
A Nutcracker Birthday Party


Welcome to my daughters Land of Sweets Nutcracker birthday party! It is full of Sugar Plum Fairies, Ballerinas and of course Nutcrackers! This was such a fun birthday party theme to decorate for. I tried to make it as pink, wintry, and sparkly as I could!
My daughter asked for a Nutcracker birthday long before we even knew that the new Nutcracker movie was coming out. We did go see it and I think it just made us both more excited to have a Nutcracker birthday party!

The first step of a birthday party are the party invitations! I found these nutcracker party invitations on Etsy from LeaDesignsShop. They come with this adorable design of a ballerina dancing on the back of the invitation.


I wanted it to feel like a winter wonderland so I created a cascade of snowflakes to hang above the table. This isn’t the first time I have created these snowflakes. When my daughter turned one she had a winter Onderland themed first birthday and I covered the whole dining room ceiling with snowflakes. It made it feel magical and I wanted to recreate that feeling, Just on a slightly smaller scale!


The best way to make these snowflakes is to use coffee filters. They are nice and flexible and don’t tear easily. I wet them down to get the wrinkles out and then lay them out to dry then fold and cut. I used thread to hang them from the ceiling.

For the table centerpiece I created a land of sweets forest with candy colored bottle brush trees, Nutcrackers, and sugar plum fairies along the center of the table. I used a scrap of shimmery pink fabric and some white fur as a table runner.


The Nutcrackers are dollar store and thrift store finds. I made them over using some DecoArt Acrylic paint and DecoArt Galaxy Glitter. Painting these Nutcrackers was quite simple. I tried to keep as much original detail on them as I could and only changed the main colors from the traditional nutcracker colors to pinks and blues to go with a land of sweets nutcracker theme.


Each little girl got her own Pink ballerina tutu and bow as a party favor, so they could all pretend to be ballerinas in the Nutcracker ballet. Each little girl was so excited to get their own ballerina tutu. I created a sparkly snowflake backdrop for the perfect nutcracker photo booth to take their pictures all dressed up.

Another party favor for the girls were these bottles of peppermint bubble bath, a hand decorated party crown and a fun Nutcracker themed sugar cookie that awaited them at the table.


The cookies were made by a bakery local to us. If you are in the central Minnesota region I would be happy to give you her contact info! Not only are her cookies cute, they taste delicious! She also made the cookies for my Kentucky Derby party last year and I plan on ordering again this year!


Once of my favorite finds were these fancy plastic flatware. They are from the pioneer women at Walmart. They are so fun and fancy for being plastic.

I feel like each detail of this party is my favorite, but I love the way the this wintry garland turned out. The colors and the mix of textures it is just came together perfectly for the birthday party.


To make this wintry garland I started with a flocked pine garland base and then added the silver leaf picks. After that I added the small pink and blue garland and the snowflakes. Next it was the pink eucalyptus, ornaments and the white poinsettia flowers and then I topped off the look with some silver ice sickles. Some of these things I had on hand and others I bought after Christmas on clearance.

My daughter requested a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, which while yummy it didn’t quite fit in with the nutcracker party theme. I didn’t want to make a Nutcracker cake that nobody was going to eat so I created a ‘cake’ out of cotton candy. The cotton candy cake was a big hit with all of the tiny guests and made a great focal point for the Land of Sweets Nutcracker party.

I found the mouse king in the ornament section of Target at Christmas time. He is a little wonky but he was a perfect find! The ballerina my daughter picked out from the ornament section in Hobby Lobby and the Nutcracker was one of the Dollar Tree nutcrackers that I painted to match the party.


The day was filled with fun and laughter and so many little girl squeals.
So. many. squeals.
I forgot what it was like to be at a girls birthday party.
I am happy that my daughter got to celebrate her birthday with her friends. It will be a birthday party to remember!
Happy Birthday Little Miss!



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2 Comments
Nicole
Hi!
I love the set up you did for this party. It’s beautiful! My daughter’s first birthday is next month and I have been using your photos here as inspiration for the decor. Any other tips on hanging the snowflakes? Did you thread through the cutouts in the snowflakes or use tape? How did you hang from the ceiling?
Jaclyn Erickson
Hi Nicole!!
First Birthdays are so fun! I am honored your using my party as inspiration! For the snowflakes I taped the string to one side of the snowflake near the top and then I taped it to the ceiling with clear tape. I also did a Winter One-derland theme for my daughters 1st birthday way back before my blog and I covered the entire dining room ceiling with snowflakes to make it look like it was snowing. It was awesome! Because I was making so many I hung them up in a different way that might also work for you. I used one long string the length of where I wanted to snowflakes to be and tied each snowflake string to it. Then I taped the ends of the long string up to the ceiling. It made it much easier to take down when I was done and it used less tape. I hope this helps you with your decorating and I would love to see pictures if you would like to share them with me!
Jaclyn