Ideas for 16 year bday party, about 6 friends

[RoyalImpatience]

I thought I had stuck on brilliant idea of a bell tent in the garden. It's been met with a totally flat response.
What has any I've else's child done?

Also thinking of perhaps a hopping trip but we would have to tag along /at distance and im concerned that might be stressful and v expensive buying tickets etc

DD recently turned 16. Hers and others' birthday celebrations included a meal out (8 teens approx), escape room, paintballing, crazy golf, murder mystery party, theatre trip, casual get together with pizza & movies, a few house parties and a bell tent sleepover!

Dd turns 16 this October. She wants to get her nails done with 3 friends. If it’s not too expensive, I’ll take them for afternoon tea or pizzas after. If it’s at the to
end of our budget then they’ll come back to ours for pizza and a film.

Mine built a big fire (marsh mellows) and slept in a tent on a wild type campsite. We delivered a takeaway to them earlier in the evening and one beer each

A beer each!
We did escape room recently. Murder mystery sounds good, but not sure how to access that,
Personally I think tent is best but as said she didn't seem enthused.

Could do meal out.... But could be eye wateringly expensive... Zizzi close by...

Get her to do her own thinking and tell you what she wants since she's shooting down your suggestions. At this age I wouldn't expect to need to take on the mental load of working out what she wants, my job would be to make it all happen.

Have you asked her? Maybe she wants to do something without you?

Mine wanted a day at the beach but it poured down. Ended up at a trampoline park with 5 friends and had a great time. Dominoes for dinner, sleep over

Dd had a silent disco for hers. She only invited six people but they had a great time. Stupid me thought it would be a lovely quiet event that didn't bother the neighbours, until next door text me to say she was laughing her head off because they didn't know the chorus!!!!!

I have changed name for this. As it is so outing everyone of my friends would know as I raved about it.
My 16 year old didn’t know what she wanted and they have had a fair few birthdays cancelled due to lockdown - so they said surprise me.

So we did this
https://www.somersetsheeptrekking.co.uk/

in the morning - it was totally awesome - just incredibly good fun - two adults and 5 teenagers and a bloody amazing cream tea (homemade after) they literally had no idea and it was a total surprise.

We then went to Wells for lunch and a mooch around Waterstones and Picnic on the grass outside the Palace and in the evening….

I took them to 100 years of the Bristol Opera Company celebration at Aerospace under the Concorde - whole place lit up with fairy lights and it was magical.

Honestly I think it was the best birthday ever and that I’d ever been to.

The grumpy teens could not have been more enjoyed and bewildered 😂😃these are 100% things they would have rolled their eyes at or gone - what?? And they loved it totally loved it.

I didn’t even tell their parents. It was just pick them up at 7 am and go.

I appreciate that I’m Bristol and you might not be - but I’d 100% recommend what I did.

The sheep trekking was just something none of them had even guessed at! They still talk about it now!

Why would you need to hover during a shopping trip? Give them a set amount of cash or money on a card and let them loose!

At that age I had sleepovers with takeaways, videos and alcopops !

Tell her how much you're prepared to spend and any other conditions (no adult free house parties, for example) and leave it to her to come up with ideas.

DD wasn't keen on a party so we booked a bird of prey experience for her and 3 friends.
It was cancelled thanks to strong winds so the girls ended up at Zizzis. We re-scheduled now and hope for calm and dry weather early September.

Murder mystery (I think you can buy them as 'packages' of the docs and audio you need online) evening at home. The last one I went to at a neighbour's house had the host acting as butler, and they'd made up a fab drinks/cocktails/mocktails list which he served, along with nibbles. You could serve pizza instead, anything the kids woul like, really.

Escape Room?

Tent would have been my suggestion too, my big teen camped out with friends for their 16th. In January. I think I ordered takeaway, can't remember tbh!

She did escape room that was great fun..
Sheep tracking sounds hilarious!
Extremely out of the ordinary.

@Sherrystrull

It would be to London..

I'll look into murder mystery.

I'm sure she will come up with something as well.

@reluctantbrit August usually a wash out and weather usually wonderful in Sept!

London shopping sounds even more amazing! You could find yourself a central coffee shop and take a book.

You can hire spa pools in some locations

Something active like go-carting?

High tea - either out or easy to prep at home

Brunch

A make up tutorial?

Our lot (boys) would want a theme park day, airsoft, go karting. Something like that. Extortionate though, so they might be easily persuaded to have a slightly bigger gift budget instead.

Theme parks are a bit too far from us.

She was surprised today when I said I'm not sure we could do a bell tent now due to rime constraints.

If the shopping trip would be in London then it can't be too difficult for you to get to Thorpe Park or Chessington though.

My DD had a 'children's' tea party, exactly like a 6 year old would have had. Jelly, ice cream, cakes, biscuits, sandwiches. They played games and did some karaoke. They had a brilliant time and indulged their childish side. Apparently, it was a huge success.

Lush do a fun spa.