I'm so upset, I could cry, please help regarding Birthday party.

joflo_2

We have a large family and a lot of adults to feed. We make either jacket potatoes with chilli/cheese/baked beans for a large meal. Or if feeling more adventurous pizzas. I stick to number of years/children rule. ie 5yr old had 5 friends. We also have a family party which people bring a desert or cake with them as there is a lot of people. Small kids would be just as pleased with a ballon to take home and a piece of cake. The first party we made a dinosaur with green food colouring and chocolate spread on the outside, it was a big hit with all the kids. The patterns for cutting the cake I found somewhere on a US site.

Ally

I love the cup idea:j

Just need to ask .... will be needing very BIG sheet of cellophane for a Christmas present ..... Where can you get them from

anguk

Ally wrote:

I love the cup idea:j

Just need to ask .... will be needing very BIG sheet of cellophane for a Christmas present ..... Where can you get them from

Try your local florist, they will normally sell you some and you can get as much as you need as they cut it off the roll.

prettypennies

I got some cellophane off Ebay last year and it is still going strong. I have loads left and have already wrapped countless bunches of cheap flowers, pressies and party bags. Ca't remebe how much it was but definitely less than a fiver.

Ideas for party bags:

Tesco are doing 40 crayons for 24p. I bought a couple of packs of these for my kids birthday. I bundled half a dozen up and tied them with some parcel ribbon (v. cheap at Asda) I cut scrap paper into A6 size sheets, designed a birthday themed cover on the computer and stapled them together.

Supemarket own brand mini boxes of raisins (healthy and cheap)

For party food buy the economy supermarket bread usually about 19p.

Jam is always a popular filling with kids. make into pinwheel sandwiches or use cookie cutters to make them look a bit more special.

As other posters have suggested jelly and ice-cream always go down well. You could chuck some tinned fruit in th jelly to jazz it up a bit.

Good luck

playgirl83

hi hun,
so sorry to hear your money situation isn't good at the moment, the others have given some really good ideas i dont think i can beat!
i would defenitly go to poundland and see what they have and also tescos for the cheap crayons and food, you can get packs of rolls in there very cheap and just stick to the blue and white striped things, you can get the multipack of crisps with wotsits onion rings etc in for less than £1.
i am sure you will be fine and they will all have a great time.
hope it goes ok for you hun and try to relax and not stress/.
heather xxxx

black-saturn

One year I forgot to give out the party bags at the end and no one noticed!!

Dazzieboo

I work in a childrens play centre and it never ceases to amaze me what Parents put in their party bags, last week a 2yr old had about 8 items in her friends bags, most of them IMHO far too small for that age group, most bags got left behind, along with their bootie of gifts, the kids had all taken out the one thing they were all interested in, which was one of those noisy things you blow into and left the rest. What a waste for the Parent of the Birthday child.

At yesterdays party though, the Parent had bought along a bag of mixed chocolate bar sweets and a bag of lollies, the lollies were Tesco Blue and White ones, the mini bars were on a BOGOF from Morissons, the kids were delighted with them and not one was left behind.

Food wise, when we do a cold buffet for them and this is for all ages, we do egg, cheese and ham sandwiches, sausage rolls, cocktail sausages, sliced apple, grapes and carrot sticks. Fairy cakes and Ice cream, the whole lot is always eaten with not a crumb left.

To turn that into a cheap version, you can use economy bread for the sarnies, economy uncooked sausage rolls, these are cheaper than cooked ones, mini sausages are really cheap in Tesco and they are not economy ones either. Apples, grapes and Carrot, go for the economy range, there really is no difference, Tesco do cheap fairy cakes, put your own decorations on them and you won't know the difference and vanilla Ice cream from Iceland at 55p per tub will down very well indeed. To add a few items for the adults, Tesco economy round 5" Pizza's, add a few bits of your own topping and cut into quarters, chicken wings and drumsticks if you want flavouring, use an Oxo cube rather than pay more for shop flavoured, Adults not keen on Ice Cream ? make coffee granita, I wouldn't like to pass on my home made recipie as I do everything off by heart, but it is cheap and easy to make and available in all good cook books.

I hope it all goes well for you.

jamgirl

i've even stopped doing jelly and ice cream at our parties. too many times it has ended up on the floor....lol
so now we stick to finger foods

cheese spread sandwiches
jam sandwiches (both made with economy bread)
cheese cubes
carrots/cucumber/grapes
home made fairy cakes/chocolate rice krispie cakes
homemade birthday cake (usually rope MIL in for this as i'm not very good!)

and for 10 2yr olds i would cater for 5.......it doesn't tend to get eaten.

for the adults i do a large pan of chilli or veg curry with rice

I like the idea of printable sheets for party bags.
I don't bother with proper party bags but put a balloon, a few cheap sweets and some birthday cake in a food bag

tee_pee_2

birthday parties can be done on a buget don't panic,

ASDA is good for the food side, Get the cheapest bread, no one will know some wafer ham make loads of little butties, smartprice sausage rolls are 65p for 50. 12pc of crisps for 51p again smart price. smart price pork pies cut up into 1/4's 60p for 4.

If you have a local b&m bargains /home bargains go in there. They do nice biscuits like jammie dogers, partyrings etc for 20-30p do a plate of biscuits.

Tuna barm cakes you can buy Smart price tuna for 35p bit of mayo and no one will be anythe wiser.

Re party bags, you can get crayons for 17p pack .little packs of milkway buttons 10p books from 17p -honestly. Plus it doesn't matter if each bag is not identical, just seal them give them out before they go so they can't confer and put each childs name on the bag so they can be specific to them ( age wise) my friend for the yonger kids ie 18mth put ritz crakers.rice cake. mini pack of raisons and a little book and when my DD got that I was made up with it.

Or............. don't do party bags.

Play pass the parcel and put bag of sweets in the layers and a small cuddly toy as main gift. TESCO got good soft toys on offer and plastic bath toys for 65p.

The main thing is that the kids enjoy it. ( and you becuase you child will only have one 2nd birthday party)

Please don't stress

T

*Sparkle*_3

Ally wrote:

I love the cup idea:j

Just need to ask .... will be needing very BIG sheet of cellophane for a Christmas present ..... Where can you get them from

I also get mine from Ebay, just type it in and you'll find lots of sellers, i use them for gift baskets so i have to buy quite a big roll but it lasts ages!
Tip is to choose a plain type so you can use it for pretty much anything, its tempting to get the ones with designs because they are lovely.