Construction Birthday Party Decorations

You have a kid's birthday party coming up, and you can't think of a theme for a creative yet affordable event that the kids will love. Well, how about planning a party and decorating around a construction theme? This can come with dump trucks, hard hats and other things kids love.

Take a trip to your child's toy box (or the local thrift store) to find big dump trucks to use a table centerpieces. You can fill the cabs with candy, party favors or other goodies.

Covering tables is a cinch for a construction-themed party. Make large copies of old construction blueprints to place on each table. This is a fun, economic way to give your party a true construction theme. Or if blueprints aren't an option, buy inexpensive, yellow plastic tablecloths from a discount store. Then tape wide black strips across the yellow tablecloths to achieve a construction zone look on tables.

Yellow and black caution tape is an affordable decoration that goes a long way when decorating for a construction-themed party. Wind it around porch rails, stair banisters, doorways and driveways to set the mood as party guests arrive. Then use it throughout the main party area to section off "construction zones" such as the cake table, gift area and game-playing space. You can even use caution tape instead of streamers to decorate the party area.

Place a construction-themed coloring book and box of crayons at each child's place setting to use as party favors. Child-friendly tools (such as plastic buckets, shovels and diggers) also make great construction-themed party favors.

Ask a bakery to specially design a construction-themed cake for your party. Cakes can be made to look like dump trucks, front loaders or backhoes, or fashioned into construction sign shapes. As an added touch, serve the cake using a plastic shovel and upside-down plastic hardhats as plates.

Buy colored poster board or construction paper from a discount store, and cut out street signs to post on party walls. Some examples of street signs include stop signs, traffic lights, danger ahead signs, work zone signs and hardhat zones.

Instead of traditional party hats, have guests wear plastic hardhats from a discount store. Decorate the guest of honor's hat with caution tape and small plastic tools such as shovels and drills.