Host the best Despicable Me Minion themed party or movie night for your kids with these great ideas. We’ve got food, favors, and more.
Disclosure: This Despicable Me 2 party post was sponsored by Universal Pictures.
I was recently asked to create a party table for the upcoming Despicable Me 2 movie being released on July 3, 2013.
With summer vacation coming up, host a pool party, or a backyard screening of Despicable Me 1 before heading to the movie theater to see Despicable Me 2? If you want another Despicable Me pool party idea, check out this Despicable Me ice-cream pool party too. Here’s a sneak peek:
Table and party setting
Bring furniture including shelving and tables that are normally indoors outside. Mix and match pieces, you don’t need everything to match perfectly. When working with small spaces you want to place your food on different levels so that everything is visible and you can add as much as possible to your party table. I used these small white weathered wood tables to do that.
Above the table, I hung an old window that I picked up at an architectural salvage store. I sketched and then painted a Minion peeking through the window. Above that, I made a simple banner using twine, tulle, and burlap.
Food and drink
I wanted the food and drinks for the Despicable Me 2 party to be a mix of healthy options as well as special treats, and for them to be served in an environmentally friendly way.
I didn’t want to use plates that would be thrown out afterward with lots of plastic utensils, instead, I placed a stack of plastic baskets out for food to be placed in, these are washable and re-useable.
Beverages
For beverages, we filled canning jars with filtered water and placed them in ice to keep the water cool. The fun beverage treat was Purple Evil Minion slushies in re-usable test tubes. Paper straws were placed in an old jam jar.
Cupcakes
Instead of creating a large cake, traditional cupcakes, or cake pops I decided to do something a little different and made Minion push up cupcakes instead. There’s a free printable wrapper (created by the amazing Juliann Law specifically for this party).
Fresh fruit
Blueberries were placed in the top section of a 2-tiered tray, along with a small re-usable scoop for serving, and fresh pineapple pieces were placed in the bottom with picks for easy snacking. Bananas were left hanging on a banana holder.
Sandwiches
Three-layer tea party sandwiches were served with a variety of fillings – Nutella, peanut butter and jelly, and ham and cheese. Each variety of sandwiches was wrapped in a different colored paper to make it easy for guests to choose the filling they prefer.
Jelly jars
When I came across a set of rainbow jelly glasses on Pinterest by Glorious Treats I just knew I had to create layered jelly in jars to match my Despicable Me 2 party color scheme. I wanted to keep them simple to serve though so attached an environmentally-friendly spoon (made from plants) to each with a piece of twine.
Popcorn bar
It wouldn’t be a movie-themed party without popcorn. I placed two varieties, kettlecorn and Chip-Zel-Pop (which is gourmet treat that contains chips, pretzels, and popcorn dipped in chocolate) into two large jars. Each had a large scoop for easy serving.
Candy
Too many parties at the moment offer a dessert or candy table and although they look lovely, it’s just too many sugary treats for me (and my children). I did want to offer a little candy though so placed blue and yellow (minion) M&M’s in one jar and purple and grey (evil minion) M&M’s in a second jar. I picked these fun canning jars up at a re-sale store recently. The brilliant person who made them had simply glued a canning jar to a glass candlestick holder. I added a small silver scoop next to each jar so that little fingers weren’t digging into the candy.
Party Entertainment and Favors
Freeze rays, bubbles, and beach balls
The bubbles are the Target Spritz brand and are only $1 each. Target were also selling three water pistols for $1. I found them in blue, yellow, and orange which matched perfectly with the color scheme.
Party City have 13″ orange and white beach balls for 99c each.
I cannot stand plastic party bags filled with tiny trinkets and candy. All of the items we put out can be used during the party, but also make great party favors.
We also had Despicable Me printable tattoos. These were such a big hit and they are so easy to make. We have a free printable page for you. These are perfect for putting inside the piñata with candy too.
Coloring pages
At Michael’s craft store I picked up a Despicable Me 2 coloring book for $1. I pulled each page out of the book, rolled it, wrapped it with twine and placed it into a cutlery holder with jars filled with pencils.
Piñata
In case you missed the announcement on the Despicable Me Facebook page, there will be Purple Evil Minions in Despicable Me 2.
Click the link for the full tutorial to make this Purple Evil Minion piñata and bags for collecting candy. Don’t you just love that crazy purple hair?
26 comments
Everything about this party is so freaking adorable! I love all the details! Thank you for sharing!
This is so cool! I love the push cakes. It all looks great.
Adorable!! I love it all! The little sandwiches wrapped in paper is a really cute idea.
Great job! It’s so cute! We went to see Epic yesterday and saw the preview for Despicable Me 2 and it looks so cute! It comes out on my daughters 6th birthday, I have a feeling that we will be seeing this on her special day! Thanks for the great party ideas!
Great job! It’s so cute! We went to see Epic yesterday and saw the preview for Despicable Me 2 and it looks so cute! It comes out on my daughters 6th birthday, I have a feeling that we will be seeing this on her special day! Thanks for the great party ideas!
I’m dying to see Epic with the kids, I was just looking up the dates at our local drive-in theater, the kids love going there. We can’t wait to see DM2 as well, I think that’s the perfect way to celebrate your daughter’s 6th birthday.
Thank you Amy, I’ll be posting the printable for them next Monday.
So cute! I love the minions. Very excited for DM2.
Cutest Despicable Me Party Set up Ever!
I love it! The minions are my favorite part of Despicable Me!
oh me too Melanie, and thank you 🙂
Thank you : )
I am dying to see Epic, I’ll have to take the kids over summer vacation … and of course see Despicable Me 2 as well :). Your daughter is going to have a great birthday, I’m sure.
They really are very cute.
Thank you so much Joan :).
Very creative ideas! Love what you did!
HOW FUN!!!!!!!! I love this. Found you via pinterest and had to repin. I’d love for you to come link up to my linky party at smallfineprint.com
Mandy
Small Fine Print
Oh my gosh, will you adopt me and teach me how to be crafty. This party looks so amazing, can’t wait to see the tutorials!
Ha ha, thank you Shana. I have 3 of the tutorials up, there are links at the bottom of the blog post. The final tutorial will be posted on Monday – Free tattoo printables just in time for the movie release.
Such great decorations and ideas! I’m planning my sons first bday party and want to do a despicable me theme so you definitely gave me some inspiration. Thanks for sharing! I was also wondering where you got the large glass jars for the popcorn?
Hi! I’m from Belarus (it’s near Russia). I wanted to make Despicable Party for my 2-old son, but couldn’t find any information about preparation in our region. Your ideas helps me 🙂 Thank you 🙂
Any tips on keeping the sandwiches fresh even when preparing in advance? We are having a DM party at noon and I’d love to do sandwiches as you have here but the last time I did them the bread got all hard 🙁
I’m so glad you found my tips helpful. I hope your son has a wonderful party.
Only serve them in small quantities at a time, I set half out, keeping them wrapped in cling wrap until the very last moment. I keep the other half set aside in the kitchen wrapped in cling wrap too so that I can refresh the sandwiches if need be and add more to the tray as needed.
Did you make the white two-tier square stand with the blueberries? It matches the little white benches perfectly, which made me think you did? If so, will you be adding a tutorial for it? It’s just adorable!!! 🙂
Hi Kristi, no I didn’t, I’m going to guess that I purchased it at Marshall’s, it’s where I find a lot of my great bowls, dishes and stands.