‘Tis the season for trips to your favorite ice cream spot, and for ice cream socials! Read on for some cool ice cream social party ideas for the upcoming summer season.

• For decorations, bunch balloons together to look like an ice cream cone. Use brown balloons for the cone and different colors for the different flavors of ice cream! Another way to make balloons look like ice cream cones is to attach helium-filled balloons to party hats— this can be a great centerpiece for your party table.
• Make a sign welcoming your guests to your child’s “Ice Cream Parlor.”
• Play old-fashioned ice cream parlor music to get your guests in the right mood as they arrive.
• On the party table, place old fashioned stick candy in brightly colored pails as an additional decoration and treat. It will look festive!
• Match your tableware to the ice cream colors you choose. If you choose a plain white tablecloth, decorate it by sticking ice cream cone cutouts all over it, or by drawing an ice cream parlor on it.
• Create a sundae bar with toppings such as sprinkles, nuts, chocolate sauce, cherries, caramel, bananas, etc. Make “Creamy Cones” by using standard ice cream cones and providing whipped cream for the kids to fill them up with. The kids can top their cones with chocolate shavings, sprinkles, gummies, etc.
• Play a version of the Pin the Tail on the Donkey in which you pin a cherry on a sundae or an ice cream cone!
• Organize a game for the adults: match the Ben and Jerry’s flavors to their names. This could be challenging!
• Make paper soda hats.
• Have an ice cream eating contest!
• As a favor, buy some vintage sundae cups at a thrift store and fill them with Baskin Robbins hard candies. Add a Pixie Stix candy as a straw.

Ice cream socials and birthday parties are sure to be a huge hit and cool everyone off. Just the thing for a hot summer day!