Readers share party tips
A few of our Smart readers shared their advice for throwing a great birthday party for your kids.
Keep all the kids involved
• Ask your child what theme they want. If you have a few ideas, throw them out there, too, but let your child choose.
• Start planning early — a minimum of three months out. This way you can keep your eye out for deals on items that work with your theme.
• Guest list. As far as how many to invite, using the old standard of a guest count equal to the age of the child is a great place to start, ie. five friends for a child’s fifth birthday. If you can handle two parties, throw one for your child’s friends and another for family (nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, grandparents). We try so hard to include everyone that it just gets to be too big and you end trying to keep kids of all different ages engaged. The family one can simply be a cake-and-ice-cream event if you don’t want to repeat the theme, or use the family one as a test run before you throw the friends’ one.
•Recruit helpers. Ask an older sibling, cousin, aunt, etc., to be there to help. Just to have someone to take pictures, clean up the food area, or help run a craft or game is a lifesaver.
• Gifts. After your child opens a gift, take a picture of the birthday child with the guest and the gift. This way you don’t have to try and write everything down, plus you have a picture to send the guest as a thank-you.
• Games. Design games that are less likely to have one winner, where kids have to sit out. There are plenty of group/team games to keep everyone involved. Don’t spend money on prizes for game winners. Most kids are happy just to play without being rewarded. A piñata or candy
scramble is a great alternative to prizes.
• The No. 1 biggest mistake I ever made planning a party: Renting a costume character. Children younger than 4 years old are scared to death of a 6-foot Winnie the Pooh, even if it is their dad underneath the costume!
— Linda Gallagher, Springettsbury Township
Knight and princess theme a hit
In February, our family had a renaissance (aka Knights and Princesses) party to celebrate four close birthdays in our family (husband and three children). Here are some not-so-expensive ideas we used:
• We made a castle for the kids to play in. We got the plans and connectors from www.mrmcgroovys.com/castle.htm. We got refrigerator boxes from the Maytag store on Memory Lane, Springettsbury Township. They were so helpful! All we had to buy was the connectors and paint (we did the fake stone look), so the whole thing cost us less than $30 and the kids spent the whole day playing in it!
• Using leftover cardboard from the boxes, we made cardboard shields (painted white) for the boys who then decorated them. They used markers and stencils I made from cardstock (printed off the computer) of different heraldry symbols (horse, dragon, axe, lion, etc.). You could also make swords this way, but we bought inflatable ones from www.OrientalTrading.com.
• For the girls, we made barbette (cone) hats with ribbon or tulles draped from the top. They were stapled together and decorated by the girls with markers, stickers and foam sticky shapes which I had at home already. We also bought them inflatable princess wands.
• The party food was somewhat in medieval style, meaning that there were no utensils used. We had cheese, crackers, bologna, fruit, dip, chicken wings and other finger foods, as well as chocolate-chip cake with no icing for dessert so it could be eaten without a fork.
• Another game we made was “Pin the Wings on the Dragon,” which I made by printing a dragon picture from the computer poster-sized on four sheets of paper. I then printed a few more copies of the wing area, and cut them out of cardstock. We just used a roll of tape on the back to stick them on the dragon.
• Everyone was encouraged to dress in costume and many did. The party was a huge hit and everyone asks, how are we going to top it next year. I don’t know! But it was fun.
– Nikki Donahue, York
Keep it short and have fun
As the father of a boy who will turn 4 next week, here are some tips we learned from throwing our own parties and from attending parties of all the other kids in his preschool class:
• Keep it short. A 4-year-old’s birthday party should last one-and-a-half to two hours. More than that and the kids start to eat the furniture! Well, maybe not, but they definitely start bouncing off
the walls.
• Don’t open the presents during the party. Four-year-olds don’t want to sit around for 45 minutes watching another kid open presents. Let your child open his presents after the party, and make sure he helps write the thank-you notes (even if he just writes his name on them).
• If it’s within your means, throw the party away from home. We have discovered that it is, indeed, worth the $125 it might cost to throw a party at Tumble Town or a similar locale . . . no complaining neighbors, no cleaning up the house (and no ice-cream stains on the carpets!)
• Most importantly, have fun, and realize that no party goes over perfectly. Let the kids have fun!
— Joe Durika, Windsor Township
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