Birthday party like we had as kids in the 1990s

[ohwhattododo]

I was talking to my daughter the other day about what birthday parties were like when I was her age.

I was born in 1984, and in my day a Primary school birthday party was a few children at someone's house, party games like pass-the-parcel, sandwiches and sausage rolls, and a cake... That was it, and it was great!

It's my daughter's last year of Primary school this year, and she loves the idea of an old-school birthday party before she moves to Secondary. There are only 6 girls in her class, so we could have them all at home.

So I'm after ideas for a circa-1995 style party.

So far we have:

Musical bumps/chairs/opposites/statues
Pass-the-parcel (ideas welcome for suitable prizes for 10-11 year olds)
An ice-cream station with sprinkles, sauces etc

Any other ideas very welcome, thanks.

The kids parties I went to in the 80s always had:

Musical chairs and / or statues
Pass the parcel
Grandma's tea party (the one where you put on a load of hats and gloves, before trying to cut a slice off a frozen Mars Bar, still in the wrapper, with a plastic knife and fork)

Crisps, squash, cheese and pineapple on sticks etc.

Party bag with a slice of cake and a pencil topper or something.

An ice cream station would have been carnage, but kids today are probably more sophisticated.

That was other kids' parties, mind. My dad was amazing at giving parties, and always did a really elaborate treasure hunt, with riddles in the clues, the odd French word (so we were LEARNING too) etc. We were in the countryside, so the routes were extensive. Depending on the time of year, the treasure would be things like a nest full of creme eggs (one for each child). Good times.

There are books of traditional party games for kids - try googling it. We borrowed a book from the local library. We had a test run of all the games we chose to play - just DH, the kids and me - to see if they worked for us, see how much fun they were and to estimate how long they took. Then we knew how many games to plan for the allotted time.

Simon Says! And I always loved the bar of chocolate with a knife and fork. One friend always had a big lucky dip and that was always very exciting.

Maybe for the pass the parcel prizes you can have some 90s’ toys/sweets, like a tamagotchi, sweet bracelets and necklace, hubba bubba, cats cradles string, those aliens in slime (my fave), marbles. Oh I miss being a kid in the 90s’!! Such a cute idea OP. Don’t forget to crimp your hair lol x

I would echo what someone said upthread . Party games take a lot less time than you might think so prepare more than you think you will need. I had a book of party games for children (my children are the same age as you) I can't remember what it was called but it was great for ideas and it suggested you prepare a timetable so you are not left with loads of time and nothing to do. I assume you can get similar ideas on the internet now.
Also instead of musical bumps I would have musical statues get them to pose in a certain way each time it's more fun and safer in case some children bump down too quickly!

Definitely has to be one of the classics like hedgehog, the doll with the sweetie dress, or the swimming pool!

Ah, all your lovely memories and suggestions are really cheering me up on this cold January afternoon!

@CookieCrumbles23 great idea for the prizes! And hair crimping!

@Whoarethoseguys and @LovelyDaaling thanks for the suggestion. I guess I could always wind them down a bit with Sleeping Lions and then take advantage of the fact it's NOT 1995, and stick a movie on Disney+ if we run out of games!!

I remember doing a dinosaur themed party for DS in 2000. We adapted many of the games already mentioned to fit the theme - pin the horn on the triceratops, sleeping dinosaurs etc. We also did a science activity with sand volcanoes in roasting tins where we added vinegar to craters of baking powder and red food colouring to create erupting volcanoes. Have to say the last one was very popular with everyone wanting another go! Food was turkey dinosaurs and chips (of course) followed by chocolate mousse with white chocolate bones 'buried' in it.

If it’s an authentic 90s party, there shouldn’t be sweets in every in every layer of pass the parcel, just one prize, and no making sure everyone gets a turn 😂

Sleeping lions after the party tea to keep everyone quiet and make sure no one throws up on the carpet after stuffing their face while you wait for the parents to pick them up 😂

Kim’s game - a memory game where you show them a tray of random objects for a few minutes then take it away and they write a list of what they can remember. Most correct answers wins.

What’s the time Mr Wolf, grandmother’s footsteps, oranges and lemons, floor is lava, broken telephone.

The Scouts website has a great list loads of 10 minute filler games to play at the end of a session that are categorised by age suitability. A lot of them are traditional party or playground games.

One of my DGC had a traditional party in YR a few years ago, as a PP said, you need a lot of games. We worked on 10 minutes per game for 10 kids, a bit more for games that don’t have a specific end eg musical chairs finishes when everyone is out so doesn’t last long but you can play Captain coming until they get bored. None of the kids (and not all the mums) knew the games so there was a lot explaining rules.

