1st birthday party activities

[TinaMummy]

We are planning a party in a hall for DS 1st birthday. Will be immediate family and friends around 35 adults and approximately 10 kids ranging in age from 8 months to 10 years old. We were planning to hire some soft play equipment, bouncy castle and face painter but am unsure if that would be entertaining for the older kids - any thoughts? Also, what party games are considered 'cool' at the moment? I last went to a kiddies party 20 years ago so haven't a clue! Thanks

Hiring a bigger bouncy castle for the older ones and soft play stuff for the youngest sounds great! If you only have 10 kids total, including babies and given the really wide age range, you probably don’t have the necessary numbers for party games. IME under 3s struggle a bit especially when they don’t win, 10YOs may humour it but probably wouldn’t be that keen if it was all aimed towards younger ones. Face painter also barely seems worth it given the numbers. You’ll have a lovely time, I really wouldn’t overthink it with trying a make a 1YOs party ‘cool’ for 10YOs!

For just 10 kids, I would ditch the bouncy castle (they're really noisy) and the face painter (10 month old and any young ones including birthday child surely won't care/will just rub off? Plus others might have sensitive skin?). Soft play sounds enough and maybe a craft table with activities to suit all ages?

Hi 👋 we hired a bouncy castle for my daughters 1st birthday and it went down really well, children want to burn some energy off so I'd definitely recommend having one. ( The children were mainly between 1 and 8 at her birthday ) the soft play would be nice too for the little ones. My daughter went on the bouncy castle before and after everyone left but mainly played with a few toys we brought with this like her stroller and held/ spent time with different family members. I don't think I'd bother with party games or face painter , I think bouncy castle and soft play are plenty :) hope you have a lovely day !

We did something similar for my Ds 1st birthday. We bought a little ball pit and rocker second hand and took along some of his toys for the younger ones. For the older ones we had a few games dotted around like guess who, hungry hippos and buckeroo. There was also some craft bits and balloons and everyone seemed entertained. Have fun x

I'd consider a children's entertainer but do your research! I've seen tragic ones - a quieter older couple who had an air of entertaining children from the 1950s, (they failed to control proceedings); loud ones (far too loud and almost aggressively "funny" for some of the younger children) and then the really good ones. Funny, engaging, not too loud, not too quiet, and entertained the older kids down to the younger ones. It also entertained the parents watching the kids be entertained!

A bouncy castle - presumably that would be outside, but won't you have to rely on good weather for that? Also the parents will have to watch the kids so it can split the party up a bit. If it's actually inside your venue you'd have to factor in the noise factor.