Our girls love train, planes, cranes, and things that GO! In fact, last year our preschooler (who is convinced she’ll be a pilot when she grows up), had a pink, vintage airplane party for her third birthday.
This year, I decided to be smart and combine the girls’ second and fourth birthday parties. Their birthdays are only six weeks apart, and they’re easy-to-please when it comes to parties. As long as their friends are there (“lots and lots and lots of friends,” to be precise), they’re thrilled.
To continue the transportation birthday party theme, this year, we decided on a train birthday party.
Why?
Well, besides the fact that they love trains, our local park has an adorable miniature train that you can rent by the hour (for a VERY reasonable price! Seriously–it was one of the cheapest location rentals in the area!). A train ride for a train party?! Perfect!
My absolute FAVORITE place to find party supplies is on Etsy. The wonderful vendors in this party post were kind enough to supply me with materials for the party. Please visit, favorite, and patron their shops if/when you’re planning a train party! Their work is excellent, as you will see!
Also, as usual, this post contains amazon affiliate links for your convenience.
Ideas for a Train Birthday Party
When planning a party for my girls, I like to start by deciding what they’re going to wear. For me, their outfits set the tone for the party.
These lovely, handmade dresses from Little Love Bugs Boutique were everything I hoped they would be. And for $17, I think they’re a steal! (I could easily pay more than that at Target for a holiday or birthday outfit!)
I love how the dresses are sweet and girly, but the navy and white reminded me of a train engineer.
I also purchased a few engineer/conductor hats to add to the theme. They didn’t perfectly match the dresses, but they’ve been great props to add to our dress-up bin.
Amy from Tangerine Paper Shoppe sells a variety of paper goods and was a HUGE help to me in our party planning. I had the hardest time choosing the accent colors, and she helped me to settle on a lovely shade of aqua that would be perfect for both girls or boys.
She also designed our invitations, which were such a sweet way to introduce the party theme to our guests! These ticket invitations were so gorgeous that I almost hated to pass them out. While I like to DIY when I can, I couldn’t have designed birthday party invitations that looked as good as these.
The customized packages and paper goods offered in the Tangerine Paper Shoppe could easily be all you need for a train party. We loved the napkin holders, water bottle labels, cupcake toppers/holders, and straw flags.
One of the great things about Amy’s work is that can be personalized with your child’s name!
A great complement to the Tangerine Home’s paper goods was the fondant cupcake toppers and cake topper from Janice at Cake Dreamer.
How cute is that?! The fondant cake topper may have been my favorite party detail. Janice was fun to chat with via Etsy, and her work is phenomenal! Several people asked who made the cake topper. It was impossible not to love!
And I wouldn’t want to forget the coordinating cupcake toppers–initials, numbers, and adorable train pieces that Janice made. They were so cute that my pictures don’t do them justice!
If stored correctly, the fondant pieces can be saved as a keepsake from the party.
This downloadable train centerpiece from Whirligigs Party Co was great for pre-dinner snacks!
Our party policy is that gifts are not necessary, but I wanted to have some sort of memento of the party for the birthday girls. So I ordered this inexpensive train set, and painted it to match our party colors. Then I offered our guests Elmer’s paint pens, and encouraged our guests to use the train track as the guest book. A few days later, I sprayed it with clear spray paint to seal it and added the set to our train collection.
And although ours wasn’t a Thomas the Tank Party, I did bring Thomas in via the train tattoos that we offered to each of our little guests.
I know that favors and goody bags aren’t given at all birthday parties, but I love putting them together! I used these little favor boxes (a larger size is also available) from Cut N Create Canada. They can be personalized with either your child’s name or the party date. I filled the small boxes with little bags of puffs and yogurt melts for the dozen or so “babies” in our group.
The rest of the boxes will be used to deliver thank you notes! (If I ever finish writing them!)
For the bigger kids, I put together little packets of crayons, playdoh, and snacks that were not-at-all related to the train party theme. 🙂
The one downside to planning a train ride for a train party? You are at the mercy of the WEATHER. Unfortunately, our first party date was rained out. The forecast said ZERO percent chance of rain up until the party start time when it stormed. Thankfully, we have wonderful friends who were willing to come over anyway for dinner in the storm and then reschedule our train ride!
If a train ride isn’t an option, check out these train activities and ideas that would be great for a train birthday party!
- Wooden Train Roller Coaster from Play Trains
- Train Party Games and Activities from On My Side of the Room
- Sticker Trains from Play Trains (These could make great party favors!)
- Thomas Train Party Crafts from Craftulate
- Moving Food Train from Play Trains
- Train Song Playlist from Mom Endeavors
All in all, it was a fantastic shared party for my little engineers! So good, in fact, that they still talk about it weekly. 🙂
Shop This Party
From Tangerine Paper Shoppe:
- Complete, printable train party package
- Train Invitations
- Train Cupcake Toppers
- Door Sign
- Napkin Rings
- Train Party Water Bottle Labels
From Cake Dreamer:
From Little Love Bugs Boutique
From Cut N Create Canada
From Whirligigs Party Co:
Love this! Thanks for sharing all the little details as I think this would be perfect for our trail loving boy for his next birthday! Looks like your girls had a blast. 🙂