Polar Express 4th Birthday Party Inspiration

My son turned four this December and of course wanted a Polar Express birthday party. This was the first birthday party we’ve thrown for him in his four years of life and really, I was happy that he said Polar Express because that was easy at Christmas time! I think having a “Christmas” baby is great and not so great. One, it’s great because all things Christmas are on sale which made planning this party EASY and cost effective. It’s not so great because Christmas is two weeks later and the gifts can pile up, but we told guest (aka family) no gifts necessary! It slightly worked…

Keep scrolling to get an awesome Christmas punch recipe and see more Polar Express birthday inspiration!

If you’ve ever seen the Polar Express you’ll know that it travels through a forest of snow covered trees and that’s what I went for because I already had all these bottle brush trees I decorate with! I picked up some fake snow in the Christmas section at Hobby Lobby as well as a bag of bells to create the “first gift of Christmas!” on the top of the cake. The cake was chocolate with whipped cream frosting and it was GOOD. I don’t enjoy cake or cupcakes, but I enjoyed this cake. I told the bakery to create a gray to white gradient on the cake with the icing (in a not perfect way) to create a mountain vibe. I then placed small bottle brush trees I had and the bell on top. I also purchased a wood train from, you guessed it, Hobby Lobby and painted it to match the Polar Express. I think the train cost $4 and their wood crafts do go on sale! I also didn’t mind getting it because he has wooden tracks that the train can go on. I also took a piece of cardboard from a case of sparkling water, cut out a ticket shape, painted it gold, and used a hole punch to punch out his name.

I got this balloon arch from Hobby Lobby, shocking, for $4 (normally $8, but it was 50% off!). It was really easy to put together and the balloons already came to size. Meaning I didn’t have to blow some smaller than the other balloons to create this. I bought the graduation balloon set and then purchased green and red balloons to trade out for some of the gold balloons in the set. I also picked up a number ‘4’ balloon from Hobby Lobby to place on the arch.

The one thing about his party that stressed me out the most was food… Do you feed your guests, do you not, what do you feed them because I have a large family, 32 just immediate family members on one side to be exact, so I really had no idea what I was going to do. I knew that my son wanted a hot chocolate bar, like the Polar Express, so that was easy. But food, it’s so hard! I decided that I would turn one side of my kitchen counter into a charcuterie board. Now, charcuterie boards can be expensive, but I feel like I kept the cost low. I skipped the small charcuterie boards that they sell pre made in the stores and went for the sausage and pepperonis. I then picked up some fresh fruit, large blocks of cheese that I cut into squares, a box of mixed crackers, and pretzels. I put the meat in small round dishes that I found at Dollar General for 3 for $3 and then I started placing the crackers and other food items around them. I should say that before I put any food down on the counter I put parchment paper under it all which made for super easy cleanup.

For the punch, I wanted it to be Christmas-y, but not full on cranberry punch and found this awesome recipe online that I’ll put below! My whole family loved this and asked for the recipe, which is super easy. Pour all the ingredients below into a 2 gallon beverage dispenser. The recipe will make more than what fits into the dispenser so we just mixed it all together and added more of what we felt like it needed. I made sure to make this about ten minutes prior to the party so it would stay fizzy. PS, this was enough for 21 people!

Christmas Punch Recipe
6 cups of cranberry juice
2 cups of pineapple juice
1 cup of orange juice
2 liters of ginger ale
1 can of 7 Up
1 sliced orange
Top with ice

I hope this gives you some inspiration while planning your Polar Express, or really winter, party! I know our four year old was very impressed/excited about it all and hopefully your little will be, too!