HOW TO THROW A FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S FNAF PARTY

Image shows a checkered black and white tablecloth set with metallic red streamers and a black paper Five NIghts at Freddy's plate featuring Freddy Fazbear's face. Image by keep up with the jones family.

Hey, friends! As the boys grow up, they love deciding on a party theme each year – and up to this past year, I’ve known all about whatever they’ve asked for and it’s been an easy time for me. So it was only fitting that during the pandemic, on our middle son’s ninth birthday, when I asked him what little party theme he wanted for at home, he said something I wasn’t expecting to hear. A Five Nights at Freddy’s Party.

He asked me for a, and I quote, “a FNAF party, mom!” FNAF. He looked in disbelief at me and said, “Five Nights at Freddy’s, Mom.” Not what I was expecting to hear.

So whilst I had an idea about it because it’s been his obsession for quite some time now, I had no idea how I was supposed to make a party out of it, but I figured Amazon would probably be filled with ideas. So I had a quick tinker on there and… THERE WERE NO FNAF PARTY DECORATIONS TO BE HAD.

Well, with the exception of one item – small paper dessert plates, which I bought them instantly and believe me, were the most expensive paper plates I have ever bought. £9. Anyhow, deep breaths. Today I’m sharing how I did put together a little party at home to celebrate Five Nights at Freddy’s with minimal cost and minimal effort too, but with big smiles all around.

How to throw a Five Nights at Freddy's Party. Image shows a party table covered in a black checkered tablecloth, happy birthday spelled out in rainbow coloured balloons as a garland across the wall, three FNAF plushies; Foxy, Chica and Plushtrap sat on the sideboard and a chocolate cake on a black cake pedestal with a Funko Pop Viny; Rockstar Freddy on top of it. Image by Keep Up With The Jones Family

What is FNAF?

Prepare yourself. This isn’t fairytale or whimsical. This is a horror theme. Five Nights at Freddy’s, or FNAF for short [said: f’naff] Is an American franchise based on a game by Scott Cawthon. I was horrified when I heard about it because first of all, I knew it wasn’t pleasant and I thought it was about a family pizza chain which features animatronic mascots which the children love, but who become murderous after hours, trying to kill the security guard, who has to survive five nights to get paid.

But nope, as if that wasn’t bad enough, I later discovered it’s essentially it’s about a child-murdering restaurant owner of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza who takes children, kills them and stuffs their bodies into the animatronic mascots at the restaurant, who then naturally want revenge. There are huge back stories involving someone called ‘Purple Guy’ and there’s a movie coming soon which hopefully will explain it all to me.

Image shows Party table close up of Pop Vinyl Five Nights at Freddy's figures Bonnie and Chica. They are surrounded by metallic red streamers and there are balloons in the background. Image by keep up with the jones family.

Is FNAF Suitable for Children?

There is a cute side to FNAF, such as the Nintendo Switch Game that doesn’t explain any of the back story and which our youngest enjoys. He knows that there are animatronic toys who are trying to scare the security guard and make him not want to come back to the Pizza restaurant. Our two other boys are 9 and 11, and understand the theme and backstories. The horror of the games is mainly jump-scare based and there’s been nothing gory that I’ve seen – and I’ve seen it all, heard it all, and I’m still confused. It’s interesting though, and I’m looking forward to the movie. In the meantime, there’s a weird film called, “Willy’s Wonderland” featuring a non-speaking Nicolas Cage who does an exponential amount of cleaning that mimics the theme, if you need some idea of what it’s like. You know your children and whether you think this is suitable for them.

Image shows a blond haired boy with a black tshirt and top hat like Henry Stickman stood with three Five Nights at Freddy's large plush toys. Foxy, Chica and Springtrap. They are sat on a wooden sideboard against a pale blue wall and the coloured happy birthday balloons are on the wall in the background. Image by keep up with the jones family.

How to host a Five Nights at Freddy’s Party

Whenever I’m planning a party, I think of the location first. All we had was a table in the living room and a blank wall. Then I think of how to make the party tables represent the theme, and then I plan the food and costumes.

Image shows three Five Nights at Freddy's large plush toys. Foxy, Chica and Springtrap. They are sat on a wooden sideboard against a pale blue wall and the coloured happy birthday balloons are on the wall in the background. Image by keep up with the jones family.

For Five Nights at Freddy’s, the living room had to look like a part of the restaurant, and so I took it from there. In a small space you need large pieces first of all to make an impact, since all the focus is on a little area.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Party Decorations

So to my horror, I discovered that there was no party pack and next to no decorations out in the UK, so I decided to see what the gameplay looked like and if I could match it anyway.

Image shows three boys enjoying the Five Nights at Freddy's Party table. There are Pop Vinyl Funko FNAF figures, a chocolate cake on a black pedestal and the Five Nights at Freddy's Board game, Survice 'til 6am. Image by Keep up with the jones family.

