Ghostbusters Birthday Party Ideas and themed Supplies

If there’s something strange, in your neighborhood. Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! (and just like that, the theme song is stuck inside your head). But what better way to throw a themed retro ghost party than to choose Ghostbusters? It’s snarky, it’s quirky, and children these days still like it (which is surprising unto itself – and probably has a lot to do with the fact that the movie doesn’t really take itself seriously). So if you need a bit of help getting your muses going, below you can find plenty of ideas for a Ghostbusters themed party, from Decorations, to costumes and gift ideas.

Ghostbusters Birthday Party Invitations

The first step in exorcism – er, ghostbusting, – is to gather your team of exterminators. There are plenty of customizable invites on Etsy and you’ll find Ghostbusters birthday invitations ranging from ones that can include a photo of the birthday boy or girl to ticket style invites if you’re planning a ghostbusters movie party. However, if you want to go for a personal touch, you can make the cards yourself. A good starting point is with this free Ghostbusters party invite printable, or this one. Alternatively, you can use one of the movie posters as background and write using the Ghostbusters font or the Slimer font (which looks amazingly slimy and perfect).  You can also top it off with a Ghostbusters  transparent/white background logo.  As for the text, there aren’t many catchphrases (besides the theme song), but the text is still full of fun usable quotes like: “Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night? /Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic?/ Have you or your family ever seen a spook, spectre or ghost?/ If the answer is “yes,” then don’t wait another minute. Pick up the phone and call the professionals…/ Ghostbusters.”.  You can have your invitees band together at the haunted house (your home) to help (birthday boy/girl) banish an evil spirit (Oh no, the Stay Puft marshmallow man has risen again – “This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions”).

You can also include Ghostbusters badges. They are available for sale on Etsy – or you can make them yourself.  Another fun item to include in your invite is an origami ghost.  Alternatively, you can make a Ghostbusters pop up card, just add the show’s logo. Another simple Ghostbusters birthday party invitation anyone can make are these Ghostbusters logo invitations.

Ghostbusters Birthday Party Decorations

Before receiving your guests, the haunted house needs to be properly scary (and haunted) – and I’m not talking about the spirit of your tired self trying to put the finishing touches. The best way to greet the guests would be with scratching noises or ghostly laughter at the door, this is available from YouTube – you can set up speakers at the door and play this on repeat (for as long as you can stand it).

While you’re at it, why not add some bloody handprints on the windows – or the mirror at the entrance (you can make them with washable paint – unless you like having permanent markings on your windows). Since we’re still at the entrance part, you can add some  chicken wire ghosts in your garden – they look terrific and set the mood for the evening early on.  The same goes for a Ghostbuster skeleton with a “gone but not forgotten” sign. For that you need to purchase a lab skeleton dummy, some overalls and a pair of glasses.

Inside the house you can place a Stay Puft balloon man, available on Amazon. For a backdrop, you can make an ectoplasm wall with a green tablecloth and even an ectoplasm door. For the haunted mood, you can make hanging ghosts or use another tutorial (there is even one with faces, for added creepy factor). You can scatter posters with popular Ghostbusters phrases like “I ain’t afraid of no ghost” or use this free printable Ghostersbusters tools poster as extra decoration.

Place ghost paper lanterns and green slime lanterns all over the living room. You can also add some Slimer balloons – it’s simple, print and glue or draw the face onto green balloons as seen here. Alternatively, you can also make some Ghostbusters balloons by using black mylar balloons and gluing the logo on like this.

Also consider using the color palette of red, black and white to decorate your party area as they are the colors on the Ghostbusters logo. You could also go with a green and black theme as slime is a major part of Ghostbusters (Slimer anyone?). Balloons, streamers, tablecloths, tableware and many different types of decorations in these colors will have your party area matching the Ghostbusters theme fantastically. 

These free templates for Ghostbusters papercraft models are handy for decorating your party table.  There are templates for a cube Slimer paper figure, Ghosbusters character paper dolls, Stay Puft marshmallow man and even the Ghost trap.

Ghostbusters Birthday Party table setup

If you feel you haven’t managed to scare your team of Ghostbusters enough, you get an extra chance with the party table. Ghostbusters provides you with the perfect opportunity to dust off all your Halloween ghost related paraphernalia and put it to good use (or leave the dust on, since it adds to the creepiness factor). In this vein, there are a thousand and one tutorials and ideas about how to make a spooky Halloween table (just stay away from pumpkins, witches, werewolves, in fact, just stick to ghosts and you’ll be fine).  

