My niece turned six this month, meaning there were a couple solid years of the pandemic where she and I spent a whole lot of time together having Taylor Swift dance parties. Lover came out when she was barely one, and she immediately took to it, without any nudging from me (I swear!). So when she asked for a Taylor Swift birthday party to celebrate turning six, who was I to say no? She didn’t go to the Eras tour, so this was the next best thing.

For this Eras party, we did a lot of homemade crafts and repurposing of past decorations and photo props I had. If you want to get super elaborate with this theme or even use these ideas for a Taylor Swift bachelorette party, you obviously can—and there are a whole lot of resources on Instagram to point you in the right direction. But again, she’s six, her friends don’t really know much about Taylor—I mean, they can all semi-belt the bridge of “Cruel Summer” (with a few discrepancies), but I’d venture to guess they couldn’t pick their favorite era, ha—so take that with a grain of salt.

The Taylor Swift birthday invite

One thing we don’t have a shortage of is photos of Charlotte. So to kick off the Taylor party-planning, I used Canva to create this invite that my sister then texted to all of Charlotte’s friends’ parents. If you’re not as savvy with a computer—or simply are more pressed for time than I was while homebound with pneumonia—there are plenty of Etsy templates you can purchase like this one for super cheap, and they’re direct downloads so you’ll have instant access. This one is also insanely cute, as is this.

What to wear for a Taylor Swift-themed birthday party

Obviously, outfit was most important, and Charlotte and I spent hours scouring the Internet for the perfect party dress. I really loved several of the sequin dresses on Maisonette by Lola + the Boys and other luxury kids’ brands, but ultimately, this was the birthday girl’s decision, and she wanted all the shine. This shimmery mermaid-style dress, which perfectly paired with her Lover vibe (this kid is seriously all sunshine, all the time). It also swished as she walked, which she loved. There are a lot of fun versions on Amazon, too.

Because Charlotte loves a costume and nary a day goes by when she doesn’t accessorize, I surprised her with these Taylor–esque cowboy boots, as well, which she now wants to wear to school every day. (Sorry, Mrs. Perry.)

All of the other girls and their moms also brought it with the outfits. I was seriously impressed by the participation!

Decor for a Taylor Swift birthday party

A lot of the decor we used for her Eras-themed birthday party was repurposed from past parties we’ve thrown, and some like the birthday banner were homemade, but I’m linking to all items or similar below.

The friendship bracelet banner

I saw an idea on Instagram for making a friendship bracelet “happy birthday” banner with ball pit balls, twine and foam blocks. My sister ordered the supplies, and when our reinforcements arrived—Charlotte’s other grandmother Sweetie and her aunts Rosa and KO—they got to work putting it all together. I was blown away with how perfect this came out!

If you don’t have a Sweetie in your life, there are people on Etsy selling very similar friendship bracelet banners.

Fringe backdrop for photos

Perhaps the centerpiece of the room was the rainbow-colored fringe backdrop meant to mimic the look of all things Eras tour. We bought a couple of these sheets of cheap fringe, then layered them on top of an opaque photo backdrop I owned. If we were doing it again, I would buy at least four or five of the fringe curtains as they don’t offer a lot of coverage.

I set up my studio lighting to take photos of the kids, but if you’re not a professional photographer, you can buy a ring light on a tripod like this one and do a photo booth with just your iPhone. Because the fringe felt a bit flimsy, I added a couple rows of metallic stars I had in my prop closet last minute to give it more texture and sparkle.

We also lowered the overhead lights and set up Charlotte’s sky light from her bedroom to make it feel more like a dance party, and she carried around her pink karaoke microphone that was another present from birthdays past. We had a kid-friendly Taylor Swift playlist playing over the house’s speakers, and of course, if the party had been a week later, we could have also been streaming The Eras Tour movie on Disney+.

Friendship bracelet making

I bought Charlotte this name necklace off of Etsy as a birthday gift, but we also bought some bead kits and let her and Mac (i.e. us adults…) make the friendship bracelets to give to party-goers. We also had the kits set up on paper plates should any of the kids want to make them on site, but six was a tad young for those little fingers to do such detailed work.

Props, party favors and sequins

We had sequin bow ties left over from last year’s party if you’re struggling to figure out what to dress a boy in for an Eras party, but also bought these Taylor Swift sunglasses and inflatable microphones for props in the photo booth, and they doubled as party favors.

My sister and I attended the Eras tour last year, so we had sheets of face jewels left from that. We also ordered hair tinsel and Taylor temporary tattoos and set up a beauty station for any kids (or adults!) who wanted their hair and faces to sparkle. I had some temporary color hairspray we added to the mix. I’m pretty sure the birthday girl also dusted her face with edible glitter (ha), so maybe next time this face shimmer will make the shopping list.

Food and drink for a Taylor Swift birthday party

Here’s where you can get super creative with food and drinks that play on Taylor’s lyrics and discography … and we just ran out of time. My friend Chelsa recently hosted an Eras viewing party where each attended and made a themed charcuterie board to go with an album. This is an excellent idea for a party with your adult Swifties!

My CPA sister is deep in the throes of tax season, and I was fresh off a three-week tour of Asia, so we kind of dropped the ball when it came to theming the food and drink—instead, we had an actual gourmet dinner prepared by my brother-in-law Josh who is the best home chef I know. We did have the foresight to order this awesome Lover-inspired cake from a local bakery, and we added these little disco balls we got off of Amazon, as well as this custom sign from Etsy, everything served on gold-tinted party plates that remained from my Christmas party.

We also had my friend Sami Kay do individually wrapped, custom Eras-themed cookies as take-home gifts. If you want to go all out with the Taylor decor, you could order sequin fabric to fashion into table runners for the food stations.

Drinks are where we had fun with it. Charlotte loves using my “fancy glasses”—i.e. leftover disposable champagne glasses from a baby shower I hosted last summer—every time she comes over, so we served the kids Sprite in these glasses with edible glitter and a dollop of cotton candy for that magical color-changing effect. You could also do sparkling grape juice, I just thought Sprite was the safest bet for picky two- to six-year-old party goers.

 

Because all the families of the kids were invited, we also had a full bar. And because I’m incapable of doing the least, I decided last minute—literally an hour before the party—to type of a quick little cocktail menu for the adults.

The Empress gin that you should be able to find at your local liquor store really added to the fun even though it was essentially a gin and tonic with edible glitter. Many adults also opted for the cotton candy topper, because what big kid doesn’t love a dash of sparkle, too?

Of course, when it comes to a themed party like Taylor Swift, the sky is the limit. You could do so many musical tie-ins like adding these balloons, doing a balloon arch, having a Taylor sing-off or karaoke competition, etc. I loved Charlotte’s relatively low-key Eras-themed party, and I can’t wait to see what she wants to do for seven!

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