I recently hosted a Moana-and-Marshmallow-themed birthday party for my 3-year-old, and so many people asked me about the details of the party that I decided to publish a post about it. (I do this semi-professionally, after all.)
Below, you can scroll 11 cute Moana birthday party ideas that I created for this event, with links if you want to use the exact same elements from the below list for future parties. Click the links below to shop this guide, directly.
Enjoy party planning– Cheers!
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Make Some Coco-S’MORE-as
These easy-to-make sheet pan s’mores are the fasted bake if you are pressed for time. Simply fill a cookie sheet with graham crackers broken in half anf topped with 1 square of chocolate and one regular sized marshmallow per square. Bake at 400 until the marshmallows are golden, about 5-8 minutes. Then, remove from oven and top with remaining graham cracker halves. Once the s’mores have cooled to be warm but not hot, slowly insert a cocomora cupcake topper (available on Etsy!) in the center of the graham cracker. As long as you go slowly, the graham cracker won’t break, the the sticky marshmallow below will hold it in place for hours.
Part of the gag is that this is a great play on words, so I made a sign to make it clear that these were indeed “Coco-S’MORE-as”.
If you’re kid loves marshmallows or S’mores, this is a great homemade option.
Heart of Te Fiti Rice Krispie Treats
I designed these Heart of Te Fiti rice krispie treats to be replicas of Moana’s Heart of Te Fiti, but I used a natural, dye-free green food coloring, so the aqua color isn’t as bright. That being said, these are still easy and cheap to make DIY– they just take some time because you have to roll out each individual rice krispie to the size of a meatball, and then flatten it before frosting a spiral on top with a piping bag.
This is my personal recipe:
Ingredients
- 6 cups organic brown rice cereal
- 6 Tablespoons salted, grassfed butter
- 8 and 1/2 cups mini marshmallows, or about 1.5 of the standard 10-ounce bags (I recommend Dandies mini marshmallows because they are also dye-free; most marshmallows actually contain Blue No. 1 which helps them appear more optically white, much like toothpaste. Dandies are available at most grocery stores now!)
- a few drops green food coloring of choice (I use Supernatural Plant-Based Food Coloring and mixed the blue and yellow together to make green)
- vanilla frosting (I used Miss Jones Organic Vanilla Buttercream)
Materials
- wooden spoon or spatula
- ziplock bag/piping bag
- cookie sheet
- parchment paper
Instructions
- Melt butter and marshmallows in the microwave 30 seconds at a time and mix vigorously until incorporated. Add green food coloring and mix to combine.
- Pour in rice cereal and mix, with your hands if necessary, to evenly distribute green color and make a rice krispie mixture.
- Shape rice krispies into meatball-sized balls, then flatten into a slight oval shape. Use wet fingers to keep mix from being too sticky, if necessary. Lay balls a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and let them cool for about 1 hour (or until cool enough to frost without melting the frosting).
- Once the rice krispies cool, frost a spiral on top of each Heart of Te Fiti using a ziplock bag filled with white vanilla frosting. Fill the bag, and cut one corner of the ziplock bag off, to make a piping bag, so that you can squeeze frosting out of it. If you have a real piping bag, you can also use that to make the spiral on top of each rice krispie ball, like in the above photo. Enjoy!
Important Serving Note
P.S.: The frosting will stay wet, so treat each Heart of Te Fiti like a cupcake and serve them right on the cookie tray; don’t throw them loose into Tupperware or another container, or else the spirals will get smeared off. Keep that in mind!
Maui “You’re Welcome… and Thank You!” Goodie Bags
Fill these cute, customizable Maui “You’re Welcome… and Thank You!” Goodie Bags with whatever your kid likes. Nice options include these Moana tattoos, Moana stickers, Moana gummies, or Moana Bubbles (Depends on what your kid likes!). We filled them with mini marshmallows and Moana tattoos because my daughter loves both. You could also just do popcorn– doesn’t have to be complicated! The bag makes anything adhere to the theme.
