For my daughter's 5th birthday, she insisted on having a candyland party, as she loves the DVD and watches it almost daily. We sent out invitations that said Join us for a sweet adventure in Candyland to celebrate Eliana's 5th birthday. Help (list all the characters) stop Lord Licorice from getting all the candy in candyland" I copied and pasted the candyland characters from the Hasbro website and also used candy clip-art.      For party decorations gingerbread man (traced my child's outline and then decorated) and other candy. I used empty soda bottles to create gumdrops (cut off the bottom portion and sprinkle with silver glitter) chocolate kisses (cut off the top part and wrap in tin foil) and candies  (wrap the remaining portion in cellophane and tie at each end with ribbon). I also covered styrofoam circles (purchase at craft store) with cellophane and stuck a large wooden skewer in it. All of these decorations were placed around our home as well. The tree outside our home was adorned with purple balloons and a picture of Plumpy (from older versions of the game).     When the children arrived we had various coloring pages set up (printed from the candyland website) for them to color until everyone arrived. Once all the children arrived we split them into 2 groups. The first group played a "hands-on"candyland game. Squares of colored construction paper were set up throughout out apartment to replicate the gameboard and were interspersed with spaces that had pictures of the various characters. Each child was given a colored bag to start off with that contained a gingerbread cookie. They then took turns picking a card and moving to that colored space. When they passed over a specific character they received that characters "food".  Mr Mint's square was in peppermint forest and we decorated that wall with mini candy canes(each child picked one) and candy cane drawings. Then they passed over Jolly and received gumdrops (that area was surrounded by the soda bottle bottoms to represent gumdrops). When they passed by Lord Licorice they got licorice string (to later be used to make a necklace). At Gramma Nut's House they got a packet of peanuts at lollipop woods (Lolly) they got a lollipop when they passed Queen Frostine (or Princess Frostine) they got a bag of frosting (to later be used to decorate their gingerbread cookies) when they passed Gloppy they got Hershey kisses. At the end of the path hung a large candyland poster that I got from a coloring/sticker book at my local pharmacy.        While this was going on the other group was at the table making sandy candy. This is basically sand art using edible colored sugar (available online). The kids took turns choosing different colors of "sand and pouring it into their tubes to make a design. Then the 2 groups switched. All the kids came together to make cereal necklaces (with their string licorice) using different kinds of cereal. Then they got to decorate their gingerbread man using their bag of frosting (I cut a tiny hole in the corner of their bag and they were able to squeeze it onto their cookie. Then they decorated them with sprinkles chocolate chips candy buttons etc. We had a candyland cake that replicated the gameboard. I cut squares of fruit roll ups and alternated them in a path.  I used candy canes gumdrops licorice bits peanut brittle lollipops and cotton candy to represent the various areas of the gameboard. At the end of the path was the candy castle which was made by "gluing together" graham crackers with frosting and surrounding it with ice cream cones swirled with frosting within them and decorated with a variety of candies. If you are also serving a meal you can serve different colored foods (i.e. tricolor noodles hard boiled eggs-dye the shells multicolored peppers and other cut-up veggies etc.)        For party favors the children had all the food items they collected and made as well as candyland stickers of the various characters (purchased on ebay) a gingerbread man pencil (purchased online) and a 100 page candyland coloring/activity book (.89 cents each at Amazing Savings!)"