Is 12 enough for a village hall b'day party ?

[EezyOozy]

My daughter is turning 5 in three weeks and has requested a party lots of craft activities. She is quite a reserved, quiet child and her favourite thing to do is sit and make stuff. She has a few close friends that she loves plus various other kids she knows and gets on with.

DD attends a very small village school and there are only three in her year (Primary 1) ... although it's a composite so she knows the siblings well as there are a handful more children in the same room.

We have made a list to invite the other two p1s, their siblings, DDs best friend that doesn't attend the school and her sibling, two cousins. That's 12. Those are the people she specifically wants there.

I have various craft sets (Baker Ross type) and will also be having a bit of music , pin the tail on the unicorn and pass the parcel , maybe duck duck goose... and party food and balloons of course.

The party will be in our village hall.

I'm just a bit worried there won't be enough kids to make it feel party-ish and that DD will wish she'd asked for something bigger? 🤔

I'm thinking of inviting another few children that she knows and gets on with... I'm picturing 12 kids rattling around in the hall. Maybe I'm being a bit silly.

Also - should I plan more games and party stuff or does that all sound ok?

10 girls attending, 2 boys. I know all of the kids well and I can only think of one child (one of the boys) who might be a bit bored by crafting.

If you have some stations a bit spread out with different activities going on on each one, with a parent maybe managing each one, then it should be fine.
And a chill out zone at one end with some beanbags etc

Thank you :)

That sounds lovely. Bigger parties are overrated. Nothing you've told us about her makes me think she'd prefer a bigger party.

I would suggest the opposite to the PP though, don't have too many different "stations" or they could end up a bit atomised. Hopefully the craft will be plenty but always prepare for more games than you expect to need. Corners is a good one to make use of the space, grandmother's footsteps, or ones where you have them in 2 teams doing silly relay races. Would the boy who's not that into craft like to DJ perhaps?

Thank you so much - I'll have to google grandmothers footsteps ! The wee lad might like to DJ or have some other helper task I suppose. There will also be balloons and space to run about

If you set up the table for food at one end with chairs around that would reduce the size of the hall and make it seem cosier. But 12 is fine. If you know one or two of the older girls in the school..as it sounds like that kind of school..maybe they would come and help with crafts as with that age you definitely need help.

Sounds perfect.
plenty of space for the running around games, without having to dismantle the craft table, and can set up the tea table in separate zone too

12 kids will take up more room than you expect (and make more noise!) - enjoy

Oh, and those activities sound great - traditional party stuff. I assume with the music being there you might include musical statues and/or musical chairs?

And a brilliant game to calm them all down (eg/ when you need to transition from lively fun to sitting quiet for tea) would be Sleeping Lions

In my day, we played “what’s the time Mr Wolf?” = basically the same game

If they are making stuff you can give more individual attention to twelve children than I’d you invites lots more.

Sounds ideal.