Oscar the Grouch Birthday Party

Oscar the Grouch Party: ideas for Oscar themed decor, a photo booth complete with unibrows and trash can, and even an Oscar the Grouch themed dessert table.

After years of joking that my husband can be a grouch, we decided to have an Oscar the Grouch themed birthday party for him this year.  He’s everyone’s favorite classic Sesame Street character and Oscar was perfect for this years theme!  This is such a fun theme to do for a party.  We had so a lot of fun coming up with all the grochy, trashy, nasty ideas for our grouch theme party.  Everyone got a real kick out of it, and my husband loved it most of all!

Oscar the Grouch Themed Party Decorations

It was a fun creative challenge to come up with all the party decorations since many of the party supplies and birthday decorations that are available are for a Sesame Street birthday party, but not specially for Oscar the Grouch.  We came up with lots of fun ideas for an Oscar themed special day.

Guests were greeted by miniature trash cans at the front door when they arrived to set the scene.  These were such a fun little detail and set the tone of the party right away.

The grouch birthday party decor included Oscar the Grouch made out of paper lanterns from the dollar store.  These were so easy to make and so cute.  I picked up some green paper lanterns and then turned them into little Oscar the grouches with some construction paper, just glued onto the front of the open lantern.  These were really inexpensive to make and added a lot to the decor.  Since Oscar the Grouch decor can be a little bit tricky to find, I also used lots of just green decor, including moss balls that were green and round and said Oscar to me.

Balloons

We were also able to find some Oscar the Grouch balloons that looked great.  Another great idea is to include a whole bunch of balloons in different shades of green.  Oscar can be hard to find.  We wanted to stay away from using Sesame Street Characters, but it’s much easier to find them, so you might want to add in an Elmo character, Big Bird, or Cookie Monster too.

Grouch Hall Of Fame

We thought it would be fun to create a “Grouch Hall of Fame”, which included a whole line up of famous grouches, and my husband.  I included Oscar the Grouch of course, Ebenezer Scrooge, The Grumpy Old Troll, and The Grinch.  This is such a fun idea and really easy to make.  Look for images online, and add the names.  Take a picture of the birthday boy or girl and add them in as well.  You could even get more elaborate and frame the pictures.

Banners

I also made banners out of newspaper and two shades of green scrapbook paper, and letter stickers. I cut large triangle pennants out of the green paper, and added a larger newspaper one behind with a border showing.  To hang the banners, I used a hole bunch to add holes to the corners and strung with green ribbon.  I thought the newspaper added a garbage kind of a look that went with the theme.  One said “Have A Grouchy Birthday!”, there was also one for the photo booth, the junk food, and a final one to say goodbye to guests on the way out.  These were really easy and inexpensive to make.

Junk Food Menu

We thought it would be fun to have  “Junk Food” for dinner, in keeping with our theme.  On the junk food menu was 

• pizza
• burgers
• sausage or hotdogs
• chicken wings
• chips.

It was truly a junk food buffet!  The chips were served in mini garage cans too.  There were so cute and such a fun way to tie in the theme.  And for the table cloth on the party table, we used more newspaper.  We set up food trays with all the fixing and guests guests helped themselves.  We had trouble finding Oscar the Grouch napkins, so we just used green paper ones.

Oscar the Grouch Themed Dessert Table

For dessert there were Oscar the Grouch cupcakes!  I was able to order the garbage can cupcake wraps on Etsy.  You could also use a silver metallic cupcake liner to resemble the trash can.  The eyebrows for the cupcakes were made from chocolate icing, and the eyes were made of marshmallows.  We also had chocolate chip cookies.  Dessert was such a huge hit with the kids!  Dirt cups with a little slimy inspired gummy worm in them would be a great idea to include as well.  Oscar the Grouch sugar cookies would be a really fun addition too.  Look for an Oscar cookie cutter online.

Oscar The Grouch Themed Green Candy Buffet

For party favors we had a small green candy bar set up.  Guests could enjoy the candy at the party and fill up a bag to take some home.  I love this idea so you’re not left with too many leftovers.  For the goodie bags we used cello bags with an Oscar picture on  them for our guests to take home.  I couldn’t find any Oscar stickers, so I made my own by printing the picture and using double sided tape to add it to the bags.

We found little green garbage can candies from when we were kids, they were perfect.  We also had gummy worms like Oscar’s pet worm Slimey.  There was also green apple liquorice, watermelon and green apple jelly beans, caramel apple lollipops, and lime, watermelon, and apple green candy sticks.  It’s very fun to head to the dollar store and bulk food store and see what green candy you find.

Oscar the Grouch Photo Booth

During the party we asked guests to pose in the photo booth.  The booth was complete with Grouch eyebrows, and the classic metal trash can.  

The eyebrows were made of fun fur, and attached to guests as they arrived with double sided tape.  The garbage can was found as Home Hardware.  I hung a green checked tablecloth up as a little backdrop and guests loved posing in and around the trash can.  After the party we emailed the pictures to all the guests.

Here’s the birthday boy looking very grouchy in his Oscar the Grouch T-shirt!

Scram

The final piece of the party was our “Scram” banner on the door for our guests to see as they left!  Everyone got a good chuckle out of it.

 

I had so much fun putting this party together.  This was a fun family party.  We’re at an age and stage when our kids and our friends kids still love Sesame Street, so it meant that all the guests young and old really enjoyed all the cute and cheeky details.  This is a great theme for a husband, boyfriend, dad, or may even your daughter or son’s birthday.  

With an Oscar the Grouch birthday, life really is a party!

More Birthday Party Inspiration

You might also enjoy our Ice Cream Themed Birthday Party Activities post here.

Also check out our Board Game Night Party here.

You might also like our Pillow Fort here.