Whether it’s little ones who love a mystery or older folks wanting to relive their nostalgia, there’s something about Scooby-Doo that draws in people of all ages. With such a famous face, here’s how to make your Scooby-Doo party a smash hit.

Make a Scooby-Doo Pinata

Pinatas are a perfect creation: Beat something up then get rewarded for it with delicious candy. Skip going to the store for a store-bought pinata and learn to make your own. If you’re into arts and crafts, you can involve your child in the creation.

What You’ll Need

• Cardboard
• Tape
• Scissors
• Tissue paper and decorations
• Optional: A glue stick

Create the Pinata Base

If you’re particularly artistic, you can strive for a structurally difficult recreation of Scooby’s face as pictured here. If you want more of a challenge with better pay off, you can recreate the Mystery Machine shown here. For the easiest pinata for those low on time, you can make a circular pinata and attach a picture of Scooby-Doo on it like here.

Let’s say you’re making the last option, which appears to be a squat cylinder. First, you would cut out two circles then leave a strip of cardboard to connect the circles.

Roll up the strip into itself like you’re rolling up a yoga mat and squeeze it as tight as you can. Doing this will make the connecting piece easier to connect.

Place the circle on top of the strip. Tape together one circle board to the piece with packing tape to save time. If you don’t have packing tape, scotch tape is fine.

Once you’ve taped the strip to the circle, connect the second circle strip. You should be left with a brown, plain 3-D box that doesn’t look too appealing.

That’s okay. Add tissue paper with tape. You could use a glue stick if you’d like, but glue wets the tissue paper and makes it fall apart quickly. Attach whatever other decorations you’d like, such as streamers or stars.

The same general process applies if you’re making more complicated constructions, like the mystery machine or Scooby-Doo bust. Create the 3-D structure out of cardboard then attach the tissue paper.

If you don’t have tissue paper, you could paint the box as well. However, be sure to get a thick acrylic paint that will adequately cover the tape you use.

For better visuals on how to create a pinata, check out this video.

Make a Scooby Doo Cake

Go the extra mile and make a cake of the Mystery Machine. Check out this video for a fast-paced tutorial on how to do it.

First, you’ll want to bake a bunch of cake layers. The video uses what looks to be vanilla that’s been dyed various colors, but you can pick any flavor you want. Chocolate, plain white vanilla, red velvet, it’s up to you.

Bake about three pans of cake. Once they’ve cooled, take the layers out of the baking tray and cut off the tops so that all of the layers are the same height — about two inches tall.

Once that’s done, cut each of the layers in half so that they’re about one inch tall. Add frosting between where you cut the cake. Stack the layers, frosting in between every layer of cake, until the layers stand about five layers tall.

It will help to have cutouts of the side and front of the mystery machine ready. Hold the side of the mystery machine to the layers of the cake you have and cut around it.

Great, you’ve completed the side. Be sure to have cutouts of the front and back as well. You can use context clues to figure out how the remaining edge should be cut. Ice the trimmed cake with frosting.

Next, make light blue fondant by mixing two cups of granulated sugar, ½ cup of water, and two tablespoons of light corn syrup and following the recipe here. Create a light green fondant for the car decals and black fondant for the van’s wheels.

Add the remaining decals. If you don’t want to make dozens of fondant balls, you can print out pictures of Scooby, Daphne, Shaggy, Fred, and Velma along with the Mystery Van logo. Attach them to the cake, and be sure to remove them before you dig in.

Scooby-Doo Frosted Cookies

If a cake seems too daunting, you could have just as much fun with Scooby-Doo frosted cookies.

Cookies are fun to decorate no matter what your age is, but it seems to be especially fun for children. If you’re a parent hosting a party for a child’s birthday, one of the fun activities you can do is have the kids decorate their cookies before eating them.

Below is how to make sugar cookies from scratch, as well as some of the colors you’ll need to draw iconic Scooby-Doo characters with icing.

Sugar Cookie Ingredients

You need a sugar cookie recipe that won’t spread out while baking in the oven, as doing so will ruin the design you were going for. As a result, we’ve found the perfect recipe that will help cookies keep their shape while baking.

• 1 cup – sugar
• 1 cup – unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 5 tsp – vanilla extract
• 1 – large egg
• 5 cups – all-purpose flour
• ¾ tsp – baking powder
• ¾ tsp – salt

Sugar Cookie Instructions

1. Mix the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy. You should see no clumps of butter or sugar anywhere.
2. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Beat until thoroughly combined.
3. Now for the dry ingredients. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and whisk them all together until homogeneous.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ones until thoroughly mixed. It’s best to add the dry ones in increments — one scoop at a time.
5. Lay down a large square of plastic cling wrap onto the counter and place half the dough into it. Wrap up the dough so that all of it is covered. Mold the dough into a ball or disk.
6. Do the same for the other half of the dough.
7. Transfer the dough balls into the fridge. Let them chill for about 2 to 3 hours.
8. After that amount of time has passed, pull out the dough balls and preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease or line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
9. Lightly cover a flat surface with flour and place one unwrapped dough ball onto it. Flour the doll ball and a rolling pin as well and roll it out to about and ⅛ of an inch for crispy cookies or a quarter in for thicker and softer cookies.
10. Use cookie cutters to create the shapes you’d like for your cookies. With a spatula, gently lift the cookies and place them onto the prepared cooking tray.
11. Bake the cookies for about 9 to 10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown.
12. Repeat steps 8 to 11 with the second ball of dough.
13. Once all the cookies have been baked, let them cool to room temperature before icing.

