Easy pirate party food great ideas for the pirate party theme and activities, pirate party game ideas, and fun pirate food for kids. Perfect for pirate birthday party, Talk Like A Pirate Day, princess and pirate party, pirate birthday party, Halloween party ideas, and more!
Children’s Pirate Party Food Ideas and Pirate Activities
Here are the best pirate food for party ideas / pirate food menus for a pirate theme party, Halloween, or even Talk Like A Pirate Day! (Or, just easy pirate snacks for any day!) We used these fun pirate food names, but you can make up your own!
What do you serve at a pirate party?
Easy Pirate Party Food Ideas:
- Pirate Pinwheels (tortilla roll-ups)
- Pirate Pond (blue dip with floating Goldfish crackers)
- Pirate Princess Cake
- Pirate Treasure Salad
- Pirate Cannonballs
- Octopus Ocean Pirates Food
- Pirate Peg Legs (Pirate Hotdogs)
- Walk the Chicken Planks
- Pirate Ship Sub Sandwiches (pirate sandwiches)
- Dead Man’s Fingers (fun pirate ship food)
- Pirate Punch
- Polly’s Crackers (*see below)
- Pirate gummies (if you need prepackaged party food for pirate favors)
Full pirate party menu ideas, pirate themed dinner food, and pirate recipes below! KEEP SCROLLING! (These work for pirate party food ideas for adults or kids parties, or even pirate party food ideas for toddlers with a few adjustments!) We have everything you need for the best pirate party ever!
Before we get to our must-try pirate-themed goodies for your party pirate adventure, here’s how our DIY pirate party started…
One year my daughter asked specifically for a Hello Kitty pirate party. I guess it was more like a pirate and princess theme.
So, I had to do some creative pirate theme planning. (When we had this party, pink pirate party supplies were not a thing! Weird, I know.)
These suggestions aren’t just for a pirate and princess party, though.
You can use them for any pirate theme, pirate birthday party ideas, and fun pirate party foods ideas!
Before we get to our best pirate party ideas for kids and pirates birthday party ideas, let’s answer some common questions for a pirate party and how do you plan a pirate birthday party.
How do you host a pirate party?
What do I need for a pirate party?
- Theme pirate party food / pirate snacks
- Treasure chest favor boxes or pirate loot bags (one of my favorite children’s pirate party ideas!)
- Chocolate coins
- Pirate party favors
- Pirate hats
- Pirate eye patches for all guests
- Stuffed parrot decorations (super fun pirates decoration ideas)
- Other pirates decorations and pirate decor DIY
- Pirate treasure hunt game
- Other pirate games for a party
Pirate themed party food, pirates decorations ideas, and more fun pirate ideas below! They work for a pirates party, princess and pirates party ideas, Jake and The Pirates theme, and more to go with your pirate themed food ideas!
Next is one of the best pirate themed party ideas / pirate birthday party games!
How do you do a pirate treasure hunt?
This is one of my favorite ideas for pirate birthday party or parties with pirate themes, so definitely add it to your games for pirate theme party!
- Determine what your treasure chest (or pirate booty) will be as the prize.
- Create (or buy) a scavenger hunt.
- Hide the pirate treasure chest prize.
- Strategically place your treasure hunt clues throughout your home or party area to lead to the treasure chest. (Make sure they’re hidden!)
- Create a treasure map that kids need to follow to go along with the clues.
- Provide pirate costumes or dress-up items to let kids get into character.
- Explain the rules BEFORE the hunt begins.
- Unleash the pirates to find the booty!
Grab a TREASURE CHEST LIKE THIS so everyone can have a piece of the treasure when they find it!
Now onto more of the best DIY pirate party ideas and fun thought pirate themed food for kids!
ALSO CHECK OUT: SIMPLE PIRATE COSTUMES DIY
How do you make a pirate map?
- To age the paper: mix together tea and coffee and sponge onto your paper. Allow it to dry.
- On the prepared paper, hand draw or create a pirate map in an online photo editing or design software. (I like PicMonkey and Canva, which both have free options.)
