Shark Week Party Ideas That Will Make a Splash

It’s July, which means it’s time for everyone’s favorite event of the year: Shark Week. It’s the most anticipated series on Discovery, and last year, the programming was a hit, attracting 24 million viewers. This year, the channel is celebrating its 37th year of hair-raising, jawsome, shark-tastic footage to entertain and continue educating fans. With the kickoff only one month away, it’s time to start planning those viewing parties. Whether you’re planning a fun family event or a grown-up get-together with friends, we’ve got the ultimate Shark Week party plan. Get ready to witness some jaw-dropping shark action with the perfect theme to match!

Sea-Worthy Shark Party Decor

A good Shark Week party puts guests in the mood the second they walk up to the door. So, why not start decorating from the outside in? Turning your front yard or porch into the perfect shark set-up is easy with these ideas.

Turn Your Yard Into the Ocean

Some blue tarp and a creative streak are all you need to turn your yard into shark-infested water. The first step is to line your entrance with the tarp. Then, cut out shark-shaped heads from thick cardstock or cardboard and prop them up on either side, leaving space for guests to walk to the door. Cut out waves to place in between the sharks, and throw in a life preserver or two to add some drama. You can use this shark template and blow it up to your preferred size. A similar idea is to fill your yard with shark fins. This is what Christina Weber did on Pinterest, and while it’s technically a Halloween decoration, it also works for Sharkfest.

Make Your House Feel Like a Shark Tank

Once inside the house, guests should be thrust into a shark’s environment. This is easier to pull off than you think! Blue balloons scattered around the house in various colors create the illusion of bubbles, complementing items like blue tablecloths and plateware. Sea-themed lanterns, such as these jellyfish from Oriental Trading, add to the ocean-like atmosphere. Pool stores like this one often have fun “No Swimming, Shark!” signs that can be hung around the house for dramatic effect.

Decorations don’t need to be pricey, either. These construction paper sharks are an easy way to jazz up walls or staircases, and they also serve as a kid-friendly activity. You can sometimes find toy sharks at places like the Dollar Store or discount stores, which can be placed on tables or hung from the ceiling. Shark-theme plateware like this set from Target is another way to bring Shark Week to life in your own home. You can even decorate the food table like this Pinterest user, who placed a shark toy on top of blue crystal rocks to emulate water. A clear punch jar was then placed over that, making this look just like a shark tank!

If you’re committed to the bit, Paige B. on Pinterest created an incredible backlit scene with a piece of fabric and some fish-shaped cut-outs. To replicate this, measure and cut a piece of light blue, semi-transparent fabric to fit any ceiling with a light source. You can attach this using removable command hooks or thumbtacks. Leave openings on the sides, and gently slide the shark paper silhouettes in. This creates a shadow of the fish, with the light mimicking sunlight above the “water.” If you cover the walls on either side with blue streamers like Paige did, you’ll feel as though you’re walking underwater.

Some other decorations to consider:

• Blue and silver wall tinsel
• Shark-shaped confetti
• Shark-themed bowls, napkins, cups, or serving platters
• Shark pool floats if you’re having a pool party
• Fake shark teeth for scattering on tables
• Fishing net to hang from the ceiling or on stair railings
• Paper shark fins taped to the walls or floor

Here’s Your Sharkfest Menu

No Shark Week celebration is complete without the perfect menu to go with it. Finger foods, small bites, and easy-to-eat dishes are great for viewing parties. From a host’s perspective, you also want food that’s easy to prepare or can be made ahead of time for the party. Luckily, we’ve got some fun and delicious dishes that are sure to please a crowd.

Ocean Water Punch

Party punch is a great option to have in addition to soda and water. This punch will give your party those tropical island vibes you’d get just before diving into shark-infested water. This punch recipe from Alex Daynes calls for a simple blend of Blue Hawaiian Punch and Lemon-Lime Soda. The result is a sweet, fizzy, and slightly tangy drink that can be easily boozed up for adults. Try adding some Bombay Sapphire, tequila, or flavored vodka for a 21+ drink.

Looking to make this even more festive? Alex Daynes recommends adding gummy sharks or fish and topping each drink with a dollop of whipped cream. You can leave it uncolored to resemble wave crests, or dye it red with food coloring for a more dramatic shark-attack effect.

