Kids Birthday Party Question for any seasoned experts, please!

[quirkyquerty]

I'm throwing my DS a birthday party for his 5th birthday in a few weeks. He will have just started school, so I'm popping invites in his bag on his first day for his classmates. I'm hoping for around 25 children including cousins etc.

I've hired a memorial hall, and an adults sized bouncy castle.

I' m planning to make pass the parcel- what sort of thing shall I put inside? Sweet in every layer or are parents too good to give five year olds sweets?

I was going to play musical statues - what sort of prize?

I'm cheating and ordering party food platters from Sainsburies to collect on the day. That will be sarnies, small wraps, fruit skewers, cocktail sausages, and I'll do some nuggets, bowls of crisps, and pots of jelly too.

There will be birthday cake and cupcakes.

Music I'm using a blue tooth speaker and making a Spotify playlist.

Have I missed anything obvious? Does this sound okay?

I've not done, or been to, a kids party! Thanks

Put a small wrapped sweet on the pass the parcel layers, eg a celebrations/heros.

Drinks: what are you giving the children? Suggest jugs of squash or mini boxes of juice.

Are you bringing paper plates/napkins/disposable cups?

Decorations? Some balloons and ribbon is fine.

Are adults staying? If so, polite to give them tea/coffee.

How long is the party? Have you thought about exact timings? I think you probably need a bit more activities as some five year olds willl get bored by the bouncy castle then just run around screaming/causing trouble (sone of them will bounce for the whole party). Suggest other traditional party games or the kind of running around games they play at Rainbows/Beavers.

Do small pass the parcels, 5 year olds aren't the best at it!

Re presents: tell your DS that you’ll take home the presents and open them at home, not at the party. Otherwise you have him ripping open 25 presents, and being aged 5, not hiding which he loves and which he doesn’t…Plus it will take too long.

Honestly? I did a hall party like that at age 5 with a bouncy castle and hula hoops, skuttlebugs etc. There was no need for party games as the kids just ran riot themselves for 2 hours!

Pass the parcel: fix it so that it stops on a different child every time.

Musical statues prize: tube of smarties or other similar size sweets.

Okay yes I need to order plates napkins table cloth. I've got some decorations in my Amazon basket.

Will sort tea and coffee and paper cups- hadn't thought of that. Do I cater for adults too?

I haven't got scuttle bugs and hula hoops- just the bouncy castle and the party games planned. I'll look up a few extra running type games and buy a few extra prizes, just in case.

All very helpful thank you.

Are party bags still a thing? Nice to take something away but would rather not fill will plastic tat

Party bags deffo still a thing. Cut up the birthday cake and put a slice of that in (at the end of course!), some sweets, mini crayons, notebook or colouring book, a balloon (deflated!), mini rubber ball...doesn't have to be full of plastic tat.

Honestly, if you've got an inflatable I'd ditch the games. We came back from a party today that had an inflatable. The kids were on it almost the whole time, except for when they were eating.

Have fun!

Ooh blow up some balloons and leave them on the floor. They'll have hours of fun with those, don't buy any extra games

I guess as you haven't given out invites yet, you don't know if you'll have any allergies to cater for - probably better to do fun sized Haribo as pass the parcel sweets as they're veggy & dairy-free. You may need to reconsider if you have vegans attending.
Check if the hall has its own supply of cups/plates etc, many do.
Have squash & water for the kids, also lemonade for the adults for any who don't drink tea/coffee.
Party bags are definitely still a thing.

Okay thanks guys.

If your child had an invite on their first day of reception would you go to the party? There's a week and half between invite and party which is short, I know, but I couldn't think of another way to do it

Pass the parcel - kids lose interest quite quickly so don’t do a layer for each child. Put sweets in each layer and at the end give every child it didn’t land on a sweet.
Party bags are still a thing. Cake, bag of sweets and something else. We’ve done books, bubble wands and mini water pistols which all seemed to go down well. My kids particularly loved a gummy toy that crawled down walls when thrown at a wall, temp tattoos, finger skateboards and a whistle. Do not do a whistle!!!

We use these type of things for drinks. It means they can sort themselves out when thirsty (not these specific ones but like them)

I would also label each cup with the child’s name, it’s saves you using a billion cups.

Yes if I my child was invited to party I'd go as long as we didn't have plans already. It's a fab way to build friendships - both child & parents.

You really dont need games if it's a 2 hour party:

1 Hr of them running about like crazy things and bouncing, you can blow up some balloons and just scatter them about and they'll spend ages throwing and batting them around.

30 mins to eat and sing happy birthday

Final 30 mins to bounce and run around while you clear up the table, sort the cake out into bags if you're doing that and to start tying everything up.

Keep the food really simple, I tend to keep the whole menu vegetarian just to avoid anyone accidentally getting meat.

