Back to School Family Dinner

Back To School Party Ideas: start a family tradition of a back to school dinner on the first day of school. Lots of party decor ideas.

Jump to:

• Start a Tradition
• Back to School Table Ideas
• I used chalk to write our names.Scientific Glass Vases
• Science Chalkboard
• More Back To School Party Ideas

Start a Tradition

Every year it's a tradition in our family to have a special back to school dinner on the first day of school.  I always set a pretty themed table, make a nice dinner with an apple dessert, and look forward to hearing all about their days.  Today I'm sharing this years dinner full of back to school party ideas.

It's not too late to have your own back to school celebration.  Consider having one this weekend with a "we survived the first week of school" spin.  Kids love traditions, love to be celebrated, and love to be the centre of attention (who doesn't?) so they love this special dinner.  My kids look forward to it every year. I have a feeling that even when they're in University we'll be doing some version of it.

Back to School Table Ideas

This year I went with a vintage science class room feel for the table.  Last fall I decided to decorate my house with a similar theme -it was like a botanists goes for walks in the fall and brings everything home with her to study vibe.  You can check out the fall home tour here if you're interested.  Anyway I had all this cool vintage science stuff so it was perfect.

Book Page Runner

For the table, I started with a runner made from old book pages.  In the past I've sewn the pages together to make on of these or glued them, but this time as I was laying them out I realized they were fine just set on the table.  So that made my runner super easy.  The books are some old ones that I've picked up at the thrift store.

DIY Lined Paper Plates

My very favourite piece for this table just might be my special lined paper plates.

I used some square plates from the dollar store that I already had.  Then I had the idea to use some edible markers to make the plates look like lined paper.

The dye in the markers is completely safe to eat, they're made for decorating food.  I free-handed some blue lines and then an inspecting red line.  You could even use a ruler if you wanted perfectly straight lines, but I like things a little wonky and hand crafted looking. 😉  As soon as the plates get wet the dye will wash off, including onto your diner (so if you have a kid who would not like blue dinner maybe swap out the plate for them).  The possibilities are really endless with this little plate hack -plates for all occasions!

Pencil Boxes Cutlery Holders

Another fun little idea was to use pencil boxes to hold cutlery.

I picked up these vintage looking little ruler pencil boxes at the dollar store, and they were perfect for holding our dessert spoon and fork.

To finish the placesetting, I used some cute little mini clipboards as napkins rings.  I picked these up at the dollar store too.

I used chalk to write our names.

Scientific Glass Vases

All along the centre of the table I used some of my vintage science pieces.

Most of the lab glass I've picked up at antique sales, but there's some new pieces mixed in too.

Just for fun I added some sugar and salt to these glass containers to make it seem a little more science class-ish.

Test tubes, and flasks make perfect vases.
I also had an old microscope.  Look for them in the office section of your thrift store.

These school supplies are new but have that vintage feel to them.

Science Chalkboard

Over on the side, I added a little bit of a science classroom feel to the chalkboard -thanks to some inspiration on-line -google science wall paper. 😉

The globe here and on the table are thrift store finds too.

I thought the vintage trophies were very back to school.  They brought back memories of those old trophy cases in school hallways full of silver cups engraved with students names from long ago.

We had such a lovely dinner, filled with every detail of my girls first days.

I almost can't believe that one is high school -and there's only going to be three more dinners like this one after this!

This years are speeding up!  All the more reason to cherish them and make all the memories.

With a Back To School Dinner to celebrate the first day of school, life really is a party!

More Back To School Party Ideas

Want more inspiration?  You might like these too!

Back to School Dinner 2017

2016 Back to School Family Dinner

Back To School Family Dinner 2015

Back To School Family Dinner 2014