High School Musical Party

For a great High School Musical Party you need to establish where the party is going to be held, on what date and who is going to attend before you start to go mad buying every High School Musical Party supplies you can find.

The party can either be held on your child's birthday or on a weekend to make sure everyone can attend and the party can go on for longer without worrying about the kids getting up for school the next day. Not a pretty sight, I can tell you!

The party can either be held at your home, in the garden or a venue can be hired. Hiring a venue is best if you have a lot of kids attending. But for a smaller party, to save on cost you can hold it at your home.

A venue can range from a hall to a purpose built party room. But make sure you check how many people the venue holds (and don't forget parents will be attending with their kids) and if there are any restrictions on times, food and music.

It is also a good idea to decide whether or not the kids coming to the party are going to be dressing up or not. If you want the kids to dress up be sure to let other mothers know a.s.a.p so they can start creating their mini Gabriellas or Troys!

Get your kids costumes sorted before you invite everyone as stores in your area may soon be out of stock the minute a High School Musical Party is announced! Dress up ideas include buying ready made Gabriella, Troy or Sharpay costumes. For a cheaper alternative try a cheeleader costume or a basketball vest. There are also plenty of accessories that you can buy to create your own costumes or even hand out to adults to get them in the party spirit.

No High School Musical Party will be complete without guests. Gabriella, Troy, Sharpay, Ryan, Chad and maybe even Mrs Darbus. Who will you have at your party!

Start by writing a list of children starting with family and friends kids, then school friends, friends from any groups or clubs your kids belong to then moving on to any kids that don't fit any of these categories - along with anyone you've forgotten! Keep in mind, however, the size of your venue as you will need to stick to those maximum numbers.

Also keep in mind some mothers may bring siblings and even fathers too! Try to get as many people to RSVP this is when they usually tell you about any one else they are bringing!

There are various High School Musical invitations you can buy from either of the two films or for that unique invitation why not design your own on your home computer. Try and keep to the High School Musical color scheme of red and white and write something like

"To friends name, you are invited to audition at the High School Musical Party of your name on date and time at venue. Please be prepared for your audition by dressing up as your favourite High School Musical character."

Aim to hand out the invitations around two weeks before the event giving people plenty of time to prepare.

As with any party decorating the High School Musical Party room is essential.

Things to think about:

* Are there any restrictions on decorating, if you have hired a venue?

* Has the room or outside space got enough room for the guests to dance? This can usually be acheived by moving some furniture around to creating a small dance floor.

* Is there a stage? Or is there anything you could use as a stage that wil be safe for at least a few children to stand on.

* Will there be enough seats for all the adults that will be coming?

* Have you got a large table to place the food?

* Where will people sit to eat? Will there be a seperate table for all the kids to sit or will you just adopt a buffet style?

* Also make sure there is enough room for people to move about!

For a High School Musical Party there are many decorations and ideas that you can use. To start with decorate the entrance to the part with a walk through door banner. This gives a great first impression, especially if teamed with a red carpet leading from the door to the stage!

If you are lucky enough to have a stage decorate this with High School Musical stickers and flags. Also it's a good idea to get some red and white ribbon or crepe paper to drape around the front of the stage. Also, if possible hang two shimmer curtains either side of the stage for that extra glam effect.

Decorate each table with a High School Musical tablecloth, centerpiece and some confetti. Also place a foil balloon either side of the food table.

Other ideas that you could use are banners placed around the room, maybe a personalised one made especially for your child. Also what about posters, fairy lights, cut outs such as musical notes or basketballs (just as easy to make as to buy) and plenty of red and white balloons left around the floor or secured in a net above the stage to be released when singing Happy Birthday!

Creating the High School Musical Party theme is addictive once you get started and the amount of tableware that is available is going to get you buying even more!

Lay each table (including the food table) with a High School Musical table cover. The centrepieces and confetti can then be layed on top of the tablecloth.

If you are having a buffet style party have a stack of plates at one end of the food table and a stack of cups and drinking straws near the drinks. The napkins can either be placed in a pile or one on each plate.

