Backyard Camping Ideas: Affordable Family Fun

Backyard Camping is THE gateway to camping adventures. This is not your average boring list of tips like a firepit, hotdogs, and smores article. I’m going to show you how I would plan the BEST AFFORDABLE backyard camping party for any theme!

My backyard camping usually never lasted all night. There is something about sleeping outdoors and all the noises that creeped me out as a kid…and even as an adult!

What is more fun than a backyard filled with tents, laughter, and fun? — Photo Credit – Canva

As an adult my backyard camping didn’t get off to a good start! Madeline and I were backyard camping with some friends. They had the perfect Backyard Camping Party set-up, keep reading; everything was perfect, but the darn bugs and heat kept me up. Madeline, meanwhile, was sleeping like a baby!

Being the bad parent I woke Madeline up and we drove home for the comfort of indoors. The next day I endured the walk of shame as I retrieved our tent and belongings. All the other 8 year olds looked on in disbelief and the adults cast shameful looks my way!

Luckily, I got over it, and redeemed myself with a backyard campout in the comfort of our backyard a few weeks later. The night went much better. I guess we have fewer bugs.

Since that time, I’ve camped in the real woods a few times and generally enjoy it. Although, I’m convinced there is a bear right outside my tent the moment the sun goes down!

TL;DR – Campground Party Planning Ideas!

Affordable Ideas: Plan a budget-friendly backyard camping party.
Themes: Choose from various themes like birthday, 4th of July, or ghost stories.
Set-Up Tips: Borrow tents, use string lights, and create DIY decorations.
Activities: Include scavenger hunts, flashlight tag, and outdoor movies.
Food: Classic camping treats like hot dogs and s’mores.
Goody Bags: Fill with glow sticks, mini flashlights, and s’mores kits.
Personal Touches: Customize with unique themes and activities.
Plan your campout and share your experiences!

What’s So Special About Backyard Campouts?

This is a great question! We work so hard to have a nice house, cool air conditioning, comfortable beds, and lights! Why sleep outside under the stars?

Sleeping outside is great for our natural body rhythms! While true, let’s talk about the best part, the joy our kids and party guests get enjoying an evening under the stars playing silly games, savioring special camping treats (like trail mix), and sleeping in a tent in nature.

Enjoying a night under the stars is like a massage for your soul! — Photo Credit – Canva

The biggest benefits to having a backyard camping party are:

Affordable family fun in your own backyard!
Create lifelong memories in the great outdoors. Sometimes when things don’t go as planned, we create the best memories.
One-of-a-kind party idea! Since space is only limited to your backyard, you can invite a huge crowd for more fun
Easy way to try the camping lifestyle before going all in!

Planning Your Backyard Camping Party

Let’s create an affordable family adventure for your backyard camping party. There is only one wrong way to plan a backyard camping party and that’s not to plan one at all! As long as you are up for this adventure, let’s go!

Since we’re open to fun, let’s decide on our theme. Themes set the tone for the party and the rest of the planning. Some example themes include:

Camping Birthday Party
School’s Out for Summer
Celebrate America with the 4th of July
Starry Night Exploration
End of Summer Bash
Creepy Ghost Stories (closer to Halloween might work better than summer)
Create your own theme using Chatgpt. Here is a simple prompt to use: “Hi Chat! As a party planner, help me plan a backyard campout for my kids. My kids are aged 8 and 10. I have a daughter and son and both will invite friends. Please share 5 easy ideas.”

No matter which theme you select or choose the rest of the party planning will be similar! Planning is an excellent way to get your kids to help make the camping party a huge success!

Choosing the Date and Time

The summer is naturally a great time of the year for backyard campouts because in the United States the weather is usually warm (or hot) and dry. And the sun sets late so, your guests can enjoy tons of activities before relaxing around the campfire and climbing in their tents for sleep!

Here's an example electronic invite card with a camping theme. Perfect for announcing the day and time of your party

Depending on your exact location, be sure to consider the weather. Since the weather can be unpredictable, you may need to be flexible or consider moving from the great outdoors to the great indoors. If the weather is stormy, super hot and humid, or looks threatening, it may be best to delay a day or week.

Certainly, the weather adds a layer of challenge to party planning. If you can’t or don’t want to roll with the punches on this, you might think twice about throwing a backyard camping party!

Fun Fact: Madeline and Jack loved setting up the tent in the basement and “indoor camping” year round! Added bonus, it gave Sara a small break on snow days when everyone was going crazy “trapped” inside the house!

Invitations

Creating camping themed invitation is a breeze with online tools like evite! Evite has free and premium options and even allows you to design your own card on say Canva and upload to the platform. Use your creative spirit to get all your party guests into the mood for the best camping-themed party!

