5th birthday party in half term

[mamaaa2bee]

Hi

I'm thinking of throwing my DD a party for her 5th birthday. She's attended a few of her nursery friends and is now asking for one too.

She has just started Reception so hasn't made much friends yet. I was thinking to invite just the girls and a few more from her nursery. It would be in a hall, entertainer can do maximum of 20 children. I am hoping the teacher will slip invites into the girls bags.

Her birthday is on the last weekend of the Oct half term. Am I being silly to hold it that weekend. Will most people be away, I would prefer to have the party on her actual birthday as it falls on the Saturday before going back to school. But i'm worried that very few people will turn up. I don't mind if it's just 10-12 children that turn up. I just want my DD to have a nice party as it's the first I'm throwing and have no experience.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Not half term but we had party invites for over the summer holidays (2 the weekend before they went back to school and one mid august). They were well attended but not sure how many people they originally invited.

Last weekend I'd assume most people would be back ready to start school on the monday. We usually go away the start of half herms.

Do you have a class WhatsApp? Sound it out on there. That’s what I do before booking anywhere to make sure the majority can come

Parties in the holidays are pretty common, two of my DC are going to one on the same day in the next half term. I don’t mind them at all, sometimes have had to reject them if we’ve had other plans so expect some of them to do that.

I'd feel quite embarrassed about putting it on the class whatsapp as not everyone is being invited and its just the girls. The half term is only a week long so i'm just not sure what to do.

So sorry, I thought I’d read the op but missed it wouldn’t be the whole class. Def don’t put in on the group if not everyone!
that will teach me to read properly

I think I may just stick to doing it that weekend then in the hope half of the children invited turn up. Im just worried about RSVP as i've read on here alot of posters saying they've struggled to get people to RSVP

Some schools wont allow invites to be handed out/put in bags if not everyone invited

Good point i'll have to check with the teacher or email office about their protocols

Just throwing out there - at 4/5 do you feel there's already a boy/girl split? The 4yo who's just started reception that I know, his best friends were two girls.

I think usually reception age it's either the entire class or if a smaller event then kids you know they get on with. Not just splitting the class by gender.

I don't see why schools have to facilitate party arrangements at all.

If you have the numbers of the parents can you just contact the parents of the children you plan to invite?

This is the biggest debate in my head. I can't really afford to host 38 kids plus some may bring along siblings, the entertainer will only allow up to 20 children. DD does play with both girls and boys, I just thought the fairest way to do it with the least upset would be to just invite the girls. It is a princess party, but i'm still umming and aahing about just inviting girls or whole class.

It's just difficult being the first in Reception to throw a party and not knowing the antics and the do's and dont's

It’s a bit weird to not invite everyone at that age. We had DD’s 5th last week, whole class invited (plus some nursery friends) we had to do invites on first day of term and she knew no-one at all, but it’s a great way to kick things off.

Please don’t do a girls only thing, that will go down very badly. Not the done thing at all.

We got about 2/3 attendance and it was short notice, and as I said they didn’t know each other yet. I was happy with that.

I guess I could just invite everyone and hope some people will be busy in the half term. I'm just worried if there is 30+ kids and the entertainer said max of 20

I agree with the above posters and would just put it out for everyone, you may find a gender divide occurs without directly asking for it:

Hi everyone, it's X's birthday on __ and we're throwing a princess party with a princess visit. Could you please let me know if your child can attend, X will be wearing a princess dress so they're free to come in their princess costumes if they would like to.

You're unlikely to get all of the girls anyway, and it's likely that most of the boys may not come.

We have an October half term birthday, I always hold the party on the Sunday before school starts as I think that’s when most people are likely to be back if they’ve gone away.

I guess that's a good way to do it. I'll still give paper invites to the class, I think there's a novelty for the child to see the invitations and get excited or maybe its just me lol

I would personally never host a party that fell into the school holidays, as this is always the case for mine, I do their parties the week before.

One parent did once send invites out which fell in the school holidays, she was quite distraught that alot of people were declining it. Sadly she took it personally but people were genuinely not going to be around for their kids to attend.

Could you just set up a new WhatsApp group for your daughter's birthday, then you can just include the parent's of the invited kids only.

I am one for personal invites too though, mine love handing them out to their friends.

Do you remember if it was the summer or easter/xmas holidays by any chance?

Why don't you make a separate WhatsApp group with the parents of the children you want to invite and you can feel it out that way? That will also remove the need for invites to be handed out in class, which a lot of schools don't allow

It was the October holidays

@Wheelz46

Yikes maybe I do need to change to following weekend.

I don't really know any of the parents and don't yet know which parent has which child. DD just started in Reception last week

Yea, this. My twins had their birthday during the Easter holidays, so I just tried to get a preferred date from the parents (and particularly for their closest friends). We got most of the class, so it worked ok.