What did you do for your baby's first birthday?

[Mylittlebirdie02]

Our DD is 1 in June and we are wanting to throw her a party. Altogether there will be 40-50 people, with only a few of those being children (we don't have many friends/family with kids). The ages of the children will range from 8 months-10 years.
But we're struggling to know what to do. We've looked at hiring a bigger function room with indoor and outdoor space, however the prices are extortionate. Alternatively, a family member of ours owns a pub with a function room and will only charge us £30 for the day - but this will just comfortably fit our number of guests, meaning there's not much space for entertaining kids.
We're feeling a bit stuck now about what is best. I know our daughter and the younger children will be easy to entertain, but I'm conscious of the older ones that will be there.
Just looking for any ideas of what we can do. Thank you!

If you're in the south there's a shop in Salisbury that has animatronic dinosaurs outside, you put £1 in and they move (raises money for local hospital). Admittedly that will probably only take a few minutes but nearby there is a small community farm or it's about 40 minutes from Longleat if the other "zoo" things appeal to him.

Do whatever will help you to enjoy it :)

We did a 2 hour party at our house and let the children have bubbles in the garden and just put food out for people to help themselves to, anything that means you can enjoy it and not be too 'busy' really. If it's at home you can decorate at leisure instead of in a small period before then take them all down after etc :)

But with those numbers I’d be out off having it in the house because mess 😂
we are having just family, and honestly I would have loved it to be a quiet personal affair in the house. But our close families are just so big from both sides so we are going for function room in a pub. It’s not the biggest room as the bigger ones just seemed like more space to fill with activities.
the pub does sound lovely.

@RedTulipsSpring thanks for your unhelpful input, not sure if you read the reason further down where I explained our reason behind what you say is 'OTT and unnecessary'. Definitely won't be either of those things to us.

We had a naming ceremony plus party for about 80 for DS first birthday! Lots of family and friends - had a function room in a pub plus some garden space so lots of room for all. Buffet lunch after the naming ceremony and put some money behind the bar - then after party at home with family/ friends who were staying with us and got DS sorted with tea/ bath / bed then carried on the party! We are party people though!!

At that age it's a chance for adults to have a get-together. We invited the new parents we'd met locally, put some toys on the floor for the babies and poured prosecco for the adults. About 20 people max in our own house one weekend afternoon.

My dc1 was very seriously ill, in NICU for months etc. Hin reaching 1 was certainly not a given, never mind doing so in the great health he was in. We had a v big party. We hired a function room in a friend's pub. I am Irish and we had it there. We live in Scotland and the family here flew over. I cannot remember how many but family would have been nearly 50, then my friends. Maybe 75? We did not do any christening,so it felt right to celebrate with everyone. It did not seem excessive at all.

@Snugglemonkey DS was preemie and in the NICU for a period of time too. We felt a large party was very much needed to celebrate him too.

We moved house. Had some cake the next day.

Fuck naysayers like @RedTulipsSpring! Congratulations on your precious baby making it. That is most certainly worth celebrating.

Moved house

Paternal grandparents came round and she had a very few, modest presents from close family.

I can’t remember if we had a cake. She was oblivious.

I’m afraid I can’t remember re DD2. She had a very rocky start. We probably toasted her survival and bought her modest presents. Early birthdays with her were a bit traumatic due to memories of the day she was born.

We had a very small gathering with close family in our tiny garden for the first one. It was perfect, similar time of year to you with nice weather.

For our second we did the same thing with less close family (sadly a couple had passed away by then) but with the children of friends instead. I wouldn't have wanted 40 plus people because that's too many to have to catch up with and be polite to and you end up missing the point of the party - spending time with your child.

I'm sorry for your loss and I can totally see why you want to celebrate. Pub room sounds like a good option to me. We didn't do much for first birthdays (COVID) but for DC christening the room was pretty small. I made bags with a range of crafty things and got two rolls of lining paper. Kids went mad for drawing round themselves and colouring in and kept them pretty happy and quiet