How do you celebrate kids birthday?

[TheMumEdit]

After another year where half of invited kids RSvPd and several that did didn’t turn up due to the good weather I’m done with birthday parties. I’ve lost money 2 years in a row.

If you don’t do a party how do you make it a fun day ? On birthdays we have family over and a take away. One child has a winter birthday and a great party turn out so feel I need to do something for child 2 to even it out apart from family

Take them for a day out with family or 2-4 other friends. Zoo, London, theme park, water park, trampoline park etc

Up to the child. Typically I give a budget and they decide if they want to go shopping for their own gifts or have a party (with a bunch of random gifts) or a combination of the two.

Sometimes it's just taking one or two of their closest friends out. Sometimes they want to do a family thing, or splurge on fancy lunch out and we bake a cake which can take near a whole day in itself!

With my DS I only did a couple of parties and most birthdays were day trips or trips out doing pricier activities like Go Ape (usually as a family not with other kids). As our budget increased we sometimes went on weekend breaks away, to Center Parcs or theme park breaks.

My ds is winter birthday so we've done soft play, aquarium, indoor golf or arcade.