9th Birthday Party Ideas

Has the time come for that last single-digit birthday? Make sure 9 is divine! Check out our 9th birthday party ideas that will wow everyone!

Magic Party
Abracadabra! Liven up the birthday celebration with a little magic! When each mini magician arrives, hand out top hats and magic wands (plastic versions can be found at most party stores). Get a rabbit in a hat birthday cake and set up a treat table with chocolate dipped pretzel wands or even Trix cereal! Hire a magician to come put on a show for the kids. Set up a stage in an area where everyone can fit, and use a black sheet to set a stage backdrop. After the show, play a tricky game of rabbit toss. Buy 3 beanbag rabbits, and set up upside down top hats to throw them into. A deck of cards in a baggie with magic dust (some fine confetti) makes the perfect party favor!

Outer Space Party
Want to throw a party that’s out of this world? Go intergalactic with an outer space party. Hang circular paper lanterns in different colors from the ceiling to look like planets—9 if you count Pluto! Set up a dessert table that will leave the kids star struck, with a rocket ship cake and planet cake pops. Add some sweets like jars of Mars bars or Milky Ways. Want to eat just like the astronauts? Grab some freeze-dried ice cream to go with that cake! Blast this party off and rent a moonbounce! Once everyone has come back down to Earth, send them off with some moon rock rock candy treats.

Camping Party
Is your kid a natural outdoorsman? Let’s take the celebration outside with a camping party! Keep the group small and invite everyone for a sleepover under the stars. Set up tents in the backyard around a campfire (but not too close)! Make sure everyone brings a sleeping bag and a pillow. Roast hot dogs for dinner and set up a trail mix station for a crunchy treat. Mix up green Kool Aid in a punch bowl with plastic bugs for some refreshing “bug juice.” Before the sun goes down, do a nature scavenger hunt. Pick 9 items that the group has to find outside. And no campout is complete without s’mores! After the scavenger hunt is done, toast marshmallows over the fire while everyone tells their favorite ghost story. In the morning, send everyone off with their own s’mores kit so they can have s’more fun at home!

Tea Party
It’s time to par-TEA! Have all the invitees wear their favorite party dress. As everyone arrives, create personalized tea party hats with a hat station. Provide straw hats, flowers, ribbons, and a glue gun—with adult supervision of course! Once everyone is stylin’ in their new hat, start the tea party off with hot tea and iced tea in fun colored tea pots. Don’t forget, pinkies up! Decorate the table with paper doilies and tie strips of tulle into bows on the back of each chair. Set up dainty snacks like mini sandwiches and fruit pizzas on tiered platters. Fancy girls can have fun too! Hold a balancing contest where each guest walks around and balances a plastic tea cup on her head. Or play a game of hot tea cup (hot potato) and pass a tea cup around until there’s a winner! Put together baggies of tea bag-shaped shortbread cookies as a parting gift.

Cowboy Party
Yee-haw! Throw a country western bash for your cowboy. Dress up your ranch with hay barrels and red checker print tablecloths and napkins. Go for a cow-print cake and set up a table of treats with pigs in a blanket (lil doggies), pulled pork sliders, and wagon wheel pasta salad. Stack rice crispie treats to look like mini hay barrels and cut brownies into circles like cow pies! Set up an outlaw photo booth with a wanted poster that each cowboy can stick his head in to take a shot. Dress everyone up with their own bandana and get face paint sticks to draw on crazy mustaches! Get moving with a game of horseshoes or apple bobbing!

Dinosaur Party
Are you ready to throw a dino-mite party? Go prehistoric with a dinosaur 9th birthday! Cut out dinosaur footprints and lay them around the house. Get colored balloons and tape on dino heads, tails, and feet for floating creatures. Have everyone stomp around in their very own dino feet! Buy foam sheets from the craft store and cut out dino feet with holes that will fit around the ankle. Let everyone choose their own color and decorate them with markers, glue, and other foam shapes. Need an herbivore-friendly snack? Cut melon slices with dinosaur-shaped cookie cutters or freeze green and purple grapes on skewers for frozen dino eggs. Don’t forget the carnivores! Serve up dino-shaped chicken nuggets or chicken wings. If you live near a history museum, see if you can get a group rate on the dinosaur exhibit.

Football Party
Hut, hut, hike! A football party will be a touchdown for your little athlete. Set a treat table backdrop with a paper goal post and mascots of the birthday boy’s favorite football team. Get everyone’s game face on with eye black stickers and even paint on their favorite team logo! Opt for chocolate cupcakes with football-shaped frosting, and set up game day snacks like a nacho bar and a hot dog station. Take the party outside for a football throwing contest, and don’t forget to set up a cooler jug full of a refreshing sports drink! Have all the guests sign a football for the birthday boy to keep, and give everyone a mini football to take home. This party goes the whole 9 yards!

