Creating a Knight Party For My One Year Old

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Kid birthday parties can either be very stressful or very fun to put together. I know that a few years ago, when I started looking for ideas for my daughter’s first birthday, I was overwhelmed with moms spending ridiculous amounts of money on a party that their kid will never remember. Thankfully, I was able to make a really fun 1st birthday for both of my kids using a lot of DIY and trips to the local dollar store. For my son’s one year party I decided he needed a knight party with lots of dragons.

What I made for my son’s party is outlined below. I made all of this for a one year old, but it can all be easily used for an older kid’s party as well. It took me about two weeks to make all of it, but I would definitely suggest starting early and doing just a bit at a time to keep it fun and not stressful.

How to DIY a Dragon and Knight Party

Invitations:

The first thing you need for your party is a fun invitation to send out. You can go the personalized printing route, or you can do what I did and use a free design online, print it out on cardstock, and mail it in normal envelopes. I used a cute dragon and knight invitation from postermywall. Once I filled in all the details on their site and downloaded it, I added my own personal touch. I opened up the saved invitation in Paint 3D and used the magic tool to get rid of the knight’s face. I then took a picture of my son and put it in its place to make him into the knight.

Castle Cake:

My almost 3 year old daughter gets so excited whenever she hears that it is someone’s birthday. Why? Because it means there will be cake! So, for your kid’s knight birthday you need cake. I made this number one shaped castle cake for my son and I absolutely love how it turned out (in looks and taste). Learn how to decorate your own castle cake here.

Other Food:

Dragon Veggies

For this dragon veggie tray, I used two cucumbers to make a dragon. I carved a head from a large piece of cucumber and then sliced the rest thinly to arrange into the body. I used one red and one orange bell pepper to make fire strips coming out of his mouth. Lastly, I used a large carrot cut thinly to make wings. The rest of the veggies were just filler, but I chose to use spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, and baby carrots. I got this idea from a Pinterest pin for a VBS.

Fruit Arrows

I was so proud of how these fruit skewer arrows turned out. I made the arrows out of wood skewers. Then, my husband and daughter filled them with fruit. Lastly, we stuck them into a target board I made. Here is the pattern I used and more detailed instructions.

Dragon Claws

I simply filled a bowl with Bugles chips and said they were dragon claws. I guess I never even took a picture of these, but I had a stuffed dragon toy with its arms around the sides of the bowl that the chips were in.

Decorations:

Fire Breathing Dragon

I used poster board, streamers, and a fan to create a giant dragon that “breathed fire”. The kids that came thought it was a lot of fun and loved that the streamers moved. Learn how to make your own fire breathing dragon here.

Flying Dragon

I guess I had too much fun making animated dragon decorations for my son’s birthday. For this dragon, I started with a blow up T-rex balloon from the Dollar Tree. I then cut out wings and horns from cardstock to tape on to it to turn it into a dragon. I then tied it with yarn to our ceiling fan and turned it on the lowest setting. My one year old loved staring at it and we even got some funny pictures of him “slaying” it with a foam sword.

Sword in the Stone

On the topic of foam swords, I also paper mached a cardboard box to turn it into a stone. It had a hole in the top for a sword to go in. The kids had fun trying to pull out the sword.

Knight’s Armor and Hemet

Using foam sheets, I made this adorable knight’s helmet and armor for my son. He wore both of them for pictures and then just the helmet while he ate his cake. Learn how to make your kid their own suit of armor.

Torches and Stained Glass Windows

These wall decorations really set the medieval mood in my living room and kitchen. I hung them up with sticky tack around where the guests would be. Check out the instructions for making tissue paper torches and stained glass windows.

Banners, Streamers, and Tablecloths

To keep everything looking cohesive, I went with a loose red and blue theme. I made cardstock banners with blue and red cardstock. Here is the pattern I used for the red banners and the blue banners. On the blue pieces, I glued pictures of my son at every month age. I also hung up blue and red streamers on the couple of walls without any decorations. For the table I used a blue plastic tablecloth and placed a strip of a plastic red tablecloth down the center.

Conclusion of My Son’s 1st Birthday Dragon and Knight Party

Overall, I loved how my son’s party turned out. It made his special day a little more special without spending lots of money. I look forward to showing him pictures of it when he is older. I hope you are able to use some of these ideas for your own celebration. Comment below which idea you like the most.