How many games do I need for a two hour party and when do I serve food?

[Dozeynoo]

I have just booked the village hall for ds1's 5th birthday party. The party is 3-5pm so how many games will I need? When's good to serve tea?

I have in mind a craft activity for everyone to do as they arrive, is this a good idea?
Or should I do something more active to start with?

How many children are you expecting?

If you want to do the craft, I would imagine it best to do it at the beginning as they may be too over excited to settle down to do it later.

At any party we have been to recently for this age group the games have been the usual, musical bumps/ musical statues/ pass the parcel / pin the tail on the donkey. A pinata is good for this age group too and in a couple of parties this was done at the end and replaced the usual party bags. Each child picked up a handful of sweets and put them in a bag to take home.

Normally tea is served about an hour in so at 4pm.

Craft activities are a good idea at the start while the kids are arriving. Allows the kids to settle in and wait for the others to arrive. Sometimes good to have a couple of options -eg one proper craft and some colouring sheets, so the kids that arrive first have something to do.

Agree that about an hour or 45 mins before the end is good time for tea - and then if they eat it fast have a few more games planned for afterwards.

My experience on games is have a longer list - if you don't do them all it's fine, but it's a pain if you run out! Have a few easy ones which don't need any props up your sleeve as time fillers (musical bumps, simon says, chinese whispers). How fast the games go depends on how many kids to some extent and also on whether they are enjoying the game or not. I would estimate you might want approx 8 - 10 games if you are trying to fill approx 45 mins. (But stuff like pass the parcel takes quite a long time if you have a lot of kids.) Don't have too many games where they have to wait to take turns (eg, pin tail on donkey, pinata, etc) if you have a lot of kids as they get bored and restless.

If you have a hall, I find the kids spend at least some of the time (after cake!) tearing around after each other.

this is a good place for craft kits

you can get party CDs which can be a great standby if you run out of games. i'm always surprised at how much time they can enjoy just jigging around to music and playing with balloons....

you can also get balloon footballs - kind of fabric covers for balloons - which make a good indoor game for boys especially.