To be shocked at kids party prices

Christ on a bike. What kind of party is this?

At that age, we just invited a group of their friends to our home and had sandwiches, crisps, cake and party games. They all enjoyed themselves.

And thats what matters 🙂

I mean, fair play to you.
I can only dream of goody bags like that lol good for you x

Never ever seen cake put into party bags. Always cut and served as pudding to the party tea. But maybe that’s area dependent??Agree cupcakes are good though as no cutting required!

Definitely have them sit to chill and decompress. Individual boxes are good because it avoids any stress of serving them- 4YOs can be grim with poking stuff and not taking it or licking then putting it back so I would avoid a buffet for this age. Boxes also really good if you have any allergies as it controls who gets what.

It’s too young to understand ‘adopt an animal’, if it comes with a soft toy that’s better but they’ll literally think that’s it and not get the context. Honestly they’d all prefer the bag of tat.

But whatever you do I’m sure it’ll be worth the time and effort and DC will love it!

I learnt the hard way thinking a village hall would be cheaper, hahaha! I wish I’d just booked the local soft play, would have been cheaper and less stress.

We did class parties the first 2 years of school for each child.

over the years the private soft play centre hires with food have cost the same as hiring a hall and castle. Around the £600 mark. My bouncy castle hire was cheaper than a hall. I could get a castle for £75-90. But a hall for 4 hours was £140 for just a local village hall. Scout hut, church halls all charged more. To hire a soft play centre exclusively was £300 though for up to 100 children. (These years I did a joint between 2 children so I’d have 60 kids for that £300)

by year 2 we start only inviting our close friends so limit numbers at that point.
These days we generally pay £12-16 a head for bowling or cinema.

this year one child has chosen a climbing wall which is £9.50 a head. And I have it on a private hire. It should have been more but as members we were able to negotiate the cost. And I removed all the extras as they really just wanted the activity and not the other frills.

Another has chosen a party that’s similar to build a bear at £23 a head plus hall. (I could do it at home but having children in the home is to overwhelming for my autistic son)

I don’t mind while they are young. My older children have outgrown parties so it counteracts the higher costs of parties as I have 2 that just want a game of bowling or a meal with 1 or 2 friends sort of thing now.

Sounds cheap to me. We have always budgeted about £1000 - £1250 and it’s always come in around that including the one we have within the next month or so

Either get friends to do it or have another cake pre-cut. You really won't have time!

Adopt an animal for a kids party favour?
What happened to glow sticks and wrist snappers and stickers/slime?

I think it’s the idea of the bag the kids love and the birthday child usually loves handing them out, just add some cake to the bag and some sweets and then they can add the plushie to the bag too and that would be a lovely set of favours.

Definitely have the come and sit down. Kills a bit of time! But I always do the cake as soon as they sit down, before children wander off after eating.

Sitting if you can! It takes time out of the party, gives the kids a chance to reset and have a drink. You have the birthday child sat to bring the cake out and sing happy birthday.

also to add, you must serve food no matter what time the party is! It will be 100% expected.

a bit like no party bag, it’s odd not to serve food at a party.

I'm doing a party for my DD 8th birthday in February, the hall is £25 per hour so I'll have have 3 hours, DJ/entertainment is £225 for 2 hours. If I wanted a character or face painting that would be an additional £75/80.

The hall and bouncy castle are your biggest expense, and they'll be the same regardless of how many you invite. I'd invite everyone, you always get people who cancel on the day with sickness, plus those who can't make it to begin with.

Choose a time either in the morning or later afternoon where lunch won't be expected. Cuts down on food cost and waste. Just get crisps, biscuits, sweets and loads of drinks. You can get a big tray of water from Costco for less than £5.

Parties are about treat food, so don't worry about fruit, etc.

Don't bother with the book. A lot of thought for you and tbh most of the books we've been given at parties we already have. The party favours my kids like the best are sweet cones or a bag of haribo and a piece of birthday cake.

My eldest is in year 6 and has already had a couple of class parties this year! They seem to have made a comeback for the class as a 'last party' thing which is nice.

Keep the party to 90 minutes and don't stress the kids will run wild, eat treats, drink and have a great time.

Our local leisure centre does bouncy castle parties - think they're about £120 so cheaper than hiring bouncy castle and hall separately. They include a little assortment of soft play bits too.

I would possibly put out a table with simple colouring / stickers for kids who want a break from the bouncy castle and you could do musical statues or corners (sea creatures can be the 4 corners) for completely free activities or pass the parcel for something low cost, but most of the kids will probably be happy just with the bouncy castle.

For food, I'd keep it very simple and try not to over cater - for that sort of age I'd allow for half a sandwich each (as in, 1 slice of bread), a satsuma, a packet of crisps, a packet of biscuits like mini party rings or mini cookies - multipacks from the poundshop or B&M for those. Jugs of cordial rather than buying fruit shoots or similar. Cheap supermarket cake like the tray bakes that serve a lot and remember little kids only need a little slice. The Works books are a good shout instead of party bags - we did that a few times and it always went down well. Have fun, I miss these types of birthday parties 😀

I don’t think I’ll do afternoon though as my LO and I know others who say their kids get more grump etc and avoid afternoon activities etc but could do like 10-11-30? Dunno will think more on that.

I would love you for this! We have had to turn down party invitations because they are smack bang in the middle of the afternoon, would definitely be able to attend so many more if they were in the morning.