A DIY teepee slumber party is the ultimate sleepover party experience! Imagine the excitement on all the kid’s faces as they arrive for a night of absolute fun and celebration!
But hosting your own DIY glamping slumber party might seem like a lot of work (and expensive)! I’m not going to say it isn’t, but it’s definitely worth the pure joy of giving your child the party of their dreams.
Plus, having your DIY sleepover tent party can be substantially cheaper than a party-hire alternative. This is the ultimate guide to help you plan your own do-it-yourself indoor glamping slumber party for kids, with tips from our own experience of hosting two tent slumber parties at home.
The Ultimate DIY Tent Party For Kids
We’ve all seen those epic Pinterest-worthy glamping parties set up with beautifully coordinated tents, sheet sets and boho chic decor.
Let’s be real… most of our houses don’t look quite that glamorous. But do the kids care? Heck no!
It all feels like a bit of a fairytale for them, no matter if you splurge on the expensive fully set-up event or go for an entirely do-it-yourself sleepover party.
Our DIY Indoor Glamping Party Fun
This year we celebrated both our daughter’s birthday parties with glamping slumber parties, with a little help from my big sister, who we pinched the idea from after she put together a magical party for my niece.
We had two very different themes for our two parties – a pink and gold cat theme for my youngest daughter’s 8th birthday and a Black and white Wednesday Addams party theme for my eldest daughter’s 11th birthday.
I made party favours with the help of my Cricut with personalised gift tags for each party and we labelled drink jars with each of the kid’s names at both parties, with a few extra little touches.
Both parties were so much fun and both of them want a teepee sleepover every year… umm, no!
Planning A DIY Teepee Slumber Party
When planning a DIY teepee slumber party, there are a few key factors to consider.
Firstly, can you do it cheaper than hiring everything from a party and event hire biz?
Secondly, do you have the space for an indoor glamping party?
There are quite a few ways to make your DIY teepee birthday party cheaper, so long as you’ve got room to set it up.
As for the space, remember your event can be as big or as small as you want it to be. It might be your child and their two best friends. Or if you’ve got the space, it might be bigger.
It can also be done in the backyard during warmer weather if space is an issue.
Now comes the fun part – selecting a theme for the party! Having a theme adds excitement and helps to guide your decorations, activities, and even the sleepover party favours.
A theme can be as simple as a colour scheme though!
What You Need For A DIY Tent Sleepover Party
We were lucky to be able to borrow most of our party supplies and use a few things we already had at home. There are a few essentials you will need for your tent slumber party at home:
Glamping Tents
This is the biggest expense for a teepee party!
We were lucky that my sister was the one who splurged. She found a variety of teepee tents on Facebook Marketplace for cheap for my niece’s birthday party. She then added some A-line wooden frame tents to her collection too.
You can do similar by finding cheap tents on your local marketplace and buying and selling sites or brand new ones if they are within your budget.
Or try asking around to see if anyone you know has any you can borrow. They don’t have to match!
The other DIY option is making your own DIY teepees or no-sew fabric glamping tents. Check out this fantastic DIY teepee tent tutorial.
Or if you prefer the A-line tent style, check out this video tutorial to make your own.
Mattresses
We used single air mattresses for our party. If you happen to go camping a lot, you may already have some of these at home. Otherwise, you can get them for quite an affordable price.
The ones we used were from Kmart Australia and they were just $8 each. This cost does add up but this is at least something you can reuse in future or resell.
Bedding
For bedding, you can get cheap matching sheet sets or use existing bedding you already have if you do happen to have a few single sheet sets already.
If you’re going for that shabby chic look, mix-matched sheets work fine! And kids don’t really mind these little details.
For warmth, you can add throw rugs or blankets over each of the beds or you can have each child bring their own sleeping bag or blanket to make it really easy!
They can also bring their own pillow if you don’t have enough pillows for each bed. BYO is a great way to save money!
The Extra Touches
All the other details are totally optional, so if you want to keep your party budget down, just use what you already have at home or add a couple of inexpensive decorations to add to your theme.
We layered rugs all over the floor. This was particularly because my younger daughter had her party in winter and it made the room warmer too.
We had a heap of throw pillows that were either my sisters or my own decorative pillows. We scattered them between the mattresses, along with some soft footstools the kids could sit on. This just made everything cozy.
String lights create a fun and magical atmosphere and it means the kids can have the lights off and still have a little dim lighting in the room. This is reassuring for younger kids who may like some light while they sleep.
