Cost of children’s parties

[WhenTheyComeForYou]

Now, I realise this may come across a bit tight but OMG the cost of children’s birthday parties are crazy!

Ive been planning a class party for my soon to be 6 year old. He’s intent on having a class party and I can’t see a way to make it cheaper than £400/450.

• Hall for 3 hours (covers party and 30mins set up and clean up) £70
• Entertainer £250
• Food and drink £75 (sure it would be more if I added berries and pushed the boat out - I’m not)
• Party bags £50 (2 small toys each and some sweet bags).
• Balloons, tablecloth, cups, plates, banners £20

Can’t do a home party as our house isn’t big enough for 30 kids + parent.

Could do a smaller party but my child doesn’t have a set friendship group yet and would like everyone to attend.

Could potentially share the party with someone but I don’t know anyone well and I’d personally find it a bit awkward. We’ve only been to one shared party.

Ive toyed with having it outside but the weather is unpredictable.

Im personally not keen on just having a bouncy castle in a hall, those parties have fallen a bit flat in my experience and I can’t entertain 30 kids on my own, I just can’t.

We’re in a cost of living crisis yet we’ve been to loads of parties in the past 6 months.

How are people affording this?! £400/500 seems so much to me, or am I being tight?

Does anyone have any fun and cheapish party ideas that have gone down well?

For us, hall hire would be £30 and we’d go for bouncy castle, which is about £100 +/- £25 depending on which one you want. I wouldn’t expect to do a hall party for less than £200 but £450 seems a lot.

This would cost a fortune where we live. It costs £250 for Elsa to come for an hour.

Love your name, fellow tight arse 🤣

It’s probably a me thing but I’ve found the bouncy castle parties painful. At 5/6 I think a lot of the parents will still stick around and that’s a long time to small talk.

I prefer the organised fun approach! 😄

It depends, a party can be done on a smaller budget ( but it's always going to be somewhat costly!)

My son's birthday is in a couple of weeks and we've hired a medium sized softplay in a leisure centre £100 for up to 20 children

We chose 2-4pm so we will just do snacks and cake rather than a full lunch £30

Decorations and party plates/cups £15

Party bags £15ish

So around £160 in total.

Check what deals the soft plays have in your area. Most of ours do play, food and party bags for £250-£400. Can work out so much cheaper and a lot less stress xxx

Cake and choose a book instead of party bags - I’ll have to remember that great idea!

Don't try to entertain them yourself if you don't feel confident. A craft table might work for some groups of children but my two lively boys and most of their friends would absolutely not have sat and done craft when they're excited for a party. (I tried it once, it didn't work, they just ignored the craft and ran around shrieking instead...)
Entertainment only needs to be 1 hour, make party 90mins not 2 hours, so after the entertainment and food the time will be pretty much up.
The good thing about a hall party is it's less annoying than a pay per head party if someone is ill or drops out at the last minute.

Scrap the entertainer and go for traditional party games. Can you ask one of the other parents to help out? Or do you know one or two local teenagers who are good with children who could lead games? Paying one or two 17yos for a couple of hours would be a lot cheaper than paying Elsa.

When mine were younger everyone just had parties at soft play. Paid per head they did everything except cake.

January birthdays are really tricky.

I only did one whole class party and it was expensive. Then I looked who had a birthday close and the next year we did a joint one, so half the price.

After that it was a small group of friends.

It actually gets cheaper as they get older.

£140 for a bouncy castle! Is that a typo because locally ours are £40.

Yep, even a simple old school party at home costs a fortune nowadays!

Can you recruit another adult to help you organise party games? The Scouts website is really useful for group game ideas for every age group from 4YO.

https://www.scouts.org.uk/news/2022/october/10-minute-fillers-fun-games-to-play-during-any-extra-time-in-scouts/

We invested in (cheap) plastic plates and cups, which were also used for barbecues and picnics. We went for a mix of rainbow colours so it fit with any theme. Also quite handy having different colours so everyone knew which cup was which. Some of them are still in use for the next generation’s parties 😂 It’s another expense but possibly a better investment to spend money on reusable crockery rather than party bags.

Don’t waste money on plastic tat for party bags. A small paper bag and some sweets to pick & mix is fun and cheap or a multipack of books from The Works at £1 each.

Are you creative (and have spare time!)? Can you make decorations from things you already have instead of buying them? Eg fabric or paper bunting, paper chains, Christmas fairy lights, painted cut out decorations that fit the theme, printed decorations (there are lots of resources online). We used to print colouring sheets that fit the theme and have a colouring station. We also got the DC to paint or draw things, scanned them and printed them to make decorations.

Don’t have the whole class! He cannot possibly be friends with everyone. Don’t have an entertainer, do games. Find a cheaper hall. This amount of money is ludicrous. No one did class parties 30 years ago. This phenomenon is frankly boasting. Parental one upmanship. Dc won’t even remember it.