Cheese or jam sandwiches cut into triangles
Pineapple and cheese on sticks (it's a classic)
Some cheese and onion rolls or cheese and tomato pinwheels
Crisps
Selection of biscuits - jammy dodgers, party rings, chocolate fingers
Selection of little cakes - mini rolls/mr Kipling type
Fruit - berries always go down well
Veg - don't go wild, it's overly optimistic to expect kids to eat veg at a party but cherry tomatoes and cucumber usually at least get picked at

If there is drinking water available then take squash and make up big jugs of squash.

Agree with others, no need for party games at this age. I remember one 5 year old party we went to that just had balloons on the floor and they spent the entire time chasing each other with balloons! The party parents had games just in case, but they weren't needed. I've also done pass the parcel for that age group before and they've lost interest or got upset that it didn't land on them.

Also means they can take home a balloon along with a slice of cake at the end. Maybe a packet of Haribo as well.

You don't need to fully cater for adults: tea / coffee / some nicer biscuits or slice or cake is fine.

I would definitely go if I was free with a week and a half's notice. Great way for meeting other parents and mingling!

Bring bags with you for taking presents home in. Remember matches or lighter for the candles and a knife to cut the cake. Some scissors and ribbon for decorations / balloons are also helpful. Kitchen towel for spillages.

Definitely some veggie options, I kept it all veggie to be honest as simpler - and we knew we had a mix of religions so I also had some halal haribo (they do a specific halal one) for some of the kids.
We definitely went to all reception birthday parties as it was a great way of getting to know people!

Oh also maybe a craft table? Just for any kids who want it a bit quieter or a break, we just printed out some stuff online for them to colour in, some cheap packs colour in pen (and also had a cardboard house from hobbycraft for play/colouring) which I'd bought months ago in sale 😊

Agree with most of what@FatAgainItsLettuceTime says but don't make it cheese-heavy - a lot of kids are now lactose intolerant/dairy-allergy/vegan or just don't like cheese (me too!). DC have friends who are all of these plus coeliac parents, so I'm used to catering for alternative diets.
Party rings, bourbons & Oreo's are accidentally vegan & go down great with kids.
Watermelon is a huge hit, along with cut up grapes & strawberries.
Carrots & cucumber for veggies.
Sandwiches, I usually do cheese, ham, tuna Mayo & if necessary a vegan alternative (jam or vegan chicken/ham). We never have any tuna left!

I’ve just survived a reception year of parties - bouncy castle is actually plenty for the kids to play with for 2 hours when you add food time in. The food you’ve described sounds pretty spot on and only a couple of the parties we’ve been to provided tea and coffee for parents.
If you do want to do games (and it doesn’t hurt to plan just in case) some very cheap medals from Amazon are perfect for musical statues prizes but with that age group you might want to think about giving medals for all and an extra sweet for the winner as otherwise there can be lots of tears. Piñatas seem to be quite popular too.
party bags are an absolute must as it’s what gets kids out the door without tantrums or tears (I say that from a host and guest point of view). You don’t need plastic tat in there; some sweets and cake are plenty and there’s lots of eco friendly toys.
Also don’t panic if people don’t rsvp until 2-3 days before as a lot of people are just disorganised. You’ve got the benefit of parents not being fatigued by 20 odd parties so I’m sure lots will come

Don't do party bags, no-one will miss them and we all know they're waste of time/money and it all ends up in landfill.

You need to cater for the adults if it's across a normal meal time, but if it's 3pm-5pm, then no, adults aren't expecting to eat, but drinks are good.

Do you have sufficient adult support if people drop their kids and leave? Or if you want parents to stay then make that clear. Expect people to maybe bring siblings (or put no siblings on the invite).

Organising that many young children into a game is going to be HARD. Only do this if you're competent to do it i.e. you're an entertainer/teacher/brownie leader or something. Otherwise let them bounce and chase balloons around and be done with. Music on for dancing, but don't make it a competition. I'd also maybe have a table with colouring on, for the kids who are overwhelmed/not the bouncing type.

Games with 4/5yo is a bit of a difficult one imo - a few will fuck off as soon as they’ve got a sweet, a few more will collapse into a heap at something not faaaaaiiiiiir and so on. Some take three hours to carefully unwrap a layer of paper and 12 more kids lose the will to live in the meantime… Bouncy castle + extra bits like a craft table would do it for me.

Okay noted about the games. I'll prep just in case. I'm a teacher, but secondary, and don't want to be using my teacher voice lol

If you’re going to do musical statues we always did a version where you ask then to make a particular sort of ‘statue’ when the music stops. So a small statute, tall one, spiky one, crazy one etc. Then chose the best/good ones and you let the child/several children chose a sticker to put on. This way no one is ‘out’ and they all remain part of the game. And you keep going with different statues til everyone has a sticker! So no winner but mild competition to do the best pose.

I wouldn’t do pass the parcel with that many children it’s hard to see who has had a ‘turn’.

Be prepared for some children not wanting to play the games and for some tears/arguments over PtP and musical stautes.

You might want to also consider setting up a table with simple crafts, colouring etc. I have seen this at a few parties and has been very popular with some children.

Don't do what a friend of mine did once & send two parcels round at once - utter carnage!!!