Life in Stepping Stones

When my daughter came to me and asked me to throw a Wicked birthday party for her 5th birthday, I was beyond thrilled. As a huge fan of both the movie and the theater production, I was flying high when she asked for this party. Normally, after a party request from my kids is Pinterest to spark my imagination on all of the Wicked party decorations and Wicked party game ideas that I could recreate myself.

However, with Wicked being fairly new when it comes to being aimed at children, there was virtually nothing. Thus, I had to create this party completely from my imagination using only the movie as inspiration. My daughter was also a total micromanager and telling me every scene that I needed to recreate as well. She was constantly adding to my plate but I relished every minute of it.

Needless to say though, the pressure was on!

I spent two months churning out ideas, reworking the scavenger hunt, creating decorations and props. It all cultivated in a 1.5-2 hour long party that my daughter will remember for years to come.

The great thing about this party is it can be completely reworked for different age groups. The activities can become more elaborate for older kids, but it can also be done in a simple, easy to understand format, for young kids like my daughter! For this party, clues were in pretty obvious places. Because she can’t read yet, her older brother, cousin, and I took turns reading them to her and her friends. Before I dive into the scavenger hunt, I’m going to first take you through all of the decorations.

---

Step into the magical world of Oz with The Great Oz Escape digital birthday party kit! Packed with editable invitations, themed scavenger hunt clues, printable spell book pages, fun games, Cricut craft templates, and more.

---

Wicked Party Decoration Ideas

Glinda and Elphaba’s Dorm Room at Shiz University Wicked Party Decorations

The day of the party, I turned our living room into Glinda and Elphaba’s dorm room, inspired by “What is This Feeling”. I set up both couches as each of their beds. To top it off, I added a special touch with the letters they were writing their parents. I spoke and sang these to my daughter before the party and she had the biggest grin on her face. Glinda’s side was pretty and pink, while Elphaba had the plain white bed.

Around the room I added other little Glinda touches: a cardboard faux trunk, removable wall hooks with my daughter’s pink dresses hanging, pink and gold shoes, Glinda props, and a “Congratulotions” sign that threw off every guest who wasn’t a Wicked fan.

On the coffee table, I set up a “Popular” themed makeover area. I painted a small pink box and filled it with kids makeup and brushes for each of them. I also decorated handheld mirrors with Glinda’s emblem, filled a bucket with beads to create necklaces, and filled another bucket with hair supplies and sticker gems for them to put on themselves. Of course, I had to top it all off with Glinda’s “It’s Great!” sign.

Munchkin Land Wicked Party Decorations and the Poppy Field

In our dining room and kitchen, I set up the yellow brick road and the poppy field from the movie. My daughter is an avid “No One Mourns the Wicked” fanatic and I knew I had to include this in the party.

My mom helped create the gold barrier in front of Glinda’s bubble seat, using gold wire and intertwining it together. She did such a beautiful job! Using free cardboard boxes, I cut out and painted the back of the bubble seat.

Pro Tip: Go to your local stores and ask them for their empty boxes!

Another cardboard box creation was the Munchkin Land hut. I bent the box to curve it but the box wasn’t actually big enough to meet in the back. However, I didn’t let that stop me and created an entrance around the back side for the kids to crawl inside! To secure the curved shape, I had to cut smaller pieces of cardboard for the ceiling trims and tape them down. The roof was created using leftovers from the other side of the box. I then just plopped it on top!

Unlike the perfectly round huts in Wizard of Oz, the Wicked huts have many odd shapes, which made it far less stressful to create! I did take creative liberty and painted the door to resemble more of the Wizard of Oz huts so it would have a pop of color. Along the side, I couldn’t resist the final touch of the Wicked Witch sign.

Yellow Brick Road and Poppy Field Wicked Party Decorations

I purchased the removable vinyl yellow stickers from Amazon to create the yellow brick road. The pack included 500 stickers and I probably used about 450 of them! It took around an hour and a half or so to place them all – or at least it felt like it did!) – but it was worth it. The kids LOVED following the yellow brick road on multiple occasions. I wouldn’t leave these on for more than a day but I can safely say we had no damage to our floor when we removed them.

The kids followed the yellow brick road during the Scavenger hunt and were led to the poppy field.

