Tips for Planning Children’s Birthday Parties

Kids birthday parties can be so much more fun when held in the home with your very own birthday cake creation. Get your child involved more in choosing the design of the cake and other goodies as well as the theme and tone of the party. This way you create more interaction and with a little imagination thrown in you can throw a great children’s party with a real ‘wow’ factor.  And the good news is that it will cost you less.

So what makes for a great kids birthday party? Here are the top tips for creating the perfect day for ages 5-8 year olds.

Planning

• Check the date carefully and make sure it does not clash with another party your child’s best friends may be invited to.
• Keep numbers to a maximum of 10 if possible. Without hurting a child try to keep guests to include the child’s closest friends. They have more fun and interact much more with each other.
• Parties should last between 2 and 3 hours only and, ideally, held at 1pm-3pm.
• Consider a theme – princesses and pirates; fairies and wizards. Invite guests to dress up but have spare accessories for children who do not arrive dressed in theme e.g. consider tiaras and glitter; eye patches, fairy wings, witches hats – beg and borrow in advance.
• Then make sure your party invite clearly states the theme and make is as visually appealing as possible.

The Menu

Prepare your menu in advance. If the theme is fairy princess then make sure you have a range of pretty cupcakes in bright colours; princess biscuits with faces piped with icing; pretty tablecloth littered with bright silver and gold stars.

Favourites include:

Beef sliders 

Pizza 

Chicken Nuggets 

Sausage rolls 

Cake pops 

Crunchie Rocky Road 

Chocolate dipped marshmallows or fruit 

 Why not try making the birthday cake, don’t worry this is not as daunting as it sounds. This easy to make Chocolate Cake will suit all kids of all ages. Get the kids involved making the cake and decorating.

Entertainment

• Kid’s Entertainers – find two local teenagers or family friends who enjoy kids to supervise party games and one/two face painters.
• Pay attention to music – include old favourites they learned in school along with pop music.

Party Games that never fail include:

• Pass the parcel – Place a gift in a wrapping paper and stick it. Then another wrapper, and then another up to 10 layers. Then the children pass it around to each other until the music stops. The child gets to unwrap the first layer and so on.
• Musical cushions – Instead of chairs lay out cushions on the floor with one less cushion than there are guests. The children walk in time to the music and when it stops they have to sit on the nearest cushion. The one who misses out is out of the game. And so it continues until there is only one cushion and one child left in the circle.
• Blind Man’s Buff – Place a blindfold around the party child and get them to wander around the room until they find another child. When they touch the child they have to guess who it is.  If they are right then the child chosen is blindfolded but if wrong they get to choose who the next child to be blindfolded is
• Yes and No Game – Each child is chosen one by one and asked a number of questions. They have to answer in the opposite i.e. if john is chosen and is asked is your name John the response has to be no. Have you been invited to this party – Answer no. A simple game but absolutely hilarious and never fails to amuse kids.
• O’Grady Says – An old favourite from children’s parties years ago and one that the kids will love and never tire of.  An adult at the top of the room invites all the children to stand apart in rows. Each child is invited to act out what he/she is told to do i.e. O’Grady says hands up – hands must go up. Then the presenter says ‘now hands down’. If is it not preceded by the phrase ‘O’Grady says… they are out of the game.
• Dance Game– Children shown how to dance to their favourite songs – great fun and they are exhausted at the end. Great for early bedtime afterwards.

Goody bags

Stick to the theme so make sure your lollies are carefully selected but throw in colouring pens and books with themed stickers. You can get little bits like this in Penny’s or any of the Euro stores.

Finally remember to have fun!