13 is the age at which your child becomes a teenager and it’s renowned for being a difficult age. They’re just starting to want more independence and to be treated like an adult, yet they’ve only just left their childhood years behind.
Planning a birthday sleepover for a 13 year old can feel like a challenge, especially when you’re trying to get the right balance between treating them like an adult whilst still allowing them to enjoy their youth.
What Should A 13 Year Old Do At A Sleepover?
When it comes to planning a sleepover birthday party for a 13 year old, there are lots of different ideas to choose from.
The most important thing is to choose a theme and plan your décor, activities, food and drink around that theme. This will help to ensure consistency, as well as ensuring that the party is tailored to your 13 year old’s unique personality.
Potential themes that you could consider for your 13 year old’s sleepover party include:
- Football
- Disney
- Pink/Barbie
- Superheroes
- Hollywood stars
- Black and white
- Hawaii
Your teen can ask their friends to arrive dressed for the theme, or you could even provide themed pyjamas for the teenagers to change into when they arrive. Whatever theme you decide to opt for, your teen is bound to have the best night at their sleepover party.
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular ideas for 13 year old sleepover parties.
1. Spa Night
Every teen loves to be pampered, and there’s no better way to celebrate your 13 year old becoming a teenager than hosting a pamper night with their best friends.
Begin the night by encouraging the teens to make their own face masks. They’ll love getting messy and experimenting with different ingredient combinations, before applying the mask to their faces and taking photographs. Here are a couple simple recipes to try:
- Avocado mask: 1 teaspoon honey, 1 teaspoon coconut oil, a quarter of a ripe avocado mashed, 2 drops lavender oil
- Turmeric mask: 1 tablespoon natural yogurt, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon turmeric powder
- Chocolate mask: 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, ¼ papaya, 1 teaspoon aloe vera gel
After rinsing off their face masks, they can enjoy giving each other manicures, pedicures and makeovers, experimenting with different looks and taking lots of photographs to remember their night.
2. Movie Night
Teens love to watch movies, so why not recreate the cinema experience in your own home? After all, there’s nowhere more comfortable than your own bed or sofa! Whether your teen loves scary movies or chick flicks, allow them to pick out a movie with their friends and then sit back and enjoy the movie together.
For a realistic cinema experience, borrow a projector from a friend or family member.
Someone always seems to have one if you ask around! This will enable you to recreate the big screen experience in your own home, which is bound to be a hit with the teenagers.
Team up the movie with some cinema inspired snacks, such as popcorn, hotdogs, nachos and sweets.
You could even create your own pick and mix station for the teens to help themselves to their favourite sweets – simply clean out some old jars and fill them with your teen’s favourite sweets.
3. Make Mocktails
Every 13 year old wants to be treated like a grown up, but there’s certain things they’re simply not old enough to do yet.
One of those things is drinking alcohol – they’re still a long way off that critical age of 18, yet they are desperate to be treated like an adult. Why not invest in some cocktail making equipment and let the teens get creative making mocktails together?
You’ll need a cocktail shaker and some cocktail glasses, along with some of the most common mocktail ingredients such as fruit juices, syrups, non-alcoholic grenadine and lemonade.
It’s also a good idea to buy a range of garnishes for your cocktails, such as strawberries, raspberries, mint and lime.
Print out a few simple recipe cards to get the teens started. However, there’s every chance they’ll want to get creative and come up with their own creations! Here are a few simple recipes to give you inspiration:
- Mojito – Mix together a squeeze of lime, six mint leaves, 1 teaspoon caster sugar, 4 tablespoons of apple juice and a dash of almond extract. Top up with sparkling water and garnish with a mint leaf.
- Strawberry daiquiri – Add a cup of frozen strawberries, a squeeze of lime juice and a tablespoon of maple syrup to the blender and blitz until smooth. Garnish with fresh strawberries and a wedge of lime.
- Woo Woo – Mix equal parts of orange juice and pineapple juice together and add a dash of lemon juice. Put a small amount of grenadine in the bottom of a glass and slowly pour in the juice mixture to create a two-tone mocktail.
4. Camp Out
If your 13 year old is craving some independence, a camping sleepover in your back garden is the perfect way to give them the freedom that they crave, where you can still keep an eye on them.
If you don’t already have one, you’ll need to borrow or buy a large tent, and ask the teens to bring along a sleeping bag.
Serve traditional camping food such as hotdogs and hot chocolate. If you have a chiminea or firepit, you can even toast marshmallows over the fire whilst taking it in turns to make up campfire stories.
For added fun, why not try making s’mores. To do this, toast a marshmallow over the campfire.
Once it is hot and melty, place the toasted marshmallow onto a cracker along with the piece of chocolate, and then place another cracker over the top to make a sandwich. The hot marshmallow will melt the chocolate, making the perfect sweet treat for camping.
5. DIY Photo Booth
Photo booths have been a popular addition to parties for decades, but they’re even more fun when you add your own DIY twist.
