To be shocked at kids party prices

@op as it's nursery, keep the invitation lost small. Spend the money at reception stage when the primary relationship lastsnfkr seven years.

Also, I remember the under 6's didn't eat that much: plate it up for them: 2 finger sandwiches, fairy cake holder of crisps, half a dozen halved grapes, half a satsuma, two party rings and give them juice in a carton but have extras.

Party bags: balloon, glittery pen, eraser, stickers, bubbles, slice of cake. (I bought two little cakes and sliced and wrapped one before the party) I tried to so little books or packets of cress - they like a bag of cheap sh1t and it's about your dc's infant cred.

Parties used to cost £100 to £150 in the early noughties so your price sounds about right. Ours had a choice: a nice birthday present or a party. They always went party.

Your pay back is that ypur child will pribably be invited to another 15 to 20 parties. That's 30 to 40 hours of freedom to go shopping, have your hair cut, read a book, etc

This is a good point. How many of the nursery kids are likely to go to the same school?

Your child probably won't remember at least half of them by their next birthday. At least by primary school it's a more useful investment in their social relationships.

If doing for 4th nursery , then likely to do the same again for 5th and school
but hopefully by 6/7 smaller Parties do close friends

but yes that’s the cost. Def need either bouncy castle / entertainer for that many kids

hall £45/60 for 3hrs
bouncy castle /entertainer £100/150

leaving food an party’s bags

a book/sticker book from poundshop , bag of sweets and slice of cake for party bags

food can do boxes for kids so sarnie. Crisps , cocktail sausage s, party rings , cut grapes /raisins , frube

adults - Iceland and couple of French sticks - pate. Phili - crisps - pizza cut into slices is cheap and easy

they don’t need a massive meal but nice to offer food is 11-1 etx

I’d wait until reception for a full class party. That’s a good way of meeting parents and getting to know the kids - you’ll likely be dealing with the same bunch of peeps throughout primary school so it’s a good investment. We did 4 or 5 full class parties in various soft play or trampoline places but only because mine shared the party with a few other kids. Otherwise it was too expensive.

See if you can get away with a smaller gathering this year.

Ways to make it cheaper are

• Looking around for a cheaper hall (they vary by us a lot, but many don't allow for bouncy castles if you check the small print so you need to be careful).
• Joint party with another child
• No bouncy castle, party games instead (I happily do this as a primary teacher but can't say we've been to any other parties over the years where there's been more than pass the parcel. And not everyone has the skills to direct 30 excitable children).
• Smaller guest list

I think there is a limit to how cheap you can do it. Party bags are going to be an absolute minimum of £1 each so that's £30 straight away. As you say, bouncy castle hire is what it is. PPs who have done cheap parties aren't necessarily talking about parties in the past 3 or 4 years since prices have really done up and realistically most 5 year olds aren't going to be happy being dropped at an unfamiliar house so to do it at home you really need space to accommodate parents too. There's no need to provide parents with more than tea/coffee though.

If you’re going to invite that many kids it’s going to cost a lots of money, that’s only £10 a child. I always had about 10 kids max and did it home. Cost a lot lot less.

I always think a few games tweaked to match the theme are worth having up your sleeve. If you have someone or you would feel confident you could not bother with the bouncy castle cost to save money.For example Pin the fin on the fish, shark tag, under the sea disco (with balloon as the bubbles) sleeping sealions (when they need to calm down a bit) Magnetic fishing challenge etc. Google party games and the theme for ideas. They could build a boat out of cardboard boxes and sit in it for the party tea of sailer snacks. Sea shanty song and story time optional!

Oh and sticker books from home bargains also make excellent party bags. You can get for 59p.

They also had little mosaic stickers things for about 60p that were very popular. Worth a look there too.

Also handy for pass the parcel

If you have the money to spend then do it.

But having taken mine to this kind of party at that age, they couldn't even tell you who the birthday child was.

For that kind of price you could have a nice weekend away as a family - before school holiday prices kick in. We used to love a little caravan holiday and in the pool, soft play etc .

I'd do a small home party so they get cake etc but limit it to cousins and any kids where you have a relationship with the parents. Doubt your child will view it much differently.

If you do go ahead, cheap activity options:

We were given a glitter tattoo set (think was from home bargains). It's a stencil and Comes off easily. Very popular with my daughter's friends.

Get some bean bags or hoops for little games.

Decorate a Digestive biscuit with icing pens.

But with 30 kids and a bouncy castle it will be utter chaos however we'll you plan.

I agree with not catering to parents. Just have the party mid-morning or mid-afternoon so that they’re not expecting lunch.

We never bothered with entertainment either, just a bouncy castle and some footballs. Don’t go for too long a party either - an hour to play and then 30 mins for food is fine.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. What do you expect for 30 kids?

The most expensive party I had was a hall diy affair. Cost was £500 ish and that was 8 years ago.
Parties here now are average £20-£25 pc. Quite a few soft plays will allow exclusive hire mid week after 4pm and they’re by far the cheapest way to do a class party

Do you have a school Whstsapp group or similar? I'd ask if anyone has a child in his year with a birthday around the same time and do a joint party, costs split 2-3 ways are much more reasonable, and when I did it for my son many years ago it was great, 3 mums with far less to do each! Mind you, 30 7-year old boys in one place were fearsomely loud.

YABU to think you can cater for 30 dc plus adults, plus hire a room plus hire a bouncy castle plus give everyone something to take home for less, yes.

However

There is absolutely no need to spend that sort of money on a party. Let alone for 3 and 4 year olds.
There is no need whatsoever to be inviting such numbers. Nor to cater for parents. Nor to give them things to take home.

they are expensive but tremendous fun and you get invited back

I did one in the summer for the whole class. Came in about £500. Entertainment, venue, food. Yep, pricey! Mine was for 2 kids though, so slightly more palatable. It's also the only one I have for them, I don't do them every year.

That amount is crazy and not needed . Don't even feel that you should do this just because everyone else is. Mine will happily have a few friends at home or take a friend to somewhere special - and find they enjoy it far more than those big parties.

Yup! They are expensive! Bouncy castle alone can be £100-£130 round here. Our tally for DD at the moment is about £350 inc hall, entertainment, food and cake. We have a small house and once you factor in cousins and siblings that would fill it, so we do the hall! Grandparents chip in instead of a gift usually.

A village hall and bouncy castle party is relatively inexpensive but if you're feeding adults as well then it does get expensive. We've done parties at home with around 40 adults and 12 kids and easily spend more on that if it's nice food.

I was shocked at this too - not so much the cost, as I guess 30 kids is going to be expensive, but more at the fact that parents were quite happy to pay this and didn’t seem to think any of it was excessive.

We only did the whole class party once for each child, and cut corners a bit by hiring a church hall and then a bouncy castle (total about £150). Then did food from Iceland which was fairly cheap. For party bags we did a bit of cake, box of mini Smarties and a sheet of stickers that we had from somewhere.

After the first one we just had a few friends each time, in the house, and it was much cheaper.

I never did whole class parties because of cost.

The parties I did were 12 people tops and since my children didn’t have more than that as friends it was fine.

You can cut out the hall and the bouncy castle and cut the guest list.

That will save you about 75% of the cost I reckon.

If you have to have all of that, then yeah that's what it will cost. It's only £10-£12.50 per person, which is pretty cheap.

Another suggestion is that if you have a toy library near you, they often have things like parachutes, soft play type equipment available to hire at a pretty cheap rate.