11 simple dinosaur party ideas for dino-mite birthday fun on a budget

“I want a pink dinosaur birthday party!”

“No, a rainbow dino party!”

After a pregnant pause, “No, a Plesiosaur pool party!”

The specifics will change (like Halloween costumes), but not the general idea.

After last year’s lockdown, you promised your little dinosaur fan could have a birthday party this year.

But now there are more hurdles.

1. The nearest dinosaur park or museum is too far away for a birthday party
2. Your guests are not as dinosaur-mad as your little dinosaur fan
3. Your budget is limited…

So how do you throw a budget-friendly, dino-mite dinosaur birthday party at home? With these 11 simple and cheap/free dinosaur party ideas!

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Grab the dinosaur birthday party planning checklist

Planning (and catering) a dinosaur birthday party yourself and holding it at home is the easiest way to keep the costs down. But it’s also the easiest way to forget something.

Grab our free dinosaur party planning checklist (and our other dinosaur party printables) to help you plan your budget-friendly dinosaur birthday party, without the stress. And without forgetting anything.

Just a dinosaur birthday party?

If you’ve read some of our other posts, you’ll know we recommend making your party theme a little more specific.

But your little dinosaur fan might just want a dino-mite party.

Or your budget might not allow for a more specific theme. Often, generic is cheaper. Though with these dinosaur party ideas, a “pink dinosaur party” is probably still in the budget.

1. Party invitations

But that doesn’t help you now, right?

Many party invitations are available online (and probably at your local supermarket). Some might be part of a set.

You can even find some with dual themes, like these unicorn and dinosaur party invitations or these gorgeous dinos and doughnuts party invites.

Some, like these silhouette cards, would be easy to DIY, especially if you have a Cricut (and we might even write a how-to post soon!).

Our LDA’s birthday is in the middle of the school holidays. I don’t know where all her friends live. If we want to invite them, we have to send our invites electronically. This saves on postage, too.

Some of the invites we are preparing will be available in electronic form – the kind where you open them on your phone and they fill the screen.

Even if they are free or DIY, take time to consider your party invitations as they set the scene for the rest of the dinosaur birthday party.

2. Add a sign

A fun sign helps set the mood.

Many of you will have a lightbox or sign board you can use, you could write on a window (with these chalk markers or these pencils, which come in pastels, too) or a chalkboard, or make one out of cardboard.

We like the phrase “Party like it’s 66,000,000 B.C.” Or you can use a phrase from your birthday invitations: “Party like a dinosaur.” Or simply, “Roar.”

A free dinosaur party idea: our LDA drew therapod footprints on the ground with chalk to point the way for guests.

3. Blow up some dinosaur balloons

We’ll be sharing some instructions for making your own dinosaur balloons soon – it’s an easy craft project for little dinosaur fans and goes well with our invitations (which you’ll also get to see soon!).

But let’s face it, sometimes you don’t have the time.

We used some fun dinosaur “helium” balloons and blew them up ourselves and positioned them where we wanted them. If you want them to float, you will need to use helium.

(Case on point: we purchased some green, white and gold balloons and leaves for a prehistoric jungle arch, too, but ran out of time to blow them up).

Less is more. Save money and grab some normal balloons and/or bunting and/or streamers from your local discount bargain basement store and intersperse them with one or two dinosaur helium balloons.

Or draw a huge dinosaur on a window or cardstock, write the name of the birthday boy or girl and birthday number and stick on a couple of inflated balloons. BONUS: it doubles as a backdrop for photos (see number 7).

4. Dino-fy your tablescape

This is another area where you don’t have to spend much money to still have a dinosaur birthday party.

Not all your table settings need to scream dinosaur.

You might have decided to purchase a set including invitations, decorations, tablecloths, serviettes, plates, etc or just a set of table settings. This can be a great way to save money and get all the “bits” at once.

We had a double pack of plastic tablecloths which were great for protecting our table (we had some spills). We could have easily used our normal wax-cloth tablecloth instead (it has dots on it).

We used our normal cutlery, plates and glasses and added these gorgeous and fun dinosaur serviettes.

Each place setting had a little glow-in-the-dark dinosaur as well.

Our birthday cake with our DIY party animal cake topper adorned the centre of the table, flanked by some “raptor claws,” “dinosaur eggs,” “Stegosaurus back plates” and “herbivore snacks.”

One of the simplest budget-saving dinosaur party ideas: put some toy dinosaurs on your table. Ours were dressed up to match our party animal cake topper.

5. Dinosaur party ideas: Cake and cake toppers

A dinosaur birthday cake is obviously a highlight of a dinosaur birthday party.

If you’re on a tight budget, you will want to make or decorate your cake yourself.

We’ve got two easy options for you:

1. Turn any basic cake into a dinosaur fossil cake. You only need three ingredients (apart from the cake): some chocolate frosting, large marshmallows and some chocolate sprinkles or chocolate chips.

2. Make a dinosaur cake topper. Grab your favourite dinosaur and raid your child’s toy box for skateboards, Barbie bags, or even an Avenger to use as a rider and make your own unique dinosaur for the top of a simple birthday cake.

6. Dinosaur party food

We won’t go into detail here, but no dinosaur birthday party would be complete without dinosaur party food.