- Another Fun Tip:
Seal these bags with Moana stickers. We bought a Moana sticker book and put extra Moana stickers on juice boxes, seaweed snacks, milk cartons, and raisin boxes, pretty much every packaged snack we served– that’s a subtle fun detail that the kids loved! For them, it was kind of like an Easter egg hunt trying to find them all.
DIY Marshmallow + Cereal Leis
These take a while to make, but if you enjoy the process, it’s fun!
To make these homemade marshmallow and cereal leis, use a white elastic string (0.5 mm size, available at Michael’s) and a threading needle with an eyelet big enough to thread your string through it, like this. Make sure to use an elastic string, so that it can stretch over any kiddos’ head.
Pierce the marshmallows with the needle and pull the string through like you were stringing popcorn. Create a design alternating any cereal with holes in it, like Honey Nut Cheerios or the better-for-you Seven Sundays Cocoa Sunflower Cereal that I used in the photo above, and marshmallows. We used a mix of large and mini marshmallows to echo the shape of a beaded necklace that has heaver beads at the center.
The string might get a little sticky from the marshmallows, but not enough to be bothersome since the other cereal pieces and marshmallows with cover the entire length of the lei. We wore CostCo food-prep nitrile gloves while stringing everything to make it a sterile operation; you may also have to wash the needle between necklaces just to reset it, as it can get sticky over time.
Aim to make necklaces about ~20 inches in length before tying off– that’s a great kiddo length where it’s not too big, but it’s also close enough to their mouths that they can eat it like a candy necklace.
Moana Piñata (We Like this Rhyme Scheme!)
This cute Moana Pinata is a lovely addition to any Moana-themed birthday party. You could also fill this piñata with Moana stickers, Moana tattoos, Moana gummies, and other regular candy, as well. (That’s what we did! Click the links to purchase these things directly from Target and Etsy.)
“Wayfinding” Moana Water Game Using A Kiddie Pool
Use a kiddy pool to bob for Moana while kids are blindfolded, using their hands to feel for the moana bath toy in a pool full of characters. For ages 2-5 year old kids, this can be a really fun sensory experience. I bought two sets of floating Moana Bath Toys at Target, and we threw them in the kiddie pool with an inch or two of water– for splashing around with supervision. It was great in the outside space on a warm day!
Customizable Moana Cake Toppers (EASY Cake Decoration That Works Great on Any Cake)
My favorite element of the party was honestly this customizable Moana Cake topper set, because they allowed me to make my daughter’s cake without having to worry about getting the design exactly right. These cake toppers are so easy and they look amazing! Just stick them in your cake whether it’s homemade, grocery store-bought, or from a bakery. Buy yours here.
Speaker For Playing the Moana Soundtrack (Nice Ambiance!)
We invested in a portable Pink JBL Speaker for use at all our kids’ birthday parties, and it’s come in handy! It’s great for playing music from your phone with little set up required– and no cords! Just be sure to charge it ahead of time. You can buy it here.
DIY Moana Cupcake Bar
Bring a bunch of unfrosted cupcakes to your party and give each kid a cup of frosting, plastic spoon, and various small containers of different toppings like m&ms, sprinkles, etc, and let them decorate their cupcakes themselves. At the end, they can choose which Moana-themed cupcake toppers to use as the final decoration. Then, everyone gets to eat what they make!
Moana Felt Flower Crown for The Birthday Kiddo
This Moana Felt Flower crown from Etsy is just adorable, and it looks just like the one Moana wears at home in her village of Motunui. I like that it’s handmade and plastic-free. Plus, the birthday kiddo can keep it for playing dress up well beyond the party, so it’s not generating any more party trash. Buy your Moana Felt flower crown, here.
Happy birthday to your little one!
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Related: We love these Cute Eco-Friendly Gifts for 2-Year-Olds.
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