You may not be able to catch all the Pokémon but you can surely catch an amazing time with these Pokémon themed party ideas! Read on for budget-friendly ideas on decoration, party food, favors, games – including Pokémon Trainer Training!
A number of the items we used throughout the party can be found at Dollar Stores or low cost (balloons, balls, skewers, cups, etc..). We also created a number of labels that we used throughout the party. Feel free to use them for your own personal use as well: Pokémon Party Labels 🙂
INVITATIONS
For parties, get your guests in the mood with Pokémon themed invites. You can add any of your kiddo’s favorite Pokémon or ask them to come prepared to become Pokémon Trainers!
DECOR
There are quite a few decorations that you can purchase online or at stores. We had a few around the party area that double-upped as games or additional activities.
You can find a backdrop for $20 and under online fairly easily and use it as a make-shift photobooth area: Pokemon Backdrop. Otherwise, if you have any stuffed Pokémon, you can set those out for pictures too!
We also had wall that we decorated with printouts of Pokémon Silhouettes and their corresponding images (you can find online as well). We didn’t have them side by side by had them a bit scrambled. Later on we used that in a game of “Guess which Pokémon.”
ARRIVAL
For our guests who arrived a bit early, we had a few jars of varying sizes all with worm-type candy in there (gummy worms, sour patch strings, etc…). Guests could write down the # of “caterpies” they thought were in each jar.
Also, rather than having a full craft table, we had just one simple activity – cutting out the pokeballs. We told them they could cut as many as they thought they might need as there might be some Pokémon to catch throughout the party 😉
We also had Pokemon Bingo from musingsofanaveragemom.com (thank you!) laid out in case anyone wanted to play. We called out the Pokemon along with tossing a few paper ones into the party area with the kids so they could ‘catch’ the Pokémon with the pokeballs they cut out.
FOOD & DRINKS
While it’s not 100% clear what they characters eat in the Pokmon cartoons, you can cleverly label a few regular foods so that they’re more “in theme”.
- Appetizers
- Charmeleon Chips (Doritos)
- Meotwo Melon Balls (Any melon – watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew – carved out with a melon baller).
- Pokeballs (Mini babybel cheeses)
- Venusaur’s Veggies & Dip (Any veggie dip of your choice)
- Frogadier’s Fruit (Any fruit of your choice)
- Main Dishes
- Pokeball pizza (Pizza with pepperoni on the top half and olives along the middle)
- magikarp (fish, fish sticks, etc)
- Rice ball (pokeball)
- Bento box (while this isn’t necessarily from the cartoon, Pokemon was originally created in Japan. Bento boxes – food served in a box – originated from Japan as well.
- Desert
- Jigglypuff Jello (pink jello)
- Cupcakes with Pokemon toppers
- Drinks
- water bottles with pokemon labels
GAMES
Once all the kids cut out a few pokeballs, we gathered them up and told them they were full fledged Pokémon Trainers and had to collect badges from each of the gyms. We also told them to be on the lookout for any wild Pokémon to catch. (In the cartoon, the main character Ash tries to collect badges from each gym type. He also has to catch Pokémon throughout his travels. We followed that same concept for our games).
COLLECT ALL THE BADGES FROM THE GYMS:
- Pewter City Gym – Boulder Badge. This is Brock’s gym & focuses on stone Pokémon. In this game, we played a game similar to marbles. We had a few small white balls from the Dollar Store and used one of our larger red balls from a toy set to signify a pokeball. We laid the balls inside a circle (We used a large poster board and just drew one but if you’re outside you can use sidewalk chalk as well). Then each guest took a turn trying to knock the balls outside. For older kids, we had “Rock Pokémon” (actual rocks) to add some “interference” 🙂 Once everyone had a turn, they got a print out of a boulder badge.
- Cerulean City Gym – Cascade Badge. This is Misty’s gym & focuses on water type Pokémon. We pushed a handful of Blue Water Beads and grew them before the party. We had enough to fill a medium sized blue bin. On the day of the party, we dropped in a few water Pokémon figurines. Each guest took a turn for a few seconds to find and pull out as many Pokémon as they could. (We did spend a bit on a bulk set but ended up using them in this game and adding them into the goodie bags). Once everyone had a turn, they got a print out of a cascade badge.