Shark Week Small Bites

Your Shark Week guests probably have shark-sized appetites, so having plenty of small bites is key to a good party. If you’re feeding a crowd, a charcuterie board is always a good idea. For Shark Week, try a Shark-cuterie board–it’s all the same delicious bites, but on-theme! To start, you need to figure out what the centerpiece, or the shark, of your board will be. Some ideas include:

• Brie: Cut a piece of brie into the shape of a shark’s head. Then, carve out a crescent shape for where its mouth will be. Fill it with raspberry jam, and use discarded pieces of brie for teeth. This guide by Ain’t Too Proud to Meg shows everything step-by-step.
• Cheese Ball: Instead of making a regular cheeseball with cream cheese and shredded cheese, shape it into a shark’s head. Use poppy seeds around the top of its head to add color, and fold a piece of salami in half for a mouth. Then, cut sharp-looking teeth out of white cheese slices. This video shows the process in real-time.
• Rubber Shark: If you’re not feeling crafty, you can use a plastic or rubber shark as your shark-cuterie centerpiece. Just be sure to wash it thoroughly beforehand!

This is a fun way to be creative with the snacks, and you can add anything you want to the rest of the board. Gummy sharks, Swedish fish, Goldfish crackers, blue and white candy, yogurt-covered fruit, and cheese cut into fish shapes pair well with other meats and cheeses.

Another fun option is a shark-themed play on chips and dip. Tortilla chips are already triangular and resemble shark fins when you stick them in a cup of dip. You can use any white dip—French onion, white queso, or spinach dip are good options—and dye it blue to mimic water. Set these out in small dip cups, or make a large batch and stick a few blue corn tortilla chips in for “sharks.” To make the scene more dramatic, sprinkle some Goldfish over top, and leave “blood” trails in the water using red gel food coloring.

Another fun snack idea comes from Jessica McMullen on Pinterest. Bugle chips dipped in white candy melt chocolate resemble sharp shark teeth. This is also the perfect salty-sweet snack! You can make this alone or add it to a party chow mix if you’re feeding a crowd. If Bugles aren’t your thing, JoAnne Cochran got creative on Pinterest with “shark fins” (blue corn tortilla chips) and “chum” (red tomato salsa). This requires no effort, and still fits the theme!

Another Pinterest user, Laura Gibson, took this idea a little further. In addition to “fins” and “chum,” sign cards were printed to identify other common snacks as sea-themed things. For example, Crunchy Cheetos are “sea coral,” red pepper slices are “squid tentacles,” carrot sticks are “crab legs,” party chip mix is “floatsom” or driftwood. Something like pigs in a blanket can even pass for “sea snails!”

We’ve got two more small-bite ideas for you: Food Network’s Shark quesadillas, and 2 Geeks Who Eat’s classic Meg-a shrimp cocktail. For the shark quesadillas, all you need are:

• Flour tortillas
• Roasted red peppers
• Shredded Mexican blend cheese
• Black olive slices

Start by cutting each tortilla into fourths. This gives you the perfect shark-shaped head to work with. Then, cut a mouth shape into half the tortillas (a shape similar to that of a Jack ‘o Lantern). Assemble each quesadilla with shredded cheese and a piece of roasted red pepper. Ensure the roasted red pepper covers the entire space underneath the top tortilla wrap with the mouth cut-out. Then, cook the quesadilla, and add two black olive slices for eyes.

For the Meg-a Shrimp Cocktail recipe, you’ll need:

• 3 cups ketchup
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tbsp horseradish
• 1 tbsp mesquite liquid smoke
• 3 lemons

Mix all the ingredients and refrigerate the sauce to chill. Serve with deveined and peeled shrimp, leaving the tails on for dipping.

Sweet Shark Desserts

After all that shark footage, you need something sweet to top it off. There’s no shortage of shark-themed desserts out there, but we’ve got one for every budget, effort level, and preference. First up is

One easy, single-serve dessert option is a twist on dirt cake. Start with a base of vanilla pudding, dyed blue to look like the ocean. Then, top each pudding cup with crushed graham crackers for “sand” and a gummy shark. Have some fun with these by adding tiny umbrellas, Sour Patch Kids as beachgoers, or Life Savers as tiny life rafts.

