Squishmallow Birthday Party Ideas: How We Threw a Squish Squad Party for 10 Eight-Year-Olds ($83 Total)
Mia started collecting Squishmallows when she was six. By the time her eighth birthday rolled around this February, she had forty-three of them. I know the exact number because she made me count them with her the week before her party — she wanted to figure out how many she could “invite.”
That’s how I learned that a Squishmallow birthday party is really just a party where the guests of honor are already in the house.
We had ten girls coming over, ages seven to nine, and I had about three weeks to figure out how to turn Mia’s Cincinnati bedroom overflow of plush marshmallow creatures into a full afternoon party. I’ve thrown a lot of birthday parties — I sell party supplies on Etsy, I have three kids, and I’ve helped more friends plan parties than I can count. But Squishmallow was new territory. There’s no official party kit at Target (not a good one, anyway), no clear Pinterest template, and about half the “Squishmallow party ideas” I found online were just “buy a Squishmallow cake topper and call it a day.”
We did not call it a day.
Total spent: $83.47. Ten kids, three hours, zero meltdowns. Here’s what actually happened.
Setting Up: The Squad Takes Over the Living Room
The thing about Squishmallows is that they’re already beautiful. The colors — the soft lavender, the mint green, the warm cream — are the party palette. I didn’t need to buy much to make the space feel like a Squishmallow world. I just needed to use what Mia already owned.
I borrowed fifteen of Mia’s Squishmallows (she negotiated which ones were “safe to display” — Cam the Cat was non-negotiable as a centerpiece, non-negotiable) and arranged them on a folding table covered with a $1.25 white tablecloth from Dollar Tree. I placed them by color family, which sounds fussy but took about eight minutes and looked genuinely adorable. Three purple/lavender ones together. Four pastel blue and mint ones. A cluster of pink and peach. Done.
For walls, I used $3.49 worth of pastel tissue paper pom-poms I already had from my Etsy inventory and hung them from the curtain rod. Six pom-poms, six minutes. The whole room looked like the inside of a Squishmallow before a single kid arrived.
Cost so far: $4.74.
Arrival Activity: Design Your Own Squishmallow
The first thing every girl did when she walked in was go straight to the Squishmallow display table and pick up a plush. Expected. What I needed was something to do once they put it back down.
I set up a paper station at the kitchen table. Each girl got a piece of cardstock, a printed silhouette of a round Squishmallow shape (I found a free template and printed ten of them), a cup of markers, and a small cup of sticker gems and foam stickers.
The assignment: design your own original Squishmallow character. Give it a name. Give it a personality. On the back of the card, write what it loves to eat, its favorite hobby, and its “squad role” (Mia’s idea — she said every Squishmallow squad has roles, like healer and leader and the funny one).
This ran for twenty-two minutes. No management required. Seven of the ten girls were completely silent while they designed. Zoe made a Squishmallow named “Dumplings” that was a cream-colored dumpling with a face and a little sesame seed beauty mark. Lily made one she named “Professor Lavender” who wore tiny drawn-on glasses and loved cold brew coffee, which is interesting because Lily is seven. Mia’s friend Harper made a gray one named “Cloud” whose squad role was “the one who doesn’t want drama but always ends up in it.”
I almost framed Cloud.
Cost: $4.89 (cardstock + printouts + foam stickers). The markers were mine.
Main Activity: The Squishmallow Squish Obstacle Course
Okay, this was the thing.
My husband Owen set this up while I was doing arrival stuff, and it took him about thirty minutes the night before to plan and fifteen minutes the day of to build. We moved the coffee table into the corner and used the living room floor as the course.
Here’s what it was: five stations, each with a Squishmallow task.
Station 1 — The Squish Test: We borrowed five of Mia’s smallest Squishmallows and taped them to the wall at different heights (painter’s tape, very gently). Kids had to walk past and squish each one exactly once, then report which one felt “most satisfying.” This is not a competition. It’s just a sensory experience that gets everyone laughing within eleven seconds.
Station 2 — Stack the Squad: Using a mix of Mia’s round Squishmallows, how tall can you stack them before they fall? You get sixty seconds. The record on the day was six, by Zoe, which she celebrated by doing a lap around the living room.
