My girls have loved The Wizard of Oz for years now, which sounds silly to say when they are only seven, but it’s the truth. So when I tossed out some birthday party ideas to them, a Wizard of Oz birthday party was the clear winner.

The only problem was narrowing down our ideas to just one party! The girls and I watched the movie with legal tablets and pencils to jot down the most iconic moments and came away with So. Many. Ideas. Baby A even wanted to paint someone green (like the Wicked Witch of the West) … I rejected that idea.

We decided on an homage to the most iconic moments in the movie. This invitation from Loralee Lewis, with a design based on the 1939 UK movie poster, was perfect for us. Loralee also designed all the dessert table labels, party signs and thank you tags.

Our party was in two spaces: a dessert table in the dining room and activities and a candy bar in the playroom.

Wizard of Oz Party Activities

When our guests arrived, we first headed downstairs, where I’d set up three activity tables. Each activity table was decorated with tulle pom garlands from Titi’s Tutus and Wizard of Oz characters. Our activities included:

• Making rainbow beaded necklaces.
• Crafting “I would ask the Wizard for ___” frames. The frames were $1 each from Michael’s and then I decorated them with blue gingham paper and felt poppies.
• Making tin men out of soup cans. (I saved a lot of soup cans!)

I loved the picture frames idea so much because the answers were awesome: one of my girls asked for “a dogay,” the other asked for a surfboard, and another guest asked for “a baby brother” — her mom’s eyes went soooo wide at pick-up time!

Our guests also got to visit Professor Marvel – the girls’ Uncle Ray, who was an incredibly good sport to wear a turban with a broach!

Next, the girls could have their picture taken in our photo booth with the most wonderful character “hats” from Peas & Thank Yous. Jill created a Witch hat, Glinda crown, Dorothy’s pigtails, Scarecrow hat, Tin Man hat, and Lion’s mane. I can’t even tell you how beautiful these are in person! (Update: Peas & Thank Yous has changed her business model and is no longer able to provide these photo props, but you can find similar ones on Etsy.)

We stuffed Scarecrow and explored the Gale farmhouse. The Gale farmhouse was really an accidental thing: it was too big to put somewhere else, so I grabbed some drop cloths out of our storage room and had them turned into a slipcover. Then, I drew on windows and doors with a Sharpie, and tucked some Wicked Witch of the East legs underneath. The girls acted like the playhouse was a clown car, and tried to see how many girls could fit in the playhouse at one time!

Wizard of Oz Party Candy Buffet

The girls visited the Lollipop Guild Candy Shoppe and got to choose from rainbow colored candies. The backdrop of the candy bar was a yellow brick pattern. In front of the bricks, I created a rainbow out of paper fans, and added two bluebirds. I used a few Melissa & Doug yellow bricks to elevate some of the apothecary jars. Also at the candy shoppe were yellow buckets for the candy and blue gingham mini lunchboxes with the guests’ party favors.

To go upstairs for cake, the girls had to capture the witch’s broom. They “melted” me with a bucket of tinsel garland (“water”), captured my broom, and won their trip to the dessert table!

Wizard of Oz Party Dessert Table

Back upstairs, we sat down to cake and ice cream and signing “Happy Birthday.” Our dessert table treats included:

• Wicked Witch Punch
• Yellow Brick Road Bars (lemon bars)
• Ruby Red Cake Pops
• Technicolor Treats (frosted brownies)

USPS let us down and didn’t deliver our very pretty sugar cookie Witch Hats and Glinda Crowns from Sweet Dough. (They were so cute and tasty when they arrived!) But, our wonderful cake pop lady, Cake Pops by Jen, surprised us with candied pretzels! We filled in with those and chocolate chip cookies after a last-minute grocery store run.

Our cake was the now-classic rainbow cake originated by Whisk Kid via Martha Stewart. My favorite Brittany of Edible Details created fondant cake toppers of Dorothy and friends, the yellow brick road, and the Wicked Witch of the East’s legs. I trimmed the cake in red Sixlets.

On the dessert table, I also included details from the movie:

• Miss Gulch’s bicycle
• The Witch’s hourglass
• Dorothy’s suitcase, and
• Bluebirds.

Our backdrop was more blue gingham fabric and from that we hung a stunning print of Somewhere Over the Rainbow from Sugar Fresh. The frame was created just for this print and party by my friend Juliet of Quite a Pair Keepsakes.

From our dining room windows, I hung Dorothy, Witch and Glinda costumes that we already owned.

Wizard of Oz Party Place Settings

On the dining table, I layered blue gingham placemats with white dinner plates (they make great chargers!) and red glass dessert plates. Each plate was topped with a mini rainbow lollipop. Our red napkins were wrapped in blue gingham paper.

Down the center of the table, I had a yellow table runner, like the Yellow Brick Road. In the center was Dorothy’s house, a smashed witch, and a tornado that I suspended from our chandelier. I used tin cans (like the Tin Man) to hold poppies that were secured with heart-shaped marbles and tied with yellow ribbon.

Amy of Custom Creations sewed the sweet gingham and ruby slipper chair covers. They just tie on with red grosgrain ribbon.I had the birthday girls’ chair covers embroidered with their names to mark their places of honor.

Wizard of Oz Pinata and Party Favors

Our final activity was a rainbow piñata. I stuffed it with rainbow bracelets, glitter balls, and erasers — but no candy; we’d had our fill of sweets!

The girls took home their Tin Man crafts, “I would ask the Wizard for ___” frames, yellow buckets of candy, and piñata loot. Our official party favor was a gingham tin lunch box. Inside, each box had rainbow bubbles, heart necklace, rainbow hair elastics, poppy barrette from Little Boo Creations, and a Glinda wand. I may have gone a little overboard … I just couldn’t decide between all the cute choices!

Vendor Credits

• Party styling: The Party Teacher
• Photography: Viridian Images Photography
• Invitations, signs, thank you tags, banner and food labels: Loralee Lewis
• Cake fondant figures: Edible Details
• Cake pops: Cake Pops by Jen
• Print: Sugar Fresh
• Frame: Quite a Pair Keepsakes
• Girls’ shirts: Modern Frills
• Chair covers and Dorothy’s house slipcover: Custom Creations
• Tulle pom garlands: TiTi’s Tutus (Update: Her shop has since closed.)
• Paper fans: Polka Dot Market and Shop Sweet Lulu
• Photo booth props: Peas & Thank Yous (Update: Peas & Thank Yous is no longer able to provide these photo props.)
• Poppy barrettes: Little Boo Creations (Update: Her shop has since closed.)
• Cake stand and tiered stand: Olivia Dru (Update: Her shop has since closed.)