The Zoom Dinner Party

Covid-enforced virtual parties were the reality for so many kids in 2020; my eldest being one. For her 12th, we sent ahead menus from one of her favourite places (Fego) to her friends and organised synchronised delivery and dinner party over Zoom. There was lots of chatting and laughter and she really enjoyed it. Family were allowed to join to bring in the cake and sing happy birthday!

The Sleepover Birthday Party

They all had their first sleepover party aged nine. At this age they suddenly seemed much more mature and I felt more confident that none of the guests would get homesick/have a wobble. Sofia’s coincided with the X Factor final so that was the theme, and twins Maria and Gabby had a movie night theme with a pre-approved film to watch (Trolls World Tour). Pizzas were ordered in, lots of treats were supplied and I organised a few games. However, they mainly wanted to just chat, play and create their own entertainment.

The Pop Star Recording Party

Recording studio Echo 7 hosts two-hour parties where you get sole use of the studio facilities with three staff. The party record one song as a group and the birthday child gets solo recording time. There’s a mocktail reception, a constant supply of snacks (plus chocolate fountain) and they get to walk the red carpet. The crew take lots of pictures and record footage, which is all included in a video they create to accompany the recording. A link to the final edit of the video (unlisted on YouTube) is sent to the birthday child and all guests. This was so popular even with the shyer guests. Find out more here Party Ideas – Pop Star Recording Party

The Pamper Parties

We did two different versions of this. For one, the party came to us. Two ladies set up a salon in our front room and did hairstyling and nails and brought ‘bubbly’ with funky glasses. The girls all got to walk the red carpet after they’d been pampered. We carried on the party afterwards and had another sleepover.

The second version saw us going to a hair and beauty salon. The team alternated between doing hair styling, manicures and pedicures. For anyone waiting there was a Hama bead station and karaoke so everyone was always entertained. They laid on party food and a chocolate fountain. They all loved it.

The Bowling Parties

An easy peasy party where someone else takes care of the entertainment, food and clearing up! Even the children who had never bowled before loved it. The arcade games were an added bonus.

The hired hall birthday party

In the earlier years of school we went large and often invited the whole class. With my twins in separate classes this turned out to be rather bonkers.

We’ve has disco, entertainer, magician, Elsa impersonator, all coupled with a tonne of sandwiches, sausage rolls, crisps, sweets, some crudite (to try and have something healthy) and high octane children.

The Bouncy Castle in the Garden Party

Another easy hit for the younger ones. Having learnt from having a huge party indoors, we did this one outside. It is MUCH easier. The bouncy castle was a local hire. We put up a gazebo – in case the late September weather turned – and had a picnic. Plenty of sweet treats, a piñata, music, bouncing and grown up drinks ensured everyone was happy.

My birthday party constants

There’ve been loads of variations on parties, but a few things remain the same.

I get a professionally made cake for the party from a fantastic cake maker (Fondant Fetish) and make a homemade, not so aesthetically pleasing one for their actual birthday.

A personalised banner has become a tradition. I’ve got them from several places, but my favourite for the last few years is Dom & Geri.

… and there always needs to be party bags. I love these ones from Purple Ladybugs, which we made up with goodies from Flying Tiger and tonnes of sweets from Poundland.

…

I’ve come to realise though that children don’t need lots of frills and extravagance. They mainly just love getting together and having time to play, chat and interact.

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The venue where they are having their party does provide ready done ones at the very reasonable price of £1.80 each. I have shunned these though as they can’t actually tell me what’s in them so I reckon they’ll be rather naff. However, what to do instead? Do you go for quality, quantity, novelty or even charity?

Some of the options

1) Check out The Works or The Book People and buy book collections and individually wrap one book for each child (looks like you can get decent books for £1 each) and then supplement with a bag of Haribo. However, as one Mumsnetter put it: “My kids like books they like parties they like party bags they don’t like them mixing.”

2) Go for a pre-made option from a company that specialises in doing them. It’s a sliding scale with the cheapest looking rather sparse and the good ones really starting to get pricey

3) The DIY bag packed full of cheap tat and penny sweets – loved by children, hated by parents

4) The more novel such as a plant pot and packet of seeds each for party guests to plant at home       

5) Use the money I’d spend on doing something as trivial as party bags to help Syrian refugees instead. At four, I’m not sure if the kids would understand this.

Read: Planning a Child’s Birthday Party 

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You’ve probably seen the news story doing the rounds today about the £16 invoice sent to the parents of a boy who was a ‘no show’ at a friend’s party at a dry ski slope.

I’m sure like many others, I thought that this was totally outrageous. However, from firsthand experience, I know how stressful it can be (or how stressful I make) organising a child’s birthday party, and how costs can start to spiral even when planning something rather more modest than a party on a ski slope.

Did she just flip out and send the invoice in a moment of post-party madness?

Elsa keeps the children entertained. That helps!!

Here are my top five party organisation headaches (I think they call these First World problems):

1) Too many guests turn up on the day

You’ve carefully calculated, done the correct number of party bags, the right amount of food and the right number of layers on the pass the parcel; then you get a couple of extra on the day. I always do plenty of food and extra party bags just in case. However, if you’ve hired an entertainer or the party is at a particular venue you may have to pay for a certain number of children/places.

For a Frozen-themed party we booked ‘Elsa’ from My Little Princess Parties (they’re great by the way). We provided the cake, party food and party bags, but all the entertainment was laid on by Elsa at a cost of £199 for two hours. This covered up to 25 children. More than 25 kids and there was a charge of £5 per extra child. Over 30 and an extra entertainer would have been required. Thankfully we had exactly 30. Phew!

2) Too few guests/lots of cancellations

What if you play it safe with numbers and then get loads of last minute cancellations? For one party, I got four cancellations on the day and one no-show. I was hugely disappointed on my daughter’s behalf and was pretty stressed as I didn’t want the party to be a complete flop. I didn’t tell her about the cancellations. It was the right thing to do. She had a brilliant time anyway (there were still plenty of partygoers despite my worries), and it was only afterwards that my daughter started dissecting the guest list and realised that not everyone had made it. She was fine.

From a cost point of view, if you’re doing an activity-based/venue party, you’ll probably get charged for the number you specified. Just suck it up. You were expecting to pay that anyway.

3) Party duration 

One of my biggest mistakes was having a fourth birthday party at home, which was three hours long. It was just way too much for 38 (yes, 38) young children. For a select number of friends, who are a bit older; fine, but for younger ones, it’s mayhem. Two hours is plenty.

4) How much to spend on party bags 

Do you go with a massive bag of tat and tonnes of sugary treats (which incidentally the kids love and the parents hate) or go for fewer, more quality items? Oh the  dilemma. A mixture I reckon. Kids are hugely disappointed if the bag’s really sparse, even if there is something in there that’s really nice. Parents are hugely disappointed if there’s a tonne of plastic mini toys in there that will be broken within minutes and then litter their house. If mine are anything to go by, they get extremely attached to tat and it’s almost impossible to throw these items away.

5) Will I look like a complete weirdo if I send out save the date emails before the actual invitations?

I didn’t send these out for my own wedding yet for two consecutive years I have sent ‘save the dates’ for my eldest’s parties. In my defence, you have to book December parties well in advance and people do get very busy at that time of year.

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