I covered the floor using a plastic fake grass table cover and decorated the sides with crepe paper poppy flowers my mom made. Hanging from above were little Zzz’s for a fun game the kids would play, “Don’t Touch the Zzz’s”. Zzz’s were also taped to the mat!

Decorating The Ozdust Ballroom for a Wicked Party

The Ozdust Ballroom was one of the easiest rooms to recreate and it barely cost a thing. Using $2 grey plastic table covers, I draped over the walls and furniture to create the underground cave. I cut up a couple of table covers as well and bunched them into rock shapes to tape along the sides of the wall. Across the ceiling, my husband draped two silver ceiling waves.

I finalized the room by handwriting the Ozdust sign and cutting it out on sparkly foam with a popping blue foam behind it. After all, I wanted to add a touch of color to this very silver room!

Because this room was in our spare room, I decorated it a couple weeks in advance, as well as kept a lot of the party supplies in there! The room was off limits for my daughter and I was impressed with how patient she was about it all.

Emerald City Wicked Party Decorations

I am not going to lie: The Emerald City was the most time consuming party of the decorating process! I started this in our garage weeks in advance and kept coming up with ideas along the way.

The great thing about using a garage is all of the boxes and junk you have inside can just be covered with the plastic party table covers! I draped green and metallic green table covers around the room until it was completely transformed. I almost want to keep it like this. It’s so much nicer to look at than our usual piles of storage boxes!

My mom masterfully drew and painted The Wizard’s face on a foam board! To create the draping around it, I suspended a hula hoop from our storage shelves. Around the hoop, I draped streamers to help replicate the look.

Across the room, I hand painted a cardboard cage to house my daughter’s favorite stuffed animal and hung another stuffed animal I dressed as a flying monkey above it.

On the other side of the room, I included the Grimmorie I created using two cheap notebooks!

Glinda’s Boat from her Arrival at Shiz University in Wicked Party

The final touch included Glinda’s boat from the beginning of the movie, which my daughter was adamant about including. I originally planned to put this elsewhere but there was no way it would fit through our doorway. In the end though, it worked perfectly for the party. I covered it with two metallic green table covers and revealed the boat when the kids had to make their “getaway” with the animal.

To create the sails, I cut and sewed pink fabric and then used my Cricut and Cricut Easy Press to iron on the gold foil Glinda emblem.

In the center of the room was my daughter’s birthday cake, which coincidentally doubled as a map of Oz! Next to it are the napkins I decorated using the Oz logo on the iron-on foil and my Cricut Easy Press.

Wicked Party Food Ideas

I kept the food simple as it was after lunch time and my daughter also didn’t have a huge list of guests! We stuck to food that she loved and did our best to incorporate the pink and green themes. Besides the items listed below, you could also include green kiwi fruit, pink grapefruit, watermelon, or green tortilla chips with pink hummus dip! I originally planned to drizzle pink colored white chocolate over the green apple but ran out of time.

Emerald City Broccoli with a Ketchup and Mayonnaise Pink Dip

Green and Pink Fairy Bread

Pink Popcorn and Green Apple Slices

Grapefruit Juice with Green Emerald City Cups

Wicked Party Birthday Cake

After much deliberation, and beginning a movie rotation of Wicked and The Wizard of Oz, my daughter requested a cake merging both stories. I created a map of Oz with Glinda inside a gelatin bubble at Munchkin Land during “No One Mourns the Wicked”, Dorothy and her group on the way to Emerald City, and Elphaba at Emerald City, just like the Wizard had shown her.

I built each of the figures out of gum paste and worked on them a month or so prior to the party. For the final touches of the cake, I frosted it with the yellow brick road and colors of the rainbow.

Wicked Birthday Party Invitation

The Wicked themed party invitations were modeled after the grimmerie. I created her name to look like the Wicked Logo using the Wicked font. I then wrote the rest of the invitation using a combination of this font and Adelle Sans Devanagari.

Afterwards, I printed on both sides of the paper. On one side, I printed the full grimmerie pattern. On the other side, I printed the invitation. Afterwards I cut it out in the shape and folded it over like the grimmerie.

Wicked Birthday Party Activities, Games, and Scavenger Hunt Ideas

The theme of the party was to help Elphaba stop the Wizard. The evil Wizard of Oz was caging stuffed animals and it was up to my daughter and her friends to stop him.