Station 3 — Squish Toss: Stand six feet back and toss a small Squishmallow into a laundry basket. You get three tries. This is harder than it sounds — they’re round and they drift. Maya made it on her first try and looked genuinely shocked at herself.
Station 4 — Blindfolded Squish ID: Mia picked five of her Squishmallows and each girl, blindfolded, had to identify which one she was holding just by feel. Mia got four out of five. Two girls got zero, which they thought was funnier than anything.
Station 5 — The Squishmallow Selfie: A designated “photo spot” corner with four Squishmallows arranged on a little chair draped in a pastel blanket. Each kid could pose with whichever Squishmallow they wanted. I had my phone ready. Every single girl took at least two photos.
The whole obstacle course ran for thirty-eight minutes without me saying a single thing after “okay the first station is over there.”
Cost: $0. We used what Mia had.
Craft Station: DIY Squishmallow Party Hats
We set up the hat station between the obstacle course and cake. Ten girls, ten cones, and a table of pastel tissue paper, foam stickers, glitter glue sticks, and yarn tassels I’d pre-cut.
The prompt was: “make your hat match the Squishmallow character you designed earlier.” So Zoe made hers cream and brown with a tiny sesame seed sticker on the side for Dumplings. Harper made Cloud’s hat gray with a felt cloud glued on top. Mia’s hat had “Cam the Cat” written in silver marker with little cat ears she cut from cardstock.
I used our DIY assembly party hats craft set — the flat-pack cones that kids assemble and then decorate. The flat-before-assembled format means they’re easy to draw on before shaping, which worked perfectly for this activity. Lily drew her Professor Lavender design on the flat cone first, then rolled it into shape. The design stayed perfectly.
Twenty-three minutes, ten hats, every single one was different. They all wore them for the rest of the afternoon. Two girls asked if they could take them home, and then realized — yes, obviously, you’re taking them home, that’s the point.
Cost: craft set + supplies, approximately $18.40.
Food: The Squish Bar
I kept food completely simple. No elaborate cake, no Squishmallow-shaped sandwiches, none of that.
I made a “Squish Bar” — basically a make-your-own rice cake station. I bought plain round rice cakes (they look like Squishmallows, a little, if you squint — round and puffy), small cups of toppings, and let the girls build their own. Toppings: cream cheese, strawberry jam, honey, granola, sliced banana, mini chocolate chips, and dried cranberries.
This was Mia’s idea and she was right. The round rice cakes were immediately compared to Squishmallows by every single girl who arrived at the table. Emma put cream cheese on hers and then added two mini chocolate chips for eyes and said she’d made “a Squishmallow you can eat.” Three other girls immediately copied her.
Rice cake bar cost: $21.38.
For the cake, I made a sheet cake at home with cream cheese frosting (Mia’s request — she does not like buttercream, which she has opinions about). I frosted it pale lavender and put six of Mia’s small Squishmallows on top as “the squad.” No fondant. No custom topper. Just plush on frosting, which sounds chaotic but looked genuinely great in photos.
Cake cost: $8.92 in ingredients. The Squishmallows came off before cutting and went back to Mia’s shelf.
The Squishmallow “Adoption Ceremony”
I want to tell you about this because it was Mia’s idea and it was the best moment of the whole party.
Before cake, Mia had quietly sorted through her collection and set aside ten Squishmallows — smaller ones, ones she had duplicates of, or ones she’d specifically chosen to “re-home.” She’d written a little card for each one: the character’s name, their personality, and why they’d fit the new person.
She handed them out one by one, reading each card out loud. “Bubbles the axolotl is going to Maya because Maya is also someone who is underrated and deserves more attention.” She handed Bubbles over. Maya hugged it immediately.
Ten cards. Ten Squishmallows. Ten completely different reasons why each one matched each girl.
Three moms who were still there picking up their kids cried. I cried a little. Mia did not cry because she is eight and stoic and had clearly planned this for a while.
Cost: $0. These were Mia’s own Squishmallows.
