Helpful advice for party planning parents.
Top 12 Birthday Party Lessons
12. Plan ahead. It’s no surprise that a birthday will happen again each year.
11. What is your budget? Be realistic. Stay within it.
10. More is less. Better to do some things well rather than nothing at all.
9. Don’t over invite. One sure way to cause stress is to invite lots of people and be overwhelmed by them.
8. Plan to do something. Don’t expect eating and gift opening to be activities for children.
7. Traditional games are fun. Freeze tag, memory, blanket forts, dramatic play, puzzles and card games.
6. Crafts are great, they make an easy activity and take home favor. Necklaces, bracelets, decorating loot bags or party hats are very inexpensive and fun.
5. Invite older children / tweens / teens to help organize the kids and run activities. These ages often love this responsibilities.
4. Limit your party to two hours. One hour of activities, one hour for cake, food, etc. It’s far better to send kids home wanting more than longing to leave.
3. When it comes to loot bags- less is more. Try to give away one better quality item then a whole bunch of throw away ones. A comic, coloring book, markers, a ball or a jar of play dough will likely be played with several times.
2. Cupcakes or cookies. Lots of children are very happy with a small cupcakes or cookies. Large pieces of cake are often wasted.
1. Remember to include the birthday child in the planning process (especially as they get a little older). The kids can make decorations and help plan the activities that will make lasting memories for their friends, and especially for the birthday party child themselves!
Happy Celebrating, Happy New Year!
Check out Cindy’s post from last month: 10 Tips for a Gift Giving Treasure Hunt party.
Cindy Despins is the founder of dressupandplayparties.com. As a stay at home mother of 2, she loves to provide her children with opportunities to play, be creative and learn. She loves to share these ideas with other children and help parents out with her birthday party packages.
Crystal A. says
Great tips for birthday parties! Thanks!
Greta says
Those are great tips. I especially like the one about cupcakes or cookies. That’s so true!
Bonnie Way says
Great ideas! I have a birthday party coming up in a couple months, so this is helpful. Thanks! 🙂
Laura O in AK says
Those are good tips, although I’ve found that less IS more when it comes to the parties we’ve had. My eldest son had friends still talking about how much fun they had at his birthday party several months later. Unlike others, we didn’t go somewhere for an activity. Rather, it was low key with kids running around the yard and climbing all over the play set.
Erin says
What a great list and they are so true! Very helpful ideas to stick to when planning a birthday party!!! Thanks. 🙂
Kristen B says
Great ideas. I’ve started making cupcakes for a number of occasions and it is so much easier. Pinned it.
Jody @ Mommy Moment says
Thanks, I could not agree more, I LOVE cupcakes!
@Mommy_Jennof3 says
Great tips! I’ll have to keep these in mind as I have a bday party to plan next month!!
Wendy [mapsgirl] says
Great ideas!! It’s funny…I know birthdays happen once a year….but I’m never ready. LOL!
Grace Hodgin says
These are all great tips and I think including your child in their birthday planning is a very important one.
jodi shaw says
These are great ideas Jody! 🙂 My hardest one is staying in budget, I always go over LOL. This is a handy check-list you can print out to remind you what you need to do and stay on track.
Katherine G says
These are great tips!!
Viv Sluys says
I am working on planning one right now! Thanks for the tips/reminders!
Teresa M. says
These tips are great for all Mums with birthday party aged kids. Sara is older so I am past this but I remember it as being one of my favourite times with her. I usually had her parties at the pool. The recreation centre provided everything but the cake. We had a craft party one year. The children decorated their goodie bag and when they went to leave I filled it with lots of fun things. I agree, stay away from the dollar store and put in something that won’t be in the garbage at the end of the day. For Sara’s last party, she filled out thank you cards and placed a five dollar bill in each…that was the goodie…the look on their faces was priceless…thank goodness it was a small party.