Timings for Hall for Dc Birthday party ?

[hopingtobehappiness]

I'm hiring a hall, but I only have 3 hours as it's mega expensive per hour. I was thinking 2 hour party, should I cut the set up to be shorter ? Originally I thought

So would you do hire 10-1
10am -30 mins set up
10.30 party 2 hours
12.30 kids go home
30 mins tidy or is that too tight ? If I do party bags early to get them to leave ?

Would 15 mins set up be ridiculous? . I have a bouncy castle coming, but apparently it can go up pretty quick ? They sis s they will arrive well before the hire time.

By the way in theory, this is in July as we should have no restrictions.

What age? I think 90mins is often plenty for a child's party, especially one you are running yourself. Less is more and all that. Then give yourself 45mins either side.

I think you need at least half an hour to set up- especially with a bouncy castle. In my experience everything takes a bit longer than you expect and there will always be some guests who arrive 5 mins early.

I'd also adjust the times slightly if you can- book 11am-2pm then you can start at 11.30, have 45mins of games etc then food at 12.15-12.45. Then (assuming you can involve a friend or family member to help out) another 45 mins games etc during which time someone can clear away the food mess. Then children go home at 1.30 and you have half an hour to pack away. In my experience, at this sort of party no one leaves until party bags are handed out but there are always a few who seem to take ages to go so I wouldn't want to be clearing away food stuff and have all the other packing away at the very end.

A 2 hour party is more than enough, kids get tired and fed up by then. You could get away with it being shorter, especially if kids are under 6, and also avoid having to do a lunch if you make the party 10.30 to 12. That gives you plenty of tidy up time plus a bit of leeway if anyone overstays

Also keep it simple. Food on platters to be uncovered. Or individual picnics.
No games that involve excess tidying up

Rope the parents into tidying.

90 minutes is plenty. People always arrive early. The food part lasts for nano seconds. Given those times are you doing food?

You will need longer to set up. And some guests might arrive early.

Consider whether you really want kids bouncing after eating and plan accordingly.

Set up is more stressful than pack up. But it does depend on what you plan to do! Bouncy castles do go up v quickly.
Top tip - order platters of sandwiches from supermarket. Or you could make up food boxes for them all - maybe more COVID safe and it means far less “setting out the food” which always takes a while.

I was planning to do food boxes, as thought post Covid people might be still funny about sharing stuff.

Party girl will be turning 5 but most of the guests are 5.

Should I make it one hour 45 mins then or just say 2 hours and give out the party bags at 1hour 45 mins time and hope they go home promptly.

I'm running it myself yes, well with DH, but we have a toddler too and so he'll be sorting her as no family to baby sit.

I thought just some balloons and bunting and of course a few games with the bouncy castle as main feature.

So
10am set up
10.30am party starts - bouncy castle - is an hour too long without games ?
11.30 lunch ? 15 minutes
11.45 cake happy birthday
11.50 party games for 20 mins
12. 15 give out party bags ?

I'm assuming parents will stay?

And a good way to get them all together at the end is a game of musical funny faces - music stops, they all pull a funny face, you pick the funniest one (basically make sure you pick everyone!) and they all carry on till their parent arrives. Better than the versions where someone is out each round and they all end up cross!

What about

10am Set up
10.30am Bouncy castle - Party child will need ot be around for arrivals from 10.25-10.40 ish
45 mins bounce
11.15 Food
11.45 Happy Birthday & Cake
11.50 Party games/bouncy castle
12.15 Party Bags

Don't assume that parents will stay unless you specifically ask them to. I never did at that age as I had a younger child or often I was working and it was grandparents dropping off for me.

