With colorful rainbows and a gentle message, the Care Bears have been beloved by little boys and girls for many years. If your child loves the Care Bears, you may want to know how to plan a Care Bears theme party. A Care Bears party doesn’t necessarily mean a birthday party, although those are wonderful. With the underlying themes of friendship, tolerance of different personalities, learning to get along, etc., Care Bears can also lend an ideal setting to a play date, a special day at after-school care, or a Mommy and Me event.

Here’s a little history behind the Care Bears. They started out as a line of greeting cards in 1981. With the popularity of the American Greetings line, Kennar Toys began to produce plush Care Bears toys in 1983. The Care Bears’ cousins were created in 1984. 1985 was the year of their animation debut with The Care Bears Movie and their television series. http://www.bedtimebear.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6651 After many changes in networks and the bears’ appearances, the Care Bears are hard to find on television these days. http://www.tv.com/care-bears-adventures-in-care-a-lot/show/74786/episode.html?tag=list_header;paginator;All&season=All But they live on and prosper on DVD, video games, and in party stores galore.

The Care Bears live in Care-a-lot (the Care Bear version of Camelot), their home in the sky with lots of fluffy clouds.

If it is a birthday party, making use of Birthday Bear will come in handy. Since he is the Care Bear who is thoughtful of others’ birthdays, he may provide a positive focal point.

This informative page will let you know how to plan a Care Bears party in general, then just add the cake (or cupcakes) if it’s a birthday. Or serve the cupcakes, minus the candles for the non-birthday version.

The first step in how to plan a Care Bears theme party is to determine the event – birthday, play date, Mommy and Me, Care Bear tea party, or whatever else you’re planning. The next is to find the right invitation. There are sites on the Internet where you can print free invitations – either generic or birthday (not all sites compatible with Macintosh). http://www.familyshoppingbag.com/carebears_printables.htm Both versions are also available at online party stores or in retail party stores.

On the invitation, specify any details – costume party, bring your favorite Care Bear - anything guests need to know in advance.

Find a Care Bears poster with as many of the characters on it as you can. There are some posters available for free online. http://digitalcitizen.ca/2009/02/27/a-better-care-bear-facebook-meme-poster/ There are a lot of Care Bears, and this will help the kids look at the tummy badges for drawing reference. http://www.ultimate-kid-birthday-parties.com/care-bears-pictures.html If you’d like to brush up on your Care Bears, there are sites that provide information and a small picture ID. http://www.planetcarebears.com/contentid-1.html

There are online sites with Care Bears coloring pages, as many as 61 different printable pages on one site. http://www.coloring-book.info/coloring/coloring_page.php?id=64 If you print out all the pages and have them on a table or tables with crayons, the kids can go through them and find their bear, then color it. Some pages have multiple bears. Another option is to find the most comprehensive Care Bears coloring book you can, then tear out the pages. You may have more bears and characters that way. Care Bears crayon packs are available at party stores, and provide a take-home party favor if you buy a set per each guest. There are usually four colors to a pack. You may need to supplement with a big box of crayons for everyone to share – there are more than four colors of Care Bears.

Now that they’ve had a good look at the bears and the tummy badges, give them large stick-on round white labels. You can find them at office supply stores. Ask the kids to draw their bear’s tummy badge on the sticker. Then print the kid’s name on it, peel off the sticker, stick it on their tummy, and you have nametags.

For an inside Care Bears party (recommended), find everything you have handy to help turn your home into Care-a-Lot. If you tie several white helium-filled balloons together, they look like clouds as they hover near the ceiling. Don’t fill them too early, or your guests will be wading in clouds as the helium dissipates.

Other decorating ideas for Care-a-lot would be stars, rainbows, and hearts. You can find single-color star and heart-shaped balloons, and have them hovering at different heights around the room, depending on the length of the balloon string. The stars in Care Bears’ Care-a-lot smile a lot. Using a big black felt-tip pen, you can draw the faces on the stars. Consider using both sides of the star – helium balloons turn from side to side. Consult a coloring page for the expression on the stars’ faces. Different sizes of balloon hearts or wall decorations will give a very Care-a-lot feel to the room. Complete the décor with rainbows on the walls.

