Decorating

• Look for some wide-striped fabric to turn your party location into a circus tent. Red and white striped fabric matches circus ten colors, but blue and white or another color combination can work too. Attaching it in drapes to the ceiling and walls will transport your guests right into a circus theme when they walk in. Use streamers, balloons, confetti and glitz to put on a show.
  
  

Food

• The circus has all manner of treats: caramel corn, candy apples, cotton candy, elephant ears and hot dogs are butt a few of the options. If you can find or rent a real popcorn machine or cotton candy maker and ask an adult or teenager to run it, your guests will be wowed. Plus, the smell of the circus will be in the air.
  
  Cake and ice cream are a must at kids' parties; check with your local bakery on obtaining a circus-themed cake, and rainbow or confetti ice cream is a good pairing with it.
  
  

Activities

• Circus games are fun for kids and adults. Set up carnival-style games of "Pin the Nose on the Clown," a ring toss with bottles, a bean-bag toss through a circus animal cutout, and a pop-the-balloon dart game. You also can resurrect kids' classics like animal charades and musical chairs, with a circus twist, of course.
  
  Renting an inflatable, colorful "moon bounce" house is more costly, but would be a huge hit with kids. A face-painting booth is ideal for circus parties, as guests can become clowns, trapeze artists, or anything else they choose.
  
  If you can afford it, hire a clown to make balloon animals and joke around with the guests for more circus atmosphere.