Icing Ingredients

• 3 cups – powdered sugar
• 3 – 4 tbsp – milk
• 2 tbsp – light corn syrup
• ½ tsp – vanilla extract
• Food coloring
• Optional: Candies, sprinkles, or other edible decorations.

Icing Instructions

1. Combine sugar, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract into a moderately sized bowl. Stir till combined.
2. Tip: If the icing is too thick, add milk one teaspoon at a time until you reach the right consistency. If the frosting is too watery, add more sugar (a little at a time) till pipeable.
3. Divide the frosting into separate bowls and add food coloring. Stir until the color is properly dispersed throughout the icing.
4. Scoop the icing into a piping bag and add a piping tip. If you don’t have piping tips, cutting a small hole off the corner of a Ziploc bag also works — though you’ll have less control. Also, be sure you don’t bust the icing bag’s seam.
5. Once iced, let the frosting harden before consuming. It could take several hours.
6. Keep uneaten cookies in Tupperware or in any other available airtight container. Let the cookies sit at room temperature.

Icing Color Combos for Scooby-Doo Cookies

Scooby Doo’s Face (Picture for Reference):

• Brown — Large amounts for his fur, as it will cover up most of the cookie.
• Black — For his nose and pupils, as well as to create the outline of his features.
• White — A small bit for his eyes and mouth.
• Blue — For his collar
• Yellow – A small amount for his dog tag.

Scooby’s Dog Tag (Picture for Reference)

• Yellow — Nearly ¾ of the cookie is yellow, so you’ll need quite a bit.
• Light Blue — For the diamond shape around Scooby Doo’s initials.

Velma’s Glasses (Picture for Reference)

• Black — for the frames
• White for the surrounding cookie part

Try Out Scooby Snacks

Scooby snacks were the staple cookie in the original shows. Scooby and Shaggy could always be counted on to stop whatever they were doing and crunch on a few Scooby Snacks — even in the thick of a chase or other inopportune moment.

Your house guests could feel the allure of a Scooby Snack as well with this delicious recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup – oatmeal
• 2 cups – flour
• ½ cup – cocoa
• ½ cup – sugar
• ½ cup – melted butter
• 2 – eggs
• 1 tbsp – vanilla.

Optional: Peanut butter and melted chocolate.

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• First, mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, making sure to disperse all the flour, oatmeal, cocoa, and sugar so that no clumps form in the dry mixture.
• Then mix all the wet ingredients — the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk them together until it is a homogeneous consistency.
• Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Be sure you mix the wet ingredients in with the dry in increments instead of dumping all the wet stuff into the dry all at once.
• Once all the ingredients have been mixed, you should start to see the dough forming. Take out the dough and place it onto a clean surface.
• Add some flour or cooking oil to a rolling pin and roll the dough flat.
• With a bone-shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as you can from the flat dough, placing them onto a greased baking tray. If you don’t have a cookie-cutter, you’ll have to use a knife.
• With a toothpick or other fine instrument, write “Scooby” on each of the cookies.
• Once all the cookies have been cut and placed on the baking tray, place the cookies in the oven and cook them for 10 minutes — or until golden brown.

For a visual guide to help you create the perfect golden brown Scooby Snack, you can follow this baking tutorial.

Scooby-Doo Party Favor Bags

Party bags are a cute way to give little treats to your guests. Whether you fill them with candy, small toys, baked goods, or other fun finds, your guests will love the thought you put into getting them something special for them.

Best of all, Scooby-Doo party favor bags are easy to make. To save a step, you can buy them online, ready to go for a pretty low price.

If you’d like, you could create your own rather easily with arts and crafts supplies or on digital design software. The software doesn’t have to be fancy — it could be Microsoft Paint or the comparable version for other operating systems.

Here’s what you should do if you want to make your own Scooby-Doo party favor bags. Again, it’s super simple and easy to do.

Materials

• Paper bags (however many you need for the party)
• Scooby’s Face (multiply by however many bags you need)
  • 1 – Black Nose
  • 2 – Eyes
  • 2 – Eyebrows
  • 2 – Brown Ears
  • Optional — his iconic blue collar and dog tag.
• 1 glue stick
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Create or purchase the features of Scooby Doo’s face. The eyes, eyebrows, nose, and ears should ideally fit on one sheet of paper.
2. Print out as many sheets of Scooby’s features as there are paper bags.
3. Cut out all the features from one sheet of paper.
4. Glue the features to the bag.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all the paper bags have faces on them.
6. Wait for the glue to dry before filling the bags with goodies.

