Tips for Planning Birthday Parties
Are you the kind of person who likes to go all out?
Hey there! You’re listening to the Mighty Mommy with some Quick and Dirty Tips for Practical Parenting. Today’s Topic: Party Time
Planning Birthday Parties for Your Child
Are you the kind of person who likes to go “all out” when it comes to throwing a birthday party for your kid? I felt that way until my daughter was approaching her first birthday. Parties can be expensive and party planning can be exhausting. I’ve received many great tips from fellow parents on how to save your money and some of your sanity when throwing a birthday party for your child. I’d like to share some of these tips with you.
When it comes to party planning, there are three main areas I like to focus on: the theme, the guest list, and the activities. Each of these items can be altered and adjusted to suit your budget. You’ll find that when you have a plan of action, the task ahead will seem much less daunting.
Create a Themed Birthday Party
Let’s start with the theme. One of the best tips I’ve heard about executing the theme of a child’s birthday party came from one of my favorite podcasts, The Manic Mommies. The tip is to save money by matching colors associated with the licensed character your child has chosen for her birthday party theme. For example, my daughter is crazy about Lightning McQueen. He’s a red racecar from the movie Cars. There is an entire line of Lightning McQueen party supplies available at just about any party store. I’m sure my daughter would have loved all of it. When I went shopping, I remembered the tip I’d heard from The Manic Mommies and I bought the licensed tablecloth and small napkins only. All of the other supplies I purchased were solid red and yellow. The colors matched the licensed merchandise and when my daughter saw the tablecloth she was delighted because she was having the “Lighting McQueen” birthday party she’d requested. Â
Older children are likely to demand more products specifically related to their theme of choice. If this is the case with your child, I recommend that you set a budget for the party supplies and have your child go shopping with you. Together you can keep a running total of the cost of all the items and your child can choose the supplies that are the most important to her. She might be more willing to use the solid pink plates instead of the princess plates if it means each of her guests will get to have their own tiara.
Manage Your Guest List to Stay On Budget
The guest list can be tricky at times. When you are trying to stay within a budget, you need to set a limit on the number of people attending the party. During the toddler years, birthday party guests are almost always close friends and family. This can include adults with and without children as well as your child’s friends and their siblings. If you do want to include everyone, you can keep the cost down by choosing a time of day that falls between mealtimes. By having your party at ten o’clock or two o’clock, your guests should understand that food will not be served. Stating on the invitation that cake and ice cream will be served will also alert the guests as to what you will be providing. Always include an end time on your invitation as well as the start time. When the children are younger, you will want to schedule around naptime as well. Â
Older children will want to choose their own guests. It’s your choice to set a limit to the number of people your child may invite. If your child has one or two extra friends he really wants to invite, try to accommodate the best you can. It is his birthday after all. The best part about the older kids’ parties is that you don’t have to entertain the parents and siblings of the guests. Be sure to indicate on your invitations what time the guests should be dropped off and picked up. When the guests are dropped off, ask the parents for a phone number where they can be reached and politely remind them of the ending time for the party.
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Plan Activities to Prevent Boredom
If you have a party and do not plan any activities, your guests will most likely get bored or just stand around eating snacks or looking for snacks to eat. Parties with scheduled activities are much more fun for everyone. You can do party games or have activity stations. By setting up a schedule beforehand, you will save your guests from boredom and save yourself from running out of food. Younger children are not as well suited for the activity stations as the older ones are. For older kids, you can have a jewelry making station, painting station or many other types of craft stations. Check your local craft stores a few weeks before your party and start gathering inexpensive supplies on sale. Instead of serving cake, you can make an activity out of cupcakes. Each child gets one or two unfrosted cupcakes to take to the cupcake decorating station. Put out frosting, sprinkles, colored cereals, marshmallows, candies or any other colorful, edible items you can think of and let the kids decorate their own cupcakes. If you give them two cupcakes, they can eat one at the party and have one to take home.
For the younger children you can have a sing-a-long with favorite songs like Itsy Bitsy Spider. Play some fun music and get everyone dancing. This is especially fun with bubbles. Kids love to run, jump and chase bubbles. The little ones will also love decorating their own cupcakes. If you don’t mind a mess, I say go for it![[AdMiddle]
Make Sure That You Have Time to Celebrate, Too
Finally, one thing to keep in mind when you are throwing a party is the amount of time and energy you will be putting into it. You may find that with all of the set-up, coordinating and clean up, you aren’t having any time to enjoy celebrating with your child. Your time is valuable. Estimate the cost of the amount of time you are spending being a party planner and a clean up crew. Add that to the cost of food, decorations and other supplies. Take the total and compare it to the cost of throwing the party at a pizza place or fast-food restaurant with a play area or your local zoo. You may find that with the added in time and labor, it’s well worth the cost to let someone else host your party and do the cleaning up for you.
That’s it for now. Hope you enjoyed listening.
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This is your friend, the Mighty Mommy wishing you happy and fun parenting!
Music – “Golly Gee” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
Birthday Party image courtesy of Shutterstock