I seriously never thought I would do character parties for my kids, but as they have gotten older and have their own interests, it would be pretty hard not to, right? So the challenge for me then? Still make it as creative and unique as possible, while keeping with the theme they love. For Hazel’s fourth this year, she knew for months what kind of party she wanted. A Frozen party. And not just any Frozen party: an Elsa party.
I guess I just had to let it go about my hopes and dreams that she would choose a unicorn party (her second choice), and go with the flow of the Elsa Frozen party.
I purchased the invitations pretty last minute from
this shop on Etsy and only sent them to everyone the week before the party (yikes!). I am a terrible procrastinator, what can I say? I did set-up a Facebook event page well in advance, so most everyone knew about it ahead of time. But I still love sending an actual paper invitation in the mail. Hazel chose this one herself from the options I showed her on Etsy.
When I ordered the prints, I added an image of her on the back standing in front of an ice volcano taken at Letchworth State park over the winter. She even brought her Elsa doll because she “knew it was her castle.”
Since rain was in the forecast, I planned the party indoors. A first for any of my kids’ parties! Our party guests were greeted by Elsa, Olaf and Queen Hazel at the door. (My mom pointed out that it looks like she doesn’t have legs in the above pic but I assure you she does! She just wanted to wear her sparkly black tights.)
We found Hazel’s dress and shoes at Walmart. She loved them. Especially the shoes. They have a small heel and she just couldn’t get enough of that “clicking” sound when she walked. Ahh the joys of being a little girl again.
My sister-in-law is a hairstylist and graciously agreed to come do the birthday girl’s hair (like Elsa’s) for the big day. I had purchased a sparkly crown with a “4” on it and had hoped she would wear it, but the fit wasn’t good and she felt uncomfortable. It became part of the decor instead. I added an Elsa face to it from a hair clip that had broken. She loved that little touch.
Most of the party decor was set-up in the dining room. I even gave our chandelier a bit of a makeover with some aqua streamers and then added a blue cardboard chandelier (from Michael’s) below. Hazel hoped everything would be “blue like Elsa.”
The day of the party, I was frantically trying to get everything put together (as I usually am at the last minute), so I wasn’t too concerned with getting really awesome photographs taken. Just ones so we had memories of the party details and the birthday girl enjoying her day. I hope you will forgive the quality of some of these. Anything that didn’t get used up or disrupted by the party was rephotographed the next day!
Our mantel was taken over by Elsa and her wintry goodness.
I created a focal point in the center by using one of the invitations cut out and set behind a tiara (the one I wore at my wedding). The rest of the mantel was filled in with white lights, polyester fiber as snow, sparkly silver branches from a holiday wreath, mercury glass candle holders and a lantern. I definitely broke into the Christmas bins for this party.
I added some bling with vintage brooches, this blue one belonging to my grandmother who passed away earlier this year.
I even went all out and bought a 6 foot tall cardboard Elsa. I couldn’t resist when I saw it! Hazel was so happy that Elsa actually came to her party…
And it wouldn’t be a Frozen party without Olaf! Even though Hazel wanted everything to be mainly Elsa, I had to include him.
Olaf hung out on a sled by the candy and an apothecary jar filled with “snowballs.”
We had “Elsa’s Hail Storm” which were chocolate candies and “Anna’s Kisses to thaw a frozen heart,” near the Hershey’s kisses.
The party favor bags went in a sled opposite of Olaf (but they were cleared out by the time I took the photo).
I wish I had thought to get a better picture of the cake, but by that point most of the guests had arrived and it was pure chaos greeting them, making coffee, getting everything set-up! Hope you can get the gist of it from these photos.
I started with two store-bought cakes from our favorite grocery store. The large one was a carrot cake and my Aunt Maureen literally took off all the nuts and added each little snowflake by hand to both the large and smaller cake. She was a life saver since my mom was away on vacation!