You can start by adorning your tablecloth with ectoplasm splotches (use an old table cloth and some green paint).  In fact, you can go crazy with the ectoplasm idea and add slime green napkins, cutlery, candles – whatever you can think of. To add to the scene, you can even place some ‘Caution’ tape around the table.

Another Ghostbusters party table setup idea is to make Marshmallow man placemats. You need to print this image, add it to some white placemats and glue a blue stripe of paper at the top. There are also free printable drink labels and other labels to be found on Etsy.

Since we’ve mentioned the ghost idea, it would be a pity not to give some direct links – like, for instance these DIY ghost plates – they are cute and very easy to make (you only need scissors, glue and paper). Then there are these fantastic creepy  DIY ghost hands cutlery cup holders. And to top it off, you can add a Marshmallow plushie – you only need some basic sewing skills.

Ghostbusters Costumes and Outfits

Now here is where the fun begins – you get to be creative and play dress up and get to take embarrassing pictures of your offspring to show them to potential dates in the future – ah, a parent’s dream. Here is how to make a Ghostbusters costume, from a dress. To round off the look, there are iron on embroidery name patches found on Etsy. Alternatively, you can go with a light brown onesie and sew chest pockets and the logo on it. And that about concludes the easy part, since the piece du résistance of a Ghostbusters costume is the equipment (proton pack, ecto-goggles, ghost trap – here we come).

Here’s how you can make a very simple papercraft ghost trap box. You can also make a proton pack by following this tutorial (that includes a description on how to build a ghost trap as well). If you aren’t scared of more complicated crafting, you can try your hand at this proton pack model, complete with equipment labels. Don’t forget to equip the proton packs with silly string proton guns. Lastly, a ghostbuster also needs ecto-goggles (or you can follow this tutorial instead).

Another Ghostbusters birthday outfit idea is to make a Ghostbusters logo costume.  You will need a pair of white pants, a long sleeved shirt or bed sheet, a pair of white gloves, a printed ghost mask and a felt circle with a cushion sown across (made to resemble the forbidden sign) –the overall look should be something like this.

You can also try to dress up as the ghost – for a Puft girl costume you need a tutu, white sailor uniform, white cap with a sowed on strip of blue felt – like this. Or if you want to amaze your guests, you can make this inflatable Stay Puft suit or this realistic Slimer costume made from foam, for the craftier people. There is also a simple version of the Slimer costume – just take care to make it with green bed sheets instead of garbage bags.

Ghostbusters Party Food and drinks

Slimer is your best friend when it comes to making food for a Ghostbusters themed party – since it’s so distinctive.  You can start your foray into Ghostbusters treats with Slimer popcorn –  you should add green food colorant to some marshmallow mixture, or use green candy melts and pour the result over popcorn. You can also make Slimer cookies with the aid of a Slimer cookie cutter found on Etsy or Ebay. In fact, there are also Stay Puft cookie cutters and even Ghostbusters logo cookie cutters (take your pick). Another way to make Slimer cookies is to just dip them in some green candy melts. 

When it comes to drinks, you can make some ectoplasm jello-shots, Slimer slushies, or green soda with the label “Ecto-cola”. Though, best of all is this  Slimer lime sherbet punch. The look is achieved by freezing some of the sherbet and floating the Slimer head shape on an ice cube. You can decorate it with two plastic eyeballs and some melon balls. You can also make Slimer dogs (hot dogs with slime green mustard – thanks to our trusty pall, food colorant).

Another great treat is a Whipped cream Slimer on pudding – in fact, you can make this desert as either a ghost or a Slimer (depending on whether or not you add food colorant to the whipped cream). You can also serve these cute ghost peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or these ghost meringue cookies. Another fun Ghost themed party food to serve at the party is ghost banana pops and to keep with the spooky ghost theme you could make ghost shaped pizza as a more filling food for kids to eat at the party.

For a special Ghostbusters party food idea, you can try making these Stay Puft smores – they are time consuming but very easy to make (and your children will love them).

