Childrens Birthday Party - questions & ideas (merged)

maisy-mai

On my daughters 5th birthday
her class friends birthday was the day before

so we hired a hall and split the costs .
Had a bouncy slide castle and we took music for a disco and put up our xmas lights
we ordered in happy meals for everyone
there, was no mess no drinks were spilt as containers had lids and everything was eaten
they all loved the toy and went away with cake in a bag with a 9p asda note pad and a pencil.
Everyone said it was they best party they have had for a long time it took next to nothing to clean up saving money hiring the hall for extra hour to clean up and time cooking and throwing away uneaten food .
the total came to £50 each for 30 children. didnt think that was bad for the amount of people
maisy-mai

katecheshire

I'm a DJ so I do quite a lot of kids parties (and don't charge daft prices) and I have noticed that, since High School Musical came out, the boys as well as the girls are much more into dancing. If you know any teenagers - or anyone who would be interested - why not get them to run a 'dance class party' - also there are some DVDs which show the moves so you can swot up. Pick some 'trendy' dances and a few old favourites (Macarena, 5,6,7,8; Hokey Cokey, YMCA, etc) -even some 'Strictly Come Dancing'. You don't need a DJ as you can probably rustle up enough suitable CDs from friends/their kids.
Even younger ones will like this because I often see them looking at the bigger ones and trying to copy the moves. If there are some confident ones get them to demonstrate to the others. Make sure everyone gets praised!

PS My golden rule: NEVER have a childrens party longer than 2 hours!!

pejoco0_2

When our daughter was six we had a teeshirt painting party for her. Instead of goody bags every guset (child) got a plain white tee-shirt which they were then allowed to paint themselves. The tee-shirts were quiet reasonable at the time (1993) and the paints were the type suitable for use on materials and washing machine safe. If the tee-shirts are slightly too big for the guests we found that they were useful as nightie/night shirts. All we had to do was pray for good weather as they were doing it outside in the garden (May) and provide cardboard to place inside each tee-shirt to prevent the paints marking through. The guests all loved it and as there had been alot of parties during that period it was a great alternative idea, where everyone had a practical and lasting memento of the day

pejoco0_2

shazza39 wrote:

My son will be 8 in March but was wanting to have all his friends together for it. It'll be too expensive to hire somewhere cos there's too many off them and don't want them going crazy in the house either.

Any suggestions?

When our daughter was six we had a teeshirt painting party for her. Instead of goody bags every guset (child) got a plain white tee-shirt which they were then allowed to paint themselves. The tee-shirts were quiet reasonable at the time (1993) and the paints were the type suitable for use on materials and washing machine safe. If the tee-shirts are slightly too big for the guests we found that they were useful as nightie/night shirts. All we had to do was pray for good weather as they were doing it outside in the garden (May) and provide cardboard to place inside each tee-shirt to prevent the paints marking through. The guests all loved it and as there had been alot of parties during that period it was a great alternative idea, where everyone had a practical and lasting memento of the day.
:beer:

Mr_Rhubarb

Lots of useful tips on how to save money on children's birthday parties at the following site
http://www.paradoxtheatre.co.uk
It's a site run by a performer, but has a lot of useful info and tips
To go straight to the page
http://www.paradoxtheatre.co.uk/parties%20&%20Events.htm

Glad

as we now have a fab new celebration board I'm moving this collection of ideas over there

Caixta

Some of you might be interested in the following programme on BBC2 tomorrow night (16th January):


20:30 Tomorrow
BBC2
The Madness of Modern Families
Once upon a time the children's party was a joyous occasion for a parent, but not any more. Modern parents come clean about the madness of children's birthday party inflation. Jelly, games and fun are seen to be dull. Children's parties are now big events and parents know it's about them being on show, not the children. So, this gives rise to venue stealing, entertainer envy, party bag pressure and sleepless nights in advance of the big day

Duration: 30mins


It probably won't be full of moneysaving ideas, but chances are, you might get an idea of what to avoid :rotfl:

Caixta

*Bump*

On now

Poppy9

In the Claire's outlet shop in Bridgend today lots of beads, earring, purses, bangles, jewellery stands, belts, hairbands & clips etc on 10 items for £5. Brilliant for party bags or even presents.

DD has given one of the purses to a friend with £5 as a present.

bobsa1

Had my dd's party at home yesterday, 9 x 3yr olds. Bought DD a bouncy castle off ebay for b'day and put that up in the hall, got out loads of toys, did food myself and party presents were outfits I got from asda and sainsburys just after halloween at £1.50 an outfit.

Total cost for party incl gift about £40, maybe less. Includes a couple of bottles of wine & beer for adults

Kids had a great time party started at 3pm gave out bags at 5pm and nobody left until 6.30pm- last one to leave was 8pm!

Just shows parties don't have to cost a fortune