If you already own a digital camera or smartphone, all you need are some fun props such as sunglasses, hats, feather boas and musical instruments. You can also make fun colourful signs from cardboard, attaching them to straws or sticks.
If you want to go the extra mile, you can create a giant frame from cardboard and paint it in your teen's favourite colours. The teens can then hold this up, posing within the frame with their chosen props.
The 13 year olds will have hours of fun looking back through their favourite photos after the party is over.
If you want to take it a step further, you could even create a dedicated Instagram hashtag for the party and invite friends to tag their photos on social media.
6. Jewellery Making Party
If your 13 year old loves DIY, or is interested in fashion design, how about hosting a jewellery making party? The teens can make colourful friendship bracelets and funky necklaces. After this, they’ll all have the perfect accessory to wear for their next sleepover!
What You'll Need:
- Satin cord in a range of bright colours
- Elastic threading beads
- Pliers
- A selection of pencils, pens and glitter for decoration
You can purchase all of these items in bulk on eBay or at your local craft shop.
It’s a good idea to create a few sample designs before the party, so that the teens have some ideas to get them started. Then, let their imaginations run wild as they create their own designs and bring them to life.
7. Games Night
No sleepover party is complete without a few party games, but most 13 year olds have grown out of the more traditional games such as pass the parcel or musical chairs.
Luckily, there are plenty of games out there that teens love to play, which will bring your sleepover party to life and ensure that everyone has a great time.
Here are some of the most popular sleepover games for 13 year olds:
- Would You Rather – Take it in turns to ask “this or that” questions. For example, would you rather have feet for hands or hands for feet.
- Truth Or Dare - A popular choice for all sleepover parties, teens will take it in turns to choose between a truth question or a dare. If they don't answer the question truthfully or complete the dare, they must instead take a forfeit!
- Yes Or No Game - Teens take it in turn to think of a person, and then allow their friends to guess who they're thinking of. The twist? They can't answer with the words yes or no, or they lose the game!
8. Blind Makeover
If your teen loves nothing more than wearing makeup and experimenting with new looks, they’ll love playing blind makeover with their friends at their sleepover party!
For this game, you’ll need some basic makeup items in a range of colours, such as foundation, eyeliner, lipstick, blusher, mascara and eye shadow. You could even ask each teen to bring along a couple makeup products to be used for the game.
The makeup products will be placed in the centre and one teen will be blindfolded. They will then have to apply makeup to another teen, without being able to see what they’re doing.
Once every teen has had their makeup done blindly, the teens can then judge who is the best blind makeup artist.
Of course, they’re bound to want to take lots of photographs of their efforts to remember their night!
9. Karaoke
Wow your teen's friends with a karaoke sleepover party! Teens will love singing their hearts out to all of the biggest hits, both solo and with their friends.
If you have a games console such as a Nintendo Switch or a Play Station, there are plenty of different online singing games that you can choose from that do it all for you.
Alternatively, you can take a DIY approach by searching for instrumental versions of their favourite songs on YouTube and printing off the lyrics (if they don't already know them of course!)
To keep everyone entertained between songs, you could also play fun games during the party such as DJ competitions and fancy dress challenges. This is sure to get everyone up on the dance floor and having a great time.
10. Decorate T-Shirts
If you have a group of teens who are really into fashion, why not let them decorate their own t-shirts? This is a fun party game that can be performed by teens both girls and boys, which makes it perfect for mixed parties.
Ask each teen to bring along a plain white t-shirt. You'll need to purchase a few packs of fabric pens, which you can buy from shops such as Hobbycraft or Amazon. Then, let their imaginations run wild as they design their dream t-shirt.
Make sure you put a piece of cardboard inside the t-shirt to prevent the pen from going through to the other side of the t-shirt.
Once they're finished, they can enjoy holding a fashion show to show off their designs to their friends.
Be sure to get plenty of photographs of the finished designs so that they can remember their sleepover party for years to come!
What To Wear For A 13 Year Old Sleepover Party
13 is a challenging age, as your child is just entering the teenage years and leaving childhood behind.
You might find that their sense of style is changing as they begin to become more self-conscious, and it’s around this time that they may begin looking to their friends for style inspiration.
One way to make the teens comfortable at their sleepover party is to provide them with matching pyjamas. However, you’ll need to make sure that your teen is happy with your choice, so that you don’t risk embarrassing them with a childish design!
Friends pyjamas are a popular style amongst this age group, and are a great way to bring your teen’s friends together, representing their friendship perfectly.
Give Your Child A Sleepover Party To Remember
Whatever theme you decide to opt for, the most important thing when you’re planning a sleepover for your 13 year old’s birthday is to keep their interests and personality in mind.
If they love fashion, they may enjoy decorating t-shirts or making jewellery, whilst other teens that prefer screen time might love a cinema party.
We hope these birthday sleepover ideas for 13 year olds have given your inspiration to plan the perfect sleepover party.
If you’re searching for the perfect outfit for your teen’s birthday sleepover, check out our full range of nightwear. From pyjamas to onesies, we have designs to suit every style, taste and personality.
