Birthday party for 4 year old

[NeverNoMore221]

This is the first year my son has said he would like a birthday party - he'll be turning 4 towards the end of the year. We'll be inviting the children from his nursery group.

We live in a very small flat with no garden, so couldn't host it at ours.

The weather is likely to be cold as it will be winter so can't do a playground / park.

Soft play is sadly out of our budget.

I found a hall to hire that we can afford, but they don't allow bouncy castles etc.

What do you do at a party with children in this age bracket? My son will be one of the oldest and some of the children will have only just turned 3.

I think barely 3 is too old for a lot of standard party games and had originally planned for a bouncy castle and disco. Now we can't have a bouncy castle or play equipment I'm worried about how to entertain them?

Help please!

These sorts of activities have been the best I’ve been to for 3/4 year olds.

I like thé mini disco idea from a PP, do you have a local teen who’d be happy to dot for say £10 a half hour. Also the face paint one from another PP, just very basic designs, maybe all the mums could pitch in for their own, or that same teen. If you can get glow in the dark face paint, could be fun before the disco and make for great pics

I live in the wrong area for a poor person! Just got a quote for a party entertainer - £180 for an hour! Crazy. 🤣

as for food, do you have family who could help ? Homemade pizza in large quantities, cake, sausage rolls (fun and filling stuff basically and you’d be in winter so less risk with the heat ex for the sausage rolls during transport) - for example, etc, could save you quite a bit. That’s about what I had as a child (no glow in the dark paint though ha) as no money really. And the regular, crisps of different flavors (it seems silly but fills the table and will always be liked).
We used the larger living room of a family friend though, maybe think around if you have a nice neighbor, with a smaller payment and promise to clean ! Most people wouldn’t be too worried with those ages

Really, get a charismatic fun loving local teen with babysitting experience, kids parties are short so they should be fine ideas wise

And you can always help. Doesn’t hurt that at that age they idolize teens, you sometimes see kids this young actually get upset/intimated with adult entertainers. Just need the right personality

Ugh intimidated sorry

I’d also recommend putting a little aside for food dietary requirements, it helps if you already know of course

Two teens if they agree to a small fee could be even better actually.

Of course you need to know them well, but all parents will be there anyway at that age. Do try the nice neighbors whose adult kids have moved out and have a decent living space for instance, they’d probably not mind 4yos all accompanied, and no one would refuse a little extra cash these days…

Sorry, lots of posts, but fun question ☺️

Do you mean an expensive area ? If so, more chances of neighbors lending you their living space ha. Promise you’ll take care of removing and replacing sofas, ornaments etc

I would have a table with colouring books, crayons, stickers, some glue, toilet rolls, googly eyes etc ( parents can always help).
A corner with a little bubble machine (one of those cheap £10 ones from Argos).
Pass the parcel the parcel.
Stick a bit of music on.
Lots of party food.
Could play musical statues and have sweets as the prize.
Could have a little table for tattoos. The kids always love this. Can get some cheap individual kids ones on eBay or Amazon.
Face paints.
Something I did at a recent party was to give the kids freeze pops after they've had food. The kids were so excited. Although perhaps not suitable for 4 year olds.

Can't think of anything else :)

Yes bubble machine is a good call also !

Tattoos I’m a bit less sure because in my babysitting experience they’ll squabble over them haha. Whereas with face paints if 10 want a butterfly, so be it ☺️

Tattoos if you have 10 butterflies and 12 girls decide they want them, cue the end of the world ha. And I definitely would not want dozens and dozens of leftovers after the party ! But agreed they are great as they are indeed cheap on Amazon

For the bouncy castle I would just tell him some children would be a bit young (as you mentioned a lot would be closer to 3) to really benefit in such a short time frame, and it’s nice to be inclusive, but you’re definitely keeping it in mind for next birthday. Something like that ?
For the disco you can definitely spend (damn hours) on Amazon to get one of those big light balls (it’s hours if you want the best price, like anything on Amazon) then the rest get the absolute cheapest long strings of lights (don’t need hours, just click filter by price), but do be very careful to put them high out of reach, which shouldn’t be too hard with their little sizes (obviously you’d know this, just when party planning basic stuff can be forgotten, ex nut allergies even (!) (I suggested teen babysitting because it’s what I did with my best friend, now just turned 33)). I like this thread (as you can see☺️) all my friends were almost skint (as in we didn’t lack food, but bills were hard, so parties required parents meetings almost because little Sophie couldn’t have less than little Abigail, so we should do similar)

It would help maybe if you mentioned the approximate time frame (length of the party, times) you have in mind ?
And agree with PP, 3yo parents these days are so fixated on healthy diets, they’ll be thrilled with lots of party food (really recommend doing it at home)

They don't need much at that age! A load of balloons on the floor, a bubble machine going and some music. They'll love it!
Pass the parcel is always a good game, the parents will help those that are a bit younger.

Sorry posting so much, some of our friends did have the fancy soft play equivalents but I would love to share how lots of us had great fun (even recognized by those popular girls as ‘awesome disco’ etc when it was a big brother doing the entertainment moves to follow and £1 fairy lights, and mums pitching together to help with homemade food (with the implicit agreement you’d do the same their Abigail’s turn came though). To be honest it was nice to feel like we all had similar things.
My parents had to be almost shouted at to do mine unfortunately - ended up in care quite quickly, and work with children in care today.

This is true, but depends on what their classmates have also unfortunately. Hence trying to remember how we did more stuff for cheap

Okay, so for pass the parcel is tissue paper the best thing to use? And a toy / treat in every layer?

I think tissue paper would be too easy to tear through multiple layers, prob just use normal wrapping paper (alternate different colours). Definitely sweets in each layer

I went to a lovely pool party for a 4 year old once. Could you get price quotes from some leisure centres?

My dds 4th party is coming up, here's what ideas I've nicked from other parents so far....

Colouring in set up at the tables, either plain paper/themed colouring sheets and a few pens or you can get cheap kits off Amazon etc for craft crowns that come with stickers and gems

Temporary tattoos instead of face painting as it's much quicker and requires much less skill so winner all round!

Balloons (especially the ones with the elastic band on), bubbles or strobe lights thingy and music will take a fair chunk of time. Plan your playlist but baby shark, barbie girl etc will be big hits. Stickers for best dancer or whatever.

Depending on theme, do you have a willing adult to turn up as spider man/a princess or Peppa pig etc if you hire the suit? Cheaper than an entertainer and at this age they don't need to be too convincing!

Scavenger hunt with pictures blue tak'd to the wall and prize of a bag of haribo for finding them all

Pass the parcel but which rules?!

Decorating biscuits? Homemade or just digestives, icing tubes and sweets to stick on.

Op soft play party is gonna be in your budget- just invite less kids, maybe 4?