As a simple snack have some Twinkies for kids to pick up and eat at the party, afterall it Is a snack that features in the movie… remember the “tell em about the twinkie scene”

 Ghostbusters Birthday Cake and Cupcakes

The cherry on top, or the ghostly scream in a haunted mansion is the birthday cake, or cupcakes. Slimer once again lends us a friendly helping ghost hand. You can treat your tiny exterminators with these delicious slime cupcakes made with lemon curd. Or you can try to make these slime cupcakes that ooze green sugary goodness when you bite into them.  Another Ghostbusters cupcake idea is to make some simple ghost cupcakes with the aid of marshmallows and candy melts. Another fun idea is to stick lollies in cupcakes and cover them with white fondant, like this. Or if you don’t mind a bit of work, here’s how you can make some slime cupcakes with the Ghostbusters logo.

You can also try your hand at a cake, if you don’t mind piping and have a steady hand, you can make this simple cake with a piped Ghostbusters logo. Or you can give this Funfetti green cake a shot – it also has a Ghostbusters logo, but one that is cut out of cookie dough before being piped (for added depth).

Another great Ghostbusters birthday cake idea is to make a ‘city under attack’ cake. In order to do that you will first need to cover the cake with fondant, then print and cut a skyline out of black fondant and cut yellow rectangles for the lights (which you can stick on with edible glue).  Once that is done, you can cut out the Ghostbusters logo out of fondant (or use the piping tutorials above) and place it on top of the cake. To complete the look, you can add a Stay Puft Marshmallow man topper at the bottom of the city, and some Ghostbusters figurines at the top (just make sure the children don’t eat them).

If you want, you can even make a Stay Puft man cake topper from marshmallows. For the blue accents, use fondant instead of paper.

For the ones who are more crafty, they can try making a Ghostbusters car cake, using this car cake tutorial. The advanced crafting part comes with adding the accessories that make the car look like this – since there are no readily available tutorials.

 Ghostbusters Party Games and activities

Ghostbusters need to be entertained otherwise, they might cross the streams of their proton guns out of boredom and then the world as we know it will cease to exist. For the little ones, you can keep them entertained with coloring pages  and some more coloring pages. If you’re not afraid to have things get a bit messy, you can make your own slime using one of the 6 recipes presented. Making the slime is just as fun as playing with it (though you might want to curse yourself at the end of the day once you have to dig it out of every nook and cranny of the house).

For a nice build-it game, you can have your guests make their own ghosts using marshmallows, toothpicks and edible food paint (though you should be prepared to see more of the food paint on the children than on the ghosts).

Another Ghostbusters party game idea is to play capture the Marshmallow man – using silly string cans. For a variation on the theme, you can play a game of statues, where a child sits at one end of the field/room and the rest stand at the other. The single child is a vengeful spirit, and the rest are the Ghostbusters that need to vanquish it – but they can only do that with close contact. The Ghostbusters have to approach the vengeful spirit without it being aware of their presence – whenever the ‘ghost’ looks their way they need to be frozen, like statues. When the ghost looks away, they can move – if the children get spotted moving they are out of the game.

 Ghostbusters Party Favors

Once your house is cleared of all evil spirits it’s time to send the exterminators on their merry way with a nice thank you gift for taking care of your ghost problems. For something more intricate you can make Ghostbusters ghost trap gift boxes – though it will be quite time consuming (especially if there are a lot of children coming). Alternatively, you can find some gift baggies on Etsy, or give them Stay puft marshmallow baggies. Other Ghostbusters party favors ideas are to give Slimer keychains, Ghostbusters badges, stickers and tattoos. There are also “No Ghost” (the logo) iron on patches available online, the same as with the Ghostbusters font iron on name patches from the Costumes section above. If you haven’t included an origami ghost with your invitation, you can do so now. For some sweet party favors you can make these simple ghost cake pops. And if you’re feeling crafty, you can try your hand at making Ghostbusters bottle cap necklaces.

Ghostbusters Birthday Party gift ideas

Last but not least, you need to consider the gift for the birthday boy or girl.  Fortunately, the Ghostbusters franchise is a prolific one, and an old one, so you don’t have to worry about finding merchandise. There are a lot of Toy figurines and play sets available. The same goes for the Ghostbusters car, Ecto-1 – you can find both the toy car and the build-it scale model kit. There are also Lego sets, like the Ghostbusters firehouse headquarters set.  For the gamers, there are Ghostbusters playing card sets, board games and video games available. The same goes for equipment – you can get your child a Ghost trap lunch box, toy Ecto-goggles, Ghostbusters backpacks, T-shirts, jammies. There is even a Slimer watch (too bad it doesn’t drip ectoplasm) and you can find Stay Puft plush toys of almost all characters (the trouble comes with getting to choose a single gift).