Parent/Senior Night decorating sets the scene with school colors, banners, balloons, and fun touches that bring the energy up and the spirit alive for a night of celebration. My first year as sports mom I simply helped setup, but by the next year the reins had been handed over. Here is my advice if you are just getting started:
- Speak with the coaches to see if you will be reimbursed, and what your budget is.
- Talk to the Seniors on the team – do they want school colors or a theme night?
- Check out the space you will be decorating ahead of time. Begin to make your decor plan paying attention to doorways (watch for balloons being popped) and wall space. If tables are needed, find out the sizes that the school has available.
- Shop for decor items and keep them together in a bin for easy transport.
- Make ahead as many items as possible, such as posters.
- Recruit other parents for help on setup and takedown.
The decor plan I used included a balloon arch for photos, table setup for food/drink, posters of the athletes grouped by grade, senior showcase area, welcome banner, and streamers to fill the space.
Balloon Arch
This item will be your most time consuming and expensive to create. I highly recommend watching videos for strategy & style, and practice tying, making quads, and stacking quads at home. Practicing at home can take away some of the stress on setup day. The video I found most useful is linked here: https://youtu.be/voWS51BFVKI?si=ZHB03LYa7gtZ3w8m.
Here are the products I used to create this balloon arch. This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Table setup
Our setup needed space to hold cupcakes and drinks, so the decor needed to be small and simple. I choose tablecloths that could be washed, an accent runner, and used spice racks as stands to display the cupcakes. The green and gold cloth was used for the Senior’s table, but this item could also be used for a backdrop! I also displayed buckets with a mix of hand-made ribbon flowers, and artificial roses to fill the table until the food and drink were added (check out page 2 for details).
Fill the Space
We were working with a main space that was pretty square, so connecting streamers to a center point made sense! I choose lanterns as the center point and hung them first. Then a pair of volunteers worked together to attach the streamer to the lantern (fold over and staple), and toss the streamer ball to their partner to twist and droop before attaching. They alternated colors and it went pretty fast! The wall spaces were filled with posters of the athletes that were embellished by cutting up some of the products – time to get creative! These extras can add a lot of fun to the space, but the cost can also add up quickly. Luckily, most can be reused for next year if you are careful during clean up.
Game Day!
I could not have been more stressed out about being in charge of this setup – but we got it all done in 2 hours! The posters were made ahead of time, small balloon clusters were premade and transported in garbage bags, and I had practiced and timed myself making 1/2 of the arch. Make sure your volunteers come with some basics like scissors, tape, glue dots, and a step stool.
Now I can go into this season with a little more confidence and experience. Lucky for me all of the same Mama’s have volunteered again and this year’s Seniors liked this setup so much they asked for a repeat!