Safari Themed 1st Birthday Party

Wow, it is just incredible how fast a year goes by. One year ago I was home with a newborn, and now my “baby” is a one-year old toddler! We celebrated my little one’s big “1” with a safari-themed 1st birthday party since Grayson enjoys the Evenflo Triple Fun Jungle Exersaucer so much. The party turned out well, so I wanted to share some of the safari-themed party decorations and inspiration here for you in case you ever want to throw a safari 1st birthday party.

Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, I may receive a commission. This does not cost you anything additional, and helps me to keep the rest of my content free, so thank you!

Safari-Themed 1st Birthday STationery

I am fortunate to have a very talented friend who creates and sells custom stationery. Just like with Grayson’s birth announcements, I wanted something unique and customized based on the party’s inspiration, so I contacted The Cheshire Kat Designs to create a cohesive stationery theme for the event. Here is what we came up with.

Safari-Themed Invitation:

Safari Banner:

Safari Door Signage:

Safari Food Signage:

Safari Favor Bag Labels:

safari-Themed 1st birthday Décor

For me, the easiest way to do a safari-themed party and save on décor was to do the party outside in a spot with trees and greenery. Luckily I live in Los Angeles, and was fortunate to have a nice, 80 degree, rain-free day in December to work with. The courtyard of our building was nicely surrounded with shrubbery and palm trees, which made for the perfect safari setting.

Safari Centerpieces:

For table centerpieces, I used a combination of mylar palm tree centerpieces found on eBay, as well as bunches of bananas.

Safari Balloons:

Safari themed birthday party balloons from Amazon

Safari 1st birthday party Tablecloths, Plates, Cups, Napkins, and Utensils

I was able to purchase a lot of my basic safari-themed party décor from the eBay store Sweet Creations Parties. The seller had a huge stock of party basics in a wide variety of themes and colors. They also shipped quickly, were mindful of our party dates, and gave me a nice combined shipping discount. Unfortunately, the store is no longer available, but I will provide the most comparable items I can find on Amazon. I went with lime green table covers, chocolate brown napkins and cups, and lime green plastic cutlery.

The plates I actually got from a different retailer, because I was set on finding a classier (non-cheesy) animal-print plate. This is what I found:

Unfortunately, I can no longer find these exact plates either, but here are some round leopard print plates from Amazon. If you find safari-themed party plates that are more similar to the ones in the picture, let me know in the comments!

Safari Leaf Serving Dishes:

Inflatable Safari Animals:

Safari-Themed 1st birthday Party Favors

Since this was the first children’s party I have ever planned, I had fun choosing the favors. There are SO many choices on things to get for jungle-themed party favors and supplies, and at very competitive prices. Here is what made up each bag:

Animal Print Gift Bags:

Bubbles:

Safari Animal Lollipops:

Safari-Themed Stationery Set:

Safari Animal Plush:

Safari-Themed party Food and Beverage ideas

Animal Crackers:

For little snacks and an additional favor, I had a tower of animal cracker boxes on display.

Swamp Juice:

I used lemon-lime Hawaiian Punch, but you can also use Green Gatorade, which I put in a drink dispenser like this one from Amazon.

Sandwiches (or “safari subs”):

I got four 3-foot sandwiches from Subway, as they are budget friendly, can feed a lot of people, and hey, people like Subway. I named them “Safari Subs” to keep with the theme.

Safari-Themed Starters and Sides:

I hit up good ol’ Costco for these. For an appetizer, I went with taquitos, and named them “Bamboo Shoots.” The side dishes were a pasta salad and a Mexican Caesar Salad that I nicknamed “Amazon Salad.” I served them in the palm leaf serving platters pictured above.

Safari Animal Cupcakes:

I decided to take on the task of actually making and decorating my own safari-themed animal cupcakes to save money on getting custom-designed cupcakes. While this did save money, it was pretty time-consuming making and decorating these in bulk. I got the design instructions from Betty Crocker, where they even have a helpful video tutorial for them. Then, I trayed them up with some fake grass purchased from a craft store (you can get trays like these and fake grass from Amazon).

other safari 1st birthday ideas

Safari Animal Tracks:

I thought it would be a fun touch to have different jungle animal tracks leading from the elevator to the party entrance. I cut these out of construction paper.