Glinda’s “Popular” Makeover – Wicked Party Activity

Upon arrival, while everything was still nice and seemingly calm in the land of Oz, my daughter and her friends headed into Glinda and Elphaba’s dorm room for makeovers. I honestly think they could’ve stayed there all day! They had the best time applying stickers to themselves, doing their own eyeshadow and lipgloss, and putting hair clips in their hair! They didn’t use the jewelry station at this point. That came in handy later though!

The Wicked Party Scavenger Hunt Begins

After they were done getting bedazzled, I announced to them that Elphaba needed their help and she hid a clue in her side of the room. I meant to use The Green Elixir bottle I painted to tuck the clue inside of it but completely forget about it and put the clue inside the pillow instead. Either way, they discovered the clue. The clue informed them that Elphaba had a message for them but she didn’t want to “burst their bubble”.

Then, the kids quickly scampered down the yellow brick road to Munchkin Land where they searched around Glinda’s bubble for the next clue. Inside the Munchkin Land Hut was another clue.

The clue informed them that The Wizard had done something bad but Elphaba still couldn’t trust them yet with this big secret. She hid the next clue amongst the poppy fields to keep the Wizard from finding it.

Don’t Touch the Zzz’s – Wicked Party Game and Wizard of Oz Party Game Idea

Next, the kids headed down the yellow brick road to the poppy field. In the poppy field, I cut up the next clue into enough pieces for each kid to get the opportunity to grab one. However, the kids had to be careful on their trek through the poppies: if they touched the letter Z, they would fall asleep and need a friend to wake them. The kids had a blast walking through the field, falling asleep, and collecting the clues. I set this up in my kitchen but any type of narrow passage, like a hallway, would work for this game!

The Wizard of Oz is Capturing Stuffed Animals during the Wicked Birthday Party!

Afterwards, the kids collected their clues and headed back to Glinda’s dorm room the put them together. Once they pieced them together, it revealed a picture of my daughter’s favorite stuffed animal, Pandy, trapped in a cage along with a message that the older kids read loud.

As Elphaba shared the news that Pandy had been captured, the letter informed them that in order to know Elphaba could trust them to save him, they needed to come to the Ozdust and perform the dance of friendship with her first. Only then, would she know they were on her side.

Uncovering the Secret Dance at the Ozdust Ballroom

Upon arriving at the Ozdust, a package sat in the center of the room. My daughter was adamant about playing Pass the Parcel during her birthday party and this was the best time to incorporate it!

Once the kids were in the room, they all sat in a circle. Then, they passed the package with 10 layers around as music from Wicked played. Each time the music stopped, whomever was holding the package had to open a layer. Inside each layer were puzzle pieces.

The puzzle pieces were in sequence to make this easy for the five year old party-goers. For older kids, I recommend providing more pieces and having them mixed up to stretch out the game.

After all of the layers were unwrapped and the puzzle was complete, the puzzle revealed each of the steps for Elphaba and Glinda’s dance at the Ozdust.

Learn Elphaba and Glinda’s Ozdust Dance at a Wicked Party

As Dancing Through Life played in the background, the kids all stood in a circle and copied me as I performed the moves. It was adorable and one of my favorite moments of the party! Because of their limited attention spans, going through it once was enough for them and they were ready for the next clue. Just like the puzzle, for older kids, this could be drawn out further to have them practice the dance together a few more times. They could even perform it together with the “Elphaba at Ozdust” song from the Wicked Motion Picture Score soundtrack and then Dancing Through Life.

However, the kids were already jumping around excited to see the Emerald City! They then received their next clue and their formal invitations to get them access to the Emerald City.

Bell Toss at The Emerald City Entrance

The next clue revealed that they needed to insert their invitations into the Emerald City mailbox and ring the bell!

Upon arriving at the entrance, the kids slid their invitations into the mailbox I created for them.

Next to it, I created a tossing game for the kids with jingle bells hanging behind each of the holes. The kids tossed styrofoam balls at the holes trying to get them to ring. After a few turns and each getting the chance to ring the bell successfully, it was time to enter The Emerald City!

Is the party for older kids? Make this game more challenging by having the kids aim for specific holes to “ring” the bell in a pattern. Have the holes get smaller and smaller to challenge them further!

