Ideas for a small at-home birthday party for nearly nine-year-old girls

[ProfessorTiddles]

Hi

Looking for some ideas for DD8 (soon to be 9) birthday at home. Shes asked to have a few friends over, probably about 5 or 6 girls. Any ideas of activities or things they could do at home...not got tons and tons of space but just wondering if anyone had any inspiration to help me out???

A baking decoration kit. Decorating shortbread. Or Baker ross craft

We made slime for my daughter’s 10th. Its quite easy to make with the Elmer’s ingredients, few colours and glittery things and then they have a small tub to take home.

About that age my daughter had a home pamper party. Company did foot spas, nails and hair etc.

Garden tea party. Decorate garden with bunting, treasure hunt with clues, cakes,, what does yoir dd think/ want?

Home cinema could be fun?

Do old school games like pin the tail, limbo, pass parcel,

eat
music and dancing

Buy beads including alphabet beads and make bracelets/keyrings.

Cake/biscuit decorating with icing and bits you stick on.

Pizza making and movie.

Buy a Wii or karaoke machine.

We had a chocolate party at that age. Making home made chocolates, watched Wonka, was fun.

We had a sleepover, made pizza for tea, popcorn and then movies. Obviously you can skip the sleepover!

Mine had a pyjama party and decorated pillow cases with fabric pens.
You can also get build a bear type kits to make at home

Hire a hot tub.

What sort of things does she like? Is she sporty? crafty? Start with her interests and go from there.

My DD had a slime making party. Everyone really enjoyed it, and they got to take their pots of slime home with them.
But you need to be prepared for a LOT of mess 🫟

my daughter had quite a few home parties. Usually did a craft and an edible activity - so decorated cupcakes and pencil cases etc.

One year we got fabric paint and plain white baseball hats and they decorated them. Big hit. It was a mess so maybe fabric pens if you don’t have a good space for a massive mess. Another year we did pencil cases and biscuit decorating.

(my daughter and her friends were all quite artsy though. If more physical kids you could do some outside games and such for some of the time, or a dance party with dance games?)

A pamper party with face packs etc. Chocolate fountain,baking or biscuit decorating?

we've done craft type parties and they put the bits they make in their party bag (that works well) and I’ve done pizzas so made the dough then put out bowls of ingredients and they’ve done their own toppings.

my daughter went to a party a while back and the mum had bought spa type things she’d borrowed a load of foot spas and did nail painting and then some hairbraiding (kpop demon hunter style stuff off temu) then they did some dancing and had some food and they all enjoyed that.

other themes - movies/ disco party/ cake decorating

one of the cutest was a Christmas themed birthday party so jealous none of my kids are near Christmas - but they had a gingerbread house decorating party and all had a kit and icing and that went down really well with Christmas games and food. They also made crackers and went in Christmas clothing it was really fun but VERY seasonal!

We bought cheap jute bags and fabric pens and they had loads of fun with them, and took them home ☺️

Karaoke machine? Thats something that my DD did at one of her birthday parties at home along with dancing, gymnastics etc . Girls tend to entertain themselves better than boys imo.

We did a similar age birthday recently and honestly the girls entertained themselves more than we expected 😄 A few things that worked really well:
• “Spa night” station — face masks, nail painting, cucumber water etc.
• DIY cupcake or pizza decorating
• Bracelet/bead making table
• Mini scavenger hunt around the house
• Karaoke / dance freeze game
• “Minute to win it” style challenges with little prizes
• Movie corner with blankets and popcorn for winding down
At that age they also LOVE anything slightly grown-up feeling — mocktails in plastic champagne glasses were a huge hit here 😂
You could also do a craft activity that doubles as a party favour — we recently did Morse code bracelets and the girls were obsessed with making secret messages for each other. DIY candle holder kits are really fun too because every single one comes out unique and they get to take home something handmade 😊
I actually found some cute DIY party kits on Etsy here if you want ideas: www.etsy.com/shop/Unboxthefun
Pinterest also has loads of “sleepover party games for tweens” ideas even if it’s not a sleepover 😊