To be shocked at kids party prices

[4babiesforever]

almost 4 year old has been getting invited to birthdays parties at nursery and from a club he goes to over the past year and a bit and has now asked for a birthday party of his own this this year.
AIBU to be shocked how much it seems to plan a birthday party for kids or should I have expected this?!

• will be inviting up to 30 kids (nursery class, some pals from club, and lots of cousins lol). cant fit that in our house and I thought th cheapest option would be to hire a community hall as DS would like a bouncy castle. he would like a theme and I’m thinking I could make a lot of the decorations from cardboard, a friend has offered to dress up lol, but even so adding up the cost of hall hire, bouncy castle, and food it all adds up. I’ve been trying to think of an activity that could double up as party favour to take home for example painting themed plaster cast models (I’ve seen kits that have several peices), and making themed cookies to take home (or price of the cake) or books from works etc but still adds up (and I’m planning in a way do I don’t even have to spend on an actual ‘gift bag’) I will provide food for adults as my family would have to travel. everyone I try and cost everything up it comes up to £300/400 - is this normal?
  or does anyone have any good tips? AIBU to be so clueless about this all or to ask for advice please oh ps - theme is ocean animals Tia x

Normal for a full class party with an activity I’m afraid! My dc are now teens but I remember their class parties being £300-400 a few years ago. Village hall, party bags , entertainment and food all add up.

I never did a class party. Ever.

Instead actual friends…. Between 6-10 and did something really good. Go ape, animal encounters (brilliant!) trampling and then pizza express, Climbing.

Probably less than what you’ll pay and the kids really enjoyed and SO much less stress

Sounds reasonable to me. You're hiring a hall and bouncy castle, and catering for 30 kids plus adults.

Yes I’d say that was normal, all my 5 year old dds parties have cost around that so far and we’re about to start parties for our younger DC too. The only way to make it cheaper really is if you either do everything yourself which means not hiring a bouncy castle, or limiting invites to say 10 friends and doing a small activity instead.

Parties are expensive.

Do you have a local leisure centre with a small soft play, I've always found hiring one of those to be the cheapest way to do it when they are little. Then a lunch box for food and simple party bags. Sometimes I may add tattoos, which are cheaper and easier than a face painter. I'm not talking about the big soft play venues that charge £20+ per child, I mean the smaller council run leisure places.

At £300 for 30 kids that's only £10 a head which is really pretty cheap. I've never invited that many kid as we couldn't afford it!

We did half a dozen friends at home (small flat) with food from Iceland (they loved the popcorn chicken), few traditional party games and party bags.
If you're hiring a place for 30 kids - it's going to be expensive.

Find out whether anyone at nursery has a birthday around the same time and do a joint party

In the 80s my mum invited about six kids to my house for sarnies, cake and pass the parcel.

Ask yourself if you really want 30 new toys coming into the house, too.

Cheapest take home craft is to buy small paper bags (party bag sized) and provide stickers, foam shapes etc for them to stick on. (you can get these from Poundland, The Works etc and relatively inexpensive).

Buy rich tea biscuits, make up icing and provide a selection of small sweets for them to decorate.

Put them on a paper plate that they have decorated round the edge using felt tips.

I'd personally avoid doing crafts if you have a bouncy castle though. Particularly for that number of children.

Traditional party games will be fine at this age and again pretty cheap.

So your main cost is food and hall hire.

Another suggestion is that if you have a toy library near you, they often have things like parachutes, soft play type equipment available to hire at a pretty cheap rate.

You can cut out the hall and the bouncy castle and cut the guest list.

That will save you about 75% of the cost I reckon.

If you have to have all of that, then yeah that's what it will cost. It's only £10-£12.50 per person, which is pretty cheap.

I never did whole class parties because of cost.

The parties I did were 12 people tops and since my children didn’t have more than that as friends it was fine.

I was shocked at this too - not so much the cost, as I guess 30 kids is going to be expensive, but more at the fact that parents were quite happy to pay this and didn’t seem to think any of it was excessive.

We only did the whole class party once for each child, and cut corners a bit by hiring a church hall and then a bouncy castle (total about £150). Then did food from Iceland which was fairly cheap. For party bags we did a bit of cake, box of mini Smarties and a sheet of stickers that we had from somewhere.

After the first one we just had a few friends each time, in the house, and it was much cheaper.

A village hall and bouncy castle party is relatively inexpensive but if you're feeding adults as well then it does get expensive. We've done parties at home with around 40 adults and 12 kids and easily spend more on that if it's nice food.

Yup! They are expensive! Bouncy castle alone can be £100-£130 round here. Our tally for DD at the moment is about £350 inc hall, entertainment, food and cake. We have a small house and once you factor in cousins and siblings that would fill it, so we do the hall! Grandparents chip in instead of a gift usually.

That amount is crazy and not needed . Don't even feel that you should do this just because everyone else is. Mine will happily have a few friends at home or take a friend to somewhere special - and find they enjoy it far more than those big parties.

I did one in the summer for the whole class. Came in about £500. Entertainment, venue, food. Yep, pricey! Mine was for 2 kids though, so slightly more palatable. It's also the only one I have for them, I don't do them every year.

Oh thanks everyone for all the feedback - we definitely won’t be doing this every year be he does have a lot of cousins he would like to have (some are a few years older so they won’t be interested in these type of parties forever but we figured would include them for his first party), and some forms outwith nursery - we could cut it down to 20ish and not invite everyone from nursery. but not sure even that changes the cost so much (I will be making a whole lot of sandwiches lol).

good advice a previous pp about doing a messy activity with too many kids, although might leave some paper and pens and stickers on a table for anyone who needs some calm time etc. (I could cut out ocean animal shapes!)

and I am leaning towards books from the works as a favour - £1 per book but actually worth so much more than a lot of other things I could put in a part bag!

the bouncy castle is £130 and the hall hire would be £45 for 3 hours (so time for setting up and clearing away).

still food adds up though - a lot of venues we could book cost more if you don’t buy their food so haven’t really found cheaper alternatives.

dorm need to pay an entertainmer as have a friend who will dress up and Mainer eh bouncy castle will enough lol.

should I arrange some party games?

Oh also a pp suggested seeing if other kids have similar birthday and I do know a few so might ask around!

they are expensive but tremendous fun and you get invited back

YABU to think you can cater for 30 dc plus adults, plus hire a room plus hire a bouncy castle plus give everyone something to take home for less, yes.

However

There is absolutely no need to spend that sort of money on a party. Let alone for 3 and 4 year olds.
There is no need whatsoever to be inviting such numbers. Nor to cater for parents. Nor to give them things to take home.

Do you have a school Whstsapp group or similar? I'd ask if anyone has a child in his year with a birthday around the same time and do a joint party, costs split 2-3 ways are much more reasonable, and when I did it for my son many years ago it was great, 3 mums with far less to do each! Mind you, 30 7-year old boys in one place were fearsomely loud.

The most expensive party I had was a hall diy affair. Cost was £500 ish and that was 8 years ago.
Parties here now are average £20-£25 pc. Quite a few soft plays will allow exclusive hire mid week after 4pm and they’re by far the cheapest way to do a class party

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. What do you expect for 30 kids?

I agree with not catering to parents. Just have the party mid-morning or mid-afternoon so that they’re not expecting lunch.

We never bothered with entertainment either, just a bouncy castle and some footballs. Don’t go for too long a party either - an hour to play and then 30 mins for food is fine.