3yr old birthday party

[eggofmantumbi]

We're doing a birthday party for my 3 year old in a local village hall. They provide toys for the kids to play with, but I'm wondering if that'll be enough to entertain 20 ish 3 year olds for 2 hours.

We'll have a bit of food and some music, bit now considering booking some entertainment.
Or can anyone suggest any easy Entertainment?

A bouncy castle! At that age I'm not sure I'd bother with anything like pass the parcel.

Is it weird that bouncy castles scare me? 😂

Wait till they want a trampoline party then

Bouncy castles blooming terrify me, so much potential for bumped heads and other injuries! If you can face it how about a very simple craft table? Would be cheaper than an entertainer.

We did a bouncy castle at tht age. Not an injury in sight!
Other options could be cupcake decorating - then they get to eat it as part of the lunch.

I usually do some games interspersed with time to run around and scream.

I’ve done:
Pass the parcel but with a small gift in each layer, e.g. stickers, small book, tattoos, tiny toy etc.

Fish for a gift: use the end of a plastic coat hanger as a hook, attach to a short stick and put all the gifts in paper bags with solid handles os all the DCs can fish for a gift. This is a huge hit.

Musical statues with a gift/sweet for everyone who looses.

I don’t give gift bags at the end, the children collect their gifts during these games, but make sure they all have bags with their names on them to collect all their gifts and keep a few back to replace lost ones at the end.

If you do pass the parcel for 2 and 3 yos, at least 50% of them will become hysterical when they have to pass the parcel. For your own sanity, save it till they're older. Parties are meant to be fun. A game that leaves half the group sobbing should be avoided.

Musical chairs, but when the music stops they have to find a chair - but just don't take one like you would for older children - away works for this age group. You could theme it, for example, adding different animal pictures to each chair and they have to all say the noise of the chair they're sitting on.

Thanks ladies, loving some of these ideas. My mum is amazing with crafty things with kids (she's a teaching assistant in early years) so may ask her for some ideas

Is there a theme? Like @Booboostwo we had a lucky dip style "pirate loot" box for a party that went down a storm and they took the treasure home in a bag after with a slice of cake. We let them decorate toilet tubes with crayons and stickers (telescopes) etc.

We've had a Star Wars theme where they had blow up swords, so lots of "fighting" with a bouncy castle and craft table (Lego themed pictures)

so easy to do depending on what you feel up for.

She's obsessed with princesses at the moment so they're probably will be a fair bit of that type of stuff around!
Could easily do some crowns with stickers to make, that's a lovely idea!

I'm be 2-4 weeks off baby number 2 by the time it comes round, so crafts is going to be about as much as I can manage energy wise! 🤦‍♀️

I'm sure you and your mum will be able to come up with some great ideas. Good luck with it all.

Thanks ☺️