Since online e-cards are FREE, they are absolutely the most affordable option.

Setting Up the Camp

We’re creating affordable backyard camping experiences we are going to cover ways to set up the “campground” without breaking the bank or going broke at Walmart!

Tents and Sleeping Bags

In our limited backyard camping experience, it’s 100% okay to instruct guest to bring their own tent, sleeping bag, pillow, camp chairs (e.g., lawn chair), flashlights, and other items they may want for the overnight hours.

Tents and campfires go together like summer and heat. Let's get outside and enjoy the amazing resources in our backyard! — Photo Credit – Canva

If you have a tent, then you are covered. And if not, chances are really high that a family member or neighbor has one you can borrow for the night. Make sure to practice good camping etiquette and return the borrowed gear in better condition than you received it. Or at least not in worse condition.

If you are 100% struck out by borrowing a tent, check Facebook Marketplace or Walmart for an inexpensive tent. A very basic tent can be purchased from Walmart for about $20. We aren’t backpacking the Applaican Trail, so a tent that can withstand all seasons and is super lightweight isn’t our goal! We’re creating fun memories!

Not having a sleeping bag is not a problem! Create a bed with a piece of foam, a flat sheet, and a lightweight blanket.

Pro Tip: Harbor Freight has really inexpensive flashlights that make great giveaways in the goody bags!

Cost Estimate for Tent + Sleeping Bags – $0 to $30

Decorations

Depending on your theme and budget, you may choose more or less decorations. An easy decoration idea is string lights. These give some light so your party guests can see where they are going or maybe light up a walkway to the indoor restroom! If you don’t have these or don’t want extra light pollution, no worries…eyes quickly adjust to the dark!

Fire Pit

Every real camping trip includes a fire pit. Sure, graham crackers, mini marshmallows, and chocolate are a perfect combination anywhere, anytime. Sitting around a campfire roasting smores is an excellent way to get everyone ready for some fun ghost stories!

We know not everyone has a fire pit. I bet a neighbor has one and would be thrilled for you to use it for the night. Just ask. You will need some wood. In our area most gas stations sell campfire wood. You might pick up two bundles.

Pro Tip: Envirologs are the best cheater logs! These light right up and are safe to roast s’ mores over. They don’t contain harmful chemicals, and the smoke smells pretty good, too!

Cost Estimate for Decorations – $20 to $100 (if you need to purchase a fire pit)

Fun Activities and Games

A backyard camping party is an excellent way to include several fun activities in one party. Here are some ideas:

Scavenger Hunt –

Draw up a scavenger hunt map around your yard or your block (check with your neighbors).
Hide goody bag prizes like mini-flashlights, candy, or anything else that might be used throughout the party.
Scavenger hunts can be complex or easy.
Perfect way for you to get some “chill time” before the party gets really busy.
We recommend starting and ending the scavenger hunt before dark
Create a FREE DIY online version at ActionBound!

Flashlight Freeze Tag

Use the flashlights from the goody bags
Explain the boundaries (keep everyone safely away from food, tents, fire pit, etc.)
We recommend keeping the kids in the backyard to avoid playing in the street!
Keep a watchful eye to make sure the game remains “in check”

Outdoor Movie Night

Watching a movie under the stars is fun and easy. It also means party guests will snack on all your great camping snacks. This is a great time to hand out snacks like trail mix, gummy worms, smore cake or other yummy treats!

Big screen projectors are more common, so you can probably borrow one from a friend. Again, we don’t need a movie theater quality projector, we are creating a fun experience.

Ghost Stories

Camping and ghost stories go together perfectly. As the party host, choose how creepy to make the story so your campers don’t get too scared during the night. Remember the owl hooting in the middle of the night is much scarier in a tent than in your bedroom!

Who can tell the most scary story? — Photo Credit – Canva

Alternative ideas include asking the campers to tell ghost stories.

Pro Tip: Use Chatgpt to create the perfect ghost story. Here is an example prompt. “Hi ChatGPT, I’m hosting a backyard camping party for my kids and their friends, and I’d love to tell a ghost story around the campfire. Can you create a spooky yet kid-friendly ghost story that will captivate their imaginations without being too scary? The kids are aged 8 and 10. Thanks!”

Yard Games

We really enjoy the larger-than-life yard games that we play on camping trips. Some fun lawn games include:

Yatchzee
Ladder Ball
Cornhole (bean bag toss)

We love playing games while camping. Yard games are especially fun. these larger than life games are a great way to pass time enjoying friends and family! — Photo Credit – Canva

Create your own fun lawn games with minimal effort and cost. Some examples include:

Water balloon toss
Sack races
Three-legged races
Wheel barrel races

A little simple planning of fun activities means all the campers will have a great time as they prepare for their night under the stars!