- Coordinate it with your treasure. If you’re using it for a pirate scavenger hunt, you’ll want the trail to correspond to where the clues or the next map is. Don’t worry about it being perfect or to scale. You just want some dashes for a trail, some smaller X’s for the clues/next maps, and an X marks the spot for the treasure location.
- Add pirate clipart like skull and crossbones, eye patches, hats, swords, ships, anchors, palm trees and more.
- When finished, crumple the map to give it more of a worn look. Sometimes, I like to burn the edges a little to give it more of a battle look. (ONLY ADULTS SHOULD ATTEMPT THIS!)
- Fold or roll the map for the party.
This is one of those super fun pirate decorations ideas to use for your pirate booty treasure hunt!
Kids’ Party Pirate Theme & Pirate Activities
1. Pirate Party Food Ideas and Snacks for Pirate Party
The first thing to do is come up with food ideas for pirate party.
It’s fun to include pirate sayings or pirate phrases in your party, especially with the pirate food!
I just used my imagination and renamed some party food favorites and created ultimate pirate party food labels!
I made a fruit salad to look like jewels and called it Pirate Treasure, some chocolate covered brownie bites and called them Pirate Cannonballs, chicken tenders became Walk the (Chicken) Planks, and sub sandwiches became pirate ships with sails on them.
I made them more festive by also sticking some pirate flag toothpicks randomly around in the food.
For the pirate party food labels, I put the names of the dishes on cream-colored paper and burned the paper around the edges to give it an old map kind of feel.
(See full pirate party recipes and pirate theme snacks instructions below!)
2. Pirate Theme Decorations and Pirate Decorating Ideas
My daughter actually wanted a Pink Hello Kitty Pirate Princess Party.
As you can imagine, you can’t readily find this theme, so I had to do a lot of pirate decorations DIY.
I printed off some Hello Kitty pirates clipart, cut them into triangle flags and taped them onto a string to make a pirate pennant.
(You can get a plain pirate pennant here.)
We strung the pennant from each side of our chandelier onto the dining room table, which was covered with a black tablecloth to make it appear like a pirate ship.
NOTE: I also love this tablecloth that looks like water. It would be fun to use with this pirate drink boat in the middle to go with the pirate themed snacks!
I scattered pirate coins,
pirate treasure rings,
and pirate beads
and old skeleton keys all around the table in between the food.
(These didn’t just serve as decorations, we also encouraged the kids to take some of the treasure!)
I also used some party fishing nets
around the room and hung plastic spiders and crabs from them.
I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that your party will not be a Hello Kitty Pirate Princess Party.
So, you may want to try some of these pirate decorations and pirate party stuff instead:
- Pirate party balloons
- Jake the Pirate party supplies (great for pirate theme party ideas for fans of the cartoon!) and photo background
- Pirate party centerpieces
- Pirate party invitation templates (these are great for a pirates and mermaids party)
- Fun pirate plates and napkins
Don’t forget to create a pirate background for photo opps and pirate decorations party ideas!
Grab some pirate party costume ideas and try out these backdrops and party photo props for pirate theme ideas:
- Pirate birthday backdrop
- Pirate signs
- Pirate photo props (these are super fun!)
- Treasure Island backdrop
- Realistic inside of pirate ship
*There are actually a ton of really cool pirate party photo backdrops on Amazon! Check them out if you want to scroll through them!
3. Pirate Party Favors and Pirate Party Bags
For favors, we provided each child with: pirate party hats and pirate treasure chest, filled with things like pirate eye patches,
their own pirate treasure maps (this pack of 24 is super cheap),
pirate coin necklaces and beads, 
and treats.
If you don’t want to do treasure chests, I love these treasure map favor bags!
This is also a great set with a huge variety of things to go in favor bags.
It’s also fun to put pirate tattoos and patches pirate in your pirate gift bags!
4. Pirate Party Games and Activities
Need kids’ pirate party games ideas?
