To be shocked at kids party prices

Our council leisure centre has there own bouncy castle, so renting the hall and castle from them works out much cheaper then booking location and entertainment separately.

Even with the activities doubling up as party favours, that will still work out as expensive, plus lots of young kids won't actually do the activity. Personally, I'd just let them bounce around for an hour, then give them a bag with some sweets, mini bubble mix (10 pack from £1 shop) and a slice of cake.

In my experience, at that age they will just be happy on the bouncy castle together, some places do bouncy castle plus some additional ride-on scooters (or similar) hire, could look at that?

When mine were that age I got a job lot of books instead of party bags. There are some really good bundles online. It worked out much cheaper and the parents appreciated it rather than a load of sweets etc. That and a piece of cake is fine.

We used to share parties between 3 or even 4 if it was a class. Also for gifts we suggested just buy one gift and do a “lucky dip” so you didn’t end up with 30 gifts.
Also did cheapo home parties for up to 10 old school style- pass the parcel, pin the tail etc. Then run around in the garden. They all loved it.
Easier for summer parties I know.

My ds is 10 now but we hired soft play or trampoling a couple of time it was 12/15 a head and we invited 10.
if you are going to do a big party then I’d try to cut corners. Obviously you have the hall and bouncy castle hire I’m guessing £150-200. But if you get the food for Iceland, buy cheap themed decorations off Amazon, get a supermarket cake (or make one) and party bags- cake, haribo and bubbles or sticker s. You will massively reduce the extra costs.

We used to hire the local big soft play around £400 and bring your own food and drinks. The works 10 books for £10 and a pick up a box of haribo tiny bags for favors. That did 60 children though.

We found the food we took was always too much as they were always off running around and mostly wanted to grab drinks.

The parties we attended in halls with bouncy castles the children definitely ate more food as they kept stopping more.

Never done class parties similar to what others have said I allow my DCs to pick an activity or event they would like to do for their birthdays and allow them to take a friend I would much rather spend £300-£400 and even then don’t spend that much.
For my Dads birthday last year we took her to Legoland with her friend.

I know what you mean. No individual item seems overly expensive but £400 for a kids just seems too much!!

To invite the child with disabilities is a lovely gesture. Hope your DC has a great time.

Well I guess I'm not counting the things of which I would always have enough in to not need to buy (tea, coffee, milk, most baking ingredients) and I haven't thrown a party yet in 2026 but yes I don't think it was much more than this the last couple. Three loaves of bread, ham and cheese, a few multipacks of crisps, few punnets of grapes, bread sticks and houmous. The parties I've thrown like this have been for 3-6 year olds so not huge appetites. You're right though that to buy all of the tea, coffee, and cake ingredients from scratch would end up costing more than this these days.

£50 for enough food for 30 kids, plus tea and coffee and a homemade cake for 60 (assuming 1 parent per child). In 2026?!

It was less about ‘this party is boys stuff for boys and this party is a girls party with girls stuffin terms of theme and much more about halving numbers to keep it manageable in size and cost.

if my DD had wanted a football party I would have given her one - but at that little age when I said what do you want to do for your birthday - she favoured princesses and mermaids and the boys were into football dinosaurs and space. Totally there choice.

At home they shared all the toys and everyone played with everything a lot of the time - we had the full range of dolls, trains, dinosaurs, dressing up, lego, craft etc etc - but they all knew what they liked and wanted on their birthday and so I obliged with their choices which were pretty stereotypical - but again not unusual at the time.

class party was very much school friends only - we then did family stuff separately.

For the numbers I actually think that’s pretty cheap!

I saw your later post and think it’s a good idea to cut numbers, you could ask nursery to help with an invite list of 15 kids who your son plays with.

Check the size of the bouncy castle and how many kids can go on, think what the others will be doing if it’s max 10 kids at a time (for example).

Also I get your point on party bags but think you can do them and keep them simple (doesn’t have to be loads of plastic tat) but kids love them. Party bags are so exciting to 3/4yr olds!

