French maternelle birthday parties

[NomDeClavier]

I foolishly agreed to let DS have a birthday party. He had 4 little friends coming for 1h30 next Monday, at least half an hour will be gouter, leaving me an hour to do....what exactly?

I don't know any French party games and tbh I don't know whether they do either!

Marking spot, I have all this ahead :o

DD1 is going to a 3rd birthday party in a few weeks - would be able to answer better after that.

I would make sure there are plenty of balloons and music to dance to. At nursery birthday parties they dance and play with balloons, sing happy birthday and that's about it afaik. I'm sure home parties are similar. I do often find party bags in DD1's locker at nursery - basically a few sweets and a balloon, though one mother did shame the rest of us with her handmade personalised bunting :o

You could teach them musical statues and musical chairs. If the weather is nice you could just release them into the garden. It'll go fast, good luck.

Sadly we don't have a garden or I would! Musical bumps and musical statues sounds a plan. Part of me wants to do the stuff that they're never allowed to do at home like messy play with jelly. His little friends always make a beeline for our table and I ignore the aghast faces when I say what they did so that would probably be a hit but I'm not that brave.

Please someone have some wisdom!

English party games - musical bumps, pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs etc - will all be fine!

They may well turn up in smart clothes so would be wary of messy play.

Yes do English party games - with three year olds you have to do a lot of showing and managing anyway so that would be fine. Pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey.

Agree stay away from messy play unless you've specified old clothes in the invitations.

Oh I'm definitely not doing messy okay, for my house as much as anything! Traditional party games it is

Remember to buy sweets - French DC expect to eat sweets at parties!

We tried party games when DS was in Maternelle but they didn't go down hugely well. The children just wanted to run around in the garden and eat cake, as far as I can recall. We had goûter with traditional party food the first year, but not a great deal got eaten, so we stuck to cake and sweets for the subsequent parties. A pinata went down well as did the bubble machine and water pistols. Generally when DS went to a party elsewhere, they would eat masses of sweets, play with balloons and play hide and seek and be very content with that! Hope it goes well for you.