What food you have will depend on the age, number and food preferences/allergies/intolerances of your little dinosaur fan and guests, as well as your budget. Yet, almost any food can be dinosaur party food.

Use our 7 tricks to dino-fy your party dishes and make them fit for a Troodon, Triceratops or T-Rex.

Check out our dinosaur recipes for inspiration.

And don’t forget name tags for your food! It’s one of the easiest dinosaur party ideas, especially if your guests can read (ours were chuckling at our Coprolites (fossilised dinosaur poo), AKA chocolate covered peanuts or raisins).

We’ll be sharing some free name tag templates soon. You can also make some based on your invitations – scan your invitation and use part of the image on your name tags.

Another fun and free way to display your creative dinosaur food names: Write the names on some pieces of card and have a toy dinosaur “hold” the name next to the food.

7. Dinosaur photo session

We won’t share our photos here – it would not be polite or fair to our guests – but a dinosaur photo session is a fun way to get guests involved in the theme. And the photos are great for thank you cards.

1. Have your guests dress up as dinosaurs: Do you have some masks or dinosaur tails? You might have bought or made some as guest gifts (this is a great tutorial and pattern), or your little dinosaur fan might have some you can use. Let your guests dress up and take some fun photos of their dinosaur impressions.
2. Use some toy dinosaurs: Let your guests choose their favourite dinosaur to use in a photo session. They might be some of your little dinosaur fan’s herd or some you’ve purchased as guest gifts (AKA adopt a dinosaur).
3. Use a dinosaur filter: Depending on your photography (editing) skill levels, set up a “green screen” and use a digital dinosaur background or grab some dinosaur photo overlays (if I work out how to make my own overlays, I’ll let you know).

8. Fun dinosaur activities

Your party activities will depend on the age of your guests, your specific theme, and the weather. Some examples:

1. We had a dinosaur pool party (summertime is pool time in our family). Logically, our guests swam like plesiosaurs.
2. A dinosaur dance party is always fun. Let your guests dance like dinosaurs to your favourite dinosaur tracks.
3. Did you make some dinosaur fossil eggs? Let your guests excavate their eggs (they can take home the dinosaur inside as part of their guest favours).
4. Are you having a palaeontologist Barbie or a dinosaur explorer party? Let your guests decorate their helmets.
5. Are you celebrating indoors with a dinosaur art party? Your guests can spend some time painting dinosaurs and canvases.
6. Some of our guests got chilly in the pool or were less confident Plesiosaurs. They enjoyed some time out, colouring in some dinosaurs in love (one of our free printable dinosaur colouring books).

9. A dinosaur piñata

A dinosaur piñata is a fun activity for guests and an easy and cheap way to fill guest goodie bags.

You can make one yourself (we’ll be trying this soon) or purchase one cheaply. The piñata does not need to be large – volume is deceptive. If you get a set with a blindfold and bat, you won’t have to take apart a broom…

Fill it with whatever wrapped sweets you can find cheaply.

10. Guest favours

Let’s face it, for younger guests, one of the best parts of a birthday party is the goodie bag to take home.

It need not be complicated or expensive. A simple paper (lunch) bag with a dinosaur-shaped gift tag (made using your dinosaur cookie cutters) for your guests to collect their piñata gains and their art project/ fossil dinosaur/ place setting/ adopted dinosaur/ prize as appropriate.

When you’re visiting your favourite dinosaur park or museum before the big day, keep your eyes out for simple gifts for your goodie bags. We found some teeny tiny dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History in Vienna, and some prehistoric shark teeth and small geodes from our visit to the Dinosaur Museum Altmühltal.

We used the baby dinosaurs and teeth for one party and added some dinosaur gummies and some other candy, wrapped up in cellophane and tied with a gift tag which matched our invitations.

For the other party, we had some little bags to which we added a couple of small packets of candy and the geode. The girls then added their piñata gains and the glow-in-the-dark dinosaur from their place setting.

Check out our post on simple dinosaur gift bags for more dinosaur party ideas (coming soon).

11. Free hugs

One of my favourite dinosaur party ideas was a happy accident – but feel free to borrow it.

Years ago we purchased a giant inflatable Tyrannosaurus Rex. He stood in D-Rex’s mancave for about a year before being put away.

Numerous pumps on the air pump later and a hastily written sign like you’d find at a large music festival and we had T-Rex ready to give our guests free hugs.

I’ll admit, Rex went over better with the adults. Our younger guests had not seen the memes or read “Tiny T-Rex and the Impossible Hug.” Obviously.

If you don’t have an inflatable T-Rex, you might have someone in a costume or use a stuffed dinosaur toy you already own. It’s great for photos…

Budget does not mean boring dinosaur party ideas

Little dinosaur fans will want a dinosaur birthday party. If you’ve googled “dinosaur party ideas” you’ve seen how complex – and expensive – such ideas can get, with OTT food tables, expertly decorated dinosaur cookies and multiple, expensive guest favours.

Fortunately, these simple, budget-beating dinosaur party ideas will infuse enough of the prehistoric into your party without causing additional stress for Mamasaura and D-Rexes.

We’d love to see pictures of your budget dinosaur party ideas!

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