Balloons & Accessories
We carry a huge selection of balloons and balloon accessories! From Happy Birthday balloons to balloons shaped like dinosaurs, you are sure to find exactly what you are looking for! We also carry curling ribbon, balloon holders/weights and helium tanks. Shop below to find balloons that are perfect for your party!
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Balloons and parties go together like salt and pepper or peanut butter and jelly. Mylar and latex balloons are such an integral part of modern day festivities that it’s hard to imagine a celebration without those party essentials. The best place to find unique balloons and accessories is a party supplies store or website.
The word “balloon” comes from the French word “ballon,” meaning “large ball." In one form or another, balloons have been around for a long time as part of celebrations.
Archeological evidence suggests that the Aztecs filled cats' intestinal linings with air and then burned them as sacrificial offerings to the gods when they needed special help vanquishing enemies. In medieval Europe, water- and air-filled animal bladders were frequently used as children’s toys, while court jesters manipulated the intestines and other pliable innards of dead animals into amusing shapes to entertain their lords.
Michael Faraday, also known as the father of electrical engineering, created the first rubber balloons in 1824. Professor Faraday cut out circular pieces of rubber, pressed their tacky edges together and filled them with hydrogen gas. The very first toy balloons were invented a year later by an entrepreneur named Thomas Hancock who marketed them as a bottle of rubber solution and a syringe. Today’s familiar latex balloons were originally manufactured in 1847 by a Londoner named J.G. Ingram, but they didn’t become wildly popular until the 1930s when they began to be mass produced and filled with helium, which was considerably less flammable than hydrogen.
In the 1970s, Mylar and other varieties of foil inflatables joined the party pantheon. Foil balloons are far less permeable than latex balloons, so they stay filled far longer. They also weigh considerably less, so they’re more buoyant. Because foil balloons don’t expand when they’re filled with air or helium, pictures can be printed on them without fear that they’ll become distorted. This has given rise to an entire industry of cartoon- and animal-shaped balloons.
Foil balloons do have one drawback. They can short out electrical circuits if they get caught in power lines. In 2008, the city of Burbank, California estimated that over 12 percent of that city’s power outages could be traced to the irresponsible release of Mylar balloons into the environment. For that reason, Mylar balloons should always be tethered securely.
No party is complete without balloons and accessories. After all, a party without balloons is like milk without cookies or hamburgers without fries. Party supplies stores and websites have the largest assortment of balloons available in every imaginable color, shape and size at prices that make wallets want to party, too.
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