Russian nesting dolls…matryoshka dolls…babushka dolls. These are just some of the names. But these pretty ornaments provide a great insight into the rich culture of Russia.

A set of matryoshka dolls consists of a wooden figure which can be pulled apart to reveal another figurine of the same sort inside. It, in turn, contains another one inside, and so on. The number of nested figures can be as few as three or as many as twenty! The artistry is in the painting of each doll, which can be extremely elaborate.

Here Steph Modo created a matryoshka doll/nesting doll theme for her niece’s birthday. She found the majority of her party items on Etsy.com (my current love affair) and I absolutely love how “outside the box” this concept was.

Decorations were simple…Steph bought the tableclothes, lanterns, plates, utensils, balloons at a local party store. For the banner she printed out one of the .pdf files she purchased on Etsy, punched it out into a scalloped circle, and thread it with thin satin ribbon. The little nesting doll set that spawned the whole theme flanked the fireplace too.

At the beginning of the party she led the girls to a crafting table where they could make matryoshka doll notecards for themselves. This was a fun thing to do for 15-20 minutes while guests trickled into the party. She wrapped up each girl’s cards in a clear cellophane bag so they could take them home afterwards.

Then, they played “Pin the Bow on the Matryoshka Doll”. Following that game they played “hide and seek” with a set of nesting dolls from IKEA. They hid the dolls and the girls had to find them. After they played “hide and seek” a few times, they played “duck, duck, goose” which didn’t follow the theme, of course, but was fun to play anyway! They continued with “limbo”and “pass the button” before sitting down to eat cupcakes & apples. Prizes included little notepads, mini-Kolo albums, and handmade goodies picked up on Etsy. She wrapped them in cellophane bags and cut out a little nesting doll to adhere onto the bag.

Resources:

I found a variety of matryoshka dolls on this website Matryoshkastore. I also found some on The Russian Shop.

Decorations

Steph found her Jewelry/Hair Accessory Set for the birthday girl to wear to the party on Etsy. But I also found some pretty little Gifts on UK’s site Plumo.com found under ‘Gifts’ and ‘Festive’.

Fabulous Etsy Finds:

Crafting Table

List of Matryoshka rubber doll stamps found here.

Matryoshka doll printable paper for crafting found here.

Party Favors & Prizes

Printable pdf for mini-bookmarks found here.

Babushka ponytail holders from here.

The Matryoshka doll muslin drawstring bags were made by a local designer.

Food & Tabletop

Cupcake toppers found here.

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting and apple slices to curb the sweetness; both were a big hit with the kids.

Interesting Tid bit:

To help celebrate Russian Vogue’s 10th Anniversary, top fashion designers designed a dress for a plain Russian doll. Their sketches were brought to fruition by a Russian craftsmen that hand painted the dolls. Guess the designers…

Here are all the designers of the dolls.

Row 1: Burberry, Versace, Marc Jacobs
Row 2: Sonia Rykiel, Emilio Pucci, Blumarine
Row 3: Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Paul Smith
Row 4: Dolce & Gabbana, Alena Akhmadullina, Gucci