By a Pro: Elmo Party Decorations by a Professional

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i’m matt james

professional event producer

27 years event-planning experience
Winner of 30 industry awards
Clients include:
Elton John,
Stella McCartney,
Sarah Jessica Parker,
Kevin Spacey……and more

welcome

OPEN BIO

01 ELMO PARTY DECORATIONS

Below are ideas for Elmo Party decorations. Don’t forget to check out check out my main Elmo party theme page which contains ideas for party invitations, food and drink, games and other party supplies.

the idea

Start your decorations outside

I always think it’s a good idea to start your decorations outside, so that the guests will start to get excited as they arrive. This could just be simple things like chalking the pavement with Elmo faces, bunches of red balloons along the driveway, a personalized yard sign (below, USA only), or a banner over the door.

This Elmo banner (below) can be personalized with a photo and your own message.

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cut it out elmo

Alternatively, you could print a life-size cut out (below left) of your child dressed in an Elmo costume to put at the end of your drive or outside the front door. These can be combined with a motion-activated voice recorder (below right, USA only) for less than $10, on which you can record a 10 second welcome message which plays as your guests walk past.

motion activated voice recorder and player

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the idea

Greet your guests at the door

This cute balloon wreath (by How Does She?) would look perfect on the door to greet people. You could make it using just red balloons to tie in with the Elmo party decorations, and then position an Elmo face balloon (see two bullet point below) in the center.

Alternatively, pick up an Elmo Airwalker balloon (below) and tie this to the front door to greet people as they arrive.

Inside, use these ‘Elmo loves you’ streamers (below left, USA only) and bunches of red, white and black balloons to decorate large areas. Mix in a few Elmo face balloons (below).

There are also these cute Sesame Street paper lantern garlands (below left, USA only) which feature Elmo, or if its a 1st Birthday party you can use these swirl decorations (below right, USA only).

the idea

create elmo’s world

A great way to decorate for an Elmo party theme is to re-create the scribbly crayon drawn room interior from Elmo’s World (photo below by Scott Hanson on Muppet Wikia). (I’ve created a similar hand-drawn interior for one of my professional parties, The D&AD “Yellow Pencil” Awards. Check out the photos to see how effective this can look).

To make the crayon room, first cover your walls with plain paper (you could look for clearance rolls of wallpaper and use the reverse side to give a plain finish, or use rolls of butcher’s paper). Fix the paper in place using a removable adhesive tape (a good trick is to apply strips of masking tape to your walls (this is a low-adhesive tape that you can peel back up without leaving a mark) then apply double-sided tape on top of the masking tape, and stick your paper to the double-sided tape. This way, the double-sided never actually touches your walls, only the low-tack masking tape does.

Once you’ve create a blank canvas with plain paper, draw all the features of the room on with crayons, such as doors, pictures, windows, decorative boarders.
Scatter some inflatable crayons (supplier 3) around to complete the look, or hang them down from the ceiling.

As the style of Elmo’s room is just crayon scribbles, you could also make a simple home-made banner like this one (below).

As the style of Elmo’s room is just crayon scribbles, you could also make a simple home-made banner like this one (below).

Finally, add some atmosphere to the party by playing the Sesame Street CD (supplier 3). It includes all the well known songs such as the main theme, C is for Cookie, Elmo’s Song, and Rubber Ducky.

Finish off your decorations with a personalized photo booth frame (below left) and these Sesame Street photo booth props (below right). Both supplier 4.

in this section

02 ELMO’s BUFFET & DESSERT TABLE STYLING

For ideas and suggestions for how to style and dress a buffet / dessert table inspired by the photo below

Check out my main Elmo party theme page. This page also contains ideas for Elmo party invitations, food and drink, and party games as well as some more ideas for Elmo party decorations.

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dress the table

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to dress the table, there are lots of great Elmo themed tableware kits available, including Elmo paper plates, napkins, and table covers.

There’s also an easy Elmo 1st Birthday high chair decorating kit available for younger children (below, USA only).

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elmo color palate

If you prefer to pick and choose some branded items to mix with some solid colors, I’d recommend you stick to a palate of red and white with a few touches of a third color as an accent. An all-red table is just too heavy.

So perhaps use a red tablecover with a white runner down the center to break it up, or a wider red runner with a white undercloth. Then use one of these Elmo paper plates to add a touch of blue (below left) or green (below right) as your accent color.

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faux fur

If budget permits, use some long pile red faux fur (below) as the tablecloth to give a soft Elmo-like feel. If your budget won’t stretch to covering the whole table, just use a red tablecover then create a runner down the center out of fur.

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flower power

Red Gerberas (below) are the perfect flowers to use for kid’s Elmo party as they have a simple daisy-like appearance. So pick up a couple to arrange in small Mason jars on the table. You could also surround the Mason jars with crayons standing upright and tied in place with ribbon.

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table Centerpieces

For a centerpiece, use this Elmo foil balloon (below below) along with a toy goldish in a bowl (or see the food ideas section of my Elmo party theme page for how to make a Jello goldfish bowl).

Alternatively you can pick up this 9″ x 9″ ready made Elmo centerpiece (below right, USA only).

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elmo toilet roll

Make these Elmo toilet roll crafts using this free download (below left, by DLTK Kids) and put one at each place setting.

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decorations above

TextI always like to have some decorations overhead too, to fill the empty space above the table, so use a cluster of red paper lanterns (below left, from Martha Strewart) and add Elmo’s eyes and face using cardstock.

You can also pick up cheap battery LED bulbs to make the lanterns glow without having to worry about power cords). Alternatively, for a more feminine look use tissue pom-poms (below right, Martha Stewart) .

Tie an Elmo balloon to the back of each chair. Alternatively, hang one of these plastic Elmo hats (below, USA only)

the idea

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LETTER…

Another alternative that works with these Elmo birthday party ideas is to dress the food table with brightly colored objects and toys (see suppliers 5 & 6 for cheap novelties) beginning with your chosen letter (ex, if your child’s name begins with D use rubber ducks, daisies, dolphins, etc). You could also group things according to your chosen number (ex, if your child is turning 3, have 3 rubber ducks, 3 daisies, 3 dolphins).

Complete the scene by hanging a personalized Elmo party banner (supplier 3) above the table.

personalized happy 2nd birthday elmo sign

Similarly you could use cut-outs of letters and numbers on the wall as a backdrop (make or cover each one using a different texture ex, grass, foam, balloons, etc). Or for 3D effect you can buy some of these cheap 8″ paper mache letters and cover them in things like glitter, feathers, sequins, polka dot stickers etc. Then arrange them over a wall or create a curtain by suspending them on vertical strips of string / ribbon from floor to ceiling.

Alternatively, you can buy ready-made Sesame Street letters here (supplier 4).

If you’re incorporating the ‘Brought to you by the letter…’ idea into your party theme (see the Elmo party theme page for more about this), scatter some foam letters and numbers (below, USA only) around the table. Alternatively use this Sesame Street confetti, which features Elmo.

Or if you’re going for the crayon drawn decoration theme, you could use this Sesame Street coloring-in tablecover (immediately below, USA only) for the kids to decorate themselves. Or make these cute Crayon Place card Holders (below, by Katherine Marie Photography).