How to throw a Lego Star Wars birthday party: a real mom’s guide

This Lego Star Wars birthday party guide is full of low-effort, budget-friendly ideas to create a super-stellar celebration for the young padawan in your life. May the force be with you!

NOTE: THIS POST INCLUDES AFFILIATE LINKS TO PRODUCTS I HAVE USED AND LOVED, BUT AS ALWAYS FEEL FREE TO SHOP AROUND FOR THE BEST DEALS. SEE MY DISCLOSURE TO LEARN MORE.

Little Brother turned five this month! Ever since his big brother’s birthday in May, we’ve been tossing around ideas for his fifth birthday. After many ideas (and many times of changing his mind), he settled on a Lego Star Wars birthday party–a perfect marriage of the two things he loves most in the world.

Truth be told, I was really excited about his choice. Immediately I started brainstorming ideas for a Jedi training school with all his friends. 

Originally, I had wanted to make it an outdoor water party, complete with pool noodle lightsabers and an outdoor obstacle course on the grass. However, some hiccups with our landscaping mean that our backyard still looks like this…Not super conducive to a backyard water party…I mean, maybe we could have created a model of the sarlacc pit in our HUGE dirt pile, but…

In any case, I re-imagined the party to be indoors.

The good news is that kids are flexible, and everyone still had a great time.

Here’s how I created a Lego Star Wars birthday party on a budget of under $100:

Invitations

I often design my own invites, but this year has been crazy, so I once again turned to Etsy for a great pre-made design. The design I actually bought is no longer available (sad, it was just a week ago!), but these are two really similar designs I love…

Click to purchase the above design

Click to purchase the above design

Print them at home or have them printed at Costco (or Walmart) and you’re good to go! 

Real mom tip: To really simplify, just send the invites out digitally via text or email. I did that for this party, and it worked really well. It made it really convenient for everyone to RSVP. Just be sure that everyone responds…I had one friend who never received the invite because of some technology glitch! Oops. Good thing I checked!

Decorations

The more parties I have, the less I decorate. My kids don’t really seem to miss the decorations, so I put my effort elsewhere. For this party, I bought a black tablecloth (dollar store) and Star Wars themed plates and napkins (at our local party store).

I was going to spruce up the tables with a fun balloon centerpiece, but the birthday boy decided emphatically that he DID NOT want balloons, so we skipped it. I didn’t even take a picture of the table because it was wholly unremarkable…but the kids didn’t care a bit. They were much more interested in what was ON the table.

I did print a cute sign for the door:

Download free printable door sign HERE.

And that was it. Super simple.

Food

Usually, I’m a proponent of keeping food really basic at parties because the kids just don’t eat much. They’re too busy playing. However, this party was from 5-7 pm, so I felt like we needed to actually feed the kids dinner. That being said, I still kept it SUPER simple. 

Our Lego Star Wars party menu:

• Pizza the Hut – $5 pizzas from Little Caesars
• Yoda Soda – Hawaiian punch mixed with Sprite
• Fruit & Veggie tray (we use this dollar store tray ALL. THE. TIME.)

The birthday boy REALLY wanted “Yoda soda” (we found the idea here), and all the kids thought it was fun to say…try it five times fast! As expected, they didn’t eat much, validating my plan to put very little effort into food. 

The Cake

Whoa Nelly, coming up with a cake design that my son liked was quite the…adventure. He’s capricious by nature and has a big imagination, so his first idea was to make a multi-layer cake inspired by various movie characters like this one…just a little above my skill level…yikes.

Next, he wanted a full death star…then a storm trooper. I finally had to talk him down to the reality of what mom is capable of making, and we kind of made it up as we went. But the end product was a hit…thankfully. I made a basic round cake (three layers instead of the standard two for a little added height) and covered it with blue fondant. If you’re terrified of fondant, DON’T BE! Just check out the link below and you’ll find an in-depth tutorial on how you can REALLY make a fondant cake look good, even if you’ve never done it before.

Related: Fondant 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Making a  Stellar Cake

In the past, I’ve always used a basic rolled fondant, but this time I tried out a new recipe for marshmallow fondant. I LOVED it! It was easier to work with than the gelatin version, and the texture was softer (i.e. – tastier).

Note: Making fondant is one time it REALLY pays to have a heavy duty stand mixer (I love mine). You can certainly make it without one, but you have to be prepared for a seriously good arm workout.

Once I had the cake covered in fondant, I used the excess fondant to make dark blue balls as a border around the bottom, white fondant stars (with a tiny cookie cutter I already had), and added Lego accessories as the final touch.These were all Legos we already owned (the X-wing Lego set was a birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa), so it wasn’t an added cost to me.

(Side note: I love giving my kids gifts that I can use on their cakes…I did it for this cake and this one, too.)

The X-wing just happened to be the perfect size for the top of the cake. Serendipity! Plus…Legos have handy little holes in the bottom that are perfect for sticking a bamboo skewer in to prop it up in the cake. 

Activities

I planned the whole Star Wars birthday party around the premise of a Jedi training academy. Here’s what we did to train up our young Jedi in the ways of the force.