Scooby-Doo Door Decoration

When guests roll up to your house, they should know they’ve arrived at the party they’ve been waiting for all week. What better way to signal to everyone there’s about to be some good vintage times at your place than with a decoration on the front door?

Not only does it instantly set the mood to be in party mode, but you can also snap a pic of it and send it to your tardy guests. Perhaps you could send them something like, “Just like Scooby-Doo, where are you?”

Mystery Machine Door Decoration

The Mystery Machine was the classic vehicle transporting the Mystery Gang to each of their ghostly or paranormal adventures. With a door decoration paying homage to the classic van, your guests can step right inside and know they’ve arrived on their unique sort of adventure for the night.

You can construct the door decoration however you’d like. Take a look at this reference photo here. There’s the iconic light blue and bright lime green that the van is famous for, as well as the logo and red flower for the 60s feel.

Your door doesn’t have to look like the one in the photo. You can make it your own and add whatever Scooby-Doo vibe you want. Perhaps you can create a window and print out pictures of the Mystery Gang, taping each of their faces to the door as if they’re driving. Or you could just have Scooby, or Shaggy, or Velma, or any other favorite character you have.

The door is yours to play with, so as long as you have ample construction paper, scissors, and glue or tape, you’ll be good to go.

Birthday Honoree Door Decoration

Rather than just a general Scooby-Doo sign to signify your households the party, you could make the door decoration more specific by using it to honor the person you’re throwing the party for.

For example, this photo has the features of Scooby-Doo on brown paper while saying, “Ruh Roh! Jaxon is 5.” Your child will love such a large decoration made for them in their honor, placed so that it’s essentially the first thing you see when entering your house.

Besides, the door decoration in this photo is much easier to make. Simply get a large rectangle of brown paper, cut out the letters from other sheets of construction paper, and get Scooby Doo’s facial features. You can either make your own or buy some ready to be cut out online.

Door Decoration Materials:

• Large sheets of construction paper
• Glue or tape
• Scissors

Bone Shaped Cheese Plate

This photo shows how easy it is to make a great looking charcuterie board for your guests to enjoy.

It seems like the person who prepared this plate took a bone-shaped cookie cutter and applied it onto slices of lunch meat and sliced cheeses. Placing crackers on the side, you have a delicious way to keep up the Scooby theme in under 10 minutes.

This idea would be especially useful if you haven’t already prepared bone-shaped Scooby Snacks. What with the bone cookies and bone lunch meat and cheese, there might be a bit too much emphasis on bones.

Scooby and Shaggy Sandwiches

Shaggy and Scooby are known for their voracious appetites. On the original show, they’re always stopping for a sandwich. Sometimes it’s a simple sandwich on just two pieces of bread. Other times it’s a massive stack of pure sandwich might. Shaggy has been known to prepare sandwiches that are perhaps a foot tall before Scooby inevitably eats it.

While it might not be practical to make a foot tall sandwich for your guests, a foot-long sandwich will have to do. You can prepare a sandwich sub out of ham or turkey, cheese, lettuce, tomato, or whatever other garnish you want.

An authentic Shaggy sandwich would have weird ingredient combinations like chocolate and salami, but your guests most likely won’t have such a durable palate. Keep it to simple sandwich combinations on a foot-long roll of bread.

How to Make a Shaggy Sandwich

1. Make a footlong sandwich of whatever kind you’d like. It could be a ham or turkey club, grilled cheese, meatball sub, etc.
2. Place the sandwiches on a plate with the sign “Shaggy and Scooby Sandwich” next to it.
3. When it’s time to eat, cut the sandwiches into parts for your guests to enjoy. Unless one of your guests has a Shaggy-sized appetite, then you better have a lot of sandwiches.

Note: While it would save you time in the party to cut the sandwiches before your guests arrived, you would lose the Shaggy and Scooby effect of having one large sandwich. So it’s your call as to when you should cut the sandwiches.

Ghost Cake Pops

The Mystery Gang gets called in to investigate all sorts of paranormal mischief — a lot of them being ghosts. Or, well, people pretending to be ghosts. Pay homage to the ghostly intruders with cake pops in their honor.

Cake pops are easy to make. You could use leftover cake from another party for them. Simply grind up the cake into little balls, insert sticks into them, and coat the balls in melted white chocolate.

Once the cake pops are dipped in chocolate and have been cooled in the fridge, decorate little ghost faces on them. Not only are cake pops delicious and easy to make, but your guests will also love how it keeps up with the theme.

If you need a guide on how to make cake pops, you can watch this video.

Those were some of the best Scooby-Doo party ideas — all of them simple and easy to make at home. Which one will you choose?