Help!!! Birthday party!!! What would you do?

[syl1985]

My son will become 7 in October.
I want a nice birthday party for him. But...

There nearest real good fun thing for kids in the area is about a 30 minutes drive away from here: Yeovil.

We don't mind driving 30min, but not sure if others would do the same for a birthday party.

My question is what do you think is best:

Having a simple party in the area.
or:
Having a special fun one about a 30 minutes drive away from here?

I'm thinking about the last option, but my partner thinks about the first one. Because he's worried that not everyone will drive 30 min and 30 back for a birthday party.
I think that people who live in this area must be used to driving a lot. But then again I don't want to spend a lot of money on something special and half of the kids don't turn up.

Any advice, idea's are welcome!

A simple party in the area.

I would do the fun one 30 minutes drive from where you are. 30 minutes isn't long to drive really, I have driven further and would do again. Currently living overseas and have taken public transport to friends of dc birthday parties which took about an hour and a half to get there. Hope you have a great party.

Local every time

Could you get an entertainer?

It's a lot to ask busy families to do an hour round trip pos w other kids in the car.

I agree with newgirl and hour round trip after work for a children's party is a bit of a pain, its not impossible but....Parties for both kids and adults have got really out of hand these days and expensive, this presure for everything to be EPIC - I had great parties at home when I was young, cake, jelly, hats, party games, prizes, conga lines etc etc Have the party close by, in your area. I don't think you need to choose to have a simple(r) party because you are closer to home - be creative and everyone I'm sure will have a hoot!

Could you put on transport if you really want the distant one? A friend did one 20 mins away and she took all of the kids.

I'd make the effort for a very close friend, or a thing one of the dc was very keen to do. Can you be selective with your guest list?

id keep it local and simple but would not do one at home again .

Tell us more crumble! We're they playing with your china?

Were not we're. Fecking ipad.

We've regularly been to kids parties about 20/30 mins drive away. We're like you, miles away from city entertainment. Lots of people seem to do it. As long as you don't expect people to do it every year, it's fine once in a while. Makes a nice change from the military operation that is a home party. Usually they lay on food and party bags, you don't have to do much at all and your house doesn't get trashed. Brilliant.

JiltedJohnsJulie got a bouncy castle for the day but it pissed down so had to give them piggy backs from the backdoor to the castle cos they were whining it was wet and didnt want to take shoes off to get on castle in rain , so indoors most of time ,food everywhere , drinks everywhere , sick everywhere, all the mums fucked off and had no help either ,ill dog who got fed too much as well :) had the next one at local leisure centre .

Local every time. I wouldn't drive 30 mins for a party. Ds could go if you hire a mini bus.

I would do the 30 min one. Hell would freeze over before I would have a party at home.

Thanks everyone,

I see most will go for local. I did had another look. But there's so little around here.

I absolutely will not have the party in my house. My 4th child is going to be born in September. So he'll be only a couple of weeks old in October.

But I still want my eldest to have his party.
I just want to pay someone and that's it. Everything is done for me.
Just nice, lazy, but good fun for my son and friends.

Last year his party was in a soft play center. We've some small ones in our area. Those are the only places over here, locally, that do a kids party.

I've found a leisure center that's not that far away from here. They also do kids parties. They didn't had the information on the website. But they're going to send me information about their parties.
Hopefully they can offer something a bit more different.

I guess kids always have a good time on a party. But it's always a soft play party. Because there isn't that much in the area. At some point both kids and parents got to get tired of those?

I don't mind spending money on a party. But those play area's are all around 9.- pound per kid for a party.
That's for 2 hours with a drink, snack and you got to bring your own cake.

Most over here do after school special price. That's around 4.50 - 5 pound per child.
That's from around 3.30 pm till they close. Around 6pm
And it's incl drink and warm meal.

So it's cheaper to do that. You can stay till closing and you've got a warm meal. Gives me more for my money. But then I feel like a cheap bitch if I do that.

I don't mind the 9 pound per child. But is that real fun for the kids? And then have to leave after 2 hours while you see other kids (for me very annoying) who paid less and are allowed to stay.
Even worse if the party is after school time they even get a warm meal and drink for less.

If anyone dreams of earning a living by giving birthday parties. GO TO DORSET!!!!
You're very needed over here in the remote area's!!!!!

