To ask how much you pay for your children's birthday parties.

[Ilovechocolatetoomuch]

I am looking at organising a party for my ds.
I am flabbergasted at some of the quotes I have been getting.
How much have you paid for a 2 hour party with entertainment?

Depends on the party. Whole class, soft play plus party bags £400 (which is my we have had a lot of joint parties).

@hunter037 we didn’t do birthday parties until they were 4.

My kids have had the parties I listed above but they’ve also been to parties which have been in people’s houses or music in village hall affairs too. Loved them all.

Cake + fun + friends = party to kids.

Age 6 = £400 for hall, dressed hall, tables, cake table, entertainer (did everything including goody bags she was amazing) then maybe £40 for food. Around the same for age 7 although cake was about £50 also. She only got s small birthday present though, think £50. As she got presents from all her friends.

I try and base things on percentages when on mums net as you have no idea of peoples income. This was around 20% of my personal monthly wage :)

£130 for 10 to go ice skating including hot food. All we had to provide was a cake which was homemade so cost about £5 in coloured icing and decorations. We have never spent anywhere near £500!

My DM always does the birthday cake, she discusses it with the birthday child & they google images etc & she makes it - she's fab!

Contents of party bags depends on numbers. Whole class will be cheap & chearful - bubbles, punch balloon, sweets & cake. Under 10 kids would be lego blind bags, yoyos, nail varnish, small craft kit etc

Whole class party - £220 in a hall with a bouncy castle & buffet (which I made)

Cinema for 4 kids - £60 (no food only popcorn & drink)

Trampoline park for 7 kids - £70. Food - £35

Climbing party for 8 kids - £80. Food - £12 (just bought 3 big bowls of chips to share & took bottles of water)

Teddy bear factory for 8 kids - £116. Took our own food £15-20. No party bags as they took their new teddy home.

Soft play for 6 kids £60. Food £25.

I have 3 dc so my 3 are included in the total number at a party so I'm paying a fair amount for my own kids to enjoy an activity so doesn't feel too bad & they all love parties!

Worth every penny

I have never managed to do a birthday party under 1k

That’s bonkers! Fair enough if you want to throw a big lavish affair, but to say you have never managed to keep it under 1k just means you didn’t try too hard!

I’ve never spent more than £100 per party. When they were small and did whole class parties, we had them at home (games, cupcake decorating, pizza making etc), or at the local community centre with a bouncy caste, DJ or footie party.

It helps that we work in the wedding industry so know some colleagues who would do reasonably priced discos,, bouncy castle hire etc, I made the cakes, party food and party bags.

Also I’m a cub leader and my DH was a kids footie coach, so it didn’t phase us to run our own entertainment.

When the kids got older, and wanted laser tag, bowling etc, we limited number to about 10, so it was still easily possible to keep costs to £100 or so.

We have a budget of about £150, for that we have done all sorts from Harry Potter party at home to full class party at a local gym. This year planning lego robot wars for my DS's 9th birthday (£150 for the guy to bring everything to ours plus will buy pizzas) and a forest school party for my DD's 5th (£120 but will spend more on snacks and party bags) A lot of options I investigated were ridiculously expensive, but it seems lots of people are prepared to pay.

Around £200. But my DD’s have never wanted parties like hiring a hall with tons of people etc, ours have been an activity (bowling/trampolining etc) followed by a nice meal.

Spent £200 on entertainer, held party at the house. So the rest was quite cheap, didn't spend loads on food. Party bags just over £1 each.

I think the entertainer is worth it as whilst you could do pass the parcel etc yourself it's nice to not have the stress, do the crowd control, and it's nice that they make they make the birthday child feel really special in a way you couldn't as their parent without looking indulgent.

PS live in S/E in 'expensive' home county, £200 for an hour seems to be the going rate.

That’s bonkers! Fair enough if you want to throw a big lavish affair, but to say you have never managed to keep it under 1k just means you didn’t try too hard

They aren't even lavish honestly. It isn't a point of pride to spend this much it just seems to turn out this way. But if it were just me I would spend much much less. DH likes to entertain everyone on birthdays.

About £15-30 pp for soft play, laser tag, go kart parties.

About £150 best case scenario for village hall party with bouncy castle or entertainer. I once did a village hall party for £50, with no entertainment cost (I organised games)....NEVER again!

I've learnt my lesson now, and just hand over the £££££s to make it someone else's problem!

