5yo hall party - don't know where to start

[MidnightPanda]

Planning a hall party for DS the first time.
Don't know where to start?

How many hours would I need to hire the hall?( including setting up/tidying after)

What activities/ entertainment for 5yos
Was thinking bouncy castle but worried about injuries?

Any advice greatly appreciated

Make the part itself no longer than 1 and a half hours.

No need bouncy castle; get a loud enough (bearing in mind noisy five year olds!) music player and play party games. Also will do for "dancing competition" if you run out of games.

Do simple portable party food, nothing fancy.

Things like biscuit decorating/ dinosaur colouring/ at tables is good for when they need to calm down.

Balloons: I hate them with a passion, but if you fill the hall with loads they'll amuse themselves running round madly for ages.

Don't think you can get a bouncy castle in a hall? You need to check that first

What's the budget?
How many are you inviting?
Ds like anything in particular?
Is there a little kitchen there you can use?
Parents staying?

I love organising a good party.....

You can get bouncy castles in halls - I've hired them several times. Never had any injuries either, but you do need an adult supervising it all the time. they are very easy to control, just turn of at the switch and they go up/down almost instantly so can just have it on for short bursts.
Definitely a good idea to have some activity tables - not everyone wants to charge round all the time.
Do have some games - musical bumps, pass the parcel, musical statues etc.

We did a joint 5th birthday party for DS and his best friend. Hired a hall for £60, £200 for a package of mascots, disco, face painting and bouncy castle. Ordered cardboard party boxes online and filled with a sandwich, packet of crisps, brownie and a few bits. So many kids we didn't bother setting up tables. Ours was a Lego theme, so we paid for a Lego PDF pack on etsy and printed our own decorations on thin card (bunting etc). Purchased a canister of helium and lots of cheap balloons through Amazon!

Budget is £300
Was inviting whole class ( around 20) and a few outside friends.
DS wants batman theme
There is a little kitchen, and I think parent's staying although I don't mind

We have done hall parties for DD since she was 2 (now 7). For the first four of those years we hired a bouncy castle for inside the hall (check with the hall what dimensions of castle will fit inside theirs - you can get some pretty small ones). The kids love them and we never had any injuries but yes, you do need an adult supervising.

Definitely also have some games lined up like musical bumps, dancing competition, pin the tail on the donkey or whatever (if you don't have too many children) and small prizes - bags of haribo etc and something slightly larger for the ultimate winner. By 5 they are probably old enough for pass the parcel although if there are lots of children it might be a good idea to have two parcels circulating as it can get a bit dull otherwise and they can lose interest. If it all gets a bit boisterous, a game of sleeping lions can calm things down a bit.

Food in boxes is a great idea as you are less likely to get loads of waste.

And don't forget the party bags! Sweets and plastic tat goes down a bundle with the children - put in a book if you want to appeal to the parents.

Thanks everyone

I'm worried no one will come.

How many weeks in advance for invites? I literally have no idea about this stuff

We did a whole class superhero party in a hired hall for my son's birthday. We had a children's drama company come in to do some superhero themed activities, lots of role play, dancing etc. People still talking about it too, was great fun and all kids engaged. It left time for the cake and food.

We had use of a little kitchen area, which was really useful for sorting drinks etc.

I give 6 weeks, but I think the norm is 3-4? Plenty of notice is good in my opinion, especially if kids are dressing up too, gives enough time to sort their superhero/batman costumes etc.

Party 1.5 to 2 hours
Rope some of the parents you know and will stay to help with supervising and clearing up.
Split kids into 3 groups and rotate - 1 group bouncy castle, 1 group activity, 1 group games.
Nominate a specific parent each to supervise bouncy castle and activity.
Have someone else to grab parents when they are coming in who are dropping kids off to get hold of contact details.
Balloons good but watch you don't have any kids with a balloon phobia - one of ds's friends was terrified so we had to gather them all up and put in our car instead.
Make up a plan of what games you are doing and have plenty in reserve (with quiet ones like sleeping lions too).
I loved doing parties like this when they were small. Mine are now 17 & 14 so stopped ages ago!

Ok...

I would hire a bouncy castle or a decent animal entertainer.

Hire hall for an hour - hour and a half for the party. If you have 2 adults I'd say half an hour for clear up. Set up I'd say half hour to put the tables together for lunch. Blow up castle. Put banners/balloons up. More hands the better setting up!

The food I would do them all a box of food. A sandwich (when you get invite responses ask if their dc would like ham/cheese/jam). A bag of crisps. A kinder hippo. A bag of haribo. A drink of fruit shoot (lids taken off before)

Maybe quiche and ham rolls, tea/coffee for parents.

Invites out a good two weeks before (I try and do 3 weeks). If you're aware of siblings that might want to come/toddlers mums might have to bring....you need to know so you can do them a box of food. Unless they're not welcome in which case you need to make that clear. Parents and siblings tend to join here but where we used to live parents dropped and ran.

Maybe say kids can be in fancy dress if they want to?

You will need someone supervising the castle if you get one.

Lots of balloons! On walls. On the floor. Kids will play with balloons for ages! Blow them up the night before and take them in black bags. I use ribbon to fasten 2/3/5 together to put on doors/walls. Individual on the floor.

Food can be made earlier in the day and put into the boxes-have them named.

Small Batman cake/napkins/cups for jugs of juice-it will be needed if you get a bouncy castle.

I would do individual cupcakes in individual cardboard boxes with a tag on them saying "thanks for coming to x party" rather than cutting up the cake to give to the kids. I make large cupcakes, ice them with buttercream and out sprinkles or edible paper on the frosting. The cake boxes/nice sprinkles/edible paper you can get off eBay quite cheap-but that's my personal choice. It's just all done before the party then and we tend to have a cake at the party to sing happy birthday to then eat the cake after dinner as a family(singing hb again)

Music on in the background. Pass the parcel-on or off the castle (we do it on but depends on the room and if you want them to chill for ten minutes) a bag of haribo or similar between each layer of wrap.

A cellophane cone of black and yellow (batman) sweets, a balloon and a cupcake to take home as a goody bag.

Hour and a half/two hours for the party sorry....not an hour

The more notice the better I think, although about a month is probably best because much longer than that and people will put the invitation aside to think about at a later date and then forget about it. You will have to send reminders for RSVPs but you would be very unlucky to have no one turn up.

I haven't read all the responses so apologies if this has already been said but think about offering some food and drinks for adults. There will likely be quite a few staying at that age group and they will appreciate something to keep them going - tea/coffee if possible or soft drinks and some biscuits is absolutely fine, but we tend to offer wine and beer and something like cheese and biscuits and people seem to quite like that. Parents who stay are often brilliant about offering to help out too - taking round food to the kids if you don't do boxes, say, helping with games and just generally keeping an eye on the children.

Tub of haribo, child gets to take a sweet when they are out of a game, so they don't get upset about being out, winner gets a 10p bag of Haribo. Happy kids, cheap to do, winner feels they earned something more than the others got but they aren't jealous that it's a huge prize. Easier than trying to make sure everyone wins something

Labels on drinks, saves kids getting new one because they aren't sure which is theirs, keep a roll of labels and a pen ready for anyone who needs another drink

Hour before party, setting up takes longer than you think and an hour saves stress.
Hour and half for party
Half an hour should be fine for clean up if there are a few adults
Total of 3 hours

Went to a great party in a local hall. Just a bouncy castle and some ball, bats and blocks out and they kids ran about mental. No entertaining required.

Thanks for all the input guys, so helpful

Just awaiting the big day now haha