What's the best time of day for a child's party on a Saturday?!

[Snowstorm]

We've always had a small number of guests (10-12) at home, no entertainer, and have gone for the 3-5pm slot. But do you think that the lunchtime slot is easier for the organiser (that'll be me then)?

how old is the child?

If quite young i would do lunch time as little ones may be tired by 5pm

Lunchtime slot is good if children are past lunchtime nap age. Otherwise I would choose either an early lunchtime slot (11-1 maybe), or not do it til 4-6, thus having birthday "tea" instead (got to feed them at some point I presume).

I'd do maybe 2-4, that way you don't have to provide lunch or tea, just some light snacks

I normally do 3-5 or 3:30-5:50 to cover a meal time. Seems to work we;;.

my 2 yr old had 3.30pm till 5pm
after naps and all had a tea.

last party we did 10.30-12.30 children were much less grumpy and played a lot better together, plus didn;t have to put up with a full day of it is time yet from my kids!

DD1 will be 6! As I said, we've always done the 3-5.30pm slot (party tea at 4.30pm) but I wondered whether it might be easier to do it at lunch time instead. The whole party food thing is a big deal to both DD's and also it fills a reasonable amount of time ... and is the only time that everyone's sat down and quiet, giving DH and I a breather from the rest of the 'full on' experience!!

Personally I prefer the teatime slot because we have dancing and swimming earlier in the day.

I would stick with that time as if dc's have activities on Sat they are generally in the morning and at 6 it won't matter about nap time.

11-1. Otherwise the DC spend the whole day ina state of excitement waiting for the party. And there's a higher probability that the guests will eat their lunch. And you get to open the wine earlier

Oh yes, and the children generally get really unmanageable (tired and over-excited) by 5pm. Ugh

Chippy makes a good point about the wine ... 11-1 is suddenly a serious contender