Beary 1st Birthday Party Ideas

Is it somebody’s Bear-y First Birthday coming up? If you’re looking for a super sweet birthday party theme for your baby boy or baby girl who is turning one, look no further. I made a teddy bear themed first birthday party to celebrate with my own child this year and I’ll show you all the tips and tricks to help you put together one too.

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• Bear Birthday Printables
• Bear Themed Cake
• Bear Shaped Party Food
• Gummy Bear Treat Bags
• Bear Themed Invitations
• Bear Balloons and Decor
• Bear Birthday Shirt

Bear Birthday Printables

These bear themed printables will help your guests know which table is for gifts and which table is for cake. The printables also add to the decor of your party. I recommend getting them printed off at a local print shop on paper or card stock. You can find a nice frame to put the print inside to give it an extra special touch, too. 

I also used this set of teddy bear party printables to enhance the party favors for the gummy bear treat bags I made for guests. You can purchase it on my Etsy shop if you’d like the same set!

Bear-y First Birthday Cake

I did a whole post that you can read here, on how to make your own bear themed birthday cake. This bear-y first birthday cake will be the star of your dessert table. You can use this big cake to serve your party guests or also as a smash cake for your little one to grab and taste. 

You can also use a cute birthday bear printable download to accent your cake table like the one you can see in my photo. 

Bear Shaped Party Foods

Watermelon slices are a perfect food to press into cookie cutter shapes that look like bears. If you’re serving snacks, these melon bears look great on an appetizer table. Watermelon is a sweet fruit so you could even add these melon bears to your dessert table. Other types of melon, like cantaloupe, could be a good addition to a tray like this for your Bear-y First Birthday Celebration.

I ordered this bear shaped cookie cutter from Amazon to make things super quick and easy to prepare. It worked great on the watermelon I cut out the night before the party and stored in plastic in the fridge.

Another idea is to serve bear shaped sandwiches at your bear themed birthday party. The same cookie cutter works great to cut out sandwich shapes. You can make cheese and ham sandwiches or peanut butter and jelly. You could even use sunbutter and jam for an allergy-sensitive party food. I pressed the cookie cutter into a lightly toasted sandwich and then used a sharp knife to cut any remaining bits off around the edges of my bear shaped snacks.

Bear Cupcakes

These bear themed cupcakes are totally easy to make, you just need the right piping tip. They’re a great option for a party food for a bear-y first birthday party because even young children can eat them, there are no pointy cupcake toppers/decorations and no choking hazards, the ears are made of flat candy melts.

Bear Rice Krispie Treats

Try this fun and easy recipe for bear-themed rice krispie treats dipped in chocolate. They’re the perfect party treats that are sure to impress your guests!

Gummy Bear Treat Bags

If you’re looking for a little treat bag that will fit your beary first birthday theme, you can put together a party favor with little gummy bears for your guests to take home with them and add some adorable teddy bear gift tags. Bear themed party favors don’t have to be complicated to be fun!

The printable I made and used for these treat bags was very simple. I had it printed at a print shop, which was very inexpensive, and then I trimmed them and used a hole punch and some ribbon to attach them to my sweet treats.

Bear Themed Invitations

A bear themed party invitation is the first thing your guests will notice about your birthday theme. It can be a fun idea to get a bear themed party invitation to send out over phone, email, or to get printed off for mailing. Digital invitations are often available as an instant download where you can enter in your personal information and print or send right away.

This is just a mock up of what the invitation could look like (without putting my personal information on the internet, haha).

Bear Balloons and Decor

I found a really cute option to decorate my teddy bear themed birthday party with balloons. For some reason, bear shaped birthday balloons seem to be hard to come by. I got these bear balloons on Etsy from CheersBalloons and they turned out really cute. If you’re purchasing balloons online you’ll probably need a small tank of helium to fill them up. Some stores don’t offer helium filling for balloons bought from other locations. These bear balloons came with a straw so you can fill them with regular air, which is what I did, then I used painters tape to stick them to the wall. 

Light blue, dark blue, beige, white, or even light brown are all nice options for additional balloons and party supplies to help decorate your space. I recommend getting a couple extra of each color in case they pop before the party starts – like some of mine did. 

You can also use stuffed animals (teddy bears) to decorate your home or tables at your birthday event. I really like the Jellycat and Gund brand teddy bears quality. If you have some teddy bears around home, they can join in with the festivities. You could also purchase a special teddy bear for your birthday child to enjoy and to remember the occasion. Big teddy bears can also be a nice prop for party guests to take photos with to remember your teddy bear theme.

Another piece of first birthday party decor I used was a monthly milestone banner. It’s a really special decoration to let you showcase all the cute photos you’ve been taking of your baby each month. 

A first birthday photo banner is not very expensive and your guests will love seeing how your sweet baby birthday boy has grown over the year. If you haven’t been doing a monthly photo with a specific backdrop for your baby just pick one of the cutest photos you have from each month! It’s going to look great.

Bear Birthday Shirt

There are some really cute bear themed first birthday shirts available on Etsy. I purchased this one from WildAndFreeByLizzie and it’s a great quality shirt. Make sure you know if you want it to be T-shirt or Onesie style and take the time to compare the size chart to a shirt your baby currently wears so as to make sure you’re ordering something that will have the desired fit. 

We took a bunch of photos of our little guy in his special shirt before guests arrived. If you think your little one might be overwhelmed or distracted by the party, it can be a good idea to take a few pictures before things begin, to ensure you’ve captured a nice memory of the day. The birthday shirt is one of my favorite details and we will save it so a teddy bear stuffed animal can wear it as a keepsake for our child in the future.

Do you love this beary first birthday party theme?

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article and have a bunch of new great ideas from this cute first birthday party I put together for my family. Wishing your little boy a very happy birthday with a beautiful little bear theme is a lovely idea, I hope you have fun with it! All the extra details made this birthday fun and we will treasure the memories we made.

Check out more articles on birthday parties!

Easy Teddy Bear Birthday Cake

Adorable Bear Cupcakes (Simple Teddy Bear Recipe)

Bear Rice Krispie Treats (Easy Fun No-Bake Recipe)

3rd Birthday Construction Cake (For A DIY Construction Birthday Party)

10 Free Printable Birthday Countdown Calendars

Mickey Mouse Party Foods, Games and Decor (30+ Ideas)

Free First Birthday Party Checklist (For An Easy, Fun 1st Birthday)

Baby’s First Birthday Time Capsule (How To Guide)