For your party table, cover it in a plastic tablecloth of a light blue color (the sky). You can find the items stars, hearts and rainbows as “confetti” at the party store. Or cut out little images of the stars, hearts and clouds and spread them around the table. There are also candies to match, if it’s age-appropriate. Since the table is single color, you can pick your favorite Care Bears design for your party supplies. There are quite a few to select from. You can also mix in some solid color items if you’d like to go “generic” and save a little money.

Using your child’s large stuffed Care Bear (if you are allowed to borrow it), you can use it to create your centerpiece. Just add some balloons tied around its wrist or waist.

You can also find Care Bear centerpieces at the party store. One possibility is a castle – they have one in Care-a-lot.

Guess the Tummy Badge - Select images of the Care Bears whose emotions or characteristics are easiest to act out, without the “actor” saying the name of the bear. (Stickers on cards will do.) Put the images into something you can’t see through. Have the first child pull an image out of the “hat,” but be careful not to show the other kids. Then mime the tummy badge emotion, rather like charades. Good emotion bear candidates would be Grumpy Bear, Bedtime Bear, Cheer Bear, Love-a-lot Bear, Grams Bear, Secret Bear – consult a list of Care Bears or a poster for further ideas. http://partysupplieshut.com/care-bears/care-bears-party-games.htm#PrintablePartyGames Whoever guesses first takes the next turn. This is a good game for friendship, because there are no prizes – just taking turns.

Care Bears DVD - There are several Care Bears DVDs available. Some are of the cartoon episodes, but some are based around activities like fitness. With access to some space, a DVD player and a monitor, you have a ready-made activity and some exercise. CDs of Care Bears music provide a nice audio backdrop to the party as well.

Share the Building – Select a building material of your choice: Play-doh, modeling clay, Legos, building blocks, whatever is age-appropriate. One piece at a time, the kids take turns building something as a group project. With Play-doh or clay, they can form shapes and start putting them together. You can let them know that they are going to work together to build something, but don’t specify what it is. You can have this last as long as you like. At the end, everybody takes a turn to announce what the structure is. It’s interesting how different the interpretations can be!

If you can download and print a PDF file, there are sites that provide Care Bears free printable gift items, games, activities and more. For example, you may start or end your party by handing each child an “autographed picture” of five of the most popular Care Bears – Cheer Bear, Oopsy, Funshine Bear and Grumpy. http://www.agkidzone.com/activities.action These are full-sized pages, so you may also use them as placemats, if you’d like.

Food - There are animal shaped chicken “nuggets.” http://www.tyson.com/Consumer/Products/ViewProduct.aspx?id=314 The kids can dine on bears and/or any of the animal characters from Care Bear Cousins. http://www.planetcarebears.com/contentid-2.html Baby carrots provide the fresh food. Find out if peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are okay with everybody (peanut allergies) and cut them out with a star-shaped cookie cutter. Next, several colors of Jello “jigglers” cut into cubes and served on a whipped cream cloud. http://thepartyworks.com/rainbow-party-a-32.html And finally, Teddy Grahams.

Birthday or not, this is likely to be a party for small kids, so consider cupcakes if it is easier than cake. Most bakeries that bake theme cakes will offer Care Bears. Or, buy a bear-shaped pan and make a bear-shaped cake. Or, serve cupcakes with white frosting, topped with a Care Bear cupcake topper, available at party stores online. Instead of cupcake toppers with picks, consider using Care Bear rings, inserted into the frosting. After the cupcakes, and after rinsing off the rings, everyone has a ring favor for their goody bag.

Beverages – To keep it simple, juice boxes. There are Care Bear grip and sip juice box holders, complete with handles. They also hold juice pouches. That’s another party favor when the party is over. Consider writing each child’s name on the bottom of the juice box gripper. http://www.munchkin.com/products/detail.html?pID=96§ion=&ID=&li=0

Goody Bags – We’ll start with the obvious; gummy bears. If you opted for the crayon sets, that’s another favor for the bag. Likewise the rings for the cupcakes. A Care Bear sticker pack is easy to find. Care Bears silly twisty straws as well. Those might go nicely with the juice box holder.