Top 7 Things to Do for a Teen Birthday

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Your teen drama queens — or kings — may think that birthday parties are for little kids. But after seeing this list, they will be counting down the days until they can throw a teen birthday party of their own.

Impress your hard-to-please teens with these awesome party ideas and show them that you are never too old for a birthday party if you throw the right kind. After the main event, your teen may even go so far as to call you “cool.” Now that will be something to celebrate.

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7. Take Them to a New Country — Virtually

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The activity: A themed teen birthday party.

How to do it: Is your teen a fan of a country or culture? If yes, make their day and personalize their birthday with that country’s specialties. Here are a few ways you can achieve this:

• France-themed birthday: Fill your table with baguettes, different kinds of cheese, and pastries (like macarons, cream puffs, crepes, and croissants). Print an Eiffel Tower backdrop and turn it into a selfie station. Program a French movie (Amélie is an excellent choice for teens), Decorate your home with red, blue, and white garlands and balloons. Give small Eiffel tower keychains to the guests as souvenirs at the end of the party.
• Japan-themed birthday: Add sushi to the table and program a tea ceremony and a calligraphy session. Have the teens watch a Japanese-themed or a Japanese animation movie, perform Japanese songs karaoke-style, and take pictures in front of a cherry trees backdrop.

6. Holi-Style Birthday Party

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The activity: A festival of colors right in your backyard.

How to do it: Order colorful powder online or dye corn starch yourself. Make enough for all the participants because they will be using a lot. Ask them to bring clothes they don’t mind getting messy. If they can bring white shirts, it would make the colors of the powder pop much more.

Give each one them a ration of powder in different colors in small bags. When they’re all in place in the backyard, signal the beginning of the festivities. Make sure to take pictures during this explosion of colors and smiles. The results are amazing.

5. Let the Games Begin

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The activity: An Olympic-like competition.

How to do it: Transform your backyard or basement into an Olympic zone and set the world record for throwing the teen birthday party of the year.

Examples of the game stations:

• Board games
• Building the highest house of cards
• One-on-one basketball
• Ping pong
• Relay race
• Video games

Get creative with snacks and decorations, such as torches made from sugar cones filled with buttered popcorn and gold medal cookies. End the event with an awards ceremony to recognize all of the winners.

4. Scavenger Hunt 2.0

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The activity: A photo scavenger hunt.

How to do it: Your teen may think a scavenger hunt is lame at first, but it’s sure to be a hit once you explain that the game involves social media uploads.

Send teens on a search to capture photos of their friends doing silly things in unexpected places. Instruct the participants to upload the pictures along the way, and everyone will go home with a virtual scrapbook of the teen birthday party to remember. The participants can upload the photos in a secret Facebook group created just for the event or in a cloud file (like on Dropbox, Google Drive, or Flickr).

Here are some examples of instructions:

• Order the whole group to pose in a one-person bathroom stall.
• Make a human pyramid and try to snap a pic.
• Make an Instagram Boomerang gif of the team doing a silly dance.
• Take a picture with a teammate using the face swap Snapchat filter.
• Take a group picture with an animal.
• Find a reflective surface (other than a mirror) and take a group picture in front of it.
• Take a slow-mo video of a teammate eating a messy sandwich.
• If you’re hosting the teen birthday party at home, take a picture of a participant wearing all the coats in the room

3. Two Thumbs-Ups From the Critics

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The activity: An epic movie screening.

How to do it: Throw a red carpet event right in your backyard. Rent or purchase a large inflatable movie screen and turn your backyard into a movie lover’s oasis by stocking up on popcorn, candy, and soda. If you have a large white wall, use it as a screen to project a movie using a data show plugged to a computer.

If you have a pool, that’s even better. Buy some floats, and you’re set. No pool? No problem. Just have guests sprawl out, picnic style, on large blankets in front of the screen and get the film rolling.

2. A Spa Party as Cool as a Cucumber Facial

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The activity: A relaxing spa session.

How to do it: Transform your home into a serene spa featuring pampering activities for ultimate girly teen birthday. A facial bar, manicure and pedicure station, gossip magazine corner and hair-styling depot will leave your teens refreshed and impressed.

First, welcome partygoers with a refreshing fizzy beverage—in a fancy glass, of course. Then ask them to turn their phones off. It’s a no-stress zone.

Give the guests towels and headbands to keep their hair out of the way, ask them to clean their faces with some warm water and soap, and ask them to lay down. Have a few facial creams (for normal, dry, and oily skin) and cucumber slices ready. They can apply the creams on their faces and lay down or apply crazy nail polish colors. Let the guests keep the nail polish colors they used for an easy party favor.

Here is what you will need:

• Cucumber slices
• Facial creams
• Headbands
• Magazines
• Nail polish
• Towels

Designate a time for the party to end. Otherwise, guests will never want to leave this relaxing retreat.

1. Bring the Fun to Your Driveway

gornostai_nastya / Pixabay

The activity: A mobile event.

How to do it: Jump on the bandwagon — or the RV, in this case — and throw your teen a party on-the-go. Many companies offer interactive mobile entertainment. The party comes to your door and parks conveniently wherever you’d like. Choose from traveling video game utopias inside an RV, outdoor laser tag, or 360 degrees of giant hamster ball fun.

These unforgettable, on-site mobile experiences can be customized to fit all gamers’ needs. Let the experts plan the teen birthday party, and all you have to do is sit back and relax while the teens have a blast. And the cherry on top? The mess drives away.

Choose one of these teen birthday party ideas to make birthdays cool again.  Also, check out Broke Student Gifts & Ideas Everybody Will Love