If you did a whole class party, how much did it cost you?

[35andThriving]

Also, what did you do in terms of activities?

I am looking to organise a party for an 8 year old. I have never done it before and wondered if people would share their experiences / thoughts

Thanks.

We did one for my son who turned 5 in October, so had only just started at school. Hired a hall for £35, a bouncy castle for £110, then did our own food, and had some games /music/bought toys etc. We ended up inviting all 48 kids in both classes 😱 and it was loud!

Have done loads. Never less than 300. Best have been church halls, paid for entertainers (magicians, song and dance factory, strictly come dancing party) with party food and a cake, party bags.
Have also done activities around sports- gymnastics, trampolining, David Lloyd.

Depends what you have. A soft play party costs about £12 a head but that's everything included.

And although some won't come, many will bring it try to bring siblings.

When is it for?

I've only ever done large parties outdoors so that's not ideal if it's a winter birthday.

Best one we did was in a local woods, I did a treasure hunt, they built dens, made a campfire for roasting marshmallows. (Ok we lit a bbq 😂)

I took pizzas that is already cooked and some sandwiches and cake. Cost very little!

Never had a whole class party but looked into bowling and Five Guys for my twins and 4 of their friends and that is £200! Everything is so expensive!

We did in 2021. In our garden due to covid although I guess could have hired a hall with outdoor space. We hired a balloon and tattoo lady for I think £200 and then timed it so it wasn’t over a mealtime - just a few packaged snacks (covid) eg mini biscuits, iced gems, crisps. Squash and birthday cake. Craft table from baker Ross, maybe £30, and party bags.

@borisisaknob that is awesome, we have woods over the road - did you have to ask anyone or you just did it? I’d feel so shifty but sounds really cool!

It would be in February.

Church hall type ones about £200, with hall hire, bouncy castle, food, party bags for 40 kids.

It varies. I’ve done them at home or at a venue.

At home is obviously cheaper but not always by loads. I think the last venue one I did was about £25 per head plus cake.

We’ve done several; soft play, football parties, bouncy castles, roller blading. Never less than £15/head PLUS the party bag. Our cheapest was during lockdownlite- 8 girls in a gazebo with a walk in the pouring rain followed by hot chocolate and food. They had a great time.
One mum at school who really doesn’t have much money invited the class for cake and balloons at the park right next to school. The kids had a great time, but a couple of mums said they were buying cheaper gifts as it wasn’t a proper party- I thought that was mean. I really admired the mum for choosing to do something they could afford rather than get into debt for a kids party or not giving her kids a party.

We did a whole class party plus a few extras (think it was 27 in total) at a local soft play - everything included (food, drink), but I brought the cakes (mainly as we needed to supply gluten-free & dairy-free for some children). It was £260 in total but that got us private hire too so that helped ease any parents concerns about mixing.
It was one of least stressful parties we've done (have also done ones at home, a forest school party, party at a local attraction & village hall).

Hall £60, entertainer £240, food £120, party bags £75. Then decorations, some lunch for the parents as it was over lunch time, birthday cake etc. too much! But not planning on doing it again until dd2 gets a turn!

I've done years of them! Back in my days as a low paid staff nurse when we didn't have much money my budget was:
£24 village hall hire
£50 party bags plus a few small prizes for games
£30 food
£10 something crafty for a craft table e.g. home made playdoh or homemade dinosaur eggs.

In later years, when we were a bit more comfortable, we used to pay for a bouncy castle too which was about £80 (but that included a surplus charge for living rurally, I think it would have been £60 if we were closer to the town).

There are loads of cheap or free things dc enjoy - I used to get everyone I know ow to collect cardboard boxes and dp would craft networks of tunnels out of them, or did a castle with a draw bridge one year.

Most dc like party games (I always found). If things were flagging we would play any game where dp played a dinosaur/monster/whatever and chased the dc around, that always seemed to go down well.

I tried to use stuff we had around the house already e.g. when we did a dinosaur party I transported the sandpit and sand down to the hall in buckets and then buried bones made from salt dough so the dc could dig up the bones and assemble them into a skeleton.

Parties absolutely don't need to cost the earth.

Swimming party is usually very good value and from 8 years I don't think it's so strict with parent child ratios . Our local pool it was something crazy cheap like £50 for twelve kids then £3 per extra kid and you get a room to serve your own food in as well.

Just to add it was with a National chain 'fusion' so worth looking on their website

Hall parties for 30 with a bouncy castle, food, homemade cake, and party bags have cost ~£200. I find hall parties to be carnage even when a proper entertainer is hired, so refuse to throw them any more.

Home parties for half the class have cost similar as we've needed to buy themed decorations and stuff for crafts/activities which cancelled out the hall hire saving. That again includes a bouncy castle hire.

This year we did a joint party for both DCs at a trampolining place. They had 5 friends each (so 12 DCs in total inc my DDs). The package included Dominoes pizza plus ice creams afterwards, and with party bags and cakes on top (we got a separate cake for each DD) it came in around £250. Obviously this is more expensive for fewer DCs, but meant we weren't doing 2 x £200 parties so actually saved us money. It was also considerably less stress and organisation with no noticeable reduction in DCs enjoyment, so we will be sticking with the format now for as long as DDs are happy with it.

Some other free or cheap activities we did are - taping roads on the floor of the village hall and borrowing as many ride on toys as we could so the dc could drive around.

Another year we did a similar for a pony party but made a bunch of jumps out of cardboard.

Are you planning on a theme?
I did a dinosaur party for DD in 2020 at home in our garden - we made a papier-mâché Dino egg piñata & a Dino excavation.

I've not really thought about a thee to be honest.

Thank you for all these replies.

We did them in the garden. One year I spray painted running race lanes on the lawn and we did sports day type activities - egg and spoon race, sack race, three legged race etc. Another year we did some super hero games and dressed up Dh as a baddy, gave the kids buckets of water and sponges and let them chase him with them.

All very cheap and lots of fun.

We've done various ones. Best was a fairy one which came in at about £375 including food and party bags etc.
This year she gone for a disco which is around £220 and then £65 for the hall so will be similar once we've added food the guy is great and does lots of games for them and a foam bit at the end...it is really expensive but lovely memories made. Paid entertainment is the costly bit but the year we didn't have that it was such hard work that we decided it's deffo worth it to us.

I'm dping dd one at soft play. It's 200 private hire up to 150 guests.. Food 3 per head
. I'd imagine maybe 30 kids i will have to supply/pay food for . But we also have a large family where aunts and uncles like to see them on birthdays and I just don't want it indoors. That way they can all come and sit in the cafe, and are happy to do so.

All I have to do is cake and party bag. Which I'm just going to do a sweet cone, and a bubble wand (which I got 30 in asda sale for 9p each!) early spring birthday.
Mix of ages 2 to approx 9 with the family kids

• That was meant to say theme not thee.

Thanks all.