Whether you’re an 80s or 90s kid who grew up with the original Nintendo or someone with kids who discovered Mario just this decade, these Super Mario birthday party ideas will be perfect for planning a super fun Mario party!
I was born in the 80s which means that Nintendo has been a part of my life since I was a baby. And my family has had some sort of Nintendo for as long as I can remember.
Now that I’m a boy mom, both of my boys have Nintendo Switches and the Mario games are some of their favorite Nintendo Switch games ever.
We love Mario so much, we rented out a theater to watch the Super Mario Bros movie, had a Mario themed Christmas Eve box this year, and I hosted a Super Mario girls night just to play my favorite Mario themed games like Mario Party and MarioKart!
If you enjoy Mario as much as our family, then you’ll love these creative Super Mario birthday party ideas (or any party, not just birthdays).
Mario Party Food Ideas
When I started thinking about our Super Mario menu, I realized that there are SO many things in Mario that you could use for food!
I’ve included photos and instructions for the things that we personally made for our Mario girls night as well as a list of other ideas that might work great for your Mario Brothers party!
Super Mario Inspiration
I got a bunch of these ideas from the YouTube channel Nerdy Nummies (so awesome, by the way) and I’ve linked their tutorial videos below as well.
Bowser Rice Krispy Treats
I knew we had to do something fun for Bowser so we decided to make Bowser shell rice krispy treats! We started with our popular shaped rice krispy treats (so good), then dipped those in green candy melts, and added white chocolate chips on top with a little melted candy melt.
These were super easy, so cute, and delicious just like any other rice krispy treats!
Toadstool Mushroom Marshmallows
We saw this video for marshmallow cake pops and knew we had to make these! We just made a yellow box cake mix, turned it into a half cake pop, then dipped it into red and green candy melts. Once that cooled, we added half mini marshmallows on top!
And finally, we added eyes using edible marker to the marshmallows – these are a little time consuming but cute and delicious. And you can totally put them onto lollipop sticks if you want to make them stand out even more!
Star Cheese and Crackers
We needed something a little savory to go with all the desserts, so we made some cute star cheese and cracker power-ups. We just used star cookie cutters to cut out cheese, added some eyes made out little olives pieces, and put them on star crackers!
Or if you don’t want to do cheese and crackers, use the cookie cutters to make star sandwiches instead!
Piranha Cookie Pops
This was another one inspired by this video. But they’re so cute – we had to make them!
We made our all-time favorite cream cheese sugar cookies then cut out a little triangle from each. We finished with a little red and white frosting to make the cookies – then again put them on lollipop sticks!
For the dirt cups, we made our recipe for classic dirt cups in individual trifle dishes but switched out the vanilla pudding for chocolate and left out the worms. And since the cookies are a little heavy, we put a little bit of rice krispy in the bottom of the dirt cups to put the stick into!
Fire Flower Veggie Board
I love making themed charcuterie boards so when I saw this fun Fire Flower board, I knew we had to make one!
It’s super easy to make with broccoli, cucumbers, baby carrots, yellow bell pepper slices, grape tomatoes, black olives, and ranch dressing.
Berry Filled Banana Peels
Fruit is all over Super Mario between the berries that yoshi eats and well it’s just there – so I knew I wanted to do something with berries. We made banana boats for our nautical 4th of July party a while ago, and I thought those would be perfect!
Just slice open a banana, slice the banana inside, and add berries. They’re the perfect way to serve a little fruit salad and banana peels are right out of Super Mario!
Super Mario Candy Salad
Candy salads are all the rage, and I thought it’d be fun to make a Super Mario themed one for our party. And it might’ve been the most popular item of all because well, candy!
The candies I chose were specifically inspired by items in the Super Mario Brothers games (and movies) and I’ve explained why below! I kind of just walked around the grocery store candy aisle looking for items that fit!
- Gummy peaches or peach rings – for Princess peach of course
- Red and blackberry gummies – for the berries that Yoshi eats
- Super Mario gummies – this has a combo of gummy coins, turtle shells, and more Mari themed items! We put these in our Christmas Eve box and they were perfect!
- Rainbow Air Head Extremes Bites – you could also do cut up Rainbow Sour Belts or really any rainbow candy for the rainbow road!
- Gummy clouds – the clouds in Mario are just an iconic part of the scenery, so I thought these were a fun addition!
- Gummy frogs – these just reminded me of Mario in his frog suit!
That’s all we included in our candy salad but you could use anything else that you find that you feel like is inspired by the Super Mario Bros games, movie, or even world!
Some other ideas I came up with that I just didn’t include:
- Gummy pizza or spaghetti – they are Italian (and eat pizza!)
- Candy or gummy stars – they might make you invincible!
