In the Heights Birthday Bash: A Vibrant Celebration of Music, Culture, and Fun for the Whole Family

In the Heights—the first musical by the famous Lin Manuel Miranda—was an immediate hit in my house. Miranda wrote the Broadway hit play Hamilton and the songs of Moana and Encanto. Much like everything else Miranda has written, our family could not stop dancing and singing the songs from In the Heights.

When I heard the music, I knew that In the Heights was a movie I wanted to watch with my musical-loving, Hamilton-obsessed 4-year-old.

Not only did my preschooler love the film, but she started reenacting the scenes, calling herself “Nina,” and asking for an In the Heights-themed birthday party.

What 4-year-old do you know that would ask for a birthday party theme that wasn’t princesses or rainbow unicorns? I am proud to say, mine!

But then came the hard part–no other kids were throwing a birthday party based on In the Heights, at least no other kids with blogger/Pinterest-posting parents like me, because I did the research and found very little help online. I had to get creative! I put together some tips on how to throw the best In the Heights musical-themed birthday party for your musical-loving kiddo.

Click below for more details about:

Food

We decided to cater the food from our favorite Puerto Rican restaurant: Sol Food in the North Bay. My Puerto Rican father was very happy with this decision, as was the rest of the family! If you decide to do the same, I recommend you order the following (and name the dishes after In the Heights songs):

Abuela Claudia’s “Pernil y Fe,” roasted pork named after the tune “Paciencia y fe” sung by Abuela Claudia in the film
Roasted chicken, called “If I won the lotto tomorrow then pollo al horno” based on the song “96,000”
Aroz con Gandules, called 96 G’s named after the song “96,000”
“Just Breathe” beans, named after Nina’s song by the same name
Fruit salad, named “No me diga” after the salon song

Decorations

I love decorating for parties! We made sure everything was bright and vibrant like the colors in the Carnival del Barrio song, but with an urban feel like New York City.

Caribbean Country Flags

As per the song “Carnaval del Barrio,” the characters sing about raising up the flag of their homeland with pride. We printed out flags from the Caribbean and hung them like banners throughout the yard.

No printer? No problem. Purchase a set of flags on a string to hang at your party here.

Photo Booth

Graffiti print photo booth backdrop – pretend you’re walking down the alleyways painted by Graffiti Pete while you take photos with your family.

We purchased this graffiti brick wall backdrop from Amazon.

Piragua Cart

The song “Piragua” and the Piraguero, played by Miranda himself, were family-faves. Use what you’ve got to create a pretend piragua cart. We put a tablecloth over my cargo bike and colored three green poster boards to resemble the piragua cart in the film, Puerto Rican flag and all!

Table Decor

Decorate the table with easy-to-make mini street signs from Washington Heights (where the movie takes place, on 181st Street and Broadway).

Dessert

Piragua

One of my daughter’s favorite songs from In the Heights is “Piragua.” The Piraguero pushes his cart filled with a block of ice, flavor syrups, and ice scraper down the sweaty streets of New York to sell ice cold piraguas, which is a latin-style shave ice.

We made a block of ice in the freezer, purchased a piragua scraper and shave ice syrups, and made homemade piraguas for dessert. It was a huge hit!

Cupcakes

Since we didn’t want to put the birthday candle in a piragua cup, we decided to get cupcakes too.

We had 3 tropical flavors of cupcakes:

Guava
Coconut
Peach

If you’re local, we highly recommend Angel Cakes in Oakland for all of your cupcake needs. Our toddler loves it so much she requested cupcakes from Angel Cakes for her birthday, too!

We used these stickers for cupcake toppers.

In the Heights Themed Party Activities

Flag Guessing Game

Here’s how it works:

Put the names of the corresponding countries behind the flags along one banner line
Number the flags
Have people write the number and name of the corresponding country to each flag on that banner on a piece of paper and submit it when finished
The person who guesses the most countries wins!

Nail Painting Station - Daniela's Nail Salon

The first song my daughter requested over and over was “No Me Diga,” the song that takes place at Daniela’s Salon.

Buy nail polish, nail stickers, and other various kid-friendly salon-like activities for a Daniela’s Salon station. And enlist a grown-up or big kid to be the technician!

Watch the Film

While enjoying our piraguas we popped some popcorn and watched the film together as a group.

We turned it into a sing-along and passed around a microphone for everyone to practice singing (see the next activity below).

Karaoke or Sing-A-Long

Get a karaoke machine and microphones for all to sing their favorite In the Heights tunes.

Pro-tip: I realized shortly after that most people did not have the songs as memorized as we did, so I wished I printed the lyrics out in advance.

Or, show a YouTube video with the lyrics!

In the Heights Coloring Pages

Our kids loved coloring their favorite characters in the film and from each song. I tore out the pages from the coloring book, laid them on a table with crayons, and let the kids color whenever they wanted.

When I first saw the musical, I finally personally understood what it felt like to be seen on the big screen.

From the pots Abuela Claudia cooks with to the crowded dance party in Usnavi’s tiny New York City apartment, the details of these characters’ lives so lovingly reminded me of my Puerto Rican family in New York.

I connected to these stories of families like mine–of immigrants coming to a new country, holding onto their roots, being proud of who they are, and raising kids with that pride, but also with a need to define their identity and what “home” means for themselves.

I was so proud to see the connection my daughter had to the film, the characters, and the music, and wanted to encourage that. I sometimes worry that I’m not passing on my culture to my daughters, and want to make sure that is not getting lost in the fast shuffle of life!

So, thanks to this film, we’ve talked about where her grandpa is from, where our roots are, and what music and rhythm beats in her veins.

Have you ever felt a similar connection to a film or a song? Share in the comments below?

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Angel

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Puerto Rican & Indigenous mama of two. Bay Area native. Salsa dancer. Backpacker. Doula. Angel (she/her/hers) is a co-founding member of the Beautiful Brown Adventures team. She has traveled to over 30 countries and loves to explore the world with her two daughters & partner - one ice cream shop at a time.