Check how you will attach balloons and bunting, get them all blown up and on strings first. Some halls have noticeboards you can pin things to, some just have vast expanses of bare wall. You might need to stand on chairs etc. And chairs might need unstacking from the side of the room, trestle tables unfolding etc.
But if they are all going straight on the bouncy castle one of you can be sorting chairs (if needed! They could picnic on the floor with boxes, might be much easier ).
Take a big roll of stickers with the kids names on them and label each child as they come in. Means you can do better crowd control! Also, often primary schools have this clapping thing that the teacher does, which means all the kids stop what they’re doing and clap back and listen. It’s a way of getting their attention. I found it works a charm at parties!

@Comefromaway sounds good. There haven't really been parties this school year so far with covid, should I ask parents to stay or say they can? These are reception aged kids, although if I'm running things I can't be sorting them too adds first aid kit to list

@Talipesmum I'm practicing my clapping 👏

I'd say that an hours bounce with out games would be fine most the parties we went to for 5/6yrs the kids weren't interested in the games and just wanted to run around. But I would properly do the games at the beginning rather then the end so as pp have said you can start clearing away at the end while they are running round.

@Glitteranddirt21 I was just a bit worried about the kids bouncing after eating so thought games. I mean it still involves dancing a bit.

I wouldn’t worry about food at these timings, too late for breakfast and too early for lunch.

I would just give out cake and have drinks! Will also save loads of money!

If you’ve got people to help I would say 30min to set up and clear up is plenty.

You either need to provide enough adults to supervise, or be very clear you need parents to stay.

• parents need to stay to supervise
• you are welcome to drop off (leave me your number) or stay
• you are fine to drop off provided I have your number, return for 11:45

Also be clear whether siblings are welcome (and if so whether they can join in and will be fed / given party bags)

• let me know if you will need to bring siblings so I can cater
• sorry, due to numbers we can't accommodate siblings at all

As a rule of thumb at that age for school trips they would have one adult for every 6 children.

As they can't all be on the castle at the same time, are you providing anything else such as a craft table?

[quote hopingtobehappiness]@Comefromaway sounds good. There haven't really been parties this school year so far with covid, should I ask parents to stay or say they can? These are reception aged kids, although if I'm running things I can't be sorting them too adds first aid kit to list

@Talipesmum I'm practicing my clapping 👏 [/quote]
I always made sure I had enough extra adults to deal with the number of children I was inviting (dh, mum and mil usually). If you can't do that then yes, ask parents to stay.

You could do the bouncing first, then a game of PtP or something, then the cake, then food while you're cutting the cake for party bags, then go home straight afterwards

Is it a big running around bouncy castle with slide and so on, or just a square? That will have a massive effect on whether the children are content just to play on it for 45 minutes or need something else to do as well

Get them to decorate their own name stickers when they first arrive

Siblings 😱 erm that would be tricky to accommodate.

Ok I will plan some crafts too, but will have to ask a friend to help with that too. Any ideas?

I hope my Mum will help and maybe MIL I will certainly ask, but a few years back they all
declined coming to DD's 3rd birthday party despite all
being free.

You need to specify if you want parents to stay. With dc1 they are likely to, but by second or third they will be dropping and running!! Parents staying also means you are more likely to end up with siblings

Ask a couple of friends to come early and help set up, balloon etc take a while, 30 mins is not long if you are doing it on your own.

Friends can set out the food.

Let the kids bounce when they want to, don't set a time for it. You need some other toys too and let them play and do what they want. Maybe have a table with some colouring sheets and pens and glitter and glue.

You'll need someone watching the bouncy castle all the time as there will be one kid that gets boisterous and ruins it for everyone.

Tell other people to drop and run, it's way easier otherwise you end up with siblings who you'll need to cater for and who take party bags etc and you don't have to cater for parents who hang around expecting cups of tea and coffee. Also kids will have fun doing whatever and you won't feel the need for it to be fabulous without any adults judging you.

bouncy castles go up quick but take a while to pack up. Is the hire company coming to do that or have you to got to fold it up etc?

It's a company, I've hired one with a slide. They say 30 mins set up and derig.