- Vermillion City Gym – Thunder Badge. This gym focuses on electric Pokémon. For this game, we had the kids “make thunder” (err. Thunderous noise). We blew up yellow balloons with some yellow and orange confetti (just cut up construction paper) along with some of the electric Pokémon from the bulk set. We handed out skewers attached to printouts of lightning. The kids could use the toothpick end to pop the balloon (make thunder). Once all the balloons we popped, we gave everyone a print out of a thunder badge.
- Celadon City Gym – Rainbow Badge. This gym focuses on grass Pokémon. We had two green cups and glued images of two grass Pokémon- one on each cup. Then we asked the kids to “blow the grass” across the room and see who could get there first. Once everyone was done with the game, we handed out print outs of the rainbow badge.
- Fuschia City Gym – Soul Badge. This gym focuses on poison type Pokémon. For this one, we also used balloons although they were red and silver (to match the colors of a Voltorb). Instead of giving them lightning, we had them just step on the “Voltorbs”. We added a few Voltorbs we got in the bulk set along with some other poison Pokémonto some of the balloons. Once all the balloons were popped, we handed out printouts of the soul badge.
- Saffron City Gym – Marsh Badge. This is Sabrina’s gym and focuses on psychic Pokémon. We asked each guest to write out their favorite Pokémon on a piece of paper. The birthday kid then collected, shuffled, and passed out the papers to each kid. Each kid could not look at their paper but hold it up on their forehead (you could tape them but we opted not to that to our kiddos). We took turns in a circle where each kid could ask one yes/no question and try to guess which Pokémon they had on their head. We repeated the circle until the kids got their Pokémon. Once everyone was done, we passed out print outs of the Marsh badge.
- Cinnabar City Gym – Volcano Badge. This gym focuses on fire Pokémon and in one of the cartoon versions, trainers must answer questions to defeat the scientist. In this party, we had our guests answer Pokémon related questions. We had some printouts around the party that served as both decor & clues.
- Does caterpie evolve into butterfree? (A: no, it evolves into a metapod)
- There are 9 Pokémon league badges. True or False (A: no, there are 8)
- Poliwag can evolve three times. True or False (A: no, only twice).
- What is Pickachu’s favorite food? (A: ketchup)
- Pokémon of the same kind and level are not identical. True or False. (A: true)
- How many Pokémon can eevee evolve into? (A: 8)
- Which Pokémon were on Ash’s original team?
- Which Pokémon were on Red’s original team?
- Earth badge. This is the Viridian gym and focuses on ground Pokémon . We had the kids jump across “stones” (brown construction paper) to get across the land. We moved them a bit farther apart for the older kids. Once everyone was through, we passed out print outs of the Earth badge.
FUN THROUGHOUT THE PARTY!
Throughout the party, we threw print outs of Pokémon while also saying the pokemon type. With the pokeballs the kids created, they could catch the Pokémon. Guests who picked up the bingo cards (most of the adults :)) could mark that box off on their bingo cards. At the end, they were able to trade their paper Pokémon or bingo card for a piece of candy. Many thanks again to musingsofanaveragemom.com who posted Pokemon Bingo! The cards and images were a massive save on time since we could just use those pokemon 🙂
THE PINATA
We did have a pinata for this party because we couldn’t resist buying the pokeball. We added in the leftover Pokémon figurines that our kids didn’t hide away in their drawers along with candy.
GOODIE BAGS
For our goodie bags, Instead of using our standard kraft bags, we found Red Ball Favors. Adding a bit of black ribbon to the middle made it look just like a pokeball!
Inside, we added a few store bought items along with a few that we put together:
- Pokecards
- Pokeball yo yo
- Raichu energy pellets (yellow & red lemonheads)
- red/yellow/black beads and a black pipe cleaner for building a poke-bracelet
- Pokémon figurines
- Hershey Pokémon candy (with Pokémon stickers on the bottom)
THANK YOU
Thank you for checking our our article. We hope you found this party guide helpful and maybe even inspired more ideas! If you get a chance, let us know what you think in the comments below or follow us on Pinterest!
Also, if you’re still looking for a perfect party theme, feel free to check out our other parties here!
Happy Party Planning!
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