Ideas for Hosting a Gender-neutral Kids’ Party

Throwing a memorable kids’ party is all about creating a joyful and welcoming atmosphere where every child feels included. Whether you want to move away from gender stereotyping, or simply need ideas that appeal to both sexes, a gender-neutral party offers the perfect solution.

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Interested? Keep reading! In this post, we’ll share fun, kid-approved ideas for throwing a celebration that’s all about laughter, not labels.

So, let’s start planning!

Gender Netural Themes

The first thing you’ll need to do is decide on your theme. To help you, we’ve put together a list of themes with suggestions for activities, games and food for each.

LEGO party

LEGO appeals to all ages and comes in an amazing array of gender-neutral colours as well as pink and blue! If you have insufficient LEGO for your party, you can usually find reasonably priced job lots on Ebay or Facebook Marketplace.

Lego Activities

Guess the number of bricks – fill a large glass jar with assorted LEGO pieces, print guests’ names on a sheet of paper and record their guess as to the number of bricks in the container. Provide a small prize for the child who is closest to the correct number. Don’t forget to forget to count the bricks beforehand!

Mini monsters – give each child a handful of LEGO bricks and get them to build a simple animal. Set a timer and award a prize for the most imaginative / three-legged / two-tailed etc creature in the brick-built menagerie.

LEGO scavenger hunt – hide LEGO minifigures around the room, split children into two teams and provide each with a set of clue cards to help them. Start each team off with a different card so they’re not both looking for the same clue at once. When a team finds a figure, they should write the location on the back of the card and leave the figure in place for the other team. The first team to find all the items wins.

Free Build Station – set up boxes or buckets of mixed LEGO bricks so kids can create anything they choose.

Lego food theme ideas

A DIY birthday cake, or small sponge squares, with coloured fondant and Smarties to resemble LEGO bricks.
Chocolate minifigures – create using silicone LEGO minifigure moulds.
Jelly bricks – create using silicone LEGO brick moulds.
LEGO heads – draw a face on yellow paper dessert cups and fill with popcorn or crisps.
Pepperoni pizza cut into small rectangles to resemble LEGO bricks.
Cheese and crackers – layer cheese onto rectangular or square crackers and then add another layer of mini cheese circles (use a mini fondant cutter) to represent the studs.

Hogwarts Magic

For all the Harry Potter fans – This theme offers endless ideas for dressing up: witches, wizards, elves, owls, dogs, cats and even books! Plus, you can design your invitations as Hogwarts acceptance letters, including a reminder that an owl (reply) is expected by a certain date.

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Magical Games and activities

Potion-making station – fill bottles or jam jars with ingredients such as vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, food colouring, plastic flies, glitter, jelly worms etc and label imaginatively. Plastic cauldrons are great for mixing ingredients, while chopsticks make perfect stirring wands. NB this is a messy activity; if you are even remotely houseproud, we strongly advise running your potions class outside!

Spell school – teach kids the HP levitation spell, ‘Wingardium Leviosa’. This simply entails getting them to chant the correct pronunciation while practising their wand swishing. Now let them loose to practise on balloons! (Even better, hire a magician to teach the kids some spells!)

Quidditch tournament – ideally, you’ll need two teams of seven players: three chasers, two beaters, a keeper and a seeker, but you can have great fun with any number! Requirements:

One broomstick (pool noodle) per player
One quaffle
Two bludgers
One snitch
Two goal posts (hula hoops on a stick)

We suggest using different colour/size soft balls to avoid injuries. Players score points by getting the quaffle through the other team’s hoop or by capturing the snitch.

Food ideas:

Cupcakes with Hogwarts themed toppers
Pretzel wands dipped in chocolate and sprinkles
Chocolate frogs and gummy worms
Hard-boiled (dragons’) eggs
Professor Sprout’s veggie sticks
Potions – squash plus food colouring

DIY pizza party

A combination of food and entertainment rolled into one!

