Here you will find a great collection of Nintendo Switch birthday party ideas. From decorations to party favors to food, this post has it all. If you are hosting your own video game party, I hope this post gives you resources and ideas that inspire you.
Want to see some other fun birthday ideas? Check out my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party and my Super Hero party.
Nintendo Switch Birthday Party Ideas
My son’s birthday was quickly approaching. He gets sandwiched between Halloween and Thanksgiving. Sometimes I feel like I am last minute planning for his party. This year was no exception.
For parties, I love to come up with ideas and create printables for you to use and enjoy. However, for this party, I didn’t have the time to create everything from scratch.
He had told me he wanted to do a video gaming party. I was working on last-minute fumes…again, but I wanted to do something cool for him.
I went to the internet for inspiration. What would be cool but pretty easy for me? I found it. At 5M Creations I could buy her entire printable pack for $15. I’d definitely spend more than that trying to buy decorations at a party store. I was sold.
>> Purchase your Nintendo Switch printable pack here. <<
Video Game Birthday Party Invitation – Nintendo Switch
Above you can see the invitations I made for my son’s Nintendo Switch birthday party. I designed these on Cavna, which is an easy to use and free graphic design program you can find online.
Find a picture online of a Nintendo Switch. Upload that photo. Then, just add in the words. You can use the color matching tool to match your font color to the Switch controllers.
Nintendo Switch Birthday Cake & Food Ideas
While I was willing to download someone else’s video game party printables, I did want to design his birthday cake since it is a hobby I love. For a video, written, and picture tutorial of how to create a Nintendo Switch cake like the one picture above see here.
Our other food ideas (other than the party favors, which I will show later) were pretty unspectacular. Pizza. Well, I do believe pizza is spectacular. It is a crowd-pleaser and easy to order and get delivered.
How to Make Nintendo Switch Party Decorations
The next portion of the Nintendo Swith Party ideas is to teach you how to make your TV look like a Switch.
Many of the editable party decorations came in the party pack (Happy Birthday Signs, Level sign, and all of the printables for the drinks and favors), but I imagine you are wondering how to turn your TV into a Nintendo Switch. I will explain the process now.
Materials Needed to Turn Your TV into a Nintendo Switch with Controllers
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- Foam Board (I used a tri-fold board)
- Black Cardstock
- Red Spray Paint – I bought mine at Michael’s, and I couldn’t find the exact match on Amazon. The color used was Krylon – Decor Selects – Satin Pimento
- Blue Spray Paint
- Glue Stick
- Silver Sharpie
- Scissors
- Packing Tape
- 4 Paint Stir Sticks
- Circles to Trace
- Yard Stick
- Utility Knife
How to Turn Your TV into a Nintendo Switch with Controllers
The size of your controllers will vary depending on the size of your television. The height will be obvious. Figuring out the width of the controller will take a little bit of math.
The Math: Figuring out Proportions
Part of making the TV really look like a Nintendo Switch is to get the proportions right. I had to do this with my cake too.
Here’s a video tutorial about how to set up a proportion.
A Nintendo Switch controller is 1.25″ wide. The length of the Switch base without controllers is 6.75″ wide. Therefore, the ratio of the Switch is 1.25″/6.75″. Next, you will want to set up the ratio for your TV. Your unknown is how wide to make the foam board controller. That will be your variable (unknown) x and will make up your numerator. Your denominator will be the length of your television.
Your final proportion will look like this:
1.25/6.75 = x/length of television in inches
At that point you cross multiply (1.25 x length of television in inches) = 6.75x. The final step will be to divide your answer of 1.25 x length of television in inches by 6.75 to give you the width of your controllers.
Sorry for making you do math.
You’ll want to add a couple inches to your width as some of it will be hidden behind the tv to secure.
Making the Controllers for this Switch Birthday Party
- Now it’s time to cut your foam board to the size you calculated. I used a bowl to trace off the corners so they would be rounded. Foam board is most easily cut using a straight edge and a utility knife.
- Once those are cut to size, it’s time to spray paint one red and one blue. Protect your surroundings as you spray, following the instructions on the can.
- Once dry, bring inside to decorate.
- You know the proportion work we did earlier? You will want to do that again, measuring out the size of the joysticks and buttons. Just so you know, the joystick is about 0.5″ in size. Close enough to work with that number. The smaller buttons are 0.25″. Those are the numbers you will want to plug into your equations. (The equation to figure out the size of your joystick will be 0.5 (size of actual joystick)/1.25 (width of actual controller) = x/(width of your new controller). I really hope this is making sense. If you hate math, just eyeball this!
- Once you know the size you want your buttons, find a bowl or a cup that is about that size and trace it. Cut these circles out.
- On four of the circles, using silver Sharpie write X, Y, A, B.
- Glue all the circles in place. You can do the proportion thing if you want or just eyeball it like I did.
- Next, add two of your paint sticks to the edges (see picture) using packing tape. One will be toward the top and one will be toward the bottom at the inside of both controllers.
- Finally, tape the other end of the paint sticks to the TV. It took quite a bit of tape. I’d recommend dusting first.
Party Favors and Food for a Video Game Party
Drinks for a Nintendo Switch party consisted of red and blue Gatorades.
Labels were removed and replaced with the printables created at 5M Creations (see link above).
Another food option for a Nintendo Switch Birthday party is popcorn cups.
I filled plastic cups with dome lids with Boom Chicka Pop, Red Sixlets, and Blue Sixlets. The round tags were another item found in the video game party printable pack.
These gumball packs were a fun party favor for this Switch video game party.
The printable came in the pack I purchased, and I attached the little tags with a thin black ribbon. I found the gumball tubes and jumbo 1″ red gumballs on Amazon. These did not stand up well on their own, so I had to tape them into place to stand erect.
The next idea in this Switch Birthday Party idea post is another concept from the printable pack I bought at 5M Creations. These are printable “Game On” chocolate bar wrappers that wrap around Hershey’s chocolate bars.
Video Game Party Activity Ideas
For our video game party, guess what activity we did. Video games. We borrowed another Switch so that we had two consoles set up for our Switch birthday party. They played a bunch of group party games like Minecraft, Mario Party, Switch Sports, Mario Kart, Go Vacation, and Super Smash Bros.
I’m hoping you find these resources helpful as you plan your own Nintendo Switch video game party.
Want More Birthday Party ideas?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party
