Ice Cream Float Bar Idea for a Party Beverage Station

Set up a simple Ice Cream Float Bar at your next party! Serve flavored soda and your favorite ice cream to make drinks for an easy party. It is quick and easy, and kids will love it!

Cartons of ice cream and bottles of flavored soda in front of a glass filled with an ice cream float and a blue straw on a wood table.

*Tillamook sent me coupons to purchase the ice cream for my son’s party. All thoughts are my own.

An Easy Ice Cream Float Party

For the last few years, we have kept our kid’s parties small. Gone are the days of my over-the-top kid’s parties. I still like to make them special and memorable. That often means trying to do things a little bit differently.

Related: Beer Float Ice Cream Cocktail

Most parties serve ice cream and soda. So this time I decided to set out an ice cream float bar. It was a total hit!

The best part is that you can make ice cream floats the theme of the whole party. It’s a super easy party idea and easy party ideas are my jam.

How to set up an ice cream float bar

A countertop covered in flavored sodas, ice cream and cups for a drink station. — What you’ll need to create an ice cream float drink station.

I’m mess averse so I didn’t want to set this out for the kids to do themselves. The kids range in age from way too little to scoop their own ice cream to old enough to know that if they scoop their ice cream themselves they can get crazy.

I brought out all the ingredients in the kitchen and recruited my sister-in-law to help me make them for the kids.

I went to Bev Mo to buy all kinds of flavored sodas and picked up one 2-liter bottle of root beer. Because root beer floats.

I picked up some standard flavors for the Tillamook ice cream including vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. And picked up one oddball flavor – mint chocolate chip, in case anyone wanted to get crazy.

We brought in the kids two at a time and they got to pick their flavors. There was lots of mixing.

Let me tell you, that blue cream soda was a hit. I had one taker for the banana soda and everyone skipped the pineapple.

Make Sipping Fun

Two children enjoying ice cream floats in white plastic cups with silly straws.

I had forgotten to purchase the straws with spoons on the ends but the kids still really loved them. We had monster faces to add to their straws and they were all set. They loved comparing the colors of their floats.

Give the grown-ups a beverage station of their own

Cartons of ice cream next to bottles of flavored soda on a wood countertop.

You can easily set up a boozy float bar for an adult party too. Along with the flavored sodas, you can also set out some Irish Cream, or other flavored liqueur.

Set it up as a self-serve beverage station and let people have at it.

Get Creative

An open carton of ice cream next to an open bottle of soda and an ice cream scoop and a glass on top of a napkin, all on top of a wood surface.

Almost everyone I know loves a root beer float or coke float. There’s just something nostalgic about pouring sweet soda over creamy vanilla ice cream. Easy and delicious.

If your friends and family aren’t as creative as you are, you could even set out ice cream float recipes. Don’t be dumb. You don’t need me to give you the steps to make a soda float. It’s that easy.

But it’s not very creative.

Give them a little nudge with cards listing possible delicious combinations.

An ice cream float in a glass on top of a black and white napkin, in front of a bottle of soda and a carton of ice cream with a scoop inside.

For instance, this chocolate ice cream + strawberry soda number was delicious.

A strawberry soda and chocolate ice cream float on top of a black and white napkin in front of ice cream and a bottle of soda.

Thanks to all the artificial colors the soda gets super foamy and bright. Yeah chemicals!

I bet you want to go make yourself a float now, don’t you?

Thank you, Tillamook, for providing me with the ice cream for my son’s birthday party. And thank YOU for supporting the companies that give me free ice cream and allow me to share cool things with you.