Actually have some jealousy reading this thread! Local to us the choices are flip out (£30 a head!!!) soft play (£22.50 a head) - neither of which include party bags, or hiring a smaller soft play for £300 (then catering/party bags ourselves) - or hiring a local hall (nothing under £150) and then bouncy castle/entertainers/food etc. Not sure what we're going to do this year 😬

I was in your shoes last year. It costs fortune so this year I’m sharing the bill with another family and it is much more manageable. And we agreed to only one whole class party per child and will be inviting only their close friends from now on. Also, I agree with other comments that soft play/gym party packages work out cheaper, party bags are often included in price too. Having entertainer is the most expensive bit but like you, I could not entertain 30+ kids on my own and the hall parties we attended with just bouncy castle/parents led entertainment was quite chaotic and less enjoyable for everyone. I would cut in food/drinks and do set of picture books from works (£10 for 10) instead of party bags.

We saved money one year - didn't have an entertainer so I was pirate "no beard". Hired the hall, did own food which we made in the morning - few jugs of squash, ham, cheese and jam sarnies, crisps, cucumber and carrot sticks, party ring biscuits and chic fingers. Got a pirate treasure hunt kit from amazon which came with clues, a treasure chest with coins/gems/ mini pirate plastic telescopes (telescopes went in party bags) and did a pirate party. I dressed up, put on my best pirate accent (am from Devon so that helped) and directed a load of 5/6 year olds to find the clues to get the "treasure" that they then shared. This was about 20 mins or so or running around and excitement, then a few rounds of musical statues. Then had party food including the cake - this takes about 20 - 30 mins. Then did a pass the parcel and played more party games, then they just ran around with balloons until they wall went with a party bag and a balloon - think bag had a book (from a bundle that I split), box of smarties, and tube of bubbles or similar. Stretchy men are also popular (from amazon for about 10p each). I made my own cake, and nowadays tend to make cup cakes (the betty crocker mixes and pre made frosting are pretty foolproof). Think cost about £200 or so. At their age it doesn't need to be too fancy - just fun!

The entertainer seems very expensive.

Cut the party down to 1.5 hours, that's long enough. Bouncy castle for an hour, and you can sometimes hire soft play type stuff as well. Check whether the hall has any trikes/other toys that you can use. You do that for an hour, then food and maybe pass the parcel or something.

For food, go to Iceland and get a few big pizzas. Cut them up into squares and serve with cocktail sausages or mini sausage rolls. Then cake for after.

Don't bother with tablecloths etc - plain white paper plates and cups, and a pack of baby wipes for sticky

For party bags just get a £1 bag of Haribo each.

Kids parties nowadays seem to have become very competitive. Everyone feels obliged to spend a fortune because that's what everyone else does.

Adults maybe, kids just love seeing their friends and feeling special it's their party.

OP have a look at local leisure centres etc- honestly a bouncy castle with some balloons and music is fine. Sweet cones for party bags (make them yourself- we did 25 for £20 and that was with personalised stickers), a few nibbles (doesn't need to be a whole meal) and leave them to it! Spent £150 for DS' class party last year, a lot of money but nowhere near £400!

Seems crazy expensive. It's £90 for a hall with a bouncy castle included here or £40 without. Food is cheese/ham/jam sandwiches, crisps, yoghurts, carrot and cucumber sticks and a cheap pack of biscuits. I've never paid for an entertainer. We buy temporary tattoos or cheap craft stuff that parents or older siblings can do with them. Party bags are mini Haribo packs, a bouncy ball and a slice of Tesco cake!

The entertainer is expensive, but you should have a great party so just make this a one off and go smaller next year. I think you can get the food a bit cheaper - homemade sandwiches, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, biscuits - and cut the party bags to one cheap toy, piece of cake. You could also get away with no banner and no balloons, but I realise that wouldn’t really save much.

Be honest with your child and tell them they can't have a whole class party because you can't afford it.
Have an at home one with 5 or 6 friends. Play traditional party games. Food could be something like pizza, popcorn chicken, mozzarella sticks etc from Iceland plus some crisps and bits.
Party bags - look at Baker Ross. They do good stuff.

This would cost a fortune where we live. It costs £250 for Elsa to come for an hour.

Wow. You are being charged double the price 'where you live'!

I don’t think it’s a new thing. Whole class parties at infant school (Years R, 1 and 2) were definitely the norm 25 years ago when my DC were little. All the girls in the class (or all the boys), often plus a few cousins and out of school friends, was the norm 50 years ago, when I was a child. 🤷‍♀️

Where we lived no one ever hired a hall. Ever. No entertainers. People simply didn’t have the money. Around 10-12 friends was the norm. Parents were not expected to take DC to 29 parties a year and buy presents! Just too expensive and time consuming and everyone knew this. Prep schools with 12-18 in a class were different but state school parents were just having sensible numbers and spending sensible amounts. Pretty quickly it was just a treat for a few friends. Never saw relatives at any parties my DC went to. Maybe no one had extended family nearby but it didn’t happen. I’m not sure how this ostentation developed? Just tell dc it’s 10 friends. It’s not hard