how much do you spend for DC's birthday party?

[happyfishcoco]

I went to a few children's birthday parties so far (ages 1-5), one was a softplay party.

I checked softplay party is £22 per person,(including meals.) at least 10 kids, which is a minimum £220 to pay,

and other parties were held in a hall. they have to buy food and may have some entertainers, a bouncer castle etc.
also need to prepare a party bag for kids.
I think to hold a party like this maybe needs £500-1000??
(I am in London)

I always wish to hold a hall party for my DS,

who is turned 3 this year...
but I didn't do it in the end, because I thought it is too expensive.

feel like not worth it, and he is too young, he won't enjoy it, he doesn't understand it does it for him (???)

finally only bought a cake for him, because he had kept asking for a cake. (if he has not asked, I won't even buy a cake for him. awful parent lol)

1. how much do you spend on DC's birthday party?
2. What age do you hold a 1st party for DC?
3. Do you think is it worth holding a party for a 4-year-old? would they enjoy it?

I would like to know what the majority think and do, thanks a lot!

Could you do a joint party with a friend who has a birthday the same month? Halve the cost? X

I'm about to hold my first party for my daughter who is turning 5, she only asked for one this year after attending her friends.
We have rented a hall for the event it's only £10 an hour but we are in Yorkshire.
I've paid for an entertainer £150 and then there will be food on top of that. Plus £40 for the party bags.
I've saved up throughout the year for it.
She has about 30-40 kids invited including family etc but people are RUBBISH at RSVPing!

Normally around £200, softplay parties we pay extra for sole hire, or same with swimming pool parties we pay to hire the whole kids pool

I did a big party for DD’s 5th birthday recently. She hadn’t really had much of a party in previous years, only family stuff.

It cost (for a whole class party, 26 children):
£40 to hire the local community centre for three hours (half hour set up, two hour party, half hour clean up)
Roughly £35 on food
£10 ish cake ingredients
£7 on paper plates, cups, napkins
About £30 on party bag stuff
Maybe £5-10 on stuff for party games

So perhaps £130-£140 ish all together. Not the cheapest perhaps, but way less than you might think. Definitely a lot cheaper than eg soft play.

We did musical statues, pass the parcel, that sort of thing. The children (mostly age 4, some just 5) loved it. 4-8 is probably the right age range for that sort of party.

We charge £12.50 an hour, not London. Childrens entertainer is £100, bouncy castle is £75 beige buffet £75 or so, party bags £3 per child ish

A hall party tends to be about £500 all in round here. It all adds up, hall, entertainer / bouncy castle, food and drinks for the children, tableware, drinks for parents, banners, balloons, cake, party bags etc. Halls work well if you have loads of children and/or want lots of adults too. Location are parties with fewer children as lots of places have limits of 12/15 (aside from soft plays). Halls are much cheaper per child but more work as you have to prepare everything yourself and tidy up. Parties are definitely worth it though - they’re just a childhood rite of passage and I still remember mine now so I think they’re worth the cost.

Location parties that should say with no are.

Recent party for dd was around £500
£24 per hour for hall minimum 4 hours so £96
£215 entertainer
£130 face painter
approx £100 food and party bags/cake/plates etc.

it’s extortionate. We’re south east, no chance of getting a hall for a tenner or an entertainer for less than £200. Could have done without face painter but she was fab.

have had parties ranging from £250-£800 but this was last whole class party and I’m so pleased! Plan to take a few friends out from now on and spend no more than £100.

We just had a party for our dc for their 6th birthday. We hired a soft play place for 2 hours which was for up to 30 children and included hot or cold party food. That was £300. We then got a cake (£75) and sweet cones as party bags (£40), and then a few decorations, balloons etc for another £50 ish. So roughly £465. We are in the south east but not London.

We're in south London. Last time we did a whole class party it was about £350? Pre-Covid, mind.

£60 for hall hire (3hrs, two hour party and half an hour to set up, half an hour to clear down)
£180 for a bouncy castle/activity course/soft play
£30 on party bags; it really adds up for 30 kids!
£50ish on food (we tend to order loads of pizzas in rather than do a beige buffet)
Then another £30 on incidentals - decorations, a barrel of helium, cake toppers/specialist ingredients (I make it myself).

Hosting one next week for DC’s 5th birthday; haven’t worked out all costs yet but so far:

Hall £150
Magician £295
Cake (and 40 cupcakes) £310
Party bags £150
Food £100

Expensive but it’s for 30 children and DC is so excited about it.

Parties are £££

They also are not compulsory. 3dc here (eldest is only 6) but no parties yet.

