To think kids' parties are a joke

I spent about £50 for DC's last birthday: home party, made a cake, played a couple of party games (pass the parcel and musical statues) and held it at 2pm so just had some nibbles and drinks. Party bags were about £1.50 each.

My DC is also going to be 5 very soon. I have booked a village hall for £50. There will be balloons and party games and a cake I will make myself.

I am not into balloon arches myself, but I’ve seen kits available online for £15. If you don’t fancy blowing them up yourself, you can get an electric balloon pump for about £12.

No, it not the cost of living, it's the cost of stupidity

You must have just had a crap baker then! I paid £60 for my sons 18th birthday cake recently and it was a million times better than any supermarket cake

Eh? Make your own cake and sod the balloon arch. Nasty, polluting things anyway. I live in a very affluent area where parents do DIY parties or just take a friend or two to a day out instead. If you want to splash out t9 be different, spend on something you can't do yourself like a decent magician or an animal demonstration.

my son turned 5 in February, we had 5 of his friends round to our house to play for 2 hours. drop and go for parents.

dinosaur jurassic world cake from asda - i think it was £13?
a few nibbles on the table including sandwiches.
a few decorations - banners and balloons.
party bags (most multi packs come in 5 or 10 pieces).

did not bother with games - the kids literally play for an hour and a half then stopped for food and cake. little bit more play until parents came to pick them up.

minimal cost for me and i feel it worked best as often these big hall parties, the birthday child doesn't even talk to half the kids. : )

Yes it is a joke.

I do a buffet at home with 6 kids max and a cake, from ASDA decorated.

I do party bags and presents and games.

No way would I spend hundreds. It's not necessary and then when they're 16 it's i the thousands.

£120 at the Whacky Warehouse for a party for 29. They also provided food and party bags. We provided two Colin's. Job done.

Hi @mummy3today Yes there is an online form you fill out, they just need 2 days notice then you can collect.

Supermarket cake. Or make one.
Oven chips and pizza or jelly and triangle sandwhiches
Blow up some balloons
Traditional party games
Few sweets for prizes

Tea and biscuits for the parents.

We usually do joint class parties and invite the whole class(ds is 6yo). The last one cost 1k between 3 kids. This was at a really nice venue, food included. The cake wasn't included but split between 3 so that was ok. Tbh my ds received a ton of really, really nice gifts and he had such a great time with his friends so it was worth it. I wouldn't have done such a party for him only.

Op, have you considered getting a supermarket cake 😜

You don't need a balloon arch and you could make your own cake if you're not happy to pay someone. How much would you expect a professionally made cake to cost considering the ingredients and time spent making it?

Nobody should ever have a balloon arch.

And everyone should have a Colin cake.

We had a 6th birthday party for our foster child a couple of weeks ago. We had an after school tea party for 5, plus mums.

I made all the food. The cake was cupcakes, and they looked really impressive on their tiered stand. We forgot to put out the jelly and some other snacks.

We did not do any entertainment (I had to make DH sit on his hands). They just loved running around the house, and occasionally stopping to snack.

We actually shut the living room door so that mums could sip Prosecco in peace.

The whole thing was 1.5 hours.

I originally booked our church, but realised it clashed with other class parties. Thinking back, we would have needed to decorate it, and clean afterwards. We would also have invited maybe 20 kinds, so more catering.

I liked the KISS solution.

Our 7yo's upcoming at home party for 40 children will be £250 for everything inc. food, printed invites, drinks, cake, activities & party bags
No balloon arches - kids really don't care about them

I'm making the cake

You do not need a balloon arch. I have raised three children - youngest is 15 - never had a balloon arch. Environmentally terrible too.

Also you either make your own cake for considerably less money, or buy a £5 or £6 traybake one from the supermarket. Children are not discerning.

Parties are not about loads of social media photos and outdoing other parties. 5 year old kids like either traditional party games like musical statues or pass the parcel, soft play, or things like cookie making or "activity" parties. This is what the kids will remember, not tacky balloon arches or an expensive cake.

I do like balloon arches but they are quite easy to do yourself. I wouldn’t pay for one. I built two for our last party because I got carried away. The kit including pumps were about £7. Took me about two hours to do both.

I agree. A nice cake is lovely

@drpet49

I agree with this too. There is nothing wrong with a supermarket cake but they don't have a wow factor that a handmade, personalised or professional one will.

I disagree that no 5 year old cares about the cake - my son asked for a specific theme cake for his party so i ordered a large plain cake (short on time and rubbish oven) and did a combination of home made and Etsy bought decorations. He was really pleased with it and is still talking about it a couple of months later.

In a previous life as an aunt with lots of free time and a much better oven, I used to make cakes for my nieces and nephews - they still talk about them now 10 years later.

Colin has his place but it's just not true to say that cakes don't matter to kids.

It's not that cakes don't matter, it;s that they're not usually discerning. I think Costco cake is disgusting and would never eat one through choice, but accept that it looks impressive and that's what matters to kids. Or a supermarket cartoon character cake - that's going to be just as impressive to a five year old as a handmade character cake costing 10 times more.

A balloon arch or number stand will add nothing to the party. You can bake your own cake. It doesn't have to be perfect, and the point of the party isn't the way it looks, but the way it feels to the dc.

Op that's crazy for a 5 Yr old. You just need a packet of normal balloons and just let the kids play with them. 5yr olds in my experience may not even notice a balloon arch they just want to play! As for the cake, you can get much cheaper. Like some others have said kids are happy with a couple of supermarket cakes. I did my 5yr old daughters party this weekend and I just went to Asda and got one of there design a cake cakes which you personalise and they serve 40 people and only cost £19. For my daughter I got a unicorn design and had it personalised to say happy 5th birthday Holly and my daughter was delighted!

I hired a soft play at local leisure centre for an hour for £75, made some lunchboxes up for party food after in a side room, did cake and everyone took home a little bag of sweets. Kids loved it!

You doing have to BUY a party at home.
make it!
do decorations yourself. A balloon arch in the house is probably too big. Tie balloons in threes and pin them to door frames or lamp shades.

cake can be cheap.

dont do party bags! They’re cr@p ! If you want to give something do a chocolate bar, a cup cake, or a book! You can wrap a book and buy them in multipacks cheap.

I used to do parties at home and feed 40+ kids and adults for under £100 (I’m taking 10 years ago) including cake - wow cakes … which I made.

I’ve always done bespoke bunting to the theme of the party, with the child’s name on. It’s just printing pages of A4, cut in a triangle, run round with a highlighter (colour coordinated) hole punched and strung on ribbon.

my DD’s 1st birthday was roast chicken for 28 (in a normal domestic kitchen! There were quite a few toddlers in that number) or do chilli/curry/pizza.

You don’t have to pay for it to be “wow”. But you do if you don’t want to make the effort & expect someone else to!