What age did you start to do birthday parties?

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My little one is turning 3 very soon. Winter baby, so can’t do anything like a party in the park. We figured we’d just have grandparents at home. Just realised all the nursery mums have started to book soft plays, local church halls or a little bit of the local pub and so my own kid is starting to ask when his birthday party is. Did you start at three or older?

(also, open to any ideas because I’m not sure I can cope with five toddlers in my house lol)

We started at 3. We hired the little soft play cafe for about £150 which was great as about the same price as village hall plus bouncy castle but we weren't responsible for clear up and food was catered. We just rocked up with cake and party bags

Most started at 3 within our group and very few people had at home parties in fact I can only think of 1.

Age 1

With our first, we did a party at home from 1, with village hall party from 4. With 2nd, from 5 (reception). Honestly, they are a lot of work, so I wouldn’t be rushing to do one before school age really.

We just did family parties, small at home ( also winter babies) until they started primary. Then the first 2 years we did class parties, then smaller with specific friends.

Mine turned 3 this week. We had 3 of her nursery friends over, plus 2 little siblings. This is a group of us who do play dates every month or so.

It cost me £30, inc the little buffet, a craft activity I got supplies for, ingredients for a cake i made & small party bags (stickers, tattoo transfers and a small bag of haribo I actually got free and stashed months ago)

They all made a dinosaur from 2 paper plates, just played together in the house and had a little lunch. It was lovely

I won't do a proper party until she's probably age 6. As she starts school 3 months before she turns 5, so can prob skip that one

At our nursery, parties seem to be starting this year when the kids are turning 3. Our son is a September baby and that was right when they changed classes so we didn't do one. No one else had done one before and we didn't know how invitations etc would work. In hindsight I wish we had, he would have loved it.

I refuse point blank to host parties at home. I don’t want hoards of children and their hanger on parents trashing my possessions, terrorizing my pets and using my loo haha

We started with soft play parties in pre school then they gradually got more ‘grown up’.

Thanks everyone. I’d love to do it at home with just 4 total. But our best closest pals have two of their own kids, then his nursery group is a solid group of 4. Suddenly that’s 7 toddlers amok in my house 🫣 I found a play cafe that will charge £90 all in for morning hire which people say is good value. But still seems a lot!

We had at home parties for DCs first birthday & those during lockdown; but the rest have been at village halls or venues (DC are 10 & 6).
Most kids around here started having parties at 3 - either village halls or venues (DDs 3rd was a Forest School party).
£90 is bargain! Wait till you're having to stump up £15-20 per child for a whole class party or £100 for a bouncy castle!

Tea and cake with family at home for 1 and 2, same for 3 but just called it a party, proper party age 4 because we couldn't avoid it any more.

Age 3 was when parties really kicked off at DD’s nursery. She’s now 4.5 and we must have been to 30+ parties, of which 3 or 4 have been smaller gatherings at the child’s house. Main pitfalls of those seem to be the small guests inevitably wanting to play with any toys which are around the party area, much to the birthday child’s chagrin.

4th birthday.

DD had parties from her 4th birthday. All have been at home. DS had a party at home for his 5th birthday. I think his 6th birthday we will hire a venue due to the numbers (DD had a smaller, obvious group of friends. DS has a wider group of friends so harder to limit numbers)

4 , for the first 3 yrs we had family parties + the odd friend .