Cultural differences in children's birthday parties.

[TheNameIsDickDarlington]

I was recently at a child's birthday party where one of the mums questioned the classic cheese and pineapple on a stick birthday snack. Apparently, she had never seen this before.

This led me to think about children's birthday parties and how much of what I would consider a traditional child's party is specifically cultural to England (which is where I have always lived). Do most countries have the typical Bouncy castle in a hall and buffet food type kids parties or does each country have its own version of that?

I lived in a fairly deprived area growing up and pretty much everybody had this type of party in the local community centre

Near enough every weekend you or a sibling was at a party in there

Very typical of the 80s/90s growing up

A few people would have a house party and some of the posh kids who lived at the nice end of the estate had a Wimpy/Burger King/McDonald’s party - now that was a treat!!!

But I always remember them being dropped off by your parents and then it would be the aunts, uncles and older cousins that would help the parents out

I'm only half a page in but I feel compelled to add a post simply saying you're all making me want pineapple and a chunk of cheddar on a cocktail stick!

Nope, not a thing here!

I'm in Ireland and I find a big difference is that the whole church hall for parties thing doesn't exist here. I used to help run a toddler group (funnily enough in a parish hall) and a mum from England was having a christening and had lots of family coming over and was shocked when she couldn't find a hall to bring her own food and drink and have a party. There is one in an area several miles away from here that's like the holy grail as it's a community centre with an indoor bouncy castle that you can rent.

Both my kids had a hall, bouncy castle and entertainer from 3-6. For my 8 year old it's now sleepovers, ninja warrior or a trampoline park.

(I also want cheese and pineapple now. My MIL often makes it for the kids as a snack)

I had a pineapple and cheese hedgehog at my wedding reception. Went down a treat 😅

Quite interested to know what games are played at parties in other countries! My nephew who was born and raised elsewhere in Europe had no clue what pass the parcel or musical statues were

You had to be there!

Village hall, bouncy castle party is very much the norm up to a certain age around here (rural England). There aren't really other venues within a 30 minute drive, so no soft play, no other types of party package type places. I wouldn't say the pineapple/cheese on a stick is the norm, but we've had one and I've seen them before. It's more of a nostalgia thing - so probably more for parents of a certain generation (those of us born in the 70s/80s).

I'm not originally from the UK. In my home country, our birthday parties are more likely to be at home or in a party type venue. We don't have village halls and we do generally have drier sunnier weather for a longer stretch of the year. So my parties as a child were at home/in the garden or doing an activity - pony ride/children's farm, roller skating, bowling, as we had lots of these types of places (I lived in a much more suburban than rural area).

Definitely no pineapple/cheese in my home country either. The first time I saw it in the UK - it was pineapple/cocktail cherries/cheese on a stick - I said to dh, what the hell is that?!? And he looked at me like I was an actual little green alien from Mars and I had to explain that back on my home planet, we do not have such things! We served a lot of other absolutely shite processed food at birthday parties though.

I feel like I've woken up in another dimension because I've never seen cheese and pineapple on a stick, but I have seen lots of foil hedgehogs with cheese and grapes or cheese and ham, and I've been to loads of kids parties up and down the country, but every one here seems to agree it's cheese and pineapple.

Typical Icelandic kids' party usually has no organised party games at all. Just free play. Give them some cake and juice and then let them run around doing whatever they want.

Ah yes - I think the confusion has arisen (obviously not really but it was a lovely thought) because we'd usually say 'classic' (ie archetypal) in that sentence rather than classical which we usually only use with 'classical music/ballet/art'.

I love the idea of your ten year old asking another ten year old if she would care to dance a valse, and then perhaps a little refreshment.

You'll be glad to know Bluey is bringing back old school pass the parcel or 'Luckys dad's rules!'

Ah! @WinterDeWinter, that makes sense. I might suggest it to him 😊. In Germany, "dancing into May" on April 30 is a big thing (although rather for adults), but let's see what will happen tonight!

Placemarking for later....This thread is also making me crave cheese and pineapple on sticks.

That's what I was going to say!
Classic Bluey episode...
That's a pretty typical series of Aussie parties depicted - bowling, park with playground, etc. Pass the parcel always goes down a treat.
Food varies - bowling and other indoor venues will have catering so it would be hotdog and chips, nuggets and chips etc; in a park or public pool the hosts bring the food so it can be crisps, dip and crackers, lollies, sandwiches or whatever they feel like having. Some order pizzas or do a bbq. We have free BBQs in parks.
Go Lucky's dad!

PS what's a village hall??

Feeding adults and siblings at a kids party is a south asian and african thing.

DD/DS got invited to quite a few parties where the family were from India/Pakistan.
Everyone was invited, siblings, parents etc and the parents were well fed, I used to really enjoy those. I remember one where the Parents were told last minute by the venue that they couldn't take their own food in and they served it from the back of their car in the carpark!! Other main difference was that only full sugar coke was on offer to drink and no water.
The parties were much more family,community events and were often a way of showing wealth so quite "showy" but great fun

What’s throwing me these days is how big a deal first communion is.

when I was wee it was a second or third hand dress, someone’s granny knitted you a lovely mohair cardigan with ribbon and then you went back to your Nanas for a family thing.

these days it’s like a prom!

Went to a family from India's party and it was happening at home and for a child but it did not actually have any party games or anything, and the children basically just played together. There was plenty of food for everyone and it was actually kind of nice.

There is definitely the concept that you should arrive later than the time on the card if it is a longer party. But for hall parties that are only lasting about 2 hours, I think turning up on time is expected.

It's more of a from X time. Like a guideline 😃

We call it Africa time. For my DC party, say it was 2pm. All the white kids would be here 2pm on the dot, maybe a few minutes after. Roll on 3pm or later, here the African kids roll in 😂. Any games etc will always be planned to start later when everyone is likely to be here. Also siblings, they will just come along too. So always over cater. The collection time also falls into Africa time.

I went to a wedding, white groom and black bride. Groom side all seated, ready and waiting at the said time. Bride, nor any of her family anywhere to be seen. 2 hours later she arrives casually. Her family started drifting in about an hour after all the other guests.

I am ethnically Indian. Food is very central to our parties (and plenty of it). We like to get dressed up as well. Party games and entertainers are now getting to be more popular, but would not historically been part of a kids party for us. The bit that really takes some getting your head round is that anyone from the community can just turn up. So invites are not really a thing. In some cases this even happens with weddings- you will be asked to suddenly make place for the relative of another distant relative who you never invited. Generally though I love our parties. It is great to eat lovely food off a banana leaf.

@YippyKiYay a village hall would be a communal hall which anyone can rent out. Used to be fairly cheap, I imagine it can be quite pricey now. Would have a large central space, a kitchen and toilets. Often belongs to a church but I've rented a few in my time and haven't attended said church.

I live in the suburbs of a big city and we have church (village) halls around here too. They're rented by scouts, used for ballet and fitness. Unfortunately the cost of upkeep can be quite a lot so they might be sold on for redevelopment.

In the Netherlands in the 80’s my mother would always bake a huge pile of pancakes. Just eating loads of pancakes and partygames. When my kids were really young we also started with the pancake -parties. Later came softplay, lasergame and karts .