Another easy dessert is these Killer Shark Attack cupcakes. All you need is vanilla cupcake mix, a little red jam, and some blue frosting to fit the theme. A piping bag makes it easy to squirt the “blood” jam into the center of the cupcake. To decorate the top, use grey melting chocolate to shape fins, or just cut an Oreo or other dark-colored cookie into thirds. To make frosting look even more realistic, A Wicked Whisk has a great tutorial on creating “waves.”

For a healthier dessert that screams summer, make a watermelon shark. This Pinterest post has a step-by-step guide on how to cut the fruit into the correct shape. After the hole for the mouth is cut, you can dice up the fruit and put it back into the “shark mouth.” This would also be a fun way to serve fruit salad!

If you want to blow your guests out of the water (metaphorically speaking, of course), try your hand at a Shark Week cake. There are a few ways you can do this:

• Cupcake Cake: Arrange cupcakes in rows, and cover the entire top with frosting. This is an easy way to give a batch of cupcakes the appearance of a cake, without dealing with crumb layers and smoothing.
• Sheet Cake: A sheet cake is the easiest thing to frost because you don’t need to worry about layers.
• Cookie Cake: One giant cookie can serve as the base for frosting art, and it’s also suitable for a crowd.

You can decorate any of these the same way with vanilla frosting. Food coloring will be your best friend, and you can create various shades of blue for an ombre effect. If you want to add a beach to your cake scene, cover some vanilla frosting with graham cracker crumbs for sand. You can add details with:

• Sour Patch Kids as people
• Teddy Grahams
• Lifesavers
• Shark gummies
• Swedish fish
• Drink umbrellas
• Star candies
• Red gel food coloring
• Sour gummy worms (make an octopus like this one!)

Dangerously Fun Sharkfest Games

It’s not a party until you’re having some real fun, and these shark-themed games deliver. Games are a great addition to any party, regardless of age. And trust us–some of these are even more fun once you’ve had a glass or two of Ocean Water Punch.

Jaws Cornhole

Cornhole is fun on the average summer day, but Shark Week takes the stakes up a notch. If you already have a cornhole board, this one is easy. You can use this free template of a shark’s jaws on a piece of thick cardboard. Then, tape it to the cornhole openings. Now, it’s a game of Chum Toss!

Walk the Plank

Walking the plank isn’t just a skill for pirates. It’s a skill all your guests should have, too, especially when sharks are the theme. You can set up a plank in several different ways, using something as wide as a pallet or as narrow as a 2×4. Make it as easy or challenging as you like! To give this an even higher-stakes feel, give everyone time limits to cross.

Shark Week Bingo

Some things are inevitable during Shark Week: blood in the water, great white sharks, and the repeated use of “feeding frenzy.” The reliability of these recurring during each show can easily be turned into a game of bingo. MyFreeBingoCards allows users to create up to 30 free, custom bingo cards. You can even share the cards virtually, and guests can opt to play on their phones. Share these with each guest; then watch to see who’s the first to fill a whole row during the screening.

Costume Contest

A costume contest is a game in its own right. Sure, you’ll have people showing up as inflatable sharks, but the real test is to see who thinks outside the box. You could dress as other sea animals, shark bait, a surfer, or even a lifeguard. Bonus points for anyone who dresses as a specific type of shark, like a hammerhead or thresher!

Survival-Worthy Prizes

Goodie bags are a great way to show appreciation to guests for attending. You can purchase premade bags, or you can create your own using cellophane, themed paper bags, or net bags to stay on-theme. Inside, you can include:

• Shark tooth candy necklaces like these
• Shark gummy candy
• Custom shark cake pops like these
• Shark cookies from your local bakery
• Lifeguard whistle
• Lifesavers candy
• A bag of Goldfish or “shark bait”
• Mini sunscreen
• Themed sunglasses
• Candy corn shark teeth
• Factoid shark prints
• Trading cards featuring different sharks

Any of these can also double as a prize for the survivor of these games. If you want to go all-out, you can even reward them with their very own shark plushie or figurine.