Children's party

[PinkKecks]

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How much do you spend on your child's birthday party? I grew up in an era of party in the garden with musical statues and a cheese and pineapple hedgehog, but that doesn't seem the norm anymore.

My DS will be 5 soon and he has been going to a few parties for school friends. A couple have been in soft play centres where the whole class has been invited. A couple have been in village halls where the parents have hired entertainers (magicians, Disney princess impersonators, face painters etc) and/or equipment (bouncy castle, soft play apparatus, ball pools, ride-on cars/tractors etc).

I have no idea the cost of these and wondering what is a "normal" party for the area you live in and what is the average spend?

I haven't had to worry about it before as DS was too young to compare and then we had lockdown so no parties for 18 months, but I'm worried DS will expect the same and be disappointed. All of the parties seem to be whole class things, but I live in a flat and wouldn't be able to host that many people in my home and the price of hiring a hall/soft play centre would be crippling.

What do/did you do for your 5yo's birthday?

You can do the traditional games, jelly and sandwiches type stuff but in a hired hall. We went to a couple like that which were great fun. We’ve done two whole class parties because DS couldn’t come up with a definitive list of people. Joint parties are a great shout if you can do it, we’ve just done one.

When I did a big whole-class party it cost way more than £200! May depend where you live though.

We hired a local hall for £30 as our house is tiny! I did food boxes for the kids with sandwich, drink, crisps etc and had a treat table .
Entertainment wise we brought all dd's big toys down for kids to play with, speakers for music, loads of balloons and had a big craft table filled with things to stick and colour in. My sister did some simple facepaints using stencils also.
Cost was probably around £70-80 all in and kids had a ball. The craft table was easily the favorite area.

I budget £250 for birthday parties, but my mum normally sorts out the cake.

My last 5 year old party was a tea party (with proper China cups) on a back garden, we’ve also been to another garden party with a fire engine, bowling, a garden party with no extra bells and whistles, a couple of soft plays and a hall party with a disco.

Most of the parents round here do either full class parties or just boys/girls depending on child. We've only done one party with about 6 of DDs friends in the house and never again. She's just as happy with her 2 best friends coming round and watching a movie with popcorn and pizza.

The cost of hiring somewhere, entertainment and food is just out of our budget and we'd sooner spend that money on gifts and family days out to celebrate.

My children's classes generally do the soft play centre parties. Their classmates all have birthdays in the same part of the year, as that's how the school chose to split them between the classes. Nobody wants to go to take their child to a party - or even two or three - every weekend, so parties tend to be shared between a 3-6 children. Often it's seen as "the April birthday party" or whatever.

The cost is quite reasonable when shared, and certainly less trouble than hosting a party personally. I'm pretty sure one of the parents who we shared with had their share of the cost covered by a friend, which was kind, but the parent who paid just said there'd been an issue with the bank transfer and everyone moved on.

This is so much easier when the birthday is in the summer, we have a decent sized garden perfect for a garden party/BBQ but DS' birthday is in December.... We went to a party recently in a local salvation army hall, the hire was £40 for 4 hours, they just had music playing, buffet table and did a few games musical statues etc. It was bedlam, children tearing around everywhere for a couple of hours but the DC all loved it. Yesterday we went to a soft play one which would've cost a lot more but they didn't seem to enjoy it more. You could look for a cheap hall, it's when you start adding entertainers and bouncy castles it's more expensive. A friend of mine has a daughter who is studying performing arts at college and after doing a favour for the younger sibling of a classmate the two of them are now popular in the local party circuit (and cheaper) they run some games and dance routines (cha cha slide etc) her daughter is chuffed she gets around £30-40 for an hour or two, so worth asking if you know anyone with extroverted older teens

Where I work we do Horse Riding parties. It's £230 for 3 hours for up to 10 children. They get an hour of riding between them, some stable management (grooming ponies and some basic teaching about colours and markings, points of the horse, parts of the saddle/bridle etc), and some party games (pin the tail on the donkey type things!). Parents provide food as we don't have a food licence. They're really good fun and the kids love it. We've had ages from 4-13 and we cater accordingly. I'd say about half of the children have never had anything to do with horses but they really enjoy it.

My DD turns 6 in a couple of weeks. We're having a trampoline party for 13 in total (10 classmates) and it's totalling well over £300. We could have had a whole-class hall/entertainer party for the same cost or less bit DD was set on trampoline park so we said that would mean inviting fewer children.

We haven't spent much at all on presents.

We also give all the children party bags, and rosettes and certificates each, as well as a framed photo of the birthday child's favourite pony :)

When they were little I just did parties at home so about 100. Once they get older done kids cause damage which would cost more to fix. Yesterday my son had a football party for 10 kids. Cost 215. That included everything. Pitch, host for 2 hours, cake, food, party bags, medals and a trophy for birthday child. All we had to do was show up. Glorious and money well spent. I've done whole class at soft play (the scuzzy cheap one) probs around 250 as I had to do party bags and make cake. However I'd be reluctant to do whole class parties again due to the reluctance of parents to bloomin rsvp!!! So annoying - and then get charged extra for those that show up without having rsvp.

Going back a few years now, but hall with entertainer or organised activity was around £300+ - we used to share them sometimes with a friend esp when kids were younger so you’d invite the whole class (or they had the same friends). As they got into juniors they had smaller parties just for their friendship groups.
We often had them at home at that point too, even had a couple of more ‘old fashioned ones’ - when they’re young they just want to run around so you need the space.

