How to Train Your Dragon Birthday Party – Part I

Need How to Train Your Dragon party ideas perfect for a birthday–or movie night? I’ve got a ton! My kids were smitten with all three movies AND the How to Train Your Dragon TV series. With so much enthusiasm for dragons and vikings, it’s hard not to imagine a fantastic birthday party celebrating this cinematic masterpiece!Affiliate links are included in this post. They cost you nothing, but help me keep the servers running!

In the spirit of trying out some really excellent viking and dragon party ideas, we threw one for the boys in the neighborhood. We had viking food, dragon races and lots of fun and games.

And the graphics you see in this party? Grab them here. They’re an inexpensive extra touch to any viking party!

Inviting the Viking Horde

Before the party even began, we had to invite our guests over. Southern Belle’s Charm created these Viking invitations with some authentic-looking fur and leather — so fun!

Getting the Viking Party Started

As any birthday party warms up, you’ll have guests coming in at different times. I always like to plan an activity the kids get started on and can spend a few minutes quietly doing while they wait for everyone to get to the party. For my viking friends, I planned to kit them up like dragon trainers.

After getting their faces painted with dragon racing stripes, they put on Viking horns and grabbed some Viking sheilds. My Disney face painter friend recommended Wolf Face Paints for any quality face paint project, and I have to admit they were the best purchase ever and my set lasted for YEARS. Worth the investment!

The signs for the How to Train Your Dragon party activities are available here.

While everyone was getting their faces painted, we set up a craft station to make Baby Gronckle dragons. I found neat pom-pom kits in the crayon aisle of Target that were pretty inexpensive and included everything the kids might need to create their own dragon. I laid the supplies on the table, and let their creativity take over. But you really don’t need a kit–grab some dollar store pipe cleaners, googly eyes, pom poms and glue and the kids will have plenty to use to craft a quick dragon of their own!

The How to Train Your Dragon Party Table

I watched the How to Train Your Dragon movie quite a few items for party ideas, and there are so many great details in the animation, it was a matter of narrowing down what to use for our party table–the one where the kids sit down to eat.

Our brave dragon-racing Vikings had a worthy, pint-sized table to feast at. The centerpiece is made from a few Frog Prince Paperie dragon and viking printables, a jute-wrapped vase and a lovable plush Toothless the Dragon. He was the star of the show there, and I had to keep the boys from running off with him while I took pictures!

The jute vase tutorial is available on this site if you want to make your own. I love recycling decorations.

There’s a tutorial for these fancy pennant banners here that are really easy to make. I zoomed in on a How to Train Your Dragon movie still for inspiration and created them in real life!

The place settings were very unique — the underside of each clear plate was painted with bright colors. The red silverware was wrapped in black napkins and tied closed with a piece of fur and leather. Loved second only to Toothless himself, the How to Train Your Dragon cups were perfect for no-spill drinks and because they were such great quality, they made excellent party favors. Also, the cups make an awesome clanging noise when you “cheers.” If these particular ones are no longer available, ANY dragon cup is going to be a big hit and the kids will be thrilled to take them home.

Viking Birthday Party Games

Activities that promote play always make a party more memorable and more exciting to be a part of. For How To Train Your Dragon party games, we looked to the movie for inspiration. After some mom-led Viking warm-ups (really, this was for the amusement of those of us watching), we were on to the fun!

Yes, the warm-ups were just that good.

The Official Berk Sheep Toss Game

The first five minutes of the How to Train Your Dragon 2 movie was awesome for the sheep game they were playing, rolling through the sky on their dragons.  You couldn’t help but laugh at the expressions of the sheep being thrown around. While we had to leave out the dragons, we did keep the sheep!

I made lots of fluffy fun sheep for the “Sheep Toss” – I showed them to kids and the first question was “Where’s the catapult?” So for future party planners, there’s a gem to incorporate to really wow your party guests! You can see the sheep toss party game tutorial here and make your own fluffy sheep.

Dragon signs are part of the viking printable party pack. 

The rules were pretty simple. Each Viking was assigned a basket. All the baskets were labeled with a colored dragon picture. It was the Viking’s job to toss as many sheep in their own basket as they could, and they got double points for getting the black sheep in their own basket. We found the game worked best with just two playing at the same time.

Dragon Racing Party Activity

Next up was the main attraction: dragon races! Just like the dragon riders in Birk. A few poles were set up to outline the course, and each of our racers were given a handmade “dragon” to race with. We ran the race in waves so everyone could get a chance to go.

While I would LOVE to do a tutorial on these, there was a lot of frustration and swearing involved in the making of the dragon heads on a stick…so I’ll just say you should ABSOLUTELY do these races. Just maybe find a better way to do them. These dragon heads were not worth the hours spent. Maybe ride inflatable dragons instead??

How to Train Your Dragon Party Party Food Ideas

A party isn’t a party without a fantastic food spread! After all the running and playing at our How to Train Your Dragon birthday, our mighty vikings were mighty hungry. The boys were offered a balanced menu — some sweets and some healthy snacks — and they loved every bit of it! Nikki at Tikkido.com supplied the awesome viking helmet cupcake toppers (I can’t say enough about how cool these were). I dropped them in viking inspired cupcake wrappers from the viking printable set.

Nikki at Tikkido also made these amazing sugar cookies!

There are a few great How to Train Your Dragon tutorials I’ve put up since I put this party together, one of which includes some simple instructions on how to make a small viking ship.  For this party, I used PVC pipe, a bed sheet, and some red and black fabric yardage to construct my ship sail, but the graphic on the small viking ship will be pretty easy to blow up if you want to make your own viking ship like this one.

Broccoli trees cut from the Berk forest were guarded by (or being eaten by) Toothless the Dragon. And YES, the kids did eat the broccoli!   See how to make your own broccoli tree here. It’s good for all kinds of parties!

We also supplied a trencher full of meaty crispy baked viking drumsticks, turkey, ham and cheese sandwich skewers and deviled dragon eggs. There was even a bowl of “fish” to feed any hungry dragons that happened by.  If you’ll noticed, I didn’t really serve them anything exotic–it was just the creative presentation of some pretty normal things (like ham and cheese) that make the kids totally into the food portion of the viking party.

The cupcakes themselves (not the toppers) were picked up at the local grocery store bakery, saving some party prep time. Just like the adults, the kids were pretty amazed by the Viking helmet cupcake toppers!

If you’ve got some food sensitivities in your Viking crew, this menu is a great starting point. We served quite a few gluten-free options, as several of our kids can’t eat wheat. We have a local gluten-free bakery where I get one or two cupcakes at a time for for children who can’t eat the regular kind.

And yes, kids WILL eat broccoli at a party–you just have to give it a little creative presentation!After our Vikings were fed and watered, it was sad, but it was almost time to go home!

As our Vikings left, they each were handed one of these wonderful Lollipics lollipops. This company is able to take any 2-inch round image and print it right onto a lollipop for you. So neat, and a fantastic way to really personalize a party! All our guests definitely left all smiles.

More Dragon Party Ideas

To this day, this remains one of my FAVORITE parties I’ve ever thrown. If you’re really into How to Train Your Dragon, I’ve got a few other tutorials on the site that you can use for party inspiration:

• How to Train Your Dragon Party Ideas
• Toothless serving pot
• Viking Centerpiece

Or see more dragon party ideas at the Puff the Magic Dragon party.

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