Updated on: Feb 16, 2024
Wondering what to do on April Fools Day? Looking to host a fun party for all your prankster friends this year? April Fools Day is the best day to host a great pranking party or even a birthday party. This doesn’t mean to go around pranking the whole party and go way over budget unless that’s something you and your friends are into. Instead, it’s a party of fun and weirdness, and those qualities should be reflected in your April Fools ideas. Get creative with wacky games, costumes, food, gifts, and drinks at your April Fools day party!
This party is also appropriate for all ages to have fun! Adults and even seniors can show out their inner child and kids can be kids! No babysitter stress is needed. Having a friendly child's play with this party is what it’s all about. How do you make an April Fools Day party? Here are a few examples of great ideas for April Fools Day that will make for some unforgettable parties!
An April Fool’s Day party isn’t complete without some crazy party ideas, games and activities to amuse and thrill your guests. As long as the game involves some sort of outrageous or incomprehensible situation, it will fit in with your theme perfectly! Include a festive April Fools party theme like clowns, whoopie cushions, fake foods, scary creepy-crawlies, and more! We’ve come up with a list of very silly April Fool’s Day games for you to include at your prank-themed party.
April Fools Day Party Decorations
Every party deserves some sort of decoration, and a pranking party or April Fools birthday party are no exceptions. As a matter of fact, the decorations play a very important role because they let the guests, and everyone else know that the party is happening at this house! Therefore you need to be strategic when it comes to decorations. Here are some good April Fools Day ideas for decorations that will take your event to the next level.
1. Balloons
Honestly, what's a party without some balloons? Whether it is a simple balloon entrance or a full-out clown balloon, the decision is yours in the end, all we can advise you to do is to be creative with them.
2. Signs
What other way can the guests know where to go, maybe there are two houses on the same street that are having a party. To have a little more fun with the signs you can let your neighbors in on the joke, and put a sign on their front yard saying that the party is there. Obviously, when the guests arrive and don't know anyone in the house, that will surely leave them to be confused. Or, you can put a sold sign on your own front lawn, leaving the guests even more confused.
3. Cardboard Cutouts
You can get a couple of cardboard cuts and posters, or even a banner of your favorite comedians and clowns and decorate them all around your party area.
4. Accessories/stickers
Whether it's clown noses, funny glasses, wigs, lips, or even stickers that say April fools or have silly names. Let your guests leave with a gift or some sort of souvenir.
5. Rubber Chickens
Ah, the obnoxious rubber chickens, an April fool's classic, need we say more?
April Fools Day Party Games and Activities
6. “Find the Whoopie Cushion ”
When it comes to April Fools Day activities, this one includes a timeless item that is always a fan favorite. That item is a whoopie cushion, and it is sure to always create laughs. Buy a whoopie cushion from the store or online. You’ll need tape and a couch with three or more cushions. This works better if you can unzip the cushion liner to put the whoopie cushion inside and seal it back up. Have your friends leave the room and yell for them to come back when you’ve got it in place. Have all your friends sit down at once, if they got the whoopie cushion, they’re out! The next round switch where the whoopie cushion goes next. It’s a game of chance and immaturity, enjoyable for everyone.
7. “The Biggest April Fool”
All you need is a piñata and some candy for this idea that is especially great for April Fools Day birthdays. Your guests then take turns whacking the piñata with a stick. Whoever succeeds in breaking it open wins the title! You could purchase a piñata in the shape of the number 1. Another great April Fool Day idea is to fill the piñata with random items and sequences to surprise your guests. The surprise will definitely prank them!
8. Food Inspector
Ever heard of the Mardi Gras King Cake? It’s a cake with a tiny plastic baby inside. The tradition goes, whoever finds the baby in their piece of cake has good luck for that year. Well, that’s cute for Mardi Gras. In this case, you can use something else like a piece filled with sour cream or tint toy soldier. Make a cake and fill one section you’d cut off for your guests. Whoever finds that odd piece out has to prank the rest of the guests. They have to make it good!