Zebra Piñata:

The party activity (besides food, eating cupcakes and opening gifts) was a piñata. I was fortunate to be able to find a GIANT piñata in downtown LA at the Alameda/8th area for only $15.00. That’s right, this massive zebra only cost $15.00! They had other large piñatas too, but we decided on a zebra for our safari-themed 1st birthday.

Animal Print Wrapping Paper:

As an added details, we decided to wrap our gifts to Grayson in animal print paper. I was able to purchase some in a few different patterns from eBay store Sweet Creations Parties, which is unfortunately no longer active. They looked great as a starter to our gift table (which also had a lime green cover). I did find some animal-print wrapping paper on Amazon, as well as a lime green table cover if you still want to recreate these looks.

Safari birthday Playlist:

A safari-themed 1st birthday party needs a safari-themed playlist! Here is the one I put together, downloading all the mp3’s from Amazon (that sure takes me back). However, these days, there are plenty of places that you can stream these songs from.

• Tarzan Boy (Baltimora)
• Trashin’ The Camp (Phil Collins, from the album Tarzan)
• Run Through The Jungle (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
• Jungle Party (Funky Monkeys)
• Deep in the Jungle (Joe Scruggs)
• Rockin’ In The Jungle (The Eternals)
• Jungle King (Hot Lips Page)
• Jungle Boogie (Kool & The Gang)
• The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh) (The Tokens)
• Bungle In The Jungle (Jethro Tull)
• Monkey Man (The Rolling Stones)
• Jungle Love (Steve Miller)
• Concrete Jungle (Bob Marley)
• Wild Thing (The Troggs)
• Born To Be Wild (Steppenwolf)
• Theme From The Monkees (The Monkees)
• The Bare Necessities (Bruce Reitherman, from the album The Jungle Book)
• I Wan’na Be Like You (The Monkey Song) (Phil Harris, from the album The Jungle Book)
• Circle Of Life (Lebo M., from the album The Lion King)
• I Just Can’t Wait To Be King (Jason Weaver, from the album The Lion King)
• Hakuna Matata (Ernie Sabella, from the album The Lion King)
• Can You Feel The Love Tonight (Elton John, from the album The Lion King)
• George of the Jungle (The TV Theme Players)
• Welcome To The Jungle (Guns N’ Roses)
• Colonel Hathi’s March (The Elephant Song) (Disney Studio Chorus, from the album The Jungle Book)

More kid’s birthday party themes:

• Anime-Themed Birthday Party
• Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania At-Home Watch Party
• Bendy and the Ink Machine-Themed Birthday Party
• Classic Nintendo Birthday Party (Mario Bros., Zelda, Kirby and More)
• Clifford the Big Red Dog Birthday Party
• Construction-Themed Birthday Party
• Despicable Me / Minion Birthday Party
• Dinosaur-Themed Birthday Party
• Disney Cars Birthday Party
• DIY Escape Room Kid’s Birthday Party (with lots of escape room puzzle ideas)
• Dungeons and Dragons Birthday Party
• Emoji-Themed Birthday Party
• Kid’s Ice Cream Social Birthday Party
• Safari Themed 1st Birthday Party
• LEGO Movie-Themed Birthday Party
• Minecraft-Themed Birthday Party
• PAW Patrol Party Ideas
• Pokémon-Themed Birthday Party
• Power Rangers-Themed Birthday Party
• Rock and Roll Birthday Party
• Silent Disco Party (Fun 13th Birthday Party Theme)
• The Legend of Korra and Avatar: The Last Airbender Party
• Thomas the Train Birthday Party (with Free Thomas and Friends Birthday Printables)
• Tiger-Themed Birthday Party Planning Ideas