I bought the castle cake topper on
Etsy and Hazel absolutely loved it since it lit up blue with LED lights and had her name on it. I had hoped to put
this staircase
(affiliate link*) I found on Amazon going from one cake to the other, but it didn’t arrive on time (It literally arrived the day after the party! Total bummer). So, the night before, I came up with my own concoction. More of a “frozen slide” than staircase, but it worked.
The dining room table was covered in a white tablecloth and then sheer fabric with sparkles from Jo-Ann’s that Hazel helped picked out. We had tons of food (too much really) and I used place cards to make food labels in a hurry.
We had guests put gifts inside the mantel. But when we ran out of room, I had them put them in the living room on our antique sideboard…where they found Kristoff’s trusty reindeer “Sven”…
It’s really one of those corny Christmas decorations that makes noise and sings about Santa, but I took the bells and red bows off of him, surrounded his greenery in “snow” and shoved a carrot in his mouth. Ta da! Sven.
Hazel was blessed with so many amazing gifts including a Frozen bicycle from one of my aunts. She was so happy. It was a great day filled with fun and good memories. And even though it was a bit frantic getting everything done, we all had a great time together and Hazel enjoyed being snow queen for the day.
I put together a list of items that I actually purchased for the party (or alternatives that are a close match) in case you are looking for some inspiration for your own Frozen themed event!
Frozen Birthday Party Details
(this list contains affiliate links*)
If you are a regular here, I bet you can’t believe I am posting this less than two weeks after it happened, huh? A record for me, especially considering I just got around to posting her third birthday party last month! I am a procrastinator indeed. Now, if I can get Owen’s second birthday party posted before he turns three…that would be progress. I’m working on it…
Till next time…
~Alice W.
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13 Comments
MaeMae
Beautiful job! I'm not looking forward to character parties either (it's against my creative nature :-/) but I know I'm going to have to cave! I think you did a REALLY nice job mixing in your own details!!! I love the streamers on the chandelier especially. Hazel is so, so beautiful 🙂
Alice Wingerden
Thank you! I still secretly wish they would just choose a random theme (or let me lol) not based around a movie character…sigh…but I guess in the end it's whatever makes them happy right? 🙂
Monika Bourderioux HAND MADe CREATIONS
Great party!!! Congrats to your Elsa! Hugs
Alice Wingerden
Thanks Monika!
Amy W
My daughter's birthday is in Jan and nearly everyday she talks about how her next birthday when she turns 5, will be an Elsa party. I'm always like…. maybe or maybe something else! But wow, you did an awesome job of going Frozen without too much BLUE FROZEN stuff! Love it, Alice!
Alice Wingerden
Yeah I am gonna miss just choosing quirky themes and doing parties around them…characters are all they say they want! Owen's is in September so I have to plan a Monster's Inc party next…hehe 😉
Janine Hamilton
Oh everything looked so good, wish I had been there! Was fun seeing Haze's excitement from the facetime chat we had though! Great job decorating, honey! I love seeing mom's blue brooch there, she & dad would have loved this party since blue was their favorite color!! Happy 4th Birthday Hazel!
Alice Wingerden
Wish you could have been there too! Not the same without you…
Janine Hamilton
Oh everything looked so good, wish I had been there! Was fun seeing Haze's excitement from the facetime chat we had though! Great job decorating, honey! I love seeing mom's blue brooch there, she & dad would have loved this party since blue was their favorite color!! Happy 4th Birthday Hazel!
Olivia Godfrey
I LOVE her little elsa side braid! 🙂 Also Matt was sitting next to me as I read this, and he saw that picture and said "Wheres her legs?" I just laughed and he was like "Seriously, where are they!?" Haha …Looks like it was a fun birthday party…you did such a great job of decorating for a character party! Classy Frozen party!!
Alice Wingerden
That's pretty funny 🙂 I didn't even notice till my mom pointed it out!
Sandi
Beautiful and blessed little Hazel! Wonderful and loving mother Alice!! 🙂
umeoneLSL
Fabulous Party!