9. To Drink or Not to Drink?
This is one of the April Fools Day party ideas for adults only. Get a series of clear liquors like Patron, some sort of vodka, and Everclear. Then have three empty water bottles and three water bottles filled with water. Pour each liquor in the three water bottles the same height as the regular water bottles. Depending on how many guests you have you can use more. Mix up the bottles so even you don’t know which one is which and give everyone a bottle. Have fun!
10. Comedy Duel
No April Fools are complete without laughter. Hold a comedy duel, where your guests give you and others all of their best jokes, whoever gets the most laughs, in the end, wins the competition and gets a prize. Now if you want this prize to also be a prank the decision is yours, but either way this is a terrific choice to add to your April Fools games.
11. Pin the Nose on the Clown
Another April Fool’s activity involves hanging a picture of a clown that is missing his giant red nose. Give one of your guests the red nose and blindfold them. After spinning them around so they don’t know what direction the picture is, discreetly remove the clown.
The tricky part is to have the rest of the guests keep quiet about this little secret! Let the blindfolded guest attempt locating the clown until they give up and realize that there was never a picture in the first place. This prank will definitely make your guests have a good laugh!
12. search Apple Dunking
search Apple dunking can also be part of your party activities. Although it is a very carnival-like activity, it is entertaining and amusing to watch. To start, you have to fill a deep bucket with extremely cold water and place some apples inside. Ask your guests to take turns dunking their heads in the icy water to retrieve as many apples as they can.
The prank is that some of them are fake apples! Make sure they’re dense enough to float with the rest of the apples. Sit back and watch your guests hit or miss. If you can’t find any fake apples another way to do this is to pick another fruit like oranges or pears. Something you can find in the produce section and decor.
13. What Color is It?
This is another drinking game but for the kids. Parents you can play too if you really want to. Buy the same solid colored cups like red, blue, or purple. A darker color for the cup makes this game better. Fill the cups with water all the same height and drop different colorings in them. Place the cups in a row on the table and have each kid stand in front of a cup.
They can’t pick it up, hold it to the light or swish it around. They have to guess what color the water is based on what they see in front of them. After only one guess, they drink the water. The color of their tongue will tell them if they were right or wrong.
14. Prank Wars
Pranking is what this day is all about, so it is a necessity for April Fool party ideas. Throughout the day you can always have prank wars with your guests to see who pulls off the most hilarious pranks. At the end of the reunion, everyone can vote on who did the best. These are only some ideas we have to make your April Fool’s celebration more amusing, however, your imagination has no limits and you are welcome to come up with more happy, fun and engaging activities for your April 1st events.
April Fools Day Party Food Ideas
It's not a party without food and drinks. But since it's April fools day, you can't just have basic snacks and drinks. You need to give the day its rights. You need to hit your guests with silly recipes that will create an awesome gotcha moment! Here is a list of foods you can make for your party that your guests will surely remember.
- Unique cakes: What we mean by unique here is simply something creative/out of the box. Did you ever stumble upon one of those videos on social media where you guess whether it's an actual burger or a cake and for the first few seconds you're convinced that it's a cheeseburger, only for it to be cut into and turned out to be a cake? That's the kind of energy you should be going for on a day like this. Whether it's a kitty litter cake, a hot dog cake, a cheeseburger cake, heck maybe even a meatloaf cake.
- Speaking of Meatloaf cakes another fun idea that you can do to trick your guests is to make a meatloaf in the shape of a cake. Cover up your beef patties in perfectly whipped mashed potatoes that can easily be mistaken as frosting. This will definitely leave your guests baffled, it looks like a perfect cake slice to them, but it tastes like meatloaf. It's dinner and dessert all in one!
Crazy April Fools Day Party Ideas: Conclusion
April Fools is not usually celebrated but it is a perfect time to laugh with friends. We hope you enjoyed these April Fools Day Party ideas.
Written by Laura Sastre; Contributors: Jack Leduc, Artem Khaybullin and Nadeen El-Ansari