You’ll need:

Pizza-making station – a table with bowls containing toppings, sauce and cheese.
Aprons – essential for keeping guests (semi!) clean. Stick to gender-neutral colours and personalise with fabric pens.
Ingredients – mini pizza bases, tomato pizza sauce and cheese.
Toppings: sweetcorn, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, red onion, pineapple, ham, chicken and pepperoni.
Mini pizza boxes – not essential, but kids will love having their own pizza in a box.
Extras – veggie sticks, mini tomatoes, garlic bread and a dessert item, plus drinks.

Tip: Ensure you pre-heat your oven before the party starts and label pizzas with baking parchment to avoid mix-ups and tears!

Games/ activities while you wait:

Pin the pepperoni on the pizza – requires a large cardboard pizza (cut a circle from a large box and decorate with felt pens), coloured stickers and a blindfold.
Decorate a pizza box competition – you’ll need small, plain pizza boxes, stickers and / or felt pens. Award a small prize for the most creatively decorated box.

Sports day party

Is there anything kids love more than running about, eating snacks and making a noise? We doubt it! Which is why a sports-themed party is perfect for your gender-neutral kids party.

Games and activities

Classic primary school sports day ideas:

Sack race – dependent on children’s height, you could use pillowcases, or even sew some simple sacks out of old sheets or duvet covers
Egg and spoon race –hollow plastic Easter eggs are probably cheaper than real eggs!
Three–legged race – you’ll need something soft to tie legs together
Obstacle race – narrow lengths of wood on the ground act as balance beams, pool noodles on upturned buckets make hurdles, while mini traffic cones create an area to weave a ball through.

Team games:

Dodge ball – create two teams and mark a centre line with several large foam balls. A whistle is blown to start the game, and children run to grab a ball from the centre. They then aim the ball (from behind the centre line) at their opponents whilst simultaneously dodging balls thrown from the other side. A player is out when hit below the shoulders by a ball. The winning team is the team with one remaining player.
Tug of war – place a centre mark on the ground and the rope – the first team to pull the other team across the centre mark wins.
Football – we’ve got a great article on how to throw a football party here.

Hand out prizes, medals or certificates to everyone (avoids tears!) when the games are over.

Food ideas for your sports party

Chips in cones – provide ketchup for dipping
Fish-finger sandwiches
Mini burgers in buns
Fruit skewers
Ice lollies – great for cooling off after all that exercise!
Medal biscuits – decorate with cut out stars and numbers
Drinks – fruit juice cartons, diluted squash – serve in reusable sports bottles they can keep.

Circus or carnival party

With a focus on classic carnival vibes, clowns, acrobatics and games, a circus-themed party is perfect for a fun-filled gender-neutral celebration that will appeal to everyone.

Carnival Games and activities

Ring toss – use bottles and glow rings
Duck pond game – Fill a paddling pool and add ducks with numbers underneath and prepare small prizes with corresponding numbers. Children catch ducks with a fishing net and receive a prize that matches the number on their duck.
Tightrope Walk – place a narrow length of wood on the ground and use a pool noodle as a balance pole.
Face Painting – think easy DIY circus animals, rainbows and clown noses.
Photo Booth – Provide props like clown noses, silly glasses, top hats, boas and animal masks.

Professional entertainment:
Why not consider hiring a professional entertainer such as a clown, unicyclist, magician or juggler to add that extra wow factor?

Carinval food ideas

Mini hot dogs in buns
Animal-themed chocolate biscuits
Cupcakes – finish with circus -themed toppers
Lemonade stand – serve in mason jars or colourful paper cups with paper straws
Popcorn – serve in striped bags
Candy floss

While you certainly can DIY the last two items, hiring a professional caterer with a popcorn or candyfloss cart will really add to the carnival atmosphere. Plus, you won’t have to deal with the after-party clean-up!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post and that it’s inspired you to throw your own gender-neutral kids’ party, filled with plenty of fun, food and friends.