Bite Sized Ideas for Planning Children’s Parties.
Planning a children’s party can be a little overwhelming and even if you love planning parties, it’s easy to forget some of the details. So, here are a few ideas that might help ensure your party planning goes smoothly:
Make sure it’s what your child wants. No one wants to put in hours of prep and organisation for a party that isn’t wanted.
Make a check list – see my blog Children’s Party Planning Checklist.
Be clear about the dates and timings, who is invited (eg can siblings come too?) and if you expect the parents to stay for the duration.
Children love to be involved in the party planning and will enjoy the party so much more of they’ve had a hand in putting it all together.
Reduce the setting up and clearing up time/hassle by hosting the party outside, whether that’s in your garden or the local park. There will be no spills or crumbs to sweep up, less chance of anything breaking and definitely less entertainment needed. You also won’t have to pay for hiring a venue!
Recruit some help! Whether you ask your best friend, sister/brother, another mum, the babysitter; an extra pair of hands will really help make things run smoothly! Schools normally have 1 adult to 6 children, so keep this in mind when planning
Do a joint party and share the workload (and the cost)! Especially good if the children go to the same school and have much the same friendship group.
You don’t have to spend a fortune to host a great children’s birthday party.
It’s important to have some activities/ games planned – the children won’t entertain themselves for long. Plan all your party games in advance and make a list of all the props you’ll need – see my blogs on; Planning Children’s Party Games, Children’s Party Games -Oldies but Goodies, More Children’s Party Games, Outdoor Party Games for Children. When choosing the games and activities, consider the age of the children; it safe, have you got enough space, do you need additional adult supervision, is it too noisy/messy for the venue, do you have all the right props?
Have a couple of back-up games at the ready just in case.
Be flexible; you may need to adapt the party games as you go along.
Children under 5 will be pretty happy with a simple party with a few games. They won’t concentrate on things for too long, so lots of quick games and activities.
From 5 onwards, children know the drill! They will know most of party games and will be keen to get involved.
If you are concerned about having to keep a group of children entertained, then hire an entertainer or some equipment like a bouncy castle, a bubble machine, karaoke machine, trampoline, ball pit, soft play, movie night or a disco – it will be money well spent.
Whatever the age, games that require lots of running around to tire them out is always a good option!
All children love to dress up, so themes always go down well. See my blog on Children’s Party Themes.
Make sure you have the means to play some music, it’s easy enough to play music from your phone via a Bluetooth speaker and make a playlist or find one on Spotify.
Craft activities can be a great way to keep children entertained and will also double up as the party bag favours.
Find out in advance if any of the children have allergies so you can make appropriate provisions.
If you are hosting your party outside, then make sure you have a back up plan if the weather turns for the worst; gazebo? Wet weather gear?
If parents are staying for the party, you may want to think about refreshments for the adults too.
If you are hosting a ‘drop-off’ party, eg the parents drop their children off and go and then come back at the end of the party to collect them, it could be a good idea to make sure you have the contact number of the parents in case you need to contact them if there’s an accident or one of them is late to pick up.
Sometimes loud and busy children’s parties can be a bit overwhelming for some of the children, so if you have the space, you could have a quiet ‘chill out’ area for children to have a little quiet time.
At the start of the party it’s helpful to explain to all the children what the plan is for the party, so they know what’s happening and when.
If your child’s birthday falls in the school holidays you may want to consider having the party not in their birthday and have it during term time to make the comms with other parents easier – or at least send all the invites well in advance so you have the rsvps before you break up for the holidays.
If you are having the party at home and have pets you may need to check if any of your party guest have allergies to animals.
A seating plan can be a good idea to prevent issues as most of the children will want to sit next to the party girl/boy.
Party game prizes; You can of course gift the same sort of items as you would put in a party bag, but you could also consider getting the children to do some kind of funny forfeit or dare, or sing a song etc. Perhaps you could link these to the theme of the party? Or you could make badges or rosettes for the winners. When choosing prizes and party bag filled consider age of the children – will they be a choking hazard?
Great Places to Source Party Bits
Your local scrap stores, where people/companies donate materials and then you can pay an annual membership fee and take what you want when you want. Alternatively, some allow you to make one off visits and pay a small fee to fill a bag of goodies. A couple of London based stores are The Squirrel Scrap Scheme (Worcester Park) and the Work and Play Scrapstore (Tooting).
Hobby craft
Baker and Ross
The works
Poundland
Free fabric off-cuts from Contrado
Hopefully this will give you a great starting point for planning your children’s parties. Once you have got the basics in place, there are lots more ideas and inspiration in my other blog posts for creating fun filled parties. You might find my blog post Children’s Party Planning Checklist useful.