If you are having a sit down party place a napkin on each plate and set each childs place with one plate, one cup and a drinking straw.

A great money saving tip is that if you have adults eating at the party instead of over spending on High School Musical Party tableware try using some plain red and white tableware. This will work out much cheaper!

With a cake you have two choices. You can either buy a ready made High School Musical cake or you can make your own. There are many ready made cake designs to choose from but if you want yours to be unique your better off making your own.

If you can bake then great but for those of you, like me, who can't cook it's not as scary as it sounds. It is easy to buy a plain cake and then decorate it yourself.

You can use one of the High School Musical Party cake kits featured below or you can be really original and do something totally different!

The Musical Note Cake

This is a great idea and is still within the High School Musical party theme as well, obviously its a musical!

You will need:

* Two circle sponges (made or bought and can be flavoured. Size dependant on how many will be eating the cake)
* Three rectangle sponges (these will form the straight lines of the musical note so need to be quite long)
* Ready made royal icing
* food colouring (can be black or any other color)

The method is simple. Lay out the sponges on a foil cake tray in the shape of a musical note. Pour a few drops or food coloring into the icing and knead. Roll out the icing and place over the cake shaping as you go.

You can then decorate the cake with candles and personalization as necessary.

If you want to bake your own cake there are many different novelty cake tins you can use. Look for musical notes or a guitar.

When it comes to party food yet again its lists, list, lists! First decide whether you are going to just have food for the kids or are you also going to have some adult nibbles. If you are only going to have food for the kids be warned adults will eat this aswell so be aware when deciding how much to buy.

It is difficult to judge, if you haven't done many parties how much food is enough to feed everyone you have coming. A good rule is to make sure you have at least one of each food item for each child. It is always better to buy more food than you think you need as any left overs will be eaten by the adults or can be boxed and saved for pack lunches etc.

High School Musical Party

* Sandwiches - ham, cheese, peanut butter and jam.
* Potato chips - make sure to get a few flavors
* Cupcakes - either bought or made with High School Musical toppers. Can also be iced in red and white.
* Hotdogs
* Chicken nuggets
* Pizza slices
* Chocolate and candy variety packs
* Popcorn
* Nachos and dips
* Cookies
* White Ice cream
* Red Jello

Also keep to the red and white theme with some red colored soda with white straws!

After the kids have ate let them have a little bit of a dance with some High School Musical songs playing in the background or even better hire a DJ for a great disco atmosphere. Then get the kids into the party spirit with these great game ideas.

High School Musical Party Games

* Use one of many of the High School Musical games such as singstar, the DVD game, card or board games.
* Pinatas - who will break open the pinata full of High School Musical goodies.
* Karaoke competitions - have one of the moms as Mrs Darbus who will audition the kids singing a song each from the High School Musical Karaoke CD.
* Cheerleading competition - which group of girls has the best cheerleading moves?
* Dancing competition - which girl or boy is the best mover?
* High School Musical Trivia - just make up your own question and answers game or use the High School Musical trivia game included in the party kit. Put the kids into groups and try to set the game out so that it resembles a Scholastic Decathlon.
* Basketball competition.
* Pin the Kiss on Troy - Easy to make with a Troy poster and a cut out kiss.
* If going with a High School Musical 2 theme for any budding Sharpays in the party what about having a Spa/pampering corner. Pain nails and do hair and makeup. Simply Fabulous!
* Crafts - Make some High School Musical banners supporting your favourite team or print out some coloring pages.
* Try The Official Disney Website who have some great printouts, trivia games and even a great party planner.

Each child that turns up deserves a little something to take away as a reminder of what a great time they had. Parents can sometimes be comptititive to who has the best favors so take time to planning what goes in your treat sacks.

Add a few little gifts along with some candy. The photo frames below are also great for that personalised momento. Or buy cheap plastic microphones to get each child in the singing spirit! Just remember when placing gifts in the bag make sure they are suitable for boys and girls or if not write a childs name on each bag to avoid giving the macho Troy some pink lipstick!!