Ahoy Me Mateys. Come sail the seas with me and be bad!
Pirate parties can be heaps of fun for both kids and adults. With your swashbuckling guests arriving in eye patches and pirate hats, be ready for some friendly competition via treasure hunts and buried booty games. The pirate theme allows for creative costumes, spirited pirate lingo, and a sea of bold decorations. With a playful blend of mischief and merriment, here are some ideas for setting up your pirate party…
Setting the Scene
The colour scheme for any pirate party is red, black, white and gold. Here are some great ideas for decorating your pirate party venue:
- Black balloons
- Use old sheets or material and ropes to form the sails of a pirate ship
- Put pirate treasure maps on walls and/or tables
- Hang ropes, fishnets and chains, and use barrels as tables
- Put coins on tables
- Have all your signage written in pirate language
- Create a treasure chest of fake and inexpensive jewellery, and clear plastic coloured vases and goblets
- Fly the skull and cross bones flag
- Decorate with tropical plants, flowers and fruit












What to Wear
Loose flowing clothing…
- A white cotton or linen floaty shirt, off the shoulder for ladies
- A vest
- A sash around the waist with or without a belt over the top
- Long baggy trousers or flowing skirts
- black boots and buckles
OR
A striped or white t-shirt/singlet with tattered pants, long or short
Plus
- Pirate hat or bandana
- Eye patch
- Sword
- Hook
- Fake parrot
- Real or painted on mustache and beard





Skulls Invitation Template
A simple, easy to edit PDF invitation template perfect for your pirate party. Print on plain white or parchment stock for the full pirate effect. Purchase of this product includes A PDF file for editing and printing, 2up on A4 Template access to Canva.com – edit and download the DL invitation as an image; Template…
Pirate Party Food
For a kids’ pirate party, a spread of pirate themed sweets and savouries is easy to prepare and fun for the kids. For the adults, and depending on the number of invited guests, a formal pirate themed dinner would also be really fun.
Here are some general ideas for your pirate party food to help inspire you…
Tropical fruits…



Black food, especially round black food which looks like cannon balls…



Gold food and food that looks like treasure…



Fish and chips…



And for an adult pirate party, of course rum, preferably served in goblets or mugs…




Pirate Party Activities
Use black balloons for your pirate party games for example…
- Pop the balloons to find a treasure inside
- Tie balloons to guest ankles and have them pop each other’s balloons, last man standing wins
- Black balloon water bombs in a cannonball war
Treasure and treasure map activities…
- Dig for treasure in a sandpit
- Follow the map to find the treasure
- A traditional treasure hunt without the map
Gold and treasure activities…
- Guess how many gold coins in the jar
- Decorate a treasure chest competition
- Pass the pirate booty
Message in a bottle activities…
- Bottles randomly placed around the party venue with challenges inside
- Put game questions inside bottles at an adult pirate party, for example, pirate trivia, truth or dare, or would you rather. Make it a drinking game if ye please.
Pirate boat activities…
- Who can build the best pirate ship (supply materials such as cardboard, tape, rope, and fabric)
- Walk the plank over a pool of water. Make it harder by throwing water balloons at the plank walkers
- Pirate ship pinata
Pirate name and pirate attire activities…
- Give each guest a pirate name
- Pin the eye patch on the pirate
- peg leg races (three-legged) race





What Be Your Pirate Name PDF
Have fun giving your guests a pirate name – use this free PDF template to get the celebrations started at your swashbuckling pirate party. You can edit the text to put in your own pirate name ideas, and dont’ forget to start talking like a pirate!
So, enjoy your pirate adventure on the high seas. We hope our ideas help make it a wonderful memory spent with your fellow buccaneers and mauraders.