Magic Show Starring Your Guests
Kids love everything about magic, from watching magic shows to learning new tricks. For this magical birthday event, you don't need to hire a magician. Instead, ask your guests to be the stars. When you send the invitations, ask everyone to come prepared to share one magic trick. You can create a fun staging area and award party favors as magic show prizes. Most toy stores carry fun, inexpensive magic tricks and toys that can be used as giveaways.
Here's one magic trick idea:
Create a Rainbow: Tape a piece of white paper to a wall. Find a flashlight and a clear plastic audio cassette case. Make the room very dark, and turn on the flashlight. Hold the audio cassette case between the paper and your flashlight. Shine the light through the case and onto the paper. Tilt, move and swirl the case in different ways. Presto! It's a rainbow!
Every Magician Needs a Wand
- Whether you want to give your birthday honoree a magic wand or provide all guests with their own wand as a party favor, here's an easy way to make it happen:
1. Tightly roll up three opened sheets of newspaper from the long side for a wand; tape.
2. Wrap wand in aluminum foil, and secure with tape.
3. Cut out a star shape from cardboard with scissors.
4. Cut long strips of crepe paper or wide ribbon for streamers.
5. Color both sides of the star with markers. Glue the star and streamers to the top of the wand.
Presto Changeo, Watch It Grow
Check with gardening stores in your area to determine if this activity is appropriate for the time of year.
- Let your little guests make their own blooming magic trick to take home: a flowering party favor. Before the party, pick up an assortment of flowering bulbs and small clay flowerpots. Decorate the pots with a magic theme (a magician's hat, a wand, etc.), using paint or ink stamps, and personalize with each child's name. You and the birthday honoree can prepare these little pots in advance to use on your table as part of the decor.
- When guests arrive, plan a time when they can add their own potting soil, plant one "mystery" flowering bulb and add the magic liquid potion (colored water). They won't know what the flower will look like until it begins to grow at home in their keepsake pot.