We used to have forfeits in each pass-the-parcel layer, eg sing a song, hop to the door & back etc, and then get given a sweet when we had done the forfeit (or not, I wouldn't always do them, too shy).

Mid/late 70s.

If you have the space, 'Flap the kipper'
(youtube has videos if you're not familiar with it)

I'm going back to the '1960s (I thought by the 90's it was often birthday trips to McDonalds or Fun Factories ? but then I didn't deal with many young kids then ).

Party food I remember from the 60's was jelly made in a rabbit mould (strawberry rabbit with chopped up lime jelly round it as grass), iced gem biscuits, cocktail sausages and cheese cubes on sticks, cheese puffs, etc

Cornflakes and / or rice crispy cakes.

They could make their own party hats at the beginning. If they don’t fancy hats they could make masks out of paper plates. The nose hole usually keeps them in place or maybe use string or elastic

Maybe a movie and snack station?

Karaoke machine ?

Key parts for me are:
Flour game!
The game where you cut a bar of chocolate with a knife and fork wearing gloves (just me?!)
Cheese and pineapple on sticks
Several flavours of crisps inexplicably mixed in one big bowl
Birthday girl must receive a Barbie dream house -type thing and send all guests mad with jealousy

No prizes for all/participation prizes - so just one decent prize in the pass the parcel, one winner of other games! That's my recollection of old fashioned parties, winning meant a good prize.

That’s a great idea. My DD’s friend had her 14th the other week. She wanted a party like you describe.

The mum had done a fab job. As well as what you say (minus the musical chairs), they also had a photo booth, karaoke and… the winner of the day believe it or not was Twister!! They all laughed so much 🧡🧡

I'm going back to the '1960s (I thought by the 90's it was often birthday trips to McDonalds or Fun Factories ? but then I didn't deal with many young kids then ).

Not on my parents' budget sadly 😁

We've done pinatas a few times and they've gone down an absolute storm. We made 2 for DS age 6 last birthday party, themed to the party as we had a load of kids there. Actually very easy to make, Amazon sells crepe paper on rolls just the right width too, then all you need is cardboard, pva glue and loads of sweets. I recommend mop or brush sticks to hold them, and then some non valuable sticks to hit with.

Corners is a good game if you need any extra games, so label each corner of the room a colour and last to get there is out. And Limbo. use one of the sticks youve used to hold the pinata and get 2 people to hold it.

@NotAPartyPerson @P00hsticks not on my parents' budge either! Or the Barbie Dream House sadly.

@Wemaybebetterstrangers I'm definitely going to get Twister!

If you run out of games and are killing time put Just Dance on YouTube, they can follow along as if they have the game.

My form group used to love this at our Christmas parties up to year 10.

You NEED to get yourself a retro cake book, either -

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/children-s-birthday-cake-book-book-9780949128034?sku=GOR001335202&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADZzAIB8mzn6QO_sun2uxuRmtG_IZ&gclid=CjwKCAiAneK8BhAVEiwAoy2HYcI7cCGhuQOZbcvvFt-1SdShr4B2XNoTxdyl80oz6MW1gLOHl295WxoCU7EQAvD_BwE

Or this (which has themes, games etc for each age!)

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/jane-asher-s-children-s-parties-book-jane-asher-9780720718485?sku=GOR002969320&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADZzAIB8mzn6QO_sun2uxuRmtG_IZ&gclid=CjwKCAiAneK8BhAVEiwAoy2HYYtbk7ZQ4BbwIqSv768iX2L_rj96ZoHIjntJAf-mYK2vosWfsfgy6RoCuIgQAvD_BwE

Cutting the chocolate with ridiculous scarves, hats and many gloves on! You would take turns in rolling a dice and whoever got 6 would put on all the things and try to eat chocolate with a knife and fork till the next one got 6.

Remember the items on a tray.

Musical statues

Consequences (either a story or a drawing)

We did one for my 7 year old this year (I couldn't be dealing with another soft play / trampoline party which seem to be all the rage at the moment. We were the first people to an all-class 'at home' party in the 3 years our son has been at school so I definitely felt daunted!)

We did your suggestions OP as well as the chocolate game (classic from my childhood), a treasure hunt and I confess we did buy in an hour of entertainment in the form of a magician and this meant spending and extra £120... but was so worth it as after a couple of games and then the party food we didn't have to do anything more other than prep the cake while the magician did his show in the living room for an hour. Kids all loved it and apparently some in our son's class are now asking to have at home parties too.

Memory game is a great shout. For some reason it was known as "Kim's Game" in my house.

Ah, I remember these parties so fondly. Ice cream bar was always such a hit.