My son used to love Thomas the Train!  For his third birthday, we had a Thomas the Train theme birthday party. It was a hit!

I will show you how I planned and decorated this Thomas the Train themed party that had our guest buzzing months after the party.

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My son’s birthday is in December and I promise every year it feels like time speeds up after September and then goes back to normal in January.  This party planning checklist is great to help keep me on schedule with planning and preparing so that I don’t wait until the last minute to plan the ultimate Thomas the Train theme birthday party.

I tend to want to spend more on birthday parties.  But my husband always reminds me that we have a budget to stick to.

I highly advise making a list of your guest and how much you want to spend before even looking at decorations and entertainment.  This will help you to plan more realistically and stay within budget.

I ordered a majority of the decorations from Amazon and printed at a lot of printables off myself which helped me save.

Thomas the Train Theme Birthday Party Decorations

The sign on the door is one that I made and put into a picture frame that got from the Dollar Tree and spray painted bright red.

The sign says “Welcome to the Island of Sodor.”  I used a door hanger (that I also got from the Dollar Tree) that I normally use to hang my wreaths on my door during Christmas.  You could also use a command hook to get the job done as well.

My son already had this Thomas ride on toy.  I placed it outside with a few ballons to let everyone know they had arrived.

My husband and I made these Sir Topham and Harold the helicopter wooden after I read this post on making wooden cut outs by Bethany.  I had my dad help me by trimming the wood with his jigsaw when I was all done painting.

They turned out a little smaller than I wanted because I didn’t get a large enough piece of wood.  But they turned into nice decorations for my son’s room after the party and I got several compliments.

Once you walked into the house there were train tracks that we placed on the floor using electrical tape.  It was simple and put down and clean up.

I ended up buying 3 packs of electrical tape, but only used 2.  I wanted to have the tracks on the walkway outside, but the electric tape doesn’t work well on cement.  At least not damp cement.

As you come in the door I set up our accent table with the thank you bags for the kids and personalized chocolate for the adults.  I regret that I didn’t get a good picture of them.  The adults loved the personalized wrapper.

I purchased a file that has many Thomas the Train theme birthday party printables that could be personalized on Esty for $7.99.  It was the best because there were so many printables that most shops sell individually.  Unfortunately, the shop is no longer available.

The night before the party my husband made a railroad crossing sign as well as two others.  I am not sure about how he went about making them.

Remember I was telling you about staying within the budget?  Well, let’s just say that I maxed out the budget, but my husband insisted to have these signs made.  They turned out pretty nice.

This backdrop is one that I purchased from Amazon.  But I remember seeing it at Party City as well.  We used this as an area to take pictures of the kids during the party.

Thomas the Train Theme Birthday Party Food & Cake

The tracks lead to the food table that had Oreo cookies, animal crackers, goldfish, turkey and PB&J sandwiches that I cut out with these cute sandwich cutters that look like trains.

There was also the cake and cupcakes on my favorite cupcake stand that I use at every birthday party.

My mom bought the letters from Michaels to spell out my son’s name and spray painted them red.

While we were setting up my son saw the cake that had a Thomas the Train toy on top of the cake (that came from a set that we used to dress him up as a conductor).  I was so happy with how the cake turned out with the toy on top.

Then my son threw a tantrum because he wanted the toy and my mom gave in and gave it to him.  Don’t we love grandparents? 🙂

For food, the kids had the snacks, chicken nuggets, turkey and PB&J sandwiches, chips, fruit, and vegetables.  For the adults, I had a taco bar.

I love doing tacos for get-togethers.  All you have to do is set of the ingredients and the guest put together their tacos/nachos just the way they like it. Easy!

For this party I had:

• Chicken
• Beef
• Beans
• Tortillas
• Taco Shells
• Tortilla Chips
• Onion
• Tomato
• Lettuce
• Guacamole
• Cheese
• Salsa
• Sour Cream
• Taco Sauce

The biggest hit of the party was the trackless train!

I was fortunate enough to find Mr. C in the Jacksonville area.  Not only did he ride the kids around the neighborhood in the train, he also did a balloon show for the kids.

I gave each kid a whistle before they got on the trackless train.  The kids had so much fun taking turns riding around in the train, listening to the music and making as much noise as they could with their whistles.

Kids (and adults) in the neighborhood were coming out to see the train.  We actually had one little neighbor girl come and join us!

Because there had to be an adult chaperone on the train with the kids, I got to ride around and have a little fun myself.

I put in a lot of work preparing for this party and it turned out great.  If you would like to see all of the things I ordered on Amazon for this party, check out this list.

[amazon_link asins=’B073HFW2XW,B079MJ84SB,B01MS6212A,B0747XDZTS,B017CEVWIA,B00SAEB6N8,B001B19JLS,B00OWH1BRS’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’realhappymom-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’ed605d3a-918a-11e8-88c8-e50a8d37395a’]

Let me know. What fun things you have done for your little ones Thomas the Train theme birthday party?