Science Party
The birthday boy or girl will bubble over with excitement for this science-themed birthday bash! Create a lab with a periodic table poster and a table full of lab rat cookies and chemistry beakers filled with colorful candies. Give everyone a pair of plastic safety goggles to look the part! Next to a lime green cake with a mad scientist on top, put out a tray of grapes, berries, and marshmallows with cocktail straws so everyone can create their own molecules! And what’s a science party without experiments? Create an exploding volcano with a container, vinegar, and baking soda. For an even bigger explosion take the lab outside and give everyone a mini bottle of soda and some mentos. Keep some towels close by! Hand out test tubes (check your local craft store) to fill up with candies from the treat table to take home.

Cheerleading Party
We’re done with 2, 4, 6, 8, it’s time for 9! The birthday girl will shout for this cheerleading party! Set up a station where every guest can pick out hair bows and mini pom poms. Use cheer megaphones to create a tablescape next to a cheer cake decorated with the birthday girl’s favorite team colors. Or, make pom pom cake pops by dipping the cake into melted chocolate and covering it with shredded coconut. Gather together to learn some cheers—spell out the birthday girl’s name or pick a favorite team to shout about!

Tie Dye Party
Let’s get funky! A tie dye party is perfect for the artistically inclined. Create a colorful table with a rainbow fruit tray and rainbow veggie pinwheel wraps. Dress cupcakes in tie dye frosting, or, top them with fruity pebbles for a crunchy and colorful treat. Freeze different colored Kool Aids in ice cube trays and put them in light-colored soda or seltzer for a vibrant spritzer! Set up a tie dye station and give every guest a t-shirt. Let everyone come up with their own crazy design! While the shirts dry, play a game of Twister or send everyone on a color scavenger hunt—find something in every color from the color wheel!

Cloud 9 Party
Up up and away! Anyone turning 9 should BE on cloud 9. So create a celebration in the sky. Decorate with white balloons or create your own clouds to hang from the ceiling with cotton batting found at a fabric store. Take your dessert table up in the air with airplane cookies, hot air balloon cake pops, and sky blue cupcakes with marshmallow cloud frosting. Mix blue Kool Aid with soda water to create refreshing rain drinks. Splurge and rent a cotton candy machine so everyone can eat their own sweet clouds! Play a game of pin the raindrop on the cloud or have a paper airplane flying contest!

Kitty Cat Party
Celebrate 9 years with 9 lives. For the birthday girl who loves cats, a kitty cat party is purrrfect. Draw a nose and whiskers on each guest as they arrive and make sure they get some milk! Transform the cake into a cat with ears on top and gel frosting whiskers on the front. Cut tuna sandwiches with a cat-shaped cookie cutter and accompany them with goldfish crackers! Post “no dogs allowed!” signs and swap paper streamers for yarn ball streamers. Hide plastic mice around the house and send everyone on a mouse hunt. Whoever finds the most mice wins the cat chow (a bag of trail mix). Or play a game of cat, cat, dog—think duck, duck, goose, but furrier! If you’re the adventurous type, see if your local animal shelter does birthday parties. Many shelters offer parties on site and you can even play with the animals! Just make sure the attendees’ parents say it’s ok.

Star Wars Party
May the force be with you for a party that’s out of this galaxy! Set a backdrop with black paper and cut out stars. Paste squares of paper onto a gray paper lantern to create a hanging Death Star, or get white balloons and draw on Storm Trooper faces with a black marker. Get a chocolate Chewbacca cake to set up alongside wookie cookies and light saber chocolate dipped pretzels. Next up? A Jedi training course! Buy colorful pool noodles and use black and silver duct tape to create a handle at one end. First, get through the Storm Trooper lasers—set up red yarn in a hallway or narrow space for the kids to work their way through. Use a corn hole platform with a Death Star on top, where they have to get the beanbags in the hole to take down the ship. Finally, pin the bun on the Leia! Make the kids feel like real Jedis when Darth Vader arrives. Either hire a performer to come play the character, or find a Darth Vader costume and have a parent dress the part. So much fun it is!

Fashion Show Party
Dress to the 9s for 9! Is your girl a budding fashionista? Have her show off her look at a fashion show party. Create a runway with any color paper on a roll, and set up chairs alongside. Use a string of white holiday lights to outline the runway for a high-fashion look. Give the dessert table some flare with mannequins, pearls, and a handbag cake. Or, make high heel cupcakes—bake and frost the cupcakes, then use 2 flat cookies to create the heel. Have a bucket of dress up outfits, boas, sunglasses, and more so each guest can create a signature look. As everyone walks down the runway, snap photos to capture the designs! Send everyone off with a goodie bag of lipstick or lip gloss and a bottle of glitter nail polish.