- Candy/gummy eggs – they may not look like the ones Yoshi pops out of but you can use them anyway!
- Runt bananas – for all the banana peels in the game!
- Gummy cherries – for the cherries you can get in the game!
We put everything in a bowl, added a scoop, and some Super Mario cups and let people snack on the candy salad all night long!
Power Up Punch
This is an easy way to theme a punch for the party – just call it power up punch like this Pinterest user did! If you want a great punch recipe, this yummy Santa Claus punch would be perfect because it’s red!
We also served up some Super Mario fruit snacks, fire balls (cheese balls), and drinks!
More Super Mario Food Ideas
If you need even more ideas, these would all work great too!
- Pizza – Homemade pizza roll-ups, pizza loaf, or even pepperoni rolls – basically anything pizza should work since pizza is included in the movie! Or you could even just serve homemade pizza!
- Peach – anything with peaches works great. I personally like this peach cake!
- Mushrooms – not sure these are the best for a party because mushrooms are pretty taste specific but they are all over the games!
- Gummy burgers – they serve up burgers at Super Mario World in Universal Studios and Bowser packs these for Peach for lunch! Or go savory and make little sliders!
- Coins – gold coins, Golden Oreos, or anything else that looks like gold coins!
- Anything fruity – this fruit pizza, this fruit salsa, or even these little mini fruit tarts would be great!
- Anything spicy – label fire or fireballs and you’re golden! You could make these buffalo chicken roll-ups or just literally serve fireball candies!
- Pancakes – one of my favorite Mario party games is serving pancakes, you could make these mini pancakes in stacks to represent the game!
- Popcorn – another one inspired by Super Mario party where they have to cach popcorn. This popcorn snack mix would also be a great option!
- Pie – another Mario Party mini game inspired food item. Try Kool Aid pie, no bake chocolate pudding pie, or my personal favorite – strawberry jello pie. You could even make these mini strawberry hand pies if you wanted a more individual option!
- Banana flavored anything – this banana split cake, or this banana split fluff would be perfect for a Super Mario party!
- Hard-boiled eggs – you could even add dots on the outside to look like Yoshi eggs!
Super Mario Party Decorations
We didn’t actually decorate at all for our Super Mario girls night, so I had to look through the internet to find some ideas, and I found tons of great ideas! These are just some of my personal favorites!
Click on the links below to go directly to the source to find instructions, printables, and more!
Super Mario Sky Backdrop
This super simple Super Mario backdrop consists of a blue plastic tablecloth and some cut out clouds. It’s brilliant in its simplicity. The rest of this party has other great ideas too, but I’m all for the basic backdrop!
Nintendo Switch Backdrop
This one may not be quite as simple, but it sure makes a statement! And if you’re having a gaming Nintendo Switch party, this DIY backdrop (and all the accessories) are perfect!
Mario Party Details
This party is full of tiny little details like these piranha plant cupcake toppers, star balloons, and even little mustaches all over the party decorations! It’s almost like being right in Super Mario World! You could even make these green velvet cupcakes if you wanted to be all immersive!
Pixel Art Wall Art
This fun Mario wall art is made up of pixel like pieces of paper! Use this simple tutorial for all the exact measurements and details she used to make this fun statement piece!
DIY Piranha Plants
Piranha may be difficult to spell but these piranha plants aren’t hard to make using green five gallon buckets, large plastic red bowls with dots painted on them, and paper plate leaves. You can see the original idea here – so fun!
Hall of Thwomps
Make these thwomps with just some black foam board, silver paint pens, and faces. You can get more details about how these are made in these instructions but hanging these in a hallway would make a perfect wow statement!
DIY Power Ups
Make these cute power ups from plates and paper – a super simple way to add some themed Mario decorations to your party!
DIY Bob-Ombs
These simple bob-ombs are made with black paper lanterns and a few other basic supplies but the statement these make is anything but basic! Put a few of these around the room to add some Mario fun to your party!
Super Mario Party Games & Activities
I’m guessing most people aren’t going to just want to play actual Super Mario Party while you’re party, so I’ve included some fun things to do at your party as well! I like to setup mini games just like in the actual Mario Party game!
Mini Game Challenge
If you do want to include some actual Nintendo playing during your party, I recommend doing a mini game challenge on Mario Party where players play mini games and win prizes, then rotate! It’s a great way to keep people engaged without it turning into literally just playing video games the entire time.
We did this for our girls night. I filled these fun coin boxes with prizes and after each mini game, the winner chose a gold coin box and won the prize inside. We were playing with adults so the prizes ranged from things like chocolate gold coins to a gift card for a local pizza place!
