Dd4 Party drama/dilemma - advice please ?!

[Flowerpower664]

Hello - DD is turning 4 and as I have a few things going on and kind of a limited budget, wanted to keep it simple and invite a handful of friends. However when I told her this she got quite upset and listed about 10/11 names from class and said she really really wants them all there and has already told them. Dh has suggested we book a local community hall and invite entire class, but the entertainment options locally here are very expensive for parties - would be well over our budget. The room isn’t allowed a bouncy castle. Any suggestions ? Is it possible to do a hall party with only old fashioned games like pass the parcel and musical bumps - will that be enough to pass a good hour or 2?! Or am I risking chaos? If we have to become the entertainers ourselves , I might find that a bit stressful so want to keep it simple !

I did a party in a hall for my dds party age of 4. But I planned it really well with the timings and sad a lot of help. My friend's 12 year old daughter helped, she loved it and I paid her a fiver

Exactly what I was going to say. Get a few parents who can be funny for kids to do Grandma's footsteps etc. A bit of colouring or craft out for those who don't want to join in. Maybe set up a mini "find the pictures of characters" around the hall.

Swim parties can be quite cheap and you can invite the whole class. Or wait until spring and have a party in your garden/ park.

In terms of numbers, invite a handful but otherwise it's generally thought that you invite half the class or less, or the whole class. So you don't leave just 5 or so out.

In my days we always did parties at home like this. I made the cake.. got some old wall paper and drew a donkey.. stuck on wall blue tac.. cut out tails and wrote each child's name on one.. another blob of blue tac and a scarf for blindfold.. how the children laughed at others placing tails on heads etc
Musical statues too.
Pass the parcel definitely.
Sleeping lions when you want them all to be quiet.
Balloons/ bubbles.
Prizes of sweets.
Usually a tub and they can pick one.
A table of cheese / ham sandwiches/ sausage rolls/ crisps/ fairy cakes..
It's very very easy and my children and Grandchildren always say they loved them better the McDonalds/ organised ones.

Yep, balloons- ordinary, helium and light-up. Make it a firm rule that only ordinary ones can be popped deliberately.

Get a roll of lining paper, crayons and chalks for drawing on. We had a space party for DS, so got black paper, taped it to the hallway walls and got them to draw a space theme as they arrived. Could just leave it on the floor if at a church hall or similar.

Pass the parcel- one layer per child with a bag of sweets or small toy in each layer and someone to note each child and make sure each one gets a prize. Fiddle it so a deserving child gets the main prize.

Musical chairs, or musical statues as this doesn't require furniture.

If they're very lively, get a piñata full of sweets and let them bash it to death with a stick.

Don't invite the whole class!

If these 10 names are mostly girls ensure it isn't just a few girls from the class being left out. Stick to the names mentioned with possibly a few more to not be unkind and leave out 2/3 girls sort of thing.

She's 4!!!
You can't afford abig party.
What's she's going to be demanding for the next 14 years?
Set some boundaries now. Explain she shouldn't have invited people until the party had been properly arranged. Instead, make some sweets and give these to the children who aren't going to the party.
Keep to your budget.

An old school style party? The kids will love it and no doubt some parents will be relieved that when their turn comes round that this is an option that doesn't need to cost the earth.

Musical statues, sleeping lions, Hokey Cokey, pass the parcel, oranges and lemons, dusty windows/bluebells, fishes, all with Haribo sweets as consolation prizes for those knocked out etc. Google for instructions on those you don’t know. Eg https://www.letsplaykidsmusic.com/in-and-out-the-dusty-bluebells/

we did this for their 3rd, 4th and 5th party!
One year I had a big roll of drawing paper down the end of the hall with crayons then the next year I ordered masks to colour in, there were super hero, animal and unicorn ones.
a tattoo station worked well too
lots of balloons and music and they pretty much entertain themselves
but make sure you have a decent speaker, the first time we didn’t and in the echoey hall the music was totally lost-
dodnt seem to matter as they were age 3 and not too bothered but by age 4 the music was a must!

I'd do two hours and keep it either before lunch or clearly after so you only need to do snacks.

Arrival, have music playing and balloons out

Pass the parcel, either two circles or two parcels simultaneously.
Musical statues
Relay races with balloons.

Sure someone else has better game ideas.

Duck duck goose?

Stop half way and do cake / song. Have some snacks out for them and drinks at that time. Cut cake and let them eat it then to reduce what you provide, or wrap and put in take home bags.

Keep bags simple. Cake, balloon, little bubbles, couple of sweets.

Pass the parcel - I went to a party recently where they did this but passed around a cuddly toy. Every time a child got the toy they got up and chose a sweet from the basket. At the end any children who hadn’t had a sweet got to choose one. It struck me as a very good way of doing it for a large number with virtually no prep! (This was about 35 kids at a 5th party).

Musical statues - they’ll play this for ages. As someone said, mini haribo packs for consolation prizes.

My daughter invited the whole class of reception kids and did pass the parcel which they loved, musical bumps/statues, decorating cup cakes (which were part of the party bag), face painting, decorating the party bags etc. at the end she just put music on for a ‘disco’.

