A Survivor themed party was the perfect choice for my sister when she turned 40. I wanted to do something special and I knew the theme immediately – which doesn’t happen often. We’ve watched every season of Survivor since it started over 20 years ago! It’s one of the few shows we try to watch live and text each other during. Frequently the topic is how hard (or easy) a Survivor challenge appears to be.
Using the format of Survivor, I planned games themed around the concepts of Outwit, Outplay, and Outlast. Other key parts of Survivor were worked into the decorations (which was largely tropical/island themed), a treat to take home that was made to look like a hidden immunity idol, and casting votes of birthday wishes.
A challenging part of planning any party in advance is dealing with two key factors – weather and guests. This party was taking place in November in Pennsylvania – it might be nice weather, it might be snowing, who knows! I don’t like to rely on something I can’t control, so this was planned to be indoors and if we were blessed by good weather, we could easily take advantage of it – it’s much harder to plan the other way around.
The second challenge of guests is really just the unknown number of who is attending, who will want to participate in games. With whole families being invited, one sickness could wipe 4-6 people off the list, and it could happen on party day! So the activities needed to be flexible for participation.
Outwit: Trivia
How much do you know about the Birthday Girl?
Trivia games can be fun and accommodate any number of participants. This could have been trivia about the show Survivor but we already knew we’d have a mix of knowledge in our attendees, some who never watched the show at all.
Instead, this focused on trivia about my sister (the birthday girl). It was a lot of fun and her husband and daughter came up with all the questions. It was a simple activity:
- Ask the trivia question
- Everyone wrote down their guess
- The birthday girl revealed the right answer
One key thing to notice, we didn’t pre-plan the right answer! Nothing is worse than thinking you know someone’s favorite color or childhood dream job and then it’s revealed and the birthday girl says “uh, no it’s not!” … awkward! Luckily that didn’t happen.
I created these Survivor-themed notebooks for each guest to use to play along and write their own answers down. Some guests wanted to keep them which was great! I bulk ordered notebooks and then created Survivor stickers using rectangular labels. Simple and effective!
Outlast: A Survivor Balance Challenge
Who can keep it steady the longest?
Survivor challenges are full of balance tests that go on for hours. Entertaining for television? Yes. Entertaining for a group of party guests? No! Similarly, a lot of the Survivor balance challenges involve perching a person awkwardly/painfully on a large pole with tiny foot holds. Again, entertaining for television? You bet! Something a typical person could do? Probably not.
After discussing a lot of options, I chose a straightforward challenge of balancing a ball on a pole. We used small (1/2″ diameter) cpvc pipe and ping pong balls. Just holding the ball on top of the pipe was fairly simple so we added that the contestants also had to stand on top of a wood block which wasn’t super hard to balance on, but enough to keep it interesting.
After the pipe was cut to 20” lengths, I wrapped them in different colored electrical tape. The tape served two purposes:
- It looked prettier than a plain cpvc pipe
- It created different “zones” of colors so we could tell everyone to grab the red section and then move to the blue section after 5 minutes
Because the supplies were simple, we prepared as many as we could so a lot of guests could play at once. We ended up doing the game multiple times so more guests could play and then did a showdown round with the winners from each round.
Outplay: A Survivor Obstacle Course
Are you ready to run, climb, stretch, and THEN solve a puzzle?
Survivor is full of elaborate obstacle courses and some components are very well known to even a casual watcher. Our obstacle course was comprised a few key elements:
- Racing over, under, and through obstacles
- Untying knots
- Building a long pole and using it to retrieve a key
- Unlocking locks
- Solving a three-dimensional puzzle
My husband did a lot of heavy lifting on creating this obstacle course. We used things we found around the house (like steps, sawhorses, ropes). He also created a few items we needed and could reuse in the future (like balance beams … which make a reappearance in the Pirate Party).
To play the game we divided the group in two. We had purchased different colored buffs which indicated the teams. It also was another item guests could take home.
First the team had to climb over and under the saw horses. Across the balance beams where one team member untied a series of knots. Then climb through a rope wall.
After all the team members were through the rope wall, the team assembled the sticks collected on the course (tied on with all the knots). Using this precarious pole, one member from the team stretched back through the rope wall to retrieve a high key.
After retrieving the key, a chest was unlocked and inside were pieces to a three dimensional puzzle.
The first team to finish by assembling the puzzle into a pyramid won!
Many of these components are found in almost every season of Survivor but the pyramid puzzle was specifically taken from Season 38 Episode 5.
Survivor Immunity Idols
Take something home!
On the show Survivor, most seasons focus on contestants searching for hidden immunity idols. They are wrapped in burlap and hidden in trees, rocks, or around their structures.
My mom came up with this idea to act like a goody bag! These immunity idols were wrapped up in burlap and string and inside was a KitKat bar to enjoy!
Cast Your Vote
Sending Birthday Wishes – Survivor Style
Casting votes is a large part of Survivor. At this birthday party, each guest cast a “vote” for what my sister should do after turning 40. Guests also wrote birthday messages and dropped them in the urn.
It was a simple way to add in a key component of Survivor and was a nice memento from the party.
This was an awesome concept and I loved it !
The games were fun for everyone, even if you weren’t an avid Survivor watcher. All ages liked playing.