Usually the bouncy castle alone is enough! A quiet corner with play dough; crayons etc. A dressing up box is also a good way of occupying this age group. Most girls have princess dresses these days and you could borrow from friends. Hats bags beads cloaks, paper crowns and masks [collected from McDonalds] Doesn't need to cost anything. Definitely keep the party under two hours. Personally I would stipulate no presents, but perhaps you may feel differently about that. You can always keep back some gifts as no child need 30 toys! The idea of books from the works is really a good one. That and a piece of cake to take away is plenty. Finger foods can be as simple as you like. Don't encourage the children to load their plates but to eat as they go. Go for an after lunch spot so fun food is all you need. Bottles of juice named for each child, with sippy tops will cut down on spilled drinks, and allow them to drink when they needed. On a practical note a few spare pairs of pants may be called for! Wet wipes! Tissues for noses. Most of all RELAX. I don't know how modern mums feel about staying at the party or if they grab a couple of hours free time, especially if they have other children, so make sure that there are enough adults staying to help. [One adult to five children should be enough.]

I’m doing a leisure centre soft play and party room which is only 220 in London, but I’ve spent nearly 200 in food and drink and party bags and decor

We did our first larger, non-home party this year. 10 kids at an indoor football place with pizza and drinks catered by the venue for €130. We added a piñata for €15 and I filled it with cut price Halloween sweets and €2 worth of 1-5c coins. They loved it. And it didn’t take me a week to tidy our house pre and post party.

DS has a November birthday. All the Summer borns around here celebrate outside, which really keeps the costs down. One lady I know told her youngest son his birthday was in the Summer. He was at least 6 before he discovered the truth.

What about a pool party? Could work very nice with an ocean theme. Hiring a pool might be cheaper and you could provide pool toys and let the kids take them home with favours.
Ive hired a council pool for my sons party for £140 for an hours exclusive use of the kid pool and the big pool and an hours use of the party room. I think I can have around 70 people in the pool.

It’s actually more expensive. about £25 per head nowadays + party bags + cake. It’s only cheaper if you genuinely invite 6 friends. If it will be 10-12 kids then it’s £250-300 not including cake and party bags

I do understand the thinking but did their sibling attend?

It is kind of reinforcing those stereotypes - and I have a truck mad ds and a dd who loves Princess Anna above all else so I’m not having a go but it’s very marked, isn’t it?

The local council leisure centre by us does parties up to 35 people for £100 for 1.5 hours of hall including soft play and trampolining and eating space / they don’t advertise anywhere though as they’re full the whole time! Perhaps see if one near you has something similar?

if it’s the summer, bring food to a park and have balloons - kids really don’t know the difference if they get to run around madly and get a party bag at the end

I’ve done party activity craft before for party bags - crowns, necklaces etc - or tbh these days Temu etc would get you things the kids love (ie plastic tat!) for a good price.

some places also do vouchers on various offer sites where it would work out much cheaper to buy loads of vouchers and do it as a DIY party - the arcades near us do that for example

or don’t give into the pressure if you can’t afford it - several will do nothing, several will have tea and party games at their house.

For whole class parties we used to hire a hall from a church for £25 an hour usually hire for 4 hours.
Dh would set up his dj equipment and we would have a disco with party games.
Then we brought a bouncing castle from a bouncing castle hire company that was closing business. So we would have a disco and bouncing castle in the hall.

When my kids were little a local hall used to cost £30 to hire for the afternoon and it came with soft play equipment that you could put out. Could do a kids buffet for £20, job done. Sadly I think those days are gone and everything costs a fortune now.

Lol when DD started school my mum and my MIL both separately said don’t bother with class parties it’s a nightmare so I always took that and ran with it. Too expensive, and it sounds like hell. I remember having a whole class party once and it was probably one of my worst parties. I feel bad because I know my dad spent a fortune on it. Didn’t enjoy it half as much as the smaller parties we had with my actual friends.

For the past two years we've had food at our house then taken the kids to a local activity by bus. It's around £20/head for the activity plus supermarket food & homemade birthday cake. Much cheaper and they still have a lot of fun.

No need for party bags!

That sounds quite a lot for that sort of party - we've done several and I usually budget £250 max.
£50 - hall
£85 - bouncy castle hire
£50 - food (crisps, grapes, sandwiches, houmous, bread sticks and homemade cake)
£40-50 - party bags
A bit more on a couple of other activities - hundreds of temporary tattoos (always go down a treat) and the big rolls of colouring in sheets - take felt tips from home.
We have tended to just serve tea and coffee for the adults. Make a big enough cake to offer them a slice.