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My kids were so excited for the reverse teacher parade at school and I’m not going to lie it made me cry. The happiness on the kids faces and the sweet caring teachers, it was just sad and happy all rolled into one. The kids wanted the car decorated, but I honestly didn’t want to spend to much money or time since it was a one time parade. This pandemic is an emotional roller coaster, but I knew this could be a high for us so I’m sharing my easy and fun car parade decorating ideas.

How Can I Decorate the Outside of my Car for a Parade?

Well I’ve got the answer for you. The easiest way to decorate the car for under $5 is to use plastic tablecloths. They are easy to work with, will be fine if its raining, and require no crafty skills. Don’t forget you get a lot of tablecloth for a $1. Also you can find tablecloths themed for the car parade, whether its for school, graduation or birthday parades. For schools it’s always fun to use the school colors.

Tips for the Car Parade:
Use painters tape to attach the garlands
Have lots of extra ribbon so you can tape
Wrap the garland around the car door for extra safety so it won’t fall off
Tape everything inside the car

Easy and Fun DIY Car Decorating Kit Supplies

4 Plastic Tablecloths
Scissors
Ribbon (I used this one)
Hot Glue Gun and Sticks
Clothespins
Poster Board

Let’s Create an Easy and Fun Car Parade Decorating Ideas

Creating a Colorful Garland with Plastic Tablecloths

For the sides of the car, I made garland that is super easy. I cut ribbon (that I already had, any ribbon/twine will do) to fit the side of the car from the backdoor to the front mirror. I left extra room for attaching the garland at each end.

To create the garland, keep the tablecloth folded and cut the garland about 1 inch wide and make it as long as the tablecloth.

After you cut the strips, then cut the loops and you will get several strips from one cut. Really easy right?

Then start tying on the tablecloth to the ribbon.

My biggest tip is to tape the ribbon to the table so it’s easy to tie on the tablecloth strips.

I did 5 strips of each color in a pattern until the garland was finished. The garland only has strips on it for about 3/4 of it because I’m going to hang a poster that the kids created with clothespins on the ribbon. Now the kids hands will be free to wave.

DIY Car Pennant Banner

Another part of the car parade decorations, was decorating the back of the car with pennant banners. For this I printed a printable pennant that I found on google.

The easiest way to cut out the pennants, is to tape the pennant to the tablecloth and then cut around it. No tracing needed.

I created a polka dot pennant and also a pennant with the red, blue and yellow tablecloths. For creating these, cut the ribbon to the length for the car and hot glue the pennants to the ribbon. If you have a Cricut Maker and fabric, you can make a fabric banner, that would work great on the car too.

The last step for the car parade decorations were the kids creating posters. They loved coloring and creating their posters. To jazz them up a bit, I used bulletin board borders that matched our red, blue and yellow car decorations.

I know moms and parents in general are stressed and that this pandemic has taken a toll on all of us, but just think of the joy and happiness you can bring your kids. Keeping the kids busy is another topic, but this air dry clay recipe is easy to make and the kids will enjoy playing and creating with it.

Use these car parade decorating ideas for a fun and easy way to brighten everyones day involved in the car parade and even those you see along the way.