Stick to your list of ten and put on an activity party with a couple of organised tables of things to do. These things can then be what goes in the party bag if you're doing them. Go for a theme if it helps your thinking but do the same activities regardless e.g. a sparkly party, arty party, purple party or whatever.

Set up the activities before the children arrive and if possible, have an adult or local teen 'leading' the activity. The format I used for years was similar to this, with activity 1 starting as soon as the first child arrives so there isn't lots of hanging around.

Activity 1: mask decorating.
Buy a set of masks from BakerRoss or Hobbycraft, gather stickers, sticky paper, tissue paper and coloured paper that fits with your theme, put it in the middle of the table and encourage them to cover as much of the white of the mask as possible. Write their name on the mask ASAP and if they don't wear it, put it straight into the party bag.

Activity 2: cake/biscuit decorating
Buy fairy cakes or bake biscuits in a number 4 shape, give each child a paper plate with their name already on it and provide icing tubes, sprinkles and other decorations that fit with your theme. Let them decorate 3 or 4 items which are then put aside to dry... and go into the party bag later/get taken home on the paper plate.

Activity 3: pass the parcel (main prize goes into winner's party bag).
Self-explanatory hopefully. Whilst this is happening, get your helpers to organise the mask activity table and repurpose it ready for after food.

Activity 4: eating!
Have this set up beforehand with savoury bits, plates and cups laid out. Is an ideal opportunity for a themed tablecloth or napkins if that's your sort of thing. Get helpers to pour drinks once children have sat down and to bring out sweet things slowly. Do birthday cake and candles at this point but don't eat it yet.

Activity 5:
Back to the table used for activity 1 to do another craft from BakerRoss or Hobbycraft e.g. cardboard frame decorating, crown/tiara decorating or similar. You could do spoon people if you've got fabric scraps and pipecleaners lying about the place but maybe save that for next year. Parents collect from this activity, creations go into party bag along with a piece of birthday cake which one of your helpers will have cut and wrapped whilst another has made a start on clearing the food.

If you have space to store the arty scraps, you'll be able to bring these out for years! Stick on gems, multi packs of washi tape, sticky backed shiny paper, textured paper, cheap packs of patterned paper from B&M (or bits of themed wrapping paper) look surprisingly effective on small children's craft projects and aren't pricey.

Are there any local soft play venues that could work within budget? I know of child who had their 4th birthday at soft play (like so many locally) but reduced costs by having the party earlier and not paying for a meal. Instead they just had an icecream each for an extra £1PP. IVE Also been to a 3rd/4th birthday with my son at a local community centre. They hired it out for a 'messy play' party. This was run by a company but could probably be replicated quite cheaply and run by yourselves if your daughter likes that kind of thing?

this is all we did for my daughters 5th birthday party in October (did whole class 34 students). we had it in a room at our local social club, booked a DJ (happened to be a friend) and did party games and let them run around dancing. It was fine, they all had fun and enjoyed themselves. other parties we've been to have all been a soft plays, not a single party entertainer in sight

Friends did this recently. It worked well. They had colouring and some other toys cars and car mat, tent and tunnel, toy kitchen. Free play for 30 minutes or so as everyone arrived then games for 40 mins ish then food. After queuing for food there was barely time to eat and do the cake before the end so I'd allow a bit longer than half an hour for that.

The colouring was very popular and I would definitely have some activities not just a disco. 4 year olds aren't going to dance for an hour and will probably end up running round screaming.

Assuming the child is still in nursery it's quite young for games and entertainer. They probably won't have played most of the games before so be prepared to explain and have practice runs etc. I would probably provide activities their parents can help with and not do too much stuff where they have to follow rules. Remember all children will bring 1 if not 2 parents plus possibly siblings so don't invite the whole class unless the room can take 80 people

We've been to a four year old party like this and it was loads of fun! Party food tables set up, party games (pass the parcel, stick the tail on, musical statues etc) and so many balloons!!
Colouring station and fake tattoo station also really popular.
And again, so many balloons!!

My favourite cheap party idea atm is a cardboard box party. So many possibilities - they can decorate them, crawl through them, turn them into boats or cars, destroy them...

For the love of God, don't do hot food even if there is a kitchen, unless you have someone who can spend the whole party just cooking and serving pizza. Sandwich platters (jam and cheese), a pack of pom bears each, a biscuit, a juice box, a slice of cake and you're done.

For DD party I pre did all the food - I did pizzas and sausage rolls as part of it but precooked it at home and served it cooled.
It all went so I guess it was popular (the sandwiches on the other hand were not at all popular!)

We did old school party games for our daughter last year, it was a hit!! It’s definitely much cheaper than paid entertainment but does take some organising! Let them have a dance around in between games and make the party 1.5hrs.

This is the way to go. Bloods and loads and loads of balloons.

Balloons loose on the floor, balloons hanging from the ceiling from sting at a height they can bash. Colouring/craft table ideally with stick on gems (Poundland is great for bits for this). Music. Pass the parcel and maybe musical statues. They don't need too much at that age just running around and the balloons 😁