Or course you’re going to have pirate birthday games or Pirate party games for kids (and they can be fun for all ages)!
We did a couple of games that the kids of all ages really had fun playing (and even pirate themed games the adults enjoyed) .
Instead of pin the tail on the donkey, we did a pirate version of pin the treasure on the map. You can also do X marks the spot on the map or pin the eye patch on the pirate.
The biggest hit of the party (kids and adults), though, was the pirate scavenger hunt game, so DEFINITELY do one of those.
You can easily make your own make your own treasure scavenger hunt as one of your pirate theme games!
Pirate Party Games Ideas and Pirate Party Activity Ideas
- Pirate bag toss
- Skull King pirate card game
- Pirate escape room
- Pop Up Pirate
- Pick out your pirate names or have a pirate name generator names for a pirate. (These are fun pirate name signs for the tables.)
- Have pirate jokes on the tables (nothing like pirate jokes for kids!)
- Play pirate songs and music for pirate party
- Have pirate talk / pirate language cards — especially fun if you’re having a talks like a pirate day party!
- Do a pirate hat drawing or have a pirate crafts table (these pirate stickers crafts are great for younger kids)
5. Pirate Movies for Kids
You can also add a pirate kids’ show to your party.
Try:
- Pippi Longstocking
- The Pirates! Band Of Misfits
- Treasure Planet
- Adventures of TinTin
- The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie
- Peter Pan
DON’T MISS: Talk Like A Pirate Day Activities for Kids
Let’s get to the food for a pirate themed party!
Pirate Party Themed Food
OK!
Now the fun ideas for pirate party food and pirate party snacks!
I’ve included the pirate expressions (pirate names) we used with our pirate snacks, but you can make up your own for your pirate food ideas!
These are fun for pirate adventure dinner or even just pirate party finger food ideas / pirate foods for parties, Pirates of the Caribbean food ideas theme, and a really easy pirate themed menu!
So…
What kind of food would you serve at a pirate themed party?
1. Pirate Pinwheels
The Pirate Pinwheels are really fiesta roll-ups, but they make the perfect pirate party snack ideas. You just make them with tortillas, Fiesta Ranch mix or dry spicy ranch mix, shredded cheese, and cream cheese.
It’s a super simple recipe that everyone seems to love and an easy pirate birthday party food idea!
It’s also a vegetarian option for those guests who prefer that and works for pirate dinner ideas, party lunch, or snacks for pirates at your party!
These are a great addition to a pirate theme dinner for adults, too!
2. Pirate Fishing Pond
The Pirate Fishing Pond is ranch dip (sour cream and dried ranch mix) with blue food coloring to make it look like water. However, you can make it any dip flavor you like (just add the blue food coloring to make it ocean-y).
Then, add sides of Goldfish crackers and celery sticks.
The kids can “fish” using the celery as fishing poles and the Goldfish crackers will stick to them with the ranch dressing dip.
(I love this as fish themed party snacks for toddlers and preschoolers or fishing themed birthday party food ideas, too!)
Fun pirate snacks for birthday party or pirate parties themes and super easy pirate desserts ideas or if you need pirate themed snacks for preschool.
3. Octopus Ocean
What would pirate theme food be without some beasts of the sea?
The Octopus Ocean is made of blue Jello.
After the Jello set in the refrigerator, I pushed Swedish Fish, Gummy Worms and Sour Octopus gummies into the Jell-O and on top of the Jello so it looked like they were swimming in the water.
(Great if you’re looking for pirate candy ideas or even sea themed party food / ocean themed food recipes or beach party menu ideas!)
Be sure to make the jello in a glass bowl so you can see the fish and worms and octopi “swimming” in the ocean.
If you want individual servings for pirate themed appetizers, make them in clear cups like this.
This snack was a HUGE hit with the kids and will become your little pirate’s favorite food!
If you’re wondering what kind of food should we have for one year old pirate birthday party or toddlers, blue ocean jello cups are great options!
