How to Throw A Safari Birthday Party!

When planning kids birthday parties, a great option is to hire someone to come to your home and provide the party entertainment! We have done this with several different party themes- but our absolute favorite is the Safari Birthday Party! Here's how to throw one of your own!

Safari Birthday Party Entertainment:

Our favorite entertainer that we have used over and over is a guy named “Jungle Jim and his Party Safari”. He brings with him a carload of cool animals such as bunnies, tortoises, ferrets, guinea pigs, bearded dragons, a skink, a hedgehog, a chinchilla, a dove, a snake, and he ends the party with a race featuring two Madagascar hissing cockroaches named Mario and Luigi.

Jungle Jim has a real gift when it comes to connecting kids with creatures- he is funny, and he works hard to teach the kids about the animals and makes them feel comfortable about feeding the critters and holding them.

The best way to find someone local for your area is to search on Google for “kids party entertainment”, “mobile petting zoo”, “safari party” etc. You can also try asking local childcare centers if they ever have anyone come in and share animals with the kids. That's how we found our “Jungle Jim”!

Safari Birthday Party Invitations:

I love these “ party animal” fill-in-the-blank style invitations This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. !

Safari Birthday Party Opening Activity:

When the guests arrived, we started them off with a small craft- a foam door hanger This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. that the guests could decorate with the animal stickers This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. of their choosing.

We also had a tattoo station This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. for the kids, while they were waiting for Jungle Jim to set up his “show”.

At some of our Safari parties, we played a few games of freeze dancing (the kids dance while music plays, and when we pause the music- they have to freeze in position until the music begins again), and Simon Sez.

And then right before the guests sat down to see Jungle Jim, we gave them plastic safari hats This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. and toy binoculars This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. !

The Party Safari:

For preschoolers, a good length of time for entertainment is about 45 minutes to an hour- and the time flies by for the kids!

It gave the kids lots of time to learn about the animals…

And feed the animals:

Learn what part of the world they come from:

And even try them on for size!

After the show, we had all of the guests line up to receive a nice dollop of Purell to sanitize their hands before eating. Then we served lunch (usually pizza) for the kids.

Safari Birthday Party Cake Ideas:

Some of the cakes that I have made for our Safari parties:

Snake cake:

An elephant cake:

A frog cake:

We are big on frogs around here- so this is another version of a frog cake!

A giraffe cake:

Safari Party Wrap Up:

To wrap up the party, we gather all of the guests to play our “eat a gummy worm dangling from a string without using your hands” game, and then we invite everyone to head outdoors to go on a treasure hunt for their goodie bags.

Our favorite goodie bag for a Safari party is a small stuffed animal This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. – and I try to find ones that match the animals that Jungle Jim brings to our parties- so I have given out little bunnies, guinea pigs, hedgehogs, lizards, and even a chinchilla.

If you enjoyed this party idea, check out some more awesome Kids Birthday Party Ideas:

Check out all of our Kids Birthday Parties here:

How to Throw Your Own Kids Birthday Parties at Home!

Do you think your son or daughter would love to have a Safari birthday party?