John Deere Birthday Party Ideas
When my little guy loves all things John Deere. Naturally, he wanted a John Deere birthday party for his third birthday, and I was happy to take on the task! We love to celebrate the kids’ birthdays with as many fun special touches as we can…but without breaking the bank. The less I spend per person, the more friends we can invite!
There are tons of John Deere party decorating options–that makes an easy start. But as usual, I didn’t want to spend a bundle on things that are just going to end up in the trash. With a little effort, we were able to pump up the tractor theme, without spending a ton.
John Deere Themed Food
With as many friends as my kids like to invite to their birthday parties, we’ve been sticking to “snack and cake” parties, rather than a full-blown meal. For our food, we stuck with just a few with mostly-healthy snacks, so it was easy to tie in the John Deere theme. I made signs to label the food with fun names, using a cute font in John Deere green along with some of these John Deere gift tags (which I got a great deal on through the party supply store). I taped the signs onto bamboo skewers and stuck them in the food.
The fruits and veggies were “Farm Fresh produce,”
…and we served “Tractor Wheel Crackers” and cheese.
For our beverage, we had yellow lemonade garnished with green limes.
Other ideas for a full-blown John Deere meal could include:
- “Tractor Wheels & Cheese” (homemade mac & cheese made with wagon wheel pasta)
- “Haystacks” (taco meat and toppings served over rice)
- Pretty much anything grown or raised on a farm could tie into the John Deere theme with a little thought!
The cake was a lot of fun too. I found the idea on Pinterest to make a three-layer cake using yellow cake mix, and adding green food coloring to the top and bottom layers to get a John Deere-colored cake when you cut into it. This was a huge hit with the kids, and fairly easy to do. With the cool inside of the cake, I kept things pretty simple for the decorating, with chocolate icing and a tractor & words with vanilla icing, using my icing decorating tips, then I added some green and yellow M&M’s to complete the decoration.
A word of warning…if your cake layers end up puffing up a bunch higher in the middle than on the outer edges, use a knife to trim off a little of the middle of each one. This will keep your cake from cracking on the top as the sides settle! (Not that anyone complained about my cake being spackled together with chocolate icing…) 🙂
John Deere Themed Party Favors and Activities
My kids aren’t too big on party games (usually it feels like we have to tell everyone to stop playing together so we can do the planned game!), so we decided to keep it simple. We did a scavenger hunt for John Deere themed treats, and my husband took the kids for a ride on the trailer behind the John Deere tractor. Nice and simple!
The scavenger hunt doubles as their treat bag for the party and an activity/game, and the kids have had a lot of fun with the hunt and the themed treats in the past. We start by letting all the kids decorate a bag with their name, drawings, and stickers of their choices. Then we turn them loose to find a list of items which are hidden around the basement.
Here’s what I included in my John Deere Scavenger hunt:
John Deere Seeds: Yellow and green M&Ms in a cello bag, stapled, with half the cupcake liner from this set as a tag
(Sorry the pic isn’t focused…26 kids at the party, and I didn’t notice till much later, when all the “seeds” were long gone! Hopefully you get the idea.)
John Deere’s Farm Fresh Popcorn: Popcorn in a larger cello bag, stapled shut with the other half of the cupcake liner to decorate
John Deere Tractor Wheels: Oreos with little circles of melted yellow candy coating in the middle, and I slid the cupcake picks from this set into the Oreo creme
John Deere pretzel sticks: Pretzel sticks dipped in dark green candy coating, then drizzled with yellow candy coating
Since this party was combined with big brother’s Sonic party, the other half of the scavenger hunt items were Sonic-themed. Other possible John Deere treats could include:
- John Deere fruit snacks (I know Kellogg’s makes them, but I couldn’t find them for this party!) 🙁
- John Deere tattoos
- John Deere stickers
- John Deere pencils
- A small John Deere tractor or hat (if you’re having a smaller party)
John Deere Party Decorations
John Deere makes it pretty easy with the recognizable green and yellow color scheme. We had a roll of green plastic table cloth left over from another party. Green and yellow balloons and streamers hanging from the ceiling were an easy way to add more color, and my daughter helped me make the cute paper hanging globe decorations. I bought these John Deere gift tags to use as accents throughout the house.
We also pulled out as many John Deere toys as we could find, and used them to help decorate–the kids’ toy tractors were placed on the tables and on the counter with the food. My husband’s tractor was parked outside too, waiting to take the kids for a hayride later! I did spring for the John Deere plates, but used solid-color napkins and silverware, along with solid-color plates for the grownups.
John Deere Girl’s Party
This was actually my second tractor-themed birthday party. The first one was for my daughter when she turned 5! There are so many cute options for a “girl” John Deere party, including cute themed plates and decor featuring the famous green tractor, but with pink accents. Decor was pretty similar to what I described above, with the addition of a healthy dose of hot pink! Check out these cute John Deere party supplies for girls!
Rather than a cake for my daughter’s party, I decided to make cupcakes that picked up on the flower theme in the plates. To make the flowers, I flattened gum drops with a rolling pin (dust your counter and the top of them with extra sugar so they won’t stick!), then I used a mini flower cookie cutter to cut out the shape. A Skittle in the middle finished the job.
Have you hosted a John Deere party? I’d love for you to share any other creative ideas in the comments. We’d also love for you to pin or share this post if you find it useful!
