Race Day: a race car birthday party, planned

The look: chequered black and white, with racing red

Black and white chequers are the pattern and red is the colour. A few traffic-light reds, ambers and greens and a stack of toy tyres finish it.

The track is the centrepiece. Black tape or a roll of black paper with a dashed white line down the middle runs from the front door to the cake, so the whole house is the circuit.

• Chequered bunting and a big chequered flag for the start and the finish.
• A cardboard traffic light at the start line that an adult can switch from red to green.
• Stacked tyres, real ones from a garden or painted swim rings, as barriers.
• A pit-stop sign over the food table and a numbered garage bay at each seat.
• Red and black balloons with a few white ones marked with race numbers.

The invitation

Write it as a race entry: driver's name, the date of the race, where the circuit is and when the lights go green. If the cars are built at the party, say so, so nobody brings one from home and nobody feels left out.

You're invited

The Grand Prix

Start your engines! Join the grid for a birthday race day, chequered flag at the finish.

✓ Going? Maybe✗ Can't

Pit-stop food and the racetrack cake

Pit stops are fast, so the food is grab-and-go. Lay it out in a line like a refuelling bay.

• Fuel: juice in small bottles labelled with a fuel pump sticker.
• Spare tyres: chocolate doughnuts or round crackers stacked in towers.
• Traffic-light fruit: a red strawberry, an orange segment and a green grape on a stick.
• Wheel sandwiches: pinwheel wraps sliced into rounds.
• Spark plugs: carrot and cucumber sticks in a cup with dip at the bottom.
• The cake: an oval racetrack piped in black icing round a green cake, with toy cars on the start line and a chequered flag on a cocktail stick.

Building and racing

Build first, race after. A child who has built their own car will race it with real commitment, and it goes home as the favour.

• Car garage: decorate a cardboard box car with paper plate wheels and shoulder straps, so the driver wears it.
• Box car race: drivers wear their cars down the track, start lights to finish flag.
• Pit-stop challenge: a team changes four paper-plate "tyres" against the clock.
• Toy car ramp races: a plank on a chair, two cars at a time, for the younger ones.
• Red light, green light, played with the cardboard traffic light.

How the two hours run

1. 0:00Drivers sign in and get a race number.
2. 0:10The garage: build and decorate box cars.
3. 0:40Red light, green light, then box car heats.
4. 0:55Pit stop: food and drinks.
5. 1:20Pit-stop challenge and toy car ramp races.
6. 1:35Racetrack cake on the finish line.
7. 1:50Podium photos, cars go home, goodbyes.

What to buy

Pack sizes are for about 15 kids. In PartyPal the list sizes itself to your headcount.

Common questions