Sylvia

I have held 2 birthday parties so far. Hope my experiences can be of help to you.

I would only have a party at home if I had a massive garden I could put a marquee up in if it rained (I don't) or a big enough room for them all to sit down in with an entertainer like clown, animal man, magician, mad science etc. Or a very small party with only about 10 children. I don't really like soft play parties that much because nothing special happens that you wouldn't do on a normal visit to soft play. Exclusive hire ones are better if not too expensive because you can tie in some party games as well.

I have had a party for 55 kids and 1 for 30 kids. Both were very chaotic. For the 55 kid one I had a bouncy castle (nightmare unless you can get an adult to man the bouncy castle at all times and make sure too many don't get on all at once. We actually had a nose bleed due to having too many on at once). I also had an animal man which was £90 for an hour (Fantastic, however I think 55 kids was too many. They lost interest because they were having to wait too long to get a turn at touching/holding an animal.)

For the 30 kid one we had a dance class party in a dance studio. This was £75 for an hour in the dance studio and an hour in the food area. My DS really enjoyed himself but a lot of the boys wouldn't join in because "dancing is for girls" A disco with a DJ probably would have been better.

Next year we plan to have a multi sports party. The local secondary school hires out it's school gym plus a room for food for £42.50 for 2 hours in the gym and 30 minutes in the food area. They provide the sports equipment so you can either do the games yourself or do what I will do which is hire a sports coach for £50. You can get 8 x medals for 99p in the 99p shop to give out at the end.

Our local leisure centre also does cheap parties, so it's worth looking at yours.

I also know of a DJ that does 2 hours for £50 and does a disco, bubble machine and party games. Most charge a lot more than this so it's worth asking around if anyone knows of someone cheap.

If you shop around you can get a venue around here for £20-£50 for church hall, community hall, school hall etc.

Also ask local dance instructors or zumbatomic teachers if they do parties. I looked into this and if I sorted my own venue they charged £25-£35 per hour.

Music Bugs (you have to arrange your own venue) - for up to 20 children - 30 minutes = £65, 45 minutes = £80 and 60 mins = £95.

However ask around as I found a self-employed lady who wasn't part of a franchise that did sessions very similar to Music Bugs and charges £30 per 30 mins for parties.

Private hire at a soft play near me is £100. It's double that at another local one, so try different ones.

Another idea for a cheap party I've had is a cooking party. If your venue has cooking facilities get them to make their own cookies/gingerbread and decorate them.

A big hit at both parties was hiring a mascot. We have had Mickey Mouse and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. It was £25 for 30 mins including a gift and the kids loved dancing with them each time.

If you plan to have a pinata (always a hit with kids) make sure they all line up to take their turn and stay in the line. I tried to do this but then all the kids got out of the line and crowded round the pinata. How we didn't have another accident I don't know and I felt it was quite dangerous. Also the kids were all fighting over the sweets so what I would do next time is put in 30 party bags closed with elastic bands with some sweets, 1 x punchball balloon and 1 x bottle of bubbles so there's one bag each rather than putting the sweets all in loose and some kids getting loads and others having none.

For decorations and plates, bowls, etc pound shop, 99p shop, Asda and Wilkos are really good. Don't bother with cups as you always get loads of spillages. Also so you don't get loads of wastage put the food out on the plates ready and give them out. I did:

Cheese/ham sandwiches
Cherry tomatoes/cucumber/carrot sticks
Aldi cheese thins (like big mini cheddars) (59p per 150g packet - 39.3p per 100g)
Raisins, grapes and strawberries
Aldi yoghurt tubes (9 x 40g for £1.19)
Funkee Monkee cup drinks with straws

We went to a party where there was a kitchen at the venue and they cooked chicken nuggets and french fries for everybody which was nice and simple.

For dessert I always do:

Giant cookies
Birthday cake
Ice lollies (but only if you have a freezer to store them in obviously)

For pinata/party bags:

Bubbles (9 x tubs for £1 or 10 x bubble wands for £1 in Poundland)
Punch ball balloons - Play.com do 50 x punchball balloons for £4.02 with delivery
Glowsticks - 20 for £1 in Poundland
Sweets

An idea we have had for next year so we don't even have to make sandwiches is to have a make your own wrap station. So we will go round and give each child a wrap, some lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, grated cheese, ham, chicken, mayo etc.