Wonka Party!

wonka-bars

Have I mentioned that both of my girls were born in December? Makes for a busy month. My younger daughter had her party at a bouncy place, so it was low-maintenance. But my older daughter (yes, the one who dressed as Violet Beauregarde for Halloween) wanted a Willy Wonka party. And my apologies to the parents of the children who attended, but we had a full-on Wonka candy party. It was a mess!

We loved the original Gene Wilder movie and I recently finished reading the Roald Dahl book with the kids. Love that book. Overwhelmed by first-graders, I didn’t get many photos of the party yesterday, but took some this morning. My older daughter dressed in her Violet costume and I made a t-shirt into a Veruca Salt dress for my five-year-old (this character is so appropriate for her these days). My husband even rented a Wonka hat and jacket. But no, I did not dress like an Oompa Loompa. So first, we made Wonka bar invitations by wrapping a candy bar with a golden ticket printed on the reverse of the label (pictured above).

wonka-mushrooms

We made some recycled decorations like the mushrooms pictured above. These were made with the same technique I used making the Halloween bowls and I cut a fabric bolt for the stems. Then my daughter painted them. We also used cardboard fabric tubes for giant candy cane sticks by covering them in butcher paper and wrapping them with red velvet ribbon.

wonka-cake

Then I asked a local mom to make this super awesome cake shaped like a Wonka bar. If you live in Atlanta, you can contact Christi of Frosted and Sprinkled to make a cake for your event. It tasted as good as it looked. The tablecloth was a patchwork of pinwheels made from the polka dots in Amy Butler’s Love collection.

pin-the-hat-on-the-wonka

The kids played Pin the Hat on the Wonka with the sweet picture that my daughter drew. Note the smear of chocolate on the poster board since I took this photo after the party. They also made candy canes from pipe cleaners and guessed how many jelly beans were in a jar.

wonka-cocoa

The goodie bags were filled with cocoa mix for the kids to take home and a miniature swirl lollipop tied to the top.

wonka-flowers

I used gerbera daisies mixed with candy for the flower arrangements.

wonka-lollipops

My daughters both painted lollipops for decoration. We used foam core board for these, but should have used recycled cardboard since we have so much of it around the house these days.

We hung paper lanterns and tissue paper flowers from the ceiling, served kettle corn, chocolate dipped fruit and carbonated water with twisty straws for “fizzy lifting drinks”. I found this cool French poster for the movie that we hung on the front door and I plan to have framed for her room. Yes, I went overboard on this party. Hope no kids vomited on the car ride home.

25 Replies to “Wonka Party!”

  1. Ellen,

    This is terrific! It’s so cool that you go all out instead of fizzling out as some people do with birthdays so close to Christmas. Love the details. Thanks for sharing it.

    Courtney

  2. Coolest. Party. Ever! You get a huge pat on the back. Wish it was my December party!!!
    Happy Birthday to your little ladies!
    And Happy Holidays to the whole family!

    Jenny

  3. Super Fun Party! My kidlets love this movie and I should really take the time to read them the book. I’ve moved to a family b’day party since their b’day are all around the same month. I wonder if they would like a Wonka party?

    ;-D

  4. umm…OH MY GOD. this is amazing. such creativity!!! i love, love, love it! is it okay to steal your idea for my kids bday party? they are both January….so much fun!

  5. What a scrumptious party theme! Love it! My 2 girls have b-days 2 weeks apart in the summer. We did a make and create party where they made candy bling, decorated cookies, and colored aprons…can you say overboard? I even made fabric flowers…I think I will tone it down next year. Yours was absolutely inspiring!

  6. we also love the original Wonka movie! and a big duh to me the book I will be honest didn’t know about it, not sure why…but thank you my kids would love to have that read to them – thanks and yes Yeah to the Wonka party very inspirational.

  7. Ellen,

    I LOVE a thematic birthday party and this is adorable. My daughter’s preschool hosts a silent auction every December as our main fundraiser and I suggested candy land this year (they chose Disco Inferno instead – yuck!) Maybe I can sell them on a Willy Wonka theme next year!! The lollipop decorations your girls made are fantastic!
    I can see them stuck in the ground along our lead walk : )

    fondly,
    pink and green mama
    MaryLea

  8. Your kids are so lucky! Everything turned out fantastic! It really amazes me that you managed to make all this fantastic stuff so close to Christmas!

  9. This is so awesome!!! My daughter loves Charlie and Willy Wonka so I’m hoping to surprise her with this party. Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful ideas!

  10. You are such a fantastic mama! Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful Willy Wonka party with us. You are amazing!

  11. Loved everything I saw. I’m doing my son’s 5th birthday party this year themed on the original Willy Wonka and I would love to know where and how did you get the wrapping on the chocolate bars. I want to do something like that for his inviations. Awesome!!! ideas

  12. I absolutely love this!! I have one question–where did you find the miniature swirl lollipops that were on your favor bags?? I want them! So cute!

  13. Wonderful pictures and creativity! I am currently working on a surprise Wonka party. Do you have a template for the Wonka bars or could you direct me to where I could find those? Also what kind of chocolate bar did you use to fill the wrapper? I planned on using Nestle Wonka Bars but they have unfortunately been discontinued :(. AWESOME PARTY! Your girls will definitely look back on this party fondly!

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