In the midst of planning my daughter’s 7th birthday – and if you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know that I spend an embarrassing amount of time on my childrens’ birthday parties – we began going round and round on what this year’s theme was going to be. The theme Ximena picked was Coco, based on the Mexican holiday Dia de Muertos, a holiday that could look like a Mexican Halloween but is much more than that, it’s a celebration to our beloved ones that have passed away. An altar is placed to honor them and remember them, in this case, Ximena placed the pictures of her great grandparents and decorated the altar beautifully. I love that she embraces a little part of Mexico in everything that she does.
She was so involved in the decorations and planning, she even helped me make the gift bags for her friends (inspired by Frida), which are adorable.
Once the theme and venue were pinned down, we were ready to get going on the décor. I’m normally not a huge fan of color, but for this party I knew it was going to be pretty colorful. I focused on her two favorite colors, pink and purple, any girls favorite colors right!! Lucky for us purple papel picado is also very traditional in the Day of the Dead holiday.
The guests were welcomed with Mexican traditional dresses, which they were trilled to try on. And how about those amazing flower crowns? Stunning right? I was lucky enough to work with Aniskas Creation to create a unique flower crown for each girl.
The papel picado was the main attraction, there was a wall with papel picado all over it, perfect for pictures, the girls plates also had papel picado in different shapes, forms and colors!
The dessert table is the heart of a party and this Coco birthday party certainly lives up to all expectations. It oozes Mexican traditions and Day of the Dead decorations. Let’s not forget about the cake, as you will see, it was beautifully decorated with Coco themed fondant decorations, such as papel picado, a Mexican guitar and some Day of the Dead skulls.
The party was full of surprises, Mama Imelda, Ximenas favorite character in the movie, came to the party to sing and dance with the girls, a Mexican piñata was obviously part of the party, and the girls got to experience the whole Mexican Dia de Muertos, eating pan de muerto and traditional Mexican bread, they also got to decorate their own Coco guitars and to paint their calavera masks. They received a personalized placemat with their name as well.
Overall the kids had a blast and most importantly Ximena got to enjoy her every own un poco loco fiesta!!