I live in zone 3 London - London not always more expensive, my local soft play and cinema cheaper than my hometown in Scotland

We did a big class party at the local leisure centre. It was £120 to hire the sports hall for 2.5 hrs, they had a bouncy castle and soft play stuff in there, they also provided loads of tables and chairs. Then we just took balloons, banners and paper tablecloths to decorate. They had food packages if we wanted them but we chose to just make loads of sandwiches and nibbles and take those with us. We spent about £200 total and had 30 kids and lots of parents.

Dd had a full class party plus some other friends at 5. Entertainer, bouncy castle. But equally a small party at home with musical statues etc is great. She also went to one or two of those that year and as long as there’s enough to do, anything goes. If you want to pad it out, you can do some crafting. One year, I made cardboard crowns and pirate hats and bought loads of stick on jewels and the kids loved it.

Bottom line, don’t bankrupt yourself for a party. Make the party you can afford fun.

Any 5 year old will be quite happy with a few friends at home, nice food, fun games and a birthday cake.
Easily doable for £50.

We never did whole class parties.

Did a couple of picnic in the park parties and provided cake. They brought a picnic, kids zoomed around the playground, called over for cake and sent home.

Then when 6/7up did a fee friends and an activity. Football party in the garden. Laser quest. Clip n Climb and Macdonald's. Cinema and Nandos. High ropes course and chips from the café etc.

Central-ish London here, and we usually do a bouncy castle in the garden for 5-8 kids - though it's a birthday earlier in the autumn. In winter I'd aim for the same in a cheapish local hall. Bouncy castle + delivery + collection - £140 for the day here. We just let them bounce and play, no games etc. Then lunch and cake.

I've started attending all-class parties with DD this year and tbh I'm not a fan. 30 kids bombing around, at least half needing lots of help/not really being interested in/crying at outcomes of party games (which are stressful to run). I'd rather take 1-2 special friends to a special outing at the zoo/soft play/whatever. If I was doing a large party I'd also be that parent asking for no presents/books only or a £1 coin in a card if anyone felt the need to give us anything, because I really really don't fancy 30 random small gifts in my house and don't think DD would get much out of them.

A compromise might be to hire a hall but no entertainment?

We did that one year. So we literally set up a quiet activity table the kids could do (colouring) everyone had food, then they played party games and/or ran around the hall.

That cost more like £100? But would depend what your church hall hire rate was.

We've also had just a few kids to our house, and done eg some arts activities which has always been completely fine - even when our place was very small.

At 5 years old, it's hard to avoid the 'whole class' party, but as others have pointed out, hiring a hall in the local church/school/community centre is usually very cheap. Strip out the cost of the entertainer - all kids need at that age is space to run around, lots of balloons to bounce around and some simple party games (bring music!) Sleeping lions is always the parents' choice because the decibel level drops below jet plane 😂. Sandwiches, snacks & water/squash - very cheap to cater for yourself with a little bit of prep. Enlist the help of a couple of friends/family members in case it gets too boisterous - most parents would stay throughout as well, so you've got help on tap.

When mine were that young they attended a private school, and parties that the other children had often included things like hiring a hotel events room, with entertainers AND make up artists, with elaborate buffets for the parents etc or resorts where the children would do 3or 4 activities each including riding, rock climbing and archery. My kids always had everyone at home for a party including games where the theme was based on what the children were into at the time. We had pirate parties where we built a pirate ship out of cardboard boxes, dinosaur party where we built a massive paper mache volcano and the activities included excavating for dinosaur bones, fairy party where each child got a set of wings and the designed headbands with fairy stickers and glitter, and the best ine-a Minecraft party where the party was split into two and each team had to build a fort with cardboard boxes, and then the other team would attack it. At that party they also had to build their own table and chairs so they could sit and eat their party food-cardboard boxes always featured heavily in our plans because they are easy to source, and can be turned into a multitude of things. The other children always wanted to come to our parties because they were so different to the "normal" parties that they were used to going to!

Don’t feel obliged to do a whole class party if you don’t want to. I’ve had a lot of parties so far this year and actually the ones my daughter has enjoyed the most have been the smaller ones with her closer friends. What I’ve found is that some of the parties without structure have resulted in some really feral kids and difficult behaviour. There’s a really tricky mix as to whether parents should drop and go and the hosts have really struggled at some venues to keep an eye on the kids as they’re doing the catering.

I’ve said to my daughter she can either have a smaller number of friends for a garden party (appreciate that doesn’t help you re the flat) or something very structured where an instructor takes charge which is unlikely to be whole class.

We've just done a whole class party and these were the costs:

Church hall hire: £60 for 2 hours
Entertainer: £190
Face painter £85
Food: £65
Party bag stuff from Baker Ross £40
Cake and cake toppers £50

We wanted to do a whole class party once, and in reception everyone seems to play with everyone so didn't want to leave anyone out. In coming years, we'll definitely do something smaller and cheaper, but it was actually a lot of fun :)

Organising soft play (i hate it but my child does not) for a sixth party right now, but not the whole class as that's more about the parents than the child having fun with their own friends imo. Hoping around 12 children, which will also help with not being too crowded. There's a big party area to spread out for the grown ups. I couldn't really provide a socially distanced space for the adults at home and most like to stay here.

Soft play is awful but I've allowed it for parties when they want to. I've also held a pizza making party at pizza express and a glamping party at home (that was a ten year olds birthday no parents stayed).

Ive done parties at home when they are older and no parents as then there's room. I won't do parties after age 10. They can do cinema / little sleepovers from then. I also don't ever want more than 12 children.

If you do a traditional party at home with pass the parcel, cheese and pineapple hedgehog etc the kids bloody love it and it is loads cheaper than a soft play type thing
It's hard work but just don't invite too many kids and be prepared for a lot of parents staying and getting in the way !