We had little fairy light jars for each child so they could turn their own individual night light on if they needed to.
If you are planning to gift party favours, such as sleeping masks or pamper items, having a tray or breakfast tray table on the end of each bed is a cute touch. Little baskets work too or just set the gifts up on the end of the beds.
We also added some balloons for a little extra party decor.
Slumber Party Food
Food is an important part of every party! Especially for kids. Actually, for everyone, no matter the age! And teepee sleepover parties are no exception.
We kept things really easy with some snack platters. A fruit platter at the start of the party for healthy party food then some savoury snacks and lollies in a mixed snack platter. There was popcorn and fun snacks for the movie night.
For dinner, we ordered pizza but might like to do homemade pizzas, a taco bar, burgers, a sausage sizzle or whatever your child loves to eat.
For breakfast, I got my hubby to make pancakes since he’s far better at it than I am!
The kids loved having pancakes with syrup, fruit and ice cream for breakfast before one last play, then heading home.
Glamping Party Activities
Depending on the age of the kids, you might like to plan a lot of activities or just a couple.
For the younger kids, I find that having more of a party schedule with planned activities can be helpful to keep them occupied – party games, indoor activities and a little bit of free play of course too.
Older kids tend to simply enjoy ‘hanging out’ and gossiping, so you might need less entertainment for tweens and teens.
We played a couple of games at each of the parties.
The main game we played was the saran wrap game, which is a little like a fast-paced, chaotic version of Pass the Parcel. This is by far our favourite party game!
We also played the left right game with a unique birthday story I made up for my eldest daughter that had her friends in hysterics. It mentioned a lot of her former childhood favourites, such as Peppa Pig and the kids enjoyed it.
The big kids opted to play a round of Apples to Apples during a quick board game session also.
Thankfully we have a trampoline and monkey bars with a large backyard, so the kids also enjoyed time outside at both parties. We had some yard games set up as well, for a little extra entertainment.
For my younger daughter, we did a craft activity while the kids waiting for breakfast. This was a great way to keep them entertained and focused after a late night of chat and giggles.
We put a movie on for each of the parties too, although they didn’t finish it at either of the parties. It’s not like when we were kids when we would all watch movies all night! But a projector was a fun addition to the party room, borrowed from my sister.
What they enjoyed more was doing silly quizzes and trivia games on YouTube and playing Just Dance.
More Ideas: Other activities you might like to plan for your own magical sleepover might be a tea party, a pillow flight, cupcake decorating, board games, glow stick disco, spa treatments or a paint party theme. But you will find that the kids will find it a magical experience even without a lot of extra activities for the special occassion.
Teepee Sleepover Party Favours
Party favours aren’t essential but they are a fun way to give the kid a memento to take home. We did a mix of DIY party favours and store-bought ones – DIY personalised sleeping masks were the favourite!
We also had lip gloss, scrunchies, bath bombs, and a drink jar with their names added using the Cricut Joy.
Here are some ideas for party favours that are sure to delight both little girls and teens:
- Pamper Gifts: Items like scented lotions, bath bombs, nail polish, lip gloss, foot scrub, scrunchies, and face masks. These luxurious goodies will make them feel like they’re at a spa retreat.
- Sleeping Masks: We got funny novelty masks for my youngest daughter’s party with silly cat faces then made personalised ones for my eldest daughter’s Wednesday party.
- Drink Jars: A drink jar, mug, cup or special glass they can use at the party and after they go home.
- Personalised Pillowcases: Use a vinyl cutting machine to add each child’s name to a simple pillowcase to take home with them.
- Lolly Bar: Set up a lolly bar with boxes they can fill to take home.
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Final Thoughts: DIY Teepee Sleepover Party For Girls
There’s no doubt that DIY teepee parties are far from being inexpensive parties to host, however, there are plenty of ways you can cut your costs, like borrowing items from friends and family, picking up second-hand tents or even making your own teepee tents, since they are actually relatively easy to make.
While it’s likely not the type of kids’ birthday party you want to host every year, it’s a fun way to celebrate milestone birthdays such as turning 10 and hitting those double digits or turning 13, as a special way of celebrating the start of the teenage years!
According to our party guests, it was the best party ever and they’ve all been asking their parents for their own tent party next year. Oops!
Get more party planning tips and ideas:
- How to plan a kid’s birthday party
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- Birthday treats for school that aren’t cupcakes
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