When my daughter was turning four, I asked what kind of birthday she wanted (me picking the theme is over for her; I get another year or two with my son), and to my delight, she said she wanted a unicorn party. “And rainbows?” I replied. Sabrina gave me the greatest gift for her own birthday without knowing; I had the privilege of hosting a second Unicorn and Rainbows birthday party! Yes, there was a first one, exactly ten years prior for my 25th.
Growing up and into adulthood, I loved planning and making a production out of my birthday. I can remember something about every birthday I had since I was three; I’m now 35. When I had kids, my passion shifted. I threw myself a few more parties, but only after my daughter’s party was taken care of (her birthday is a week after mine.) Now, I like to go all out for my kids’ birthdays, and go out to lunch with my family and have a special date night with my husband for mine.
Ten years ago, unicorn poop cookies went viral on Pinterest. I thought the concept that anything that comes from the inside of a unicorn is sweet and good was so funny that I was inspired to host a party with a menu based on unicorn innards. Then, ten years later, in 2024, I brought back many of my funny menu puns for my daughter’s birthday.
You can read my original Unicorn and Rainbows Birthday Party (for a grownup) post here.
In this post, I share ideas, tutorials, and recipes from both unicorn and rainbow birthday parties.
Contents:
Non-disclaimer: I share links to products and other bloggers, but I don’t have any affiliate deals at this time. (July 2025)
Printable invitation
Let’s start with the invitation. I made the original invitation in Photoshop. You can download a free printable of it. It prints on 8.5×11 paper, and you cut it into two invites.
Print the front page first, then turn over and print the inside page.
Unicorn innards menu
My unicorn and rainbow party was inspired by the original unicorn poop recipe and the influx of unicorn pins in 2014.
Unicorn poop:
For Sabrina’s party, I skipped the cookie recipe and represented unicorn poop as colorful marshmallow pellets. Much simpler, but still communicates 💩
Our party menus included:
- Unicorn poop. Cookies 2014, marshmallows 2024. https://www.instructables.com/Unicorn-Poop/
- Unicorn horns: Bugles, 2014 & 2024 (link on Amazon)
- Unicorn bacon: Rainbow Sour Belts, 2014, 2024 (link Amazon)
- Skittles separated by color, 2014 (link Amazon)
- Charlie’s Frickin’ Kidney bean salad, 2014 & 2024
- I think this is the most clever idea that came out of the first party, and I was thrilled to bring it back. It is a reference to the viral Charlie the Unicorn series by Jason Steele, in which Charlie gets his kidney stolen. I had to explain it to my guests, but it was worth it! And, the three-bean salad recipe was good. Recipe here.
- Rainbow Pizza (2014) here
- Unicorn meat: hot dogs and burgers on the grill, 2024
- Magical transformation potion punch, 2014. Citrus soda like 7Up, rainbow sherbet, and Lucky Charms marshmallows. Nowadays, you can buy just the marshmallows.
- Magical love potion punch, 2024
- Cake: Shirley Temple Poke Cake from ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com, 2014
Food labels:
I made cute labels for the food. You can download and print them for free. Just print, cut out, and fold along the line.
Decor:
I had enough time on my hands to craft crepe paper decor in 2014 before I had children. In 2024, I bought most of my decorations from Oriental Trading Company. I like their selection of classic horsey-looking unicorns that remind me of growing up in the 90s. I used this line of products.
Streamer rainbow
The crepe paper streamer rainbow that I ran from my ceiling fan to the window curtain rod came from Color Wheel Ceiling | Housing a Forest. She made a whole circle of rainbow streamers! Tammy also has a fun post about taking apart her streamer rainbow, Color Wheel Deconstruction | Housing a Forest
Dot garland and painted poster
For Sabrina’s party, we made a streamer rainbow, but scaled it down to the size of a window. I tasked my poor husband with taping up the rainbow in 2024 because it was harder for me to reach over the deep freezer. I think my first window rainbow was a little more aesthetically pleasing; I intended it to be a photo backdrop. Notice the blue streamers hanging behind the rainbow in the left picture; I got the idea from this pin: Pin on party | Ideas 👯♀️
2014 was a long time ago. The link to the tutorial on my dot garland pictured above, on my original post at Unicorn and Rainbows Birthday Party (for a grown up) – The Domestication of the Running Rose, is now broken. What I can say is that I painstakingly, individually cut out double-sided circles from streamers and sandwiched them over a cord with Elmer’s glue or glue stick. It was tedious. I remember the backache from sitting on the floor for the duration of the project.
I painted the space unicorn on a piece of cardboard. I think I deconstructed a box to get my cardboard canvas. I used acrylic paint, glitter glue, and a wide felt-tip marker. I used a reference image to draw my unicorn, which is lost in the ether of time.
Unicorn horns
Horns are simple and intuitive. I deconstructed party hats and stapled them back together, but narrower.
Personalized bouquet picks
To decorate the tables, I made decorative picks customized with my daughter’s name and picture in Canva. I used Canva premium features, which only cost $1 per premium graphic. I combined the rainbow daisy with Sabrina’s portrait in Photoshop.
Making the picks was simple. I printed two of each graphic (made of symmetrical shapes), cut them out with scissors, and used glue stick to adhere them together with a kabob skewer sandwiched between them. Then, I arranged them among flowers from my nearby grocery store. One bouquet filled about four small vases.
I got the idea for bouquet picks from the picture on the right on Pinterest, which links to an Etsy shop. So, if you want hers pre-made, you can support a small business on Etsy.
Party games
The kids beat the poop and rainbows out of a unicorn piñata. It’s classic and supports the party theme: everything that comes out of a unicorn is good and sweet. I stuffed the piñata with small toys from Oriental Trading Co. and packets of Skittles, because we had to taste the rainbow and our unicorn and rainbows party.
Ten years ago, at my first unicorn and rainbows party, I proposed the idea of playing Unicorn Horn Ring Toss with our party hats and some bracelets. Lee shot it down and said that adults like to sit and talk, and play more mature games. For the next ten years, I felt that we missed out on a great opportunity to theme my kitschy party. Like, Horn Ring Toss is obvious, you have to have it at every unicorn party, right? And, this time it was a kids party, so we had no excuses.
At Sabrina’s party, I made sure we played. I got back at Lee by making him be the unicorn. Honestly, he’s a good sport. I ordered a kit from Oriental Trading Company.
Playlist
I like to curate a playlist for every party I host. In 2014, I made a list on my iPod. In 2024, I made a list on Spotify and subscribed to Premium for a month. I included a link to my playlist so you can either play it or copy songs from it.
You can find a bunch of unicorn and rainbow party idea pins, including things I didn’t do, on my Pinterest board at: (2) Pinterest
