Every year the families in our neighborhood throw a block party. It’s a great way to build community by participating in fun shared experiences. This year, because it is still necessary to maintain social distancing rules for everyone’s safety, we decided to get creative with it rather than cancel it! While it wasn’t exactly the party we were used to, it turned out to still be a ton of fun and a great way for us all to create neighborhood memories.
The entire party was held outside in our driveway and backyard, and one family unit at at time participated in the activities with plenty of sanitation in between. While it can feel like the world is a little dark lately, our bright color block theme really added some cheerful vibes to our community. Read on to see how we set it all up!
P.S. I got most of my supplies for this block party at Oriental Trading, but if Amazon is more your jam, be sure to check out my Amazon Shop for many of the products I used, or similar alternatives!
Backdrop and Photo Op
First, we set up our cheery backdrop and photo op area. We used a sunburst backdrop in joyful hues, and layered it with a pink custom banner that highlighted the event. Above the backdrop we hung a large colorful balloon arch that you could see from a mile away! It was fun to see cars slow down to admire it and honk their appreciation for the happiness it added to their drives.
Next to the backdrop, we provided fedoras with colorful bands, a vibrant cooler with popsicles in it, and a DIY Bubble Station with individual bubble wands and a bubble machine that continuously spewed bubbles. Families could use any and all of these to help give all of the photos a super fun summer vibe! Get the details for how to create your own DIY Colorful Summer Bubble Station HERE.
TIP: Provide enough individual bubble bottles so that each person can keep their own, and new families will always use new wands, to prevent the spread of germs!
Activities
No block party would be complete without some fun games and activities! We decided to go with a carnival game theme, since most of them are things that can be done by individuals or within individual family units rather than requiring big group participation. They all ended up being a huge hit! Who doesn’t love nostalgic carnival games?! You can find our list of 11 Colorful Block Party Game Ideas HERE.
In addition to the carnival games, we set out some chalk and asked each family to add their own artistic flair to the sidewalk in front of the house. In the end, we had a giant art piece that everyone contributed to. Talk about a community masterpiece!
Finally, we scheduled a socially distant bike parade everyone could participate in together while staying at a safe distance from each other, and provided a station of colorful decorations for folks to take with them to decorate their bikes before the big event.
TIP: Before and after families participate in the activities, have them stop by a “sanitation station”. We provided disposable masks, disinfecting wipes, hand sanitizer, and more at ours.
Food and Drink
Food and drinks can be a bit more tricky at a socially distant party. Normally we’d all bring dishes to share. In this case, individual servings was the name of the game! We set out a variety of single serve snacks such as individually-wrapped popcorn balls in colorful popcorn boxes, and fruits in sealed take-out trays. We wrapped plastic flatware in cheery napkins and provided gift bags for families to pack their items to-go.
For drinks, I made over one of my craft carts and turned it into a really cute DIY Colorful Summer Bar Cart. This provided disposable to-go cups and straws and a drink dispenser, individual drink cans, and plastic wine glasses and “yay” silly straws that could be taken home as favors. Get all the details for how to create the DIY Bar Cart HERE.
TIP: Get all of the cute FREE color block printable signage for the food table, bar, and other areas HERE!
You can find all the additional details for how I created this Colorblock Block Party, including the invitations, favor table, and giant yard sign on Fun365 at Oriental Trading. Everything you need to See It, Shop It and Make It with the click of a button!
P.S. I got most of my supplies for this block party at Oriental Trading, but if Amazon is more your jam, be sure to check out my Amazon Shop for many of the products I used, or similar alternatives!
Is your neighborhood getting creative to build community while staying safe? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments! And for more ways to safely celebrate while staying socially distant, check out my posts on How to Throw Virtual Celebrations and Parties and How to Throw a Car Parade!
Happy Partying!
As an OTC blogger, I received compensation and/or products in exchange for my styling and crafting services. As always, all project ideas and any opinions expressed here are my own. For further information on our disclosure policy please check out our disclosure page.
PIN FOR LATER:
I love all of this ! I am trying to use the invite for our own block party but every time I try to edit the wording in the yellow box, it keeps getting cutoff. Please help!!
Hi Katie – I emailed you and connected you to the designer Jen. Did you manage to get that sorted with her? THanks, Nat