For my son's 6th birthday party we had a Knight in Shining Armor Party.  We sent out invitations on parchment paper with a computer generated castle, knights and ladies clipart.  The invitation in a storybook font was: Once upon a time there was a valiant knight named Sir Nathan of Cherry and on the anniversary of his sixth birthday he invited brave knights and fair maidens from near and far to his castle to feast on ice cream and cake and to take part in games of bravery and chivalry.  Each invitation was addressed to Sir Tyler or (Last Name) or The Lady Patricia of (Last name). The invitations were a big hit and even inspired parents to make birthday cards in the same theme.  We cut out shields from cardboard boxes and painted them red, gold, purple, green (whatever we had actually)- my son helped with this- and I stapled pieces of  2" elastic to the back for their hands to fit in. I copied and enlarged real charges from a medieval site, everything form horses to lions, onto colorful paper. these were for the boys- I let them pick out a shield and a charge and they glued those on and could add fake gems sparkles, etc. They really enjoyed this. They also each got a sword from the dollar tree. For the girls I made big cone hats from half of a piece of poster board. I stapled them and covered the staples with thick tape. I put purple, pink and white inexpensive netting out the top, just one piece of each color and stapled it and put on chin straps of thin elastic. Each girl got to decorate hers with gems, plastic butterflies and dragonflies, glitter (glitter is always a hit!).  They all wore them, even a couple of 11-13 year old girls.  We had a castle cake (family fun magazine) and ice cream.  I decorated the tables with purple plastic tablecloths and we had gold and silver napkins and plates. My sons collections of various toy dragons were the table decorations. We bought multicolored streamers and put them on the ceiling corner to corners meeting in the middle- very festive- the kids loved it. We had a search for the holy grail (a very tacky orange glittery margarita glass with fake gems stuck on it). Since my son's parties are attended by a range of ages, we divided into three or four teams with each one having one of the older kids to help find and read the clues. I hid several items around the house and yard with a clue attached to it. Each clue was a sentence to a poem made up to find the holy grail, hidden in my son's FP castle behind a big white chair (a throne of pure white). When we found the grail we could eat.  I made goody bags from brown paper lunch bags, each one had a glued on small charge (same web site as the shields with some butterflies, bees and unicorns added for girls) colored by me and my son and two holes punched in them and tied with raffia.  They turned out great and cost nothing. Look around your house, in the pantry, your craft box, material, etc. for ideas. You don't have to spend a lot of money to have a great party.  In each one a had a computer generated Knight's code rolled up scroll-like and tied with a piece of ribbon, gold chocolate coins, plastic diamond and gem rings, etc. We had a great time. I also tried an idea I had read on this site about playing a game like musical chairs for opening presents. It worked okay but the ones who had already given their presents kind of lost interest and I think it wasn't as exciting as the all out wildness of opening with everyone crowded around the birthday boy. It would probably have been great with a smaller crowd, we had 18 kids. We let the person bring their present up and sit next to the birthday boy while he was opening the present and we heard some hilarious remarks kids make about the present they brought. That alone was worth it.  Hope this gives someone the inspiration to try some ideas. Always let your child help with the preparation and the ideas. They get some great ones and it's a lot more fun.