• Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs (caramel popcorn)
• Aero peppermint chocolate
• Toblerone
• Arnotts Royales
• Jellytip Chocolate,
• Byron Bay Chocolate cookies
• Mini Oreos
• Coconut rough chocolate
• Curly Wurly worms
• Cadbury marble chocolate
• M&M’s
• Cadbury White chocolate
• TV Snacks Malt Sticks
• Kinder Bueno

Basically its a free for all on your favourite chocolates. No right or wrong here!!

It surprised me but the most popular item on the board was the popcorn. A fun night was had by all and the clean up was pretty easy.