I can’t think of a better way to invite friends to a train themed party than by sending them their very own train tickets. With a ticket-style invitation template, you can customize your own to look like train tickets that include the date, time and location of your party. Have guests bring their ticket invites to exchange for admission to the party. You can even have the birthday boy or girl stand at the door and punch the tickets as guests arrive.

  A box with a ticket slot in which to drop them is another fun way to collect the tickets.

Decorations

To decorate for a train party, you could choose a color scheme based on your child’s favorite train, whether it is a favorite toy or one of the trains from a television show or film. Use these colors for the basic supplies like balloons, paper goods, tableware and streamers.  Once you have set the foundation, you can bring in some train-themed accents. Suggestions include:

• Trains: toy trains, cardboard train props and trains cut of of cardstock are just a few ways to feature trains in the decor. If you have train-patterned bed sheets, you can even use the flat sheet as a tablecloth.
• Luggage: a bunch of boxes, some brown packaging paper and handles fashioned out of cardboard is all you need to make props that look like the luggage of passengers. Scatter the luggage around the party space, or fill a large box labeled “luggage car” with the boxes.
• Train Tracks: with a roll of black tape, you can make train tracks that lead up the path to your front door, down an interior hallway or straight through the party space.  On interior floors, you may wish to use strips of black paper that are strategically taped to keep from marking up the floors.

• Railroad crossing signs: You can make your own railroad crossing signs out of poster board and place them at the entrance and other spots around the party room.

Games and Activities

Set up a few tables or booths, each one designed for a specific game, craft or activity.  Call them train stations and hang signs that indicate the specific nature of each stop. Have kids form a train as they walk from one station to the next, stopping at each one to spend a few minutes performing the activity designated to that station.  

Some ideas for things to do at each station include:

• Play train party games.
• Make a cardboard train.
• Make train crafts.
• Have a snack (at the “refueling” station).
• Watch The Little Engine That Could.

Food

To serve the party food in a fun way that reflects the train theme, set up a train-themed serving station. Make a sign with name of birthday child that reads something like “Dawson’s Dining Car.” Hang it above the food table. Use tape to create tracks across the table. Place a toy train at one end and then line up small, square or rectangular aluminum trays in the pattern of a train. Fill these trays with your party foods. Kids will love filling up their plates from these train cars.

Some suggestions for train party foods:

• Train birthday cake.
• Mini chocolate donuts (to look like train wheels).
• Use a train-shaped cookie cutter to shape foods such as sandwiches, pancakes, cookies and brownies.

Favors

One idea for train-themed party favors is to make miniature suitcases out of cardboard and decorate them with travel stamps. This miniature luggage can then be filled with goodies such as stickers and candy.  Additional ideas for favors include:

• Conductor caps and whistles.
• Toy trains.
• Train coloring books.
• Boxes of Animal Crackers (the kind that look like train cars).