Party Ideas for a Reptile-Themed Birthday

If your child is obsessed with anything that creeps, crawls, slithers or slides, he will love a reptile-themed birthday. However, these accessories aren't exactly something you can purchase at a party store. When you want to create a reptile-themed birthday party, get creative and do most of the work on your own.

Since many of the largest reptiles live in the tropics, you can piggy back onto a luau or tropical jungle theme. Use green and yellow streamers and balloons as a backdrop, then put cut-outs of snakes and lizards on the walls. You can make a large tree out of butcher paper and have all the critters hanging out on the trunk and in the branches. Pour plastic reptiles from the dollar store into a clear vase, ringed by tropical flowers, for a centerpiece. If you have larger plastic reptiles, place them around the home--peeking from a lampshade or resting on the coffee table.

Serve food creatively with a cupcake snake--a dozen cupcakes lined up in a snake shape, with the first cupcake sporting frosting eyes and a licorice tongue. For more substantial fare, serve twisted snake bread sticks, turtle turnovers (apple tarts), dragon scales (potato chips) and lizard limbs (chicken nuggets). For drinks, get creative with anything from lemon lime soda to lemonade, but take the time to make colored ice cubes and tell guests they are frozen snake venom.

Turn normal games into reptile related ones, such as "Pin the Rattle on the Snake" or "Duck, Duck, Lizard." Have a reptile egg hunt in the yard, where guests locate different colored eggs that contain prizes. Create an obstacle course in the yard, then have teams stand hands to shoulders and navigate the course as a human snake.