summer born birthday parties

[WildebeestH]

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask but I wanted some advice on birthday parties. My little boy will be turning 5 towards the end of August. He's already planning his party (!) and will mostly want to invite school friends. Should we have it at the end of the summer term, around his actual birthday or at the start of the autumn term?

Start autumn. Term sending out invites end of summer term so people have it in their diaries

My son has a mid August birthday. We always hold his party early September when all his friends are back to school.

very early september birthday here so we do the first weekend back. send out invites a few weeks before end of term, making sure you put an RSVP date on in my experience works best. Always worth then reminding people verbally on the first few days back.

My DD is very end of August, we always do her party the weekend before school starts as most are back from holidays and it give the kids a chance to get together before they start back together. It is always in the right 'year' for her birthday rather having a 6th party at the same time as a couple of girls have their 7th party.

that probably wouldn't work at our school Pekkewyn, an enormous number of the children go back abroad for the holidays to stay with relatives whilst their parents are working so they normally just about make it back for the start of term or sometime in that first week.

Two August children here. When younger I had the parties just before the end of summer term, which always worked well. By September the parties for children one year older start and sometimes there was a different class mix. The once or twice I tried to arrange a party during the summer holidays just didn't work - too many people away.

My dd is a 31/8 birthday. We give invitations out at least two weeks before the end of the summer term and have the party the first weekend after they have gone back to school. Seems to work well.

Good to hear what's worked for others. I was a bit worried about it clashing with some of the 6th birthday parties and highlighting how young he is. Also he may not be with the same children in year 1 as he is in reception. Still undecided though...

Always had birthday parties in August, and had reasonable turnouts, but avoid Saturday's as that is usually the day people go on holiday and return so you lose a lot of potential guests on a Saturday.

A bonus is parents will be pleased to take their kids to a party in the summer gold hols s its l one day of amusing the dc taken care of.

We failed miserably trying to hold an August birthday party for my DD. Children didn't come because the parents forgot. We sent the invites out towards the end of term. We had a few on holiday but then others forgot or maybe were on playschemes or staying with grandparents. Basically, just after the end of term is best or second week in September. It is always difficult because all the children with birthdays in the summer holidays are doing the same! The first few days of the summer holiday worked well for us in the end as few people go away immediately and you can sometimes choose a weekday.

Also, summer holiday birthday children never get to hear Happy Birthday sung to them at school or, in our case, blow the candles out on the fake school cake! I complained! My DD and the others got to nominate an alternative birthday - a bit like the Queen.

My youngest two are summer born, smack bang in the middle of the holidays, this year will be their first parties with school friends and the plan is to do it in September when they all go back to school again. Just hoping they don't do something radical like mix up the classes like they did last year.

Youngest's is always in a school holiday. There are about two or three friends he would be devastated not to have attend. So I talk to their parents well in advance before deciding a date. There were a couple of years where no one went away so we had a party on a weekday, once the party was the weekend before breakup to accommodate this. After that there are a couple of invitees whose parents are either disorganised or who are in play schemes. We organise the pick up and transport of those children. When he was 4 and 5 though I just used to arrange it so his besties were definitely coming and then see who else turns up. Really didn't matter at 5 as they changed all the classes around in year 1 and he had totally different friends by then!

DD is early Aug. I tend to email potential guests to ask about their summer hol plans. If they are around I have a summer party, if not July or September. I am friends with DD's friends mums so that makes the checking on summer hol plans easier.

We've done them before they break up as there have always been children in the class who have birthdays on 1-5 September so 5th & 6th parties would have been muddled. DC3 is a teenager now & still gets upset their birthday is in the middle of the holidays as everyone is away.

My ds is mid Aug. We hold parties six months after birthday - Feb, March & say he is like the queen with two birthdays. It cheers up the middle of the year.