Cost Estimate for Fun Activities and Games – $0 to $100+ (depends on how much you want to spend!)

Delicious Camping Treats

Camping without food just plain sucks! It’s like the 4th of July without hotdogs or no tacos on Taco Tuesday. Let’s craft a menu as awesome as the party you have planned!

And the best part is the menu doesn’t have to break the bank!

Hot Dogs and S’mores

Roasting hot dogs over the campfire is a time-honored camping tradition. Pass it along! Is there really any difference between a gourmet hot dog and the national big-name brands? No. So, opt for the cheaper option here!

Nothing says summer like a hotdog cooked over an open flame! Spice up your party with hotdogs for dinner! — Photo Credit – Canva

Another campout favorite is S’mores. Every campground we visit, except the ones with fire bans, has campfires burning only to roast S’mores. Well, maybe other reasons, but S’mores are a big reason!

Pro Tip: Spice up your S’mores with sprinkles. Added bonus: you’re outside, so the sprinkles falling on the ground don’t make a mess!

Dessert Table, including Cake Decorated in the Party Theme

The cake is 100% optional, but the dessert table should be mandatory. Here are easy ideas for your dessert table:

Keep the smiles going for miles with tasty desserts! — Photo Credit – Canva

Trail Mix Bar – Creating your own trail mix is super easy.
M&M’s, Reecie Pieces, and other candy – a bag or two of each tossed into a bowl. Have small Dixie cups nearby for party guests to put their snacks.
Cookies – DIY some chocolate chip cookies or your favorite cookies, or buy some and set them on a plate for the kids to grab.
Popcorn – Popcorn is especially important if you show a movie under the stars!
Cake—This is totally optional, but if this is a camping-themed birthday party, a birthday cake is a must! You’ll get added points for decorating it in a backyard campout theme!

Trail mix is my favorite! Grab our recipe here!

Planning these easy food options will keep the kids filled with energy and having a blast creating fun memories!

Engaging the Guests

During your planning, visualize how your party guests will interact in your backyard space. Will guests be on the lawn, the deck or patio, on a screened-in porch, in the basement, etc? If guests might be in multiple locations, create different fun themes for each space.

For instance, inside the screened porch or basement might be board games. While out on the lawn, there are yard games like ladder ball or spike ball. Maybe set up a giant slip-and-slide, which is a fun way to cool off on a hot summer evening!

One area may be the movie screening area, while another is the firepit. Creating different spaces allows your guests to create their own adventure on this backyard campout. Most of the fun of camping is creating your own adventure!

Special Touches

A great way to make sure your guests leave with amazing memories of the campout is by creating fun goody bags. Here are some fun ideas for things to put in a goody bag:

Glow Sticks: Fun for night games and as a keepsake.
Mini Flashlights: Perfect for exploring the backyard or reading in the tent.
S’mores Kits: Individual kits with marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers.
Camping Stickers or Patches: Themed stickers or iron-on patches for a personal touch.
Nature-Themed Notebooks and Pencils: Great for jotting down adventure notes or drawing.

Adding Personal Touches

The cool thing about party planning is you can take all of these ideas or none of them the choice is yours.

For additional help, check out Chatgpt. Here are a few prompts to get you started:

Developing a Theme:

“What kind of camping experience do you want to create – adventurous, cozy, or spooky?”

“What are your favorite camping memories that you can incorporate into the party?”

Creating Stories:

“Imagine the most thrilling camping adventure you’ve had. How can you turn it into a ghost story?”

“Think about a mysterious event that could happen in the woods. How would you narrate it to keep your audience on the edge of their seats?”

Wrapping Up: Even the Best Backyard Camping Party Must End

Backyard camping is an affordable and fun way to create unforgettable memories with your family. Whether you’re going all out or keeping it simple, the joy of spending time outdoors is priceless. Now that you’re equipped with these tips and ideas, it’s time to plan your own backyard campout. Share your experiences and inspire others by sharing this post! Let’s get more families outside and enjoying the great outdoors together.

About Us

We are Mike and Sara, and our kids and dog are exploring the US while camping in our fifth wheel! Since the late 90s we have been exploring the great outdoors one hiking trail at a time. We introduced our kids to hiking while they were young and they love exploring new places. We call Kentucky home and we find ourselves exploring the state parks, national parks, and other wildlands in our area as often as we can!

Our RV camping journey began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Waking up close to the trails we love hiking was enough for us to get hooked on the camping lifestyle! Thanks for following our adventures!