4. Hello Kitty Pirate Princess Cake
Just in case you do want to make a Hello Kitty Pirate Princess cake…
My husband and I made the Hello Kitty Pirate Princess cake ourselves.
It wasn’t as hard as we thought (we made a template out of paper and worked from there), but it was our first time working with fondant, so there was a learning curve for that. (Like, we made the fondant way, way too thick and now my daughter hates fondant on cakes.)
For the shape:
We found an image of Hello Kitty on the internet and printed it out and cut it out. Then, we laid the cut out on top of a sheet cake and just cut around the template. (If you’re not that adventurous, you can just use a Hello Kitty cake pan.)
We made the face, pirate eye patch, bow, and bones coming out of the kitty (like a skull and crossbones) out of fondant.
The pink around the cake is just pink sugar.
You could also make a regular skull and crossbones cake (non-Hello Kitty theme) with this cake pan.
This was one of those fun pirate birthday party food ideas, but I’m not sure we would make it again. We’d probably just make pirate cake pops or pirate cupcakes.
5. Pirate Cannonballs
Hands down, these were the star of the party and perfect if you want sweet pirate treats for party, but don’t want a cake or cupcakes (or if you’re looking for simple pirate cake ideas and alternatives).
The “Pirate Cannonballs” were chewy brownies, shaped into balls and dipped in chocolate (kind of like cake pops without the stick) – super simple recipe and super yummy.
DEFINITELY add these to your pirate themed treats!
GET THE FULL PIRATE CANNONBALLS BROWNIE RECIPE
6. Pirate Treasure Salad
The kids also loved the Pirate Treasure Salad.
I used:
- Balled melon
- Strawberries
- Canned mandarin oranges
- Canned fruit salad (with juice)
Then, I added star-shaped colored marshmallows and called it a Pirate Treasure.
You can use any fruit that your kids love in this salad, but I think the star marshmallows really made it feel more treasure-y.
You can also leave it in a hollowed out watermelon, put a pirate mast ship on it and call it a watermelon pirate ship.
Great for pirate fruit snacks!
7. Pirate Ship Sandwiches
We also made long sandwiches (on sub sandwich rolls) and put “masts” on them to look like ships.
The masts are just the Hello Kitty pirate princess (you could use a pirate ship or skull and crossbones or whatever) printed on off-white paper.
I then cut around them and burned the edges to make them look like ships that had been in battle.
I glued the paper to wood chopsticks so that they were sturdy to stick into the sandwiches. (They turned out really cool.)
You can also call them Skull and Cross-bone Sandwiches with pirate flags like these.
8. Pirate Punch
We made a party kid punch and called it Pirate Punch.
Honestly, this can be any kind of punch that you like … even juice just poured into a punch bowl.
9. Walk the Chicken Planks
I also made plain old chicken strips and called them Walk the (Chicken) Planks.
I included ranch dipping sauce and a few other sauces.
These were a huge hit, too, for our pirate party ideas food.
You can also do chicken nuggets and call them treasure golden nuggets.
What you provide at your pirate theme party is only limited by your imagination!
10. Dead Men’s Fingers
These baked apple fries can easily become a dead man’s fingers for your party of pirates and pirate themed food!
GET THE APPLE FRIES RECIPE HERE
*11. Polly’s Crackers
Prepacked bags of mini cheese crackers (or packages like this) make great pirate party favor ideas!
Label the bags with “Polly’s Crackers” and attach them to parrot fidget toys like this.
12. Pirate’s Booty Golden Treasure
We made these gold treasure snacks for a gold at the end of the rainbow snacks, but you can easily make them for a pirate’s party, too.
Place these gold popcorn bites inside a treasure chest like this and call them Pirate’s Booty Gold.
GET THE POPCORN GOLD RECIPE HERE
Enjoy these ahoy-matey games for pirates and swashbuckling pirate food ideas for your next party pirates theme!
What other pirate party food and pirate ideas should we add to our theme?
LOOKING FOR FUN COOKING PRINTABLES FOR KIDS?
