12 Year Old Birthday Party Ideas for a BOY

Does he have a favorite sports team? Maybe you could invite a smaller amount of friends to a game. Or you could do a survior theme or fear factor theme for boys. I know they love those inflatable bungee run, or sumo wrestlers.

Have fun.

One of the parties I did for one of my boys was a movie party at home. We set up a concession stand. We went to Sam's and got the movie theatre size candy (Walgreen's has some too), nacho boats, popcorn bags, etc. Served nachos, hot dogs, popcorn, candy and cans of pop from our concession stand! Each kid got a movie ticket (think I got those from Factory Card Outlet). We watched an appropriate movie and had some movie posters up and some other theatre style decorations. It was very laid back and my son loved it! I'm pretty sure Factory Card Outlet has movie decorations and what not too! Hope this helps a little or at least jump starts some other ideas for you. And Happy Birthday to the birthday boy (movie star!).

We just moved into the south suburbs so I'm not sure if your park district does this....but when mine were 12 and 13 we rented out one of the locations for our park district that was like a gym. And it had a stage area also. We brought in a boom box and the boys could play basketball, or dodge ball or just chill or whatever they wanted. Then on the stage area we had tables and chairs and brought in a crock pot and made hot dogs in it and brought in soda/juice so that they could take a break, eat, drink, etc and then play sports if they wanted to.
It cost us like $40/hr and we rented it for 3 hours. That gave us 1/2 hr to set up and bring in the food, drinks, etc 2 hours of party time and 1/2 hr to clean up.
To this day (they are 21 and 18 now) they still think these were the best parties as they weren't "organized" and those that wanted to play played and those that didnt want to didn't feel left out or whatever. It was more casual and laid back.
Hope this helped a little.
R.
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Lazer tag was a big hit with my boys. Recently one of mine picked 3 friends and I took them to the movies. I brought in my old little water bottles and some brown paper bags so I could split up the popcorn. Before the movie we had pizza at our house, so they weren't that hungry there anyway.

M.

You don't say how many boys or time of year

We've done a few friends at a movies, too. Their treat bags were all "theatre related" (less to buy there!)

Renting out a community center and playing dodgeball or any game that he likes or going to the batting cages and renting that out for a while. Also, renting out a room at a pizza place w/ an arcade so they can jump around and eat, eat, eat! Having a scavenger hunt in your neighborhood can be fun but it just depends if he likes doing that kind of stuff.

Enjoy.

Camping in the backyard was a hit with my nephew.

Maybe this would be better for a younger boy - not sure. If you have a pond by your home you could doing a fishing party. My daughter (10 years old) went to one of these this year and all the kids had a lot of fun.

I Have done birthday parties for a small number of kids at the movies. In Portage IN Imax the theater has two party rooms that are free. It reqired a $20 deposit that I got back, once in cash the second time in gift cards to the theater, which we used toward popcorn. The rooms had a small fridge and let you bring in your own food. We got pizza. It has been very easy, almost no cleanup and ran about $100.00 for every thing. That would be for about six kids. They also have free movies in the spring and fall that make it even cheaper. Best of Luck
Peggy