I spent around £450 on my dds 7th birthday party this year. I should say we aren't in London and I don't have a lot of money but she really suffered missing out on covid etc so we went all out. I hired a company to provide entertainment and that was the biggest cost and frankly they were worth every penny. One of them dressed up as a character from her fave film and the look on her face was worth the £450 and then more.

SW London. Between £200 and £350.
I've only done a hall party once. I spent £75 on hall hire, £100 on a bouncy castle and then maybe £25 on food.

Yep. It's stupidly expensive.

We did the first party for DD1 at 4, which is when she asked. DD2 got one at 3 as she asked for one (greater awareness I think thanks to having an older sibling who had them). I'd love to do a hall one but it's always worked out too expensive. So far we've done
DD1 4th birthday - 15 guests to our local soft play. £10.50pp including food + £20 on party bags = £177.50
DD1 5th birthday - 10 guests to flip out (including birthday child for free) £14pp so + about £35 on food and party bags = £161
DD2 3rd birthday 14 guests to local soft play £11.50pp including food + party bags = £181

Each party was the cheapest packages I could find at the time around us. Our house isn't big enough to host at ours or I'd definitely be doing that. Considering doing a joint party for them next year as they've both expressed an interest in a disco and I can't justify the cost of that for each of them individually at over £300 but jointly it would equal what we've paid this year and their birthdays are only a month apart.

This is the first year we're doing a party for DD's 4th party. 22 kids at £17.50 a head (trampoline park) plus cake and likely £3 each on a party bag (that's my aim anyway, could easily be higher!). I'm not expecting change from £450. We're in the Midlands though so I'd expect it to be more in London.

I don't mind though because it's her first real party but I'm not planning on spending this much every year. I think I'm going to be aiming for about £300 (she says full of hope ...)

We never did parties, just a birthday treat. Kids seem unscathed as a result of this approach so I would say this is definitely optional spending.

Parties are crazy money. I have done parties with a handful of children at home from age 4. My kids wouldn't get enough out of the big parties for it to be worth the hundreds spent. Personally I hate the hall parties we have been to! There is usually a bouncy castle and all the kids swarm it.

We spent £400 on our ds' 4th birthday party.

For £350 we had the local softplay entirely to ourselves for 2 hours and they decorated and provided hot food.

Additional £50 for stuff like party bags, invites, a few little extra decorations of our own and cake ingredients!

A lot of money but well worth it as ds had an amazing time.

@Tailfeather Thanks for your idea! it is great!! but I am not sure if I can find a good parent to do it together.

@strawberry2017 £10 an hour is really cheap, more than half the price of London. people are RUBBISH at RSVPing! haha, my friends are also complaining about this.

@Youcancallmeirrelevant softplay in London doesn't even offer pay extra for sole hire. but a soft play party is not my cup of tea TBH.

@AnonGCMum it may surprise you about the price in London then. a local church nearby me offers a hall rental, 14m X 10m, £29 per hour!!!! 5.5m X 9m, £25 per hour.
My DS has 39 pupils in one class. at least I have to pay £90 for three hour hall rental.
thank you for your game ideas, do you hold it by yourself?? I feel like I am not capable to do it.

Also it does need to be expensive. My friend's child's 4th birthday party was a picnic in the park with some balloons and all the kids loved it! Kids are adaptable and easily pleased imo. Only downside was it was obviously weather dependent (luckily it was sunny). Guessing it cost under £100.

Doesn't not does!!

@happyfishcoco Wow that’s a lot. I’m in Brighton which often has London-like prices for things so I guess I got lucky with my local hall being cheap.

I didn’t do it all by myself - my mum and MIL helped. (DH isn’t great at this sort of thing.) We didn’t have a paid entertainer though. If you do games it’s good to have a mix of ones they all do together (eg pass the parcel, with sweets between each layer so everyone wins) and things they take turns at separately (like pin the horn on the unicorn). Then we just had a bunch of balloons lying about and the ones not playing the organised games at the time just ran around with them.

@User135792468 agree! prepare and tidying up are quite a load of things to do, I know it because I had helped some of my friends to do so. it makes me less motivated to hold a party.
Parties are definitely worth it though - they’re just a childhood rite of passage and I still remember mine now so I think they’re worth the cost.
thanks for sharing your experience, as my parent never hold a birthday party for me, I do not really know the feeling. (same as my DH)
And £500 is quite a lot for me, I hope it is worth doing, not just because everyone doing it.

@feathersandslats OMG, £215 entertainer, £130 face painter, this is way more than I expect.

@NoNameIdeas oh yeah, forgot the decorations, balloons things...

@LBOCS2 £1 per bag, I think it is already a good price. omg, my DS has 38 classmates....

do you guys offer food and drink for parents???