My dd is 8 this week and for the first time she doesn't want a party and instead is having more expensive presents.

We've had one every year ( apart from when she was 5 ) since her 1st birthday and they've always cost around £200-£250 at a softplay venue that she has always loved.

The year when she was 5 she wanted an experience instead which cost £££ and her brother had his 13th birthday just after and we surprised them with a holiday.

This year she is in school on her birthday and is not impressed as it's normally half term but this year it's a week later.
We're taking her and 2 friends out to a trampoline park and for a meal which is what she wanted.

Last year we paid £160 for a 2 hour entertainer and then we had to pay for party bags, cake and food on top. Hall we got free as husband is involved with the social club.

children's parties are expensive!
Honestly I'd just do a cinema trip/bowling depending on age with 3 or 4 close friends, then home for some tea and cake.

I can't be doing with inviting half the bloody class (and spending hundreds of pounds)

DD will be 2 soon, it’s £25 to hire the village hall for the afternoon (so everyone will have had lunch before they arrive) I’ll just take down all her toys that I don’t mind getting broken/pieces going missing, do a pass the parcel, stick the tail on the donkey, maybe spend £30 on food. Party bags are a box of raisins, pack of crayons and a mini colouring book so wonts cost much at all.

About £150

Love in North East for pricing context.

Didn't do a 1st birthday for my twins as it would have been for me rather than them so didn't feel it was warranted to spend the cash as twins are expensive enough already!

2nd birthday we did soft play, £6.95 per head for play and food and drinks. So that was about £125 for 18 kids. £12 on a massive personalised Costco cake that feeds 40. Then I spent about an extra fiver on fruit and cucumber so there was a healthier option to add to the plates at soft play. Spent about £20 on party bags (play doh, stickers, kinder chocolate, cake, plastic snake, glow in the dark stars for bedroom ceiling).

£160 for 2 kids birthday parties doesn't feel too bad to me and there was minimal effort on my part so it's a win win as the kids all had an amazing time.

I have always been someone who lives by my income, if I have been well off I spend lots, if I am not I don't.

I'm also a bit at the people so happy to waste £££ on parties.
The best party I've ever done for one of my DC (where the guests would still talk about it weeks later and ask if they could have a party like that too) was a very simple one: outdoors, the activity was a "Pokemon hunt" (I'd placed Pokemon pictures around the area they had to find) followed by a camp fire where we'd make "stick bread" and roast marshmallows, followed by lots of running around in the fields. It wasn't very organised apart from the hunt and most was free play. They loved it.
Granted, we were lucky to have nice weather (June) and access to private land on which to do it.

Just sorting DDs 4th birthday party now.

She’s having it in soft play and the package I’ve picked is £10 a head - she’s asked 15 friends, most have rsvp’d yes so £150 which includes soft play, food and an entertainer for after lunch. Cake is costing about 50 quid and I’ve ordered stuff from eBay to make sweety cones and party bags, probably comes to about £20.

Central Scotland area FYI

I am also surprised to hear people spend so much. If I can't organise for around £200 or £10 per child then I try to have a weekend away to a theme park. I couldn't justify spending the amounts some people spend but then you can only spend it if u have it!!

Jesus wept.

No wonder kids/young people these days are becoming so entitled.

What on earth is wrong with the church hall with a buffet, pass the parcel, and a CD player? And maybe a bouncy castle?

This thread is bonkers.

I love it when people say they did it with thruppence and then describe how they used their event planning business or contacts at the parish council to secure free shit. And i’d love to know where in the Universe you can do laser quest for 10 for £100. ( does that include invitations, table settings, food , cake etc? ) I have to say my DD is 6 going on 7 and I’ve only been to 2 parties in someone’s house and they both had entertainers.( South East circa £200). I don’t have any issue with them at home but I don’t have tons of space & an April birthday the weather is unreliable. People here mostly do halls with an entertainer or bouncy castle or an activity ( making slime, ceramic cafe). I quite enjoy the planning of them actually ( frustrated party planner) so I make choices based on what we want rather than the cheapest option available. Importantly we only have one child so it’s not an expense we have to duplicate multiple times a year.

5 year old last year:

Church hall £40
Bouncy Castle £80
Sweet comes (made myself) £40
Food £40
Decorations/craft bits/balloons/invitations £40

Just under £250

Had a whole class and outside friends so about 40 kids.