Make Your Own Mini Games
If you don’t want to play Mario’s actual mini games, you could make up your own for the party instead! Here are some ideas from this list of all the mini-games in the actual video game!
- Snack Attack – toss popcorn in the air and have players try to catch it!
- Trike Harder – setup an obstacle course outside and have players have to race through it on a tricycle or other type of kids outdoor vehicle like a scooter, skateboard, or maybe even roller skates.
- Slaparazzi – give someone a camera in the middle of the room and blindfold them. Then have everyone run around and try to stay off the camera when the photo is taken. I’ve seen this done on TikTok and it’s hilarious!
- Lost in the Shuffle – this is just a normal which cup is it under type game, so you can totally do this one and have players grab a cup to be their answer first!
- Candy shakedown – use the baby rattle game in this baby shower games post with small candies, and call it candy shakedown!
- Feeding Frenzy – give players a certain amount of time to try and toss colored balls into buckets around the room, make it even harder by randomly putting a lid on some of the buckets during the time!
- Rumble fishing – use the instructions for the Listen to Your Heart game in this Valentine’s Day games post and switch out the hearts for goldfish!
I could go on and on, turning each of those mini games into an actual game you could play at home – there are tons of ideas! You could even play one game in the video game then play your own version in real life!
Balloon Pop Game
One of our favorite Mario Kart games is the balloon pop one where you all race around with balloons and try to pop everyone else’s. This birthday party game will have players doing something similar but with balloons tied around their ankles!
Yoshi Egg Hunt
If you like Easter egg hunts, you’ll love this fun yoshi egg hunt! It’s a scavenger hunt with a Super Mario theme! Kids have to try and find eggs
Super Mario Coloring Station
Setup an area where kids can color their own characters to take home with these Super Mari coloring pages! You can have them do this at the beginning of the party, kind of like picking their character and car in Mario Kart, or have it as a quiet activity at a break during the party!
You can put your email address in below to get a copy of the coloring pages or purchase them in my shop here.
If you don’t see the pink form below, you can get to the link here.
Super Mario Dot to Dot Activities
You can add these Super Mario dot to dots to the coloring pages station or have them as an addition activiy kids can do after they finish eating before something else starts – or give them as a favor to take home!
You can put your email address in the pink form above the coloring pages to get a copy of the coloring pages or purchase them in my shop here.
Coin Hunt
Hide a bunch of golden coins all over an area, give kids coin boxes (like the ones I shared above), and let them search for as many coins as they can find. Then setup a Mario market – similar to our bunny mart – where they can turn in their coins for prizes!
You could also have people earn coins for mini prizes and turn them into a Mario market for prizes instead of favors. We did something similar with our Christmas Eve box last year.
Yoshi Egg Hunt
Or if you still want to do a hunt but don’t necessarily want to do a coin hunt, add polka dots to eggs and do a Yoshi egg hunt like this!
Super Mario Craft
If you want something crafty to go along with your own games, this Super Mario pipe craft is perfect! You could setup a station for the kids and let them make their own!
Super Mario Mystery Block Game
Everyone loves a good punch game so create your very own mystery blocks and let people punch out prizes. Here’s a great tutorial for making your own.
Strike a Poke Photo Booth
Since striking a pose is so common in the newer games, it’d be perfect to setup a strike a pose photo booth! There are some instructions to make your own and some backdrop ideas in this party!
Goomba Stop
This fun game is similar to one of my favorite birthday party games and includes stomping on balloons decorated to look like Goompas to win coins! I know kids love stomping on balloons (just make sure they don’t use their mouths to break them), so this would be a really fun one!
Super Mario Matching
Put prizes on the back of yellow question mark cards in this matching game, and if you match two, you win that prize! This one is actually great for kids or adults – just mix up the prizes!
More Super Mario Party Games
If you want some games that you can just buy right now, here are some that would work well for a Super Mario party!
- Pop Up Super Mario Game – don’t be the one who makes Mario pop!
- Super Mario Memory – there are so many fun ways to use these cards!
- Super Mario Uno – like always, there’s a special rule and fun cards!
- Blow Up Shaky Tower – a fun balance game with kid-friendly explosions!
- Mario Coin Collector Game – just like the ones at arcades, my boys love this!
- Super Mario Jenga – the classic but with a Mario twist where you have to build around Bowser!
- Piranha Plant Escape – don’t get caught by the piranha!
- Super Mario Monopoly Junior – fun variation of the classic with Mario characters!
- Mushroom Mania Balancing – place the mushrooms without making everything fall!
- Super Mario WHOT – a Mario version of the classic card matching game!
- Mario Hover Hockey – we have one of these that’s just a soccer design but the turtle shell is super fun!
- Super Mario Guess Who – a fun Mario inspired version of the classic!
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