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza

So in Freddy’s Pizzeria, the floor is checkered vinyl and the tablecloths are white in the restaurant and party room where the children celebrate, so I got a checkered black and white tablecloth, a balloon garland which read Happy Birthday in different colours for the wall, cone party hats in bright colours and the *only* set of FNAF paper party plates I could find in the UK from Amazon.

Then I went upstairs and I raided their bedroom for all of their Pop Funko FNAF figures and plushies.

Image shows a homemade square chocolate cake decorated with candles in different colours saying "happy:. There are chocolate icing swirls set with maltesers on top and there are sparklers ready to be lit sticking out of the cake. In the middle of the cake sits a Funko Pop Vinyl sigure of Freddy Fazbear.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Birthday Cake

It’s a tradition in our home to make a cake and decorate it with a new Pop Funko Vinyl figure. That way, if the cake isn’t brilliant, the new toy takes the attention away from it, haha. Seriously though, it’s one of our favourite traditions. Gav had Scuttle from the Little Mermaid on a beachy cake, and Sharkhead Maui over the last couple of years. I’m hoping for Steve Irwin or Jessica Fletcher this year, hint, hint. Anyhow, our son loves chocolate cake and chocolate frosting with raspberry jam, and so that’s what he got. He loves Maltesers and so these decorated the top and Rockstar Freddy made his debut.

Image shows a blond haired boy wearing a black FNAF chica t-shirt and black top hat with a gold chain.
He is peering over a chocolate cake. He is lifting a Freddy Fazbear's Funko Pop Vinyl figure from Five Nights at Freddy's off the cake.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Party Food

This is the easiest part of a FNAF party, the food. Fast food is king here – it’s set in a pizza restaurant and so you can serve pizza, salad [at least you’ll have something to eat!], chicken strippers, even burgers. It could not be easier. Get FNAF Logos for the pizza boxes and little gable boxes. You could even make up little Freddy Fazbear Happy Meals and pop little FNAF figures into the boxes as the toys. So cute! We served scoops of ice cream with Freddy gummy bears and sprinkles as dessert. Use your imagination and make Mr Cupcake Cupcakes, or Pirate themed desserts for Foxy.

Image shows a blond haired boy wearing a black FNAF chica t-shirt and black top hat with a gold chain.
He is pretending to lick the chocolate cake off Freddy Fazbear's Funko Pop Vinyl figure from Five Nights at Freddy's which is covered in chocolate frosting from the cake. Image by keep up with the jones family.

Although this party was so much easier to pull together than I thought – if I’d had more time and we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic, I’d have made Pizza Boxes or Happy Meal type boxes with the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria logo on, and I’d have made themed foods. But the tablecloth, balloons like in the FNAF restaurant, and Pop Funkos with the little plates really made it feel like Five Nights at Freddy’s to our son and when he came downstairs he was completely blown away by it. I’ll probably update this soon when I make these things.

FNAF Presents and Toys

FNAF merchandise has been thin on the ground here, and expensive. We’ve managed to find bits on Amazon and also in our local Forbidden Planet shop, AliExpress even Etsy – and occasionally at Smyths too.

For their party outfits, there are custom lanyards available with a FNAF theme too! Use them as a finishing touch to your party and a special gift for your party guests. FNAF things are notoriously hard to find, and so these will be welcome presents and party favours! Our boys use theirs to hang their mugs from. GS-JJ has a huge selection of custom lanyards.

Image shows three Five Nights at Freddy's large plush toys. Foxy, Chica
Mr Cupcake and Springtrap. They are sat on a wooden sideboard against a pale blue wall. Image by keep up with the jones family.

Brilliantly, there are fiction books on Amazon – which fantastically for me means that my reluctant to read son will actually sit and read these novels.

There are lego-like sets from the game made by Mcfarlane Games. These are expensive but our son LOVES them as they’re exact replicas from the game and come with little figures.

There are a couple of games including the Five Nights at Freddy’s Survive ‘Til 6am Board Game

Image shows the Five Nights at Freddy's Survive 'til 6AM game on a table covered with a black and white checkered tablecloth, strewn with red metallic streamers and with a Funko Pop Vinyl figure of Balloon boy from FNAF stood next to the box. Image by keep up with the jones family.

FNAF [fake] Lego figures – we’ve found these on AliExpress or eBay and cost around £1-3 each.

FNAF Plushies. I bought one of them off Amazon and it arrived much smaller than the size stated. Then I found HUGE plushies [in these party photos] on AliExpress that took a month and a half to get here, but were the same price as the teeny ones, are beautiful quality and cost only £15 each to get here.

FNAF Fan art stickers – we got these on Etsy

FNAF Pens with Toppers, a Metallic FNAF Security Badge [which our son went bananas over] and a FNAF Diary Survival Type logbook which he loves – all from Amazon.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Funko Pop Vinyl Figures and articulated figures by MacFarlane Games are also easy to find at Smyths, Amazon and Forbidden Planet, and Pop in a Box who often have the articulated figure sets on pre-order too.