Freeing the Animals with the Grimmerie during Wicked Birthday Party

Inside, the kids discovered Pandy the Panda Bear trapped inside the cardboard cage I had made with an evil flying stuffed animal hanging over it (wearing a Flying Monkey outfit I designed as well).

Another clue stuck out of the cage. The cage was being watched by an evil flying stuffy and to make it friendly again, the kids needed to find the grimmerie and recite the incantation: “Ahen Tahkay, Ahben Tahkay, Ahbem Ahtum!”

Afterwards, the kids scampered over to the grimmerie and all held it opened together. As they chanted the words repeatedly, I went over to the flying stuffy, which was being held by a streamer, and tore it, releasing the evil stuffy.

Attached to the stuffed animal’s back was the key to open the cage. My daughter quickly took the key and put it inside the cage, twisting it and freeing her favorite toy!

Escaping the Wizard and Saving the Animals during Wicked Birthday Party

As she snuggled her panda bear tightly, one other clue, attached to him, remained. The clue revealed that they needed to escape before the Wizard could stop them. Elphaba had magically created a river and teleported Glinda’s boat inside for them to make their getaway.

As the clue was being read by the older kids, I tore off the plastic table cover covering the boat and revealed it to them.

They all ran to the boat and once on board, they held hands and chanted “Together we’re unlimited!” to stop the Wizard for good. My dad, who dressed as the Wizard, fell to the ground saying he was melting (and then said: “Ooops! Wrong character!”) and everyone, from the children to the adults, had a good laugh.

Wicked Arts and Crafts Party Activity

After the scavenger hunt was over and the kids enjoyed their cake and opening presents, they all headed back over to Glinda and Elphaba’s dorm room where they continued to bedazzle themselves, as well as make necklaces. I also had coloring pages available for the kids but they were all so enthralled with everything else, the coloring pages went untouched. Oh well! My daughter will surely use them in the coming days!

I always believe it’s good to have a stationary area for a party, especially if the guests are good at focusing. My son’s parties tend to be full of high energy boys so a stationary area is harder to pull off. However, for my daughter and her friends this was magnificent. It gave them somewhere to go at the beginning and end of the party without running around being crazy. They did head back to playing a few of the games themselves as well including Don’t Touch the Zzz’s, the ball toss, and even stuffing poor Pandy back inside the cage just to free it again!

Other Wicked Party Game Ideas

The great thing about this party is it could be made as extravagant or as simple as you want it to be with various alternatives to the games!

Broomstick Relay Race

If you don’t feel like building a boat (I almost didn’t but my daughter wanted this one so badly!), you can change it out with some cheap broomsticks for the kids to escape on in a fun relay race. If the weather is permitting, this could be great to do outside. The kids could run from the Emerald City into the backyard for their final escape!

Make Your Own Glinda Wand or Tiara

If your child is really into arts and crafts, consider a station where the kids can make and decorate their own wands or tiaras! It could be out of paper or other crafting items. The choice is yours.

Bubble Blowing

If the weather is permitting, you can set up Munchkin Land outside, draw the yellow brick road using chalk, and let the kids blow bubbles.

Flying Monkey Toss

Add a fight with the flying monkeys inside the Emerald City by dangling stuffed animals in the flying monkey costumes from the ceiling using streamers and let the kids throw lightweight balls at them trying to knock them down and break the streamer!

Wicked Karaoke Sing-a-Long

If your kid just wants to sing at some point during the party, make a karaoke playlist on Youtube and let the kids sing their hearts out to the Wicked soundtrack together during the mission at the Ozdust or after the mission is all over.

---

From the kids to the adults, the party was a huge success! Everyone enjoyed getting to be a part of it and it flowed perfectly. If you love to craft and you and your child are obsessed with Wicked, I highly recommend this party.

And hey: I’m pretty sure there are plenty of ways you could turn this into a party for adults too! After all, who doesn’t want to learn the Ozdust dance and go on a Scavenger Hunt to stop the Wizard?

Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more birthday party tips! For other party ideas, be sure to check out my Minecraft Party, Secret Agent Party, and Spiderman Party!

---

Purchase “The Great Oz Escape” Digital Wicked Party Inspired Kit

---