Jedi Training Uniforms

To make the kids really feel like Jedi padawans, I made simple no-sew tunics for them to wear. Before you think, “She made costumes for EVERY kid????!!!”…hear me out. (This jedi takes his training VERY seriously.)

For eight Jedi training uniforms, I spent less than $10 and had them cut out and done in about a half hour! I bought several pieces of flannel fabric from the remnant bin at Joann Fabric in various shades of tan/brown, and I found a dark brown remnant of broadcloth that I cut into strips for the belts. Easy peasy!Here is the tutorial I used for making my Jedi training uniforms. FYI: she recommends about 18″ wide, but I found for our group of 4-5 year-olds that 15″ was plenty wide.

Pool Noodle Lightsabers

What’s a Star Wars party with out lightsabers??? I opted for making inexpensive DIY lightsabers using dollar store pool noodles (cut in half). I wrapped the ends with duct tape and added some decorative details using black electrical tape. Another project that cost less than $10 total and took about an hour to make (I made 10…which included a couple extras, just in case).

Lego Building Challege

Since it was a Lego Star Wars party, there clearly needed to be time to build with Legos. I decided this would make a great gathering activity while we waited for all the guests to arrive. I laid out a black flat sheet that I have to be “outer space” and dumped a pile of random Legos on it for the kids to build with. 

You can challenge them to build something specific like their own spaceship or droid/robot…or just keep it free form. Alternatively, you can give each child a cup or bag with a small assortment of Legos and challenge them to build something using ONLY the Legos they are given.

Musical Chairs using Weird Al’s “Yoda”

My son LOVES the “Yoda” song by Weird Al, and he specifically requested that we play musical chairs using that song. So we did…it is a great song, after all. 

Jedi Training Academy

The majority of the party was spent doing activities for our Jedi training academy. The sky is the limit on what you can do for this!

Here are the activities we did:

• Laser beam obstacle course – I used green yarn to create a maze of “laser beams” the kids had to try to navigate without getting zapped. I just wrapped them around studs in our unfinished basement, but you could also tape them across a hallway.
• Navigate the asteroid field – I hung silver balloons from the ceiling in our unfinished basement at various heights and encouraged the kids to run through them, hitting the asteroids with their lightsabers to knock them out of the way. 
• Lightsaber training – I had each child stand on a square (I used foam play mats similar to these that we keep in our basement play area) and took them through a “training routine”. I taught them how to hold their lightsaber, how to slice left & right, up & down, and how to parry and duck. I pretty much stole this part from the Jedi training my kids did at Disney World last month.
• Yoda says – Basically, this is Simon Says…but it’s so much more fun if you act like Yoda.
• Lightsaber duels – I got the kids into pairs and had them practice sparring with each other. I kept them on their squares so they couldn’t wallop each other too hard…yet.
• Lightsaber battle – One sweet little boy at the party politely asked, “Are we going to get to hit each other with the lightsabers?” Surprised, I asked, “Do you WANT to?” (He’s usually a really timid child). He assured me he DID, so I created a battle zone and explained that any kids who WANTED to fight could do so in that zone. For kids who didn’t want to be in the fray, I created a safe play zone for them. Needless to say, this activity was a hit, and it ended with them all ganging up on ME and putting me in jail once I surrendered. Sometimes, the best things are unplanned.
• Lightsaber baseball – Super simple and, again, spontaneous. I threw a “flaming” (it just has flames painted on it) ball to one kid at a time and gave them a chance to hit it away with their lightsaber.

Other Activity Ideas:

• Star Wars BINGO
• Pin the lightsaber on Yoda
• Star Wars coloring pages
• Scavenger hunt for Kyber crystals

PIÑATA

We finished off the Star Wars party with our ultimate Jedi quest…DESTROY THE DEATH STAR!I made this piñata out of paper mache over a dollar store beach ball. I was even able to deflate it and remove it afterwards without popping it, so now my kids have a new ball. Win!

I simply painted it grey (if I were to do it again, I’d probably get metallic spray paint), added a black line of electrical tape around the middle and made the divet for the laser beam out of a disposable bowl. Final touch was a green pipe cleaner to be the actual laser.

Favors

For their favors, we sent each child home with his or her jedi uniform, lightsaber, and candy from the piñata. As each child was leaving, we also awarded them these fun Jedi training certificates from Libbie Grove Design (pictured above).

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

That’s how we threw an epic Lego Star Wars birthday party for under $100 dollars. Here’s the approximate cost breakdown, in case you’re curious:

• Invitations: $8.99 
• Table cloth/plates/napkins/cups: $8.00
• Pizza: $15.00
• Yoda soda: $4.00
• Fruits/veggies: $7.00
• Cake ingredients/candles: $8.00
• Fabric for Jedi uniforms: $7.00
• Pool noodle lightsabers: $9.00
• Yarn for “lasers”: $1.00
• Balloons (for asteroids): $2.00
• Pinata supplies: $3.00
• Pinata candy: $10.00
• Loot bags: $2.00

TOTAL: $85.00

What do you think? Are your kids die-hard Star Wars fans? Would they flip for this Star Wars birthday party?

And just for fun, tell me in the comments…who is YOUR favorite Star Wars character???

Fun Fact: My favorite is Wicket. 🙂