This was also, technically, the best party favor anyone has ever given at a birthday party I’ve been to. A plush toy that already has a name, a personality, and a reason it belongs to you specifically? That’s not a party bag. That’s a story.
What the Numbers Looked Like
White tablecloth: $1.25
Tissue paper pom-poms: $3.49
Design-your-own Squishmallow supplies: $4.89
DIY party hats + decorating supplies: $18.40
Rice cake squish bar: $21.38
Sheet cake ingredients: $8.92
Pastel balloons (6, for corner clusters): $3.47
Juice boxes + lemonade: $12.17
Paper plates + napkins: $9.50
Total: $83.47
Per kid: $8.35
For comparison, there’s a local entertainment venue near us that does themed birthday parties. The Squishmallow “experience” package starts at $28 per child, not including food. For ten kids, that’s $280 before anyone eats anything. I’ll let that math sit there.
What I’d Do Differently
I’d set up the photo spot corner as a proper station earlier, with a designated timekeeper, instead of leaving it as a casual drift-in option. Only six of the ten girls took a photo there because the others were mid-obstacle-course and forgot. I wanted everyone to have a photo with their favorite Squishmallow.
I also wish I’d had a slightly bigger laundry basket for the toss station. The one I used was regular-sized, and round Squishmallows do this thing where they roll off the rim. Wider opening would have kept the frustration lower for the younger girls.
And — this is a perennial lesson for me — I forgot background music until the obstacle course was almost done. I had a whole “soft Squishmallow vibes” playlist ready on Spotify and remembered it approximately forty minutes late. It would have made the atmosphere about 30% better for free.
FAQ About Squishmallow Birthday Parties
Do you need to own a lot of Squishmallows to throw a Squishmallow party?
No, but having at least ten helps — enough for display and activities. If your kid doesn’t have many, Dollar Tree often carries smaller versions, and Five Below regularly sells them for $5-8. You can also ask guests to bring their favorite one as the invite says “bring your squad member.”
What age works best for a Squishmallow party?
Six to ten is the sweet spot based on what I saw. Younger kids (under five) will enjoy the plush but may not get the character design or blindfolded identification games. Older kids (over ten) can still love it but you may need to lean more into the creative/craft angle than the obstacle course.
What if my kid doesn’t have enough Squishmallows to use for activities?
Ask guests to bring one from home as part of the invite. Frame it as “bring your favorite squad member to the party.” This gets everyone invested before they arrive and gives you twenty-plus plush for activities without spending anything.
Is there official Squishmallow party merchandise?
Yes — there are Squishmallow plates, napkins, and banners available on Amazon and sometimes at Target. I skipped them because the pastel color palette of regular party supplies already matches the brand aesthetic, and licensed plates added about $22 to the budget without adding much. But if you want the official look, it exists.
How do I handle the adoption ceremony if my kid doesn’t want to give any Squishmallows away?
Don’t force it. Mia genuinely wanted to do this — it was her idea and she chose each one carefully. A simpler version: buy small, inexpensive Squishmallows from Five Below ($5-8 each) and do the ceremony with those instead. You still get the character card + naming ritual without giving away anything irreplaceable.
Mia wore her party hat for three hours after the guests left. She was watching TV in it. When I asked why she still had it on, she said she was “letting it settle into her collection.”
I don’t know exactly what that means. But it felt like the right ending to a Squishmallow party.
If you’re planning one and want pre-made hat options for the craft station, we also have ready-to-wear party hats that work well when you’ve got a mixed-age group with younger siblings who aren’t into the decorating step.
Bonus: Squishmallow Party Hats for the Family Dog
My friend’s labrador Noodle crashed their daughter’s Squishmallow party last spring — stole a Cam the Cat plush right off the gift table and paraded around the yard with it. The kids thought it was the best part of the whole party. We stuck a little dog birthday hat on Noodle and she wore it for almost 40 minutes while the kids took turns posing with her. If your dog is anything like Noodle (big, clumsy, zero personal boundaries), grab them their own crown so the stuffed animals stay intact. Check out the full dog birthday party supplies collection — the CPSIA-certified crown fits dogs from 3 to 80 lbs.