5th Birthday party help please

Gemma84_3

Hi there everyone, not sure if this is in the right place.
My son will be 5 in Aug and wants a birthday party where he can invite all his class.
Can't afford to hire a play area out etc, so was thinking of a church hall (luckily a good friend is a party entertainer so thats sorted)

Was just looking for help on what type of food to get, I would like to keep the costs down as much as poss.
Also what about party bags? If theres gonna be 40 or so children (not all from his class ) dont want something thats gonna cost the earth.

Thanks in advance

docij

When my children were young I found that at parties sandwiches etc were never eaten so I ended up getting crisps, carrot sticks, cheese cubes etc.

I have cheated with party bags in the past and given each child an empty bag when they arrive which they then fill will the 'prizes' they win during the party. It does mean you have to have quite a lot of activities which have prizes. Then at the end I had a load of bubble bottles, whistles, yoyos etc which they put in their bags with the cake just before they left the party.

Good luck!

ruthyjo

Hot dogs are quite a cheap and easy food thing to do - that's what we had at my dd's 5th birthday party. Also gave each child a bag of crisps from a selection of multi packs. A lot of crisps were obviously wasted but it was much easier to tidy up and they only work out around 10p a pack. Just bought cakes/biscuits that were bogof during the couple of weeks before.

DD had just over 40 guests and what was actually more expensive was catering for all the parents who stayed so you might want to give some thought to what you're going to offer them, how to do that cheaply.

There are loads of sets of childrens books at https://www.thebookpeople.co.uk where the books work out at about £1 each. Why not get a load of these, write a little message in each "Thanks for coming to celebrate x's fifth birthday..." and give those out. I'd much prefer that to sweets I don't want my child to eat, plastic tat etc.

Gemma84_3

Wow, what fantastic idea's thankyou very much

Much appreciated

earthmother

I did my eldest's 6th birthday yesterday - 24 kids altogether

I can second the Book People - the Farmyard Tales set is good for this age - 20 books for just under £10 (less than 50p each).

The drawback is that they don't fit normal party bags (few books for this age group will), so I had to make them - just used some cheap wrapping paper - I used about 3.5m, and it only took a morning to do - helps that this book set comes in a card case which I could wrap around to make the bag, rather than having to cut, measure and fold.


When it comes to cake, Asda's Vanilla Traybake is the cheapest birthday cake - 15 portions for £3.98 - and not too bad tasting either. Edit - I've since been told M&S do the same type of cake, for around the same price, and of course all their food is free from hydrogenated fats etc, so will be healthier, and knowing M&S probably nicer.


The rest of the food was simple - cheese and ham sandwiches (they ate about the equivalent of 1-1.5 slices of bread each), sausage rolls (used about 40 of Tesco's mini ones), picnic eggs (36 of Sainsburys mini mini ones), crisps (probably opened about 6 packs each of mini chedders and quavers, got about 3 packs in total back), and some carrot sticks and salad (one bag each of ready prepared, carrot went well, but the salad leaves were mostly left for the grown ups, lol).

Sweet was all bought on offer - 48 jaffa cakes (didn't even get a crumb, sob), 3 packs of party rings (ditto), and 4 packs of jammie dodgers (had a whole plate left - more than a pack). We finished off with jelly and ice cream - one tablespoon of each in a bowl, and we used 2L of ice cream and about 2.5 pints of blackcurrant jelly.

I had bought some fruit, but forgot to put it out - next time I'll swap the Jammie Dodgers for a couple of bowls of grapes and I think they'll get eaten.

I did get caught out with the juice - a hotter day and we would have run out - they drank about 7 litres of the stuff (3 x 1.5l jugs of blackcurrant and 2 of orange).


Hope that all helps - good luck and enjoy - it took a fair bit of organising, and was hectic whilst on, but I can honestly say that if we had the money I'd have no problem doing it every year for all three of my boys (but there again, the kids they know are great, which helps)

Sarahsaver

You have to find out if the children have any specific dietary requirements. I have catered for Halal, nut allergies and dairy allergy at the same party.
There's nothing wrong with a jam sandwich! At least children will eat them!
IF parents are coming watch them some can be greedy pigs!
Maybe have a small separate table for growd ups with a bottle or 2 of cheap wine, juice and some cheese and crackers & olives.

earthmother

To be honest I didn't cater for the adults (not that any parents other than family stayed anyway) other than to make sure there was tea and coffee if needed - if a grown person can't go 2 hours without food there's a problem, lol - and there are always leftovers if they're desperate.

libbydoll

punch balloons, instead of a party bag. Or buy a variety bag of mini chocolate things, £5 for 50 normally, and buy four bags of 10 punch balloons from poundland, most pound shops do them. BLow them up fill them with lentils, give them out 15 minutes before the end of the party, let them play, and just before they go out the door give them a mini chocolate thing and a bit of cake. total cost £9. Much better then £40, and the kids love them.
enjoy!

barbie_babe

I wouldnt cater for the adults and maybe pack up 40 boxes of party food. A lot of the big partys companys do this,such as the soft play places,farms.
That way you wont have much to clean up and if they leave anything hopefully they will throw it back in the box. This is what i am doing for my daughter in july.

RugbyLisa

I agree with the party boxes - children really enjoy having their own contained food so you can put in a few sandwiches, crisps, grapes, biscuits, juice etc etc

Instead of party bags - buy books from the book people and then stick on a couple of chupa chup lollies and a sticker with their name on - give them a baloon and some cake as they leave.
RLx