Fairy and Dragon party for a 6 year old on a shoestring - loads of kids - help!

[QuickChickBrickStack]

dd is turning 6 next month and has pronounced that she'd like a fairy and dragon party. I've hired a hall, and we sent out loads of invites, thinking that a chunk of them would turn the invite down (last year only 3 out of 15 kids came to her party, so this year I was more liberal with the invitations). It seems that nearly everyone can come this year though, so It looks like I'm going to be entertaining 27 kids!! The ratio will be 23 girls to 4 boys.

I'm trying to think of ideas for inexpensive crafts on fairy/dragon themes I could do with them (and that wouldn't cause the issue of whether paint/pva glue was dry by home time), any party games, party bag ideas

All ideas welcome!! Thanks :)

Get a load of cheap/own brand plain fairy cakes buns, make a huge bowl if icing and a selection of toppings (think jelly tots etc!) = fairy cake decorating!

Ooh pin the tail on the dragon? (green card dragon you'd prob have to make!)

Thanks for the ideas - keep them coming please!!

The most effective party bags I've seen are cellophane bags, filled with sweets and tied with nice ribbon and filled with sweets. Toys in party bags rarely seemt to get looked at/played with in my experience.

For our fairy parties we made fairy houses (dinosaurs for boys). There was a base (cheap ikea plastic plate, 6 for 90p), then we used mini pail, but you could use any mini container, which they stuck on. They then decorated it using twigs, stones, feathers, moss etc which I had collected well the feathers I collected from hobbycraft stuck on with blu tack and glue, I know you said no glue, but they were contained on plates and transport home wasn't my problem they also got tiny pipecleaner fairies which I had made v time consuming though . This became their 'party bag', along with a mini cone of fairy sweets (a mixture of a few mini smarties, skittles, mini marshmallows etc). All the children and parents loved the houses and were taking them into school, talking about them for at least a week, etc. Took up about 20-30 mins (age 5); did it after first few games so all the guests had arrived.

Games you can do mini egg and spoon - with mini eggs and tea spoons, what's the time mr dragon, musical mushrooms (like musical bumps but with mushroom shapes).

We also did mini food in a rainbow theme. The sandwiches I cut into 8 triangles, they still took 3 and only ate 2, but they were smaller so less waste. Got mini fingers, animals, party rings etc - again fairy sized so less wasted. We had lots of fun with thiis theme. Hope you have a great time.

Hi I organised a dragon and fairy party for my son 4th birthday. I downloaded a nice picture of dragon and wrote invite, bought some nice old looking paper and sent rolled the invites and put a ribbon around it. blue for boys and purple for girls. We had just moved house so we had loads of BIG cardboard boxes so with my son we built a castle - it was massive. 4 mtrs x3 mtrs or something ( so much fun) It was sturdy enough for the children to go in and out of it although by the end of the party it nearly collapsed. I also organised a treasure hunt but I think they were too young for it. The children all came with a sword or a crown or magic wand and got into their parts and loved it.

Ooo dragons. Marking my place to come back in the morning.

Get some ball pool type balls or similar, to be 'dragon eggs' and hide them around the hall, for a game of 'hunt the dragon egg' - everyone who rescues an egg gets a treat.

At DS's 7th birthday party we'd booked an entertainer who didn't turn up, so whike we panicked calmly decided what to do we got MIL (who is fab at that sort of thing) to make up a story for the children along the lines of the party theme. She kept them spellbound for about 15 minutes and could probably have gone on for longer. So if you or someone close to you is good at making up stories/storytelling that could be an option to pad out the craft activities.

OK, we have done dragon crafts but not particularly cheaply.

Is it FAIRIES (and dragons) or is DD really also keen on the dragon bit? Only I am not sure I can help much on the fairies... DD wants a dragon party this year and I have some craft stuff, but some of it has now disappeared even from the US based site which I ordered it from [smug at ordering months ahead even though DH said I was mad].

I am planning on getting some of these

Also - how about these - 36 for £10.08, so not prohibitive.

these would be good for party bags - that and some sweets and you would be done.