Moana Birthday Party

With four children, I throw a lot of birthday parties, and I’m always excited to hear what theme my kids have in mind for their upcoming celebrations. One of my middle children most recently selected Moana as her birthday party theme. Below, I’ll share our Moana decorations, party activities, favor bags, and more. I try to stay within a small budget for birthday parties and avoid creating a lot of waste.
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Decorations
As always, I try to keep birthday decorations to a minimum but I do still want the party to look cute, on theme, and be fun for the birthday child. Here is what I used for the Moana birthday party decor;
- Leis/Bracelets/Headbands for guests to wear
- Grass Table Skirt (*Tip – MEASURE, the one I linked/purchased only fit around the front and sides of the table. I wish I had bought a larger one.)
- Moana Plates/Napkins/Tablecloth
- Tropical Garland
- Palm Leaves
- Moana 2 Figure Set

Activities
Scavenger Hunt
At the last birthday party, the scavenger hunt was a huge hit so I decided to have that activity again.
Seeing as I had zero time to come up with clues and make a super complicated number system, I printed this scavenger hunt off Etsy minutes before guests arrived. I quickly taped up the visual clues (great for non-readers) all around the house for the children to find.

In hindsight, this scavenger hunt was way too easy for some of the participants. Plus, I had no way of knowing if the kids actually found all the clues since they just checked off the boxes on their own sheets. A person could easily cheat.
If I were to do this type of scavenger hunt again, I would put a letter/color/number with each clue to write in the little box as proof you had found it.
After the children had found all the clues, each received a candy seashell necklace (see in the FAVORS section below).
Paint Shells
This activity was great! Outside on our porch, I rolled out a large sheet of paper and scattered a bunch of these seashells on it. Then I set out a few watercolor palettes, many paintbrushes, and a couple of cups of water. The kids seemed to really enjoy this activity and each painted several seashells.
I would recommend starting the party with this activity to allow for drying time. Then, at the end of the party, the dried seashells can go right into children’s favor bags to take home.

Cake
The birthday kid requested a chocolate covered strawberry cake. Did I make this Moana-themed at all? No, I did not. There were no complaints.
I did make a few slight alterations. Instead of strawberry extract (I didn’t have any), I ground up about an ounce of dried strawberries in a food processor. I also did not add slices of strawberries between the layers of cake because I ran out of time. It was our busiest week of the fall and how I even managed to pull off this birthday party, I have no idea.

Gift Ideas
If you are looking to stay on theme with gifts, here are a few ideas;
- Moana nightgown
- Moana costume
- Moana Yoto card
- Moana book
- Moana doll
- Moana LEGO set
- Moana necklace
- Moana blanket

Favors
In the favor bags, we put the painted seashells along with;
- Moana Fruit Snacks
- Seashell Candy Necklace
- Moana Lip Gloss (girls)/Moana Chapstick (boys) – purchased at Dollar Tree
- Starfish/Seashell Hair Clips – purchased at Dollar Tree
I hope this post will help you plan your Moana-themed birthday party!



