Teddy Bear Picnic Birthday Party (+ Smash Cake Recipe)

Looking for a super fun and relaxed birthday party theme? Try throwing a teddy bear picnic for your little baby bear!

I can’t believe how fast a year can go! Our youngest is officially one. His special day came and went so fast, but we had the best time celebrating!

In this post, I’m going to share some teddy bear picnic birthday party inspiration!

Teddy Bear Picnic

My hope for our son’s teddy bear picnic birthday party was that it felt as relaxed as a regular picnic. Can I just say? Picnic food makes great party food! Simple and easy to grab are a winning combination for a birthday party (but more on that below!). As always, I started planning our son’s teddy bear picnic by looking for inspiration.

Deciding On The Theme

I knew I wanted to have some sort of bear theme!

While searching, I found themes like: wild one (with a camping focus), winnie the pooh, honey bee, baby bear cub and then of course, teddy bear picnic!

I decided the teddy bear picnic would be perfect for our son’s August birthday. I took inspiration from my favourite ideas on the web and ran with it!

Gathering Teddy Bear Party Supplies

One of my favourite ways to prepare for a birthday party is to shop my own home. It’s amazing what can be repurposed and reimagined!

I gathered baskets, blankets, trays, wooden boards, books, bear play mat, stuffed animals and our teepee!

Once I knew what I already had, I was able to shop for any remaining items to fill in the gaps.

I went out to get balloons, tablecloths, table runners and a couple of extra decorations and then I was done! I had all the supplies I needed!

Planning Out The Picnic Food

One of the best ways to think about what food to serve for birthday parties is how easy it is going to be to eat. We often arrange all of the party food on the dining room table, leaving us without a table to sit around. This means everything we serve needs to be decently easy to eat standing up or from a lap! This actually helps narrow down the options to handhelds and/or finger foods – which are always a hit and go great with a picnic theme.

For a teddy bear picnic, we decided sandwiches were the way to go! They are easy to grab, eat and are delicious crowd-pleasers!

We made three different types of sandwiches: ham and cheese, prosciutto and brie (my current FAV!) and turkey hummus wraps. We also served salad, veggies and chips with dip!

In addition, we set up a dessert table outside. On the dessert table we had a strawberry cake, cookies, teddy grahams, gummy bears, brownies, cinnamon swirl bites and fruit! We all enjoyed the sweet treats while our son smashed his SMASH cake!

The Baby Bear Cake Smash!

In all truthfulness, the first smash cake I made for my son was flat out awful. I looked up a recipe online, wanting his birthday cake to be as healthy as possible, and it didn’t end well. I don’t recommend using rice flour for baked goods.

It took me a failed attempt but now I do have a recipe that I love for a smash cake! Hopefully saving you time when you’re on the hunt for a smash cake for your baby bear!

Decorating For A Teddy Bear Picnic

So much of decorating happens for me in the moment. I love the process of taking a pile of supplies and decorating intuitively. Is that weird? Haha! I definitely decorate with my feelings. Whether something “feels” right or not in certain spot helps me decide where things should end up.

I did not imagine using the baskets I gathered under the table until I saw them sitting there waiting to be used. Having the baskets act as decoration to fill out the tablescape worked great! I love how inspiration strikes in the moment when decorating.

I placed a white sheet over our framed art above the dining room table to help create a neutral backdrop for the balloons to POP (pun intended!).

Bear books and stuffed animals added extra touches of “teddy bear” throughout. One of my most cherished memories from the day was when my daughter gathered up the bear books for my brother in law to read to her. It was so sweet listening to him read her Winnie The Pooh! When I put the books out as decor, that was exactly what I was hoping would happen! They would get read together!

And how could I forget about these sweet honey bees buzzing around? Sometimes the smallest details are my favourite! I found these bees at Hobby Lobby (I’m wondering if Michaels has something similar?).

When it came to choosing the colour of balloons, I wanted to bring in the yellow as a nod to the honey bees while also keeping it neutral and golden! I love how the wood tone of the baskets paired with the balloons!

Birthday Party To Remember

It was a birthday party to remember! This was such a fun theme for a first birthday party! It was simple to bring together while still feeling special and unique! Looking for more birthday party inspiration? Check out this post all about throwing a dinosaur birthday party!

This post was all about throwing a teddy bear birthday party! I hope that if you’re looking to throw a bear themed birthday party of your own, you found some inspiration to jump off of!

